World of Frozen Opens at Disneyland Paris With Walking Olaf
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- World of Frozen opens Sunday at Disneyland Paris's Disney Adventure area, featuring an ice sculpture fountain with fiber-optic-lit snowflake arms, a Frozen Ever After boat ride, and an interactive walking Olaf voiced by Josh Gad.
- Michel den Dulk, Walt Disney Imagineering creative director, began work on the Paris installation in 2018 after previously bringing Frozen iterations to Walt Disney World and Hong Kong Disneyland.
- Walking Olaf was built through a collaboration between Disney's research and development studio in Zurich and Imagineering HQ in Glendale, California, with animators Hyrum Osmond and Darrell W. Johnson — both veterans of the original film — helping infuse the robot with the character's personality, though he cannot yet give hugs.
- Frozen Ever After is a family-friendly boat ride that includes a small drop backwards and a bigger hidden drop in the dark, which den Dulk said creates an unexpected 'wow moment' for guests.
- Elsa's ice palace exterior is constructed primarily from stainless steel using scenic painted tricks to create a translucent ice illusion, because real glass and crystals proved too expensive and hazardous.
- "A Celebration of Arendelle" is a 15-minute show on Arendelle Bay with characters riding Viking Longships; Oscar-winning songwriters Bobby Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez wrote custom lyrics for "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?" and "Let it Go."
Why it matters: Disneyland Paris is betting that a 12-year-old animated film still has enough cultural pull to anchor a major themed land, investing in hyper-realistic robotics and custom show music to justify the build. The Paris opening completes Frozen's rollout across the global Disney park portfolio, and the walking-Olaf technology represents Imagineering's push toward free-roaming character robots that can interact — though not yet embrace — guests.
Ask SkimNews
