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Former Imagineer Joe Rohde, who was the mastermind behind Disney’s Animal Kingdom, says Disney will replace the Expedition Everest Yeti rather than “fix” it.
Expedition Everest Yeti
On an episode of Welcome Home Podcast about his new book Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible, Rohde talked about the Yeti animatronic. Famously, the animatronic has not moved since its early days due to a cracked foundation. Disney gives the figure the illusion of movement with a strobe light, earning it the nickname “Disco Yeti.”
Disney announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026 that they would “fix” the Yeti.
At the time he wrote Floating Mountains, Rohde didn’t know a solution to the Yeti problem was set, just that Disney was still trying to figure out a way to bring the Yeti back to life. He found out about the plans after the book went to print.
“To be clear,” Rohde said, “they’re gonna replace the Yeti. If they could fix the Yeti, they would’ve fixed the Yeti.”
Rohde added, referencing a chapter in his book, “The solution to the problem is not necessarily doing over what you just did. That’s what the whole chapter is about. Adapting and moving and sliding around.”
“The purpose of the Yeti within the context of that story is to establish that it is alive,” he explained. “In order to do that, it needs to move. That’s really the core story point of it. What it does is immaterial to me. And I don’t actually know what it’s gonna do. I only know that they believe they have found a solution.”
He added that the problem is complicated not only due to technological limits but finances, time, and the logistics of “getting the old Yeti out and a new Yeti in…on a ride that, frankly, is very popular despite the fact the Yeti doesn’t move.”
Watch the full interview below.
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