While it’s not the arrival of a certain walking, talking snowman — something Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland will receive later in 2026 — Disney World Epcot’s flagship Frozen attraction is getting a major upgrade of its own after a brief renovation.
The doors will reopen on February 12, 2026 – for the first time in what feels like forever for fans of the attraction – and when guests see Anna, Elsa and Kristoff at Frozen Ever After, Ken Ricci, Executive Creative Development at Walt Disney Imagineering, told TechRadar it will feel “like they jumped off the screen themselves.”
“We wanted to enhance the look of Anna, Elsa and Kristoff to be more true to their films,” Ricci said. “So their movements are still the same, they’re still part of the same show, the same story, but now they have more expression and likeness in their face that just adds that extra dimension to tell the same story.”
Frozen Ever After originally opened at Epcot on June 21, 2016, premiering with then-advanced characters that combined 3D-printed faces with projection-based animation overlaid on motors. It was a breakthrough at the time – blending physical movement with digitally animated expressions in a way few attractions had before, all while matching the movements, specifically Elsa’s, to moments from the animated film.
Almost a decade later, the technology has evolved. In 2023, the next generation of Frozen animatronic characters debuted at Hong Kong Disneyland. While Epcot’s version still routinely has some of the longest wait times in the park, Imagineering saw an opportunity to make the experience even better.
The visible change is sculpted faces and improved expressions that make these characters look more in line with the film’s visuals in real life. The less visible – and equally significant – update is the infrastructure beneath them.
Ricci explained that Imagineering updated Epcot’s control systems and refined the characters’ kinematics to match those in Hong Kong.
“So these heads are actually a lift of the Hong Kong design,” Ricci said. “We’re always mindful of ‘How can we do this quickly to get the attraction back open to guests?’ So we did some behind-the-scenes control system updates and further updates to the figures to match what we call the kinematics – the mechanical vibrations – of the Hong Kong figures…”
By aligning the mechanical behavior with the attraction’s control architecture, Imagineering was able to reuse existing performance data instead of rebuilding the show animation from scratch, thereby reducing the downtime required for this renovation.
The choreography has not changed and the music remains intact, but the precision, fluidity and fidelity of the figures have been modernized. More importantly, it will make the trip feel even more immersive.
Ricci emphasized that this type of cross-park upgrade strategy is part of a long-standing Imagineering philosophy.
“We’re always looking to leverage new technology that comes from our newer capital projects and insert it into our older attractions to enhance that guest experience,” he said.
Frozen Ever After’s refresh arrives amid a broader wave of animatronic innovation happening across Disney Experiences in its parks and on cruise ships. In 2025, Disneyland Park debuted a Walt Disney sound animatronic time for the park’s 70th anniversary, while Disney World received an animatronic parrot inside the fully immersive Beak and Barrel lounge and one for Clawhauser in Zootopia: Better Zoogether.
And in 2026, Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris will debut an incredibly lifelike roaming Olaf figure – further signaling Disney’s continued investment in advanced character technology.
Ultimately, the success of the upgrade will not be measured on the technical side; it will be in the experience of riding it. Ricci rode the refreshed attraction shortly before our interview and shared:
“I rode just this morning as a test to give notes, and I’m telling you: in front of Elsa doing her ice magic, I got chills. It’s like she’s standing there in front of you and just stepped out of the screen.”
It’s an exciting upgrade – one designed to make returning guests feel at home while giving the attraction a heightened sense of immersion. And for first-time riders, it raises the bar for what a character-driven park ride can feel like in 2026.
Frozen Ever After is still the same musical journey through Arendelle. It’s simply more immersive now, with modernized animatronics that heighten the visuals without drowning them out—technology in the service of the story, not the other way around, which certainly marches to Disney’s beat.
Of course, you can stream Frozen and Frozen 2 on Disney+, one of the best streaming services.
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