For more than a year, Disney Parks has been promoting its new Olaf animatronic as the next generation of character encounters. Standing about three feet tall, the robot is the exact size the character was in the Frozen films and is covered in fluffy fabric to give the perfect snow effect. And unlike the stationary animatronic found within the Disney rides, Olaf is able to freely roam around the park, sharing interactions with park guests thanks to advancements in robotics, including AI, utilized by Disney’s Imagineering team. They even got back Josh Gad to voice the adorable robot.
On March 29th, the Olaf robot made his debut at Disneyland Paris, but just a day later he suffered a hilarious and highly public malfunction.
In the video posted by @magictourclub on TikTok, Olaf can be seen charmingly talking to a crowd of Disney guests. He blinks and gyrates and waves his arms believably. Then suddenly, like Bambi in headlights, he freezes and stands for a second, unmoving, with his eyes wide open. Then he slowly begins to lean backwards and falls flat on his back. Funniest of all, his carrot nose falls off and bounces away.
A few shouts, screams and laughs can be heard from the crowd as Olaf hit the ground. There may have been some crying too, though it’s hard to hear among the noise. Right away, Disney cast members rushed over to Olaf, reattached his nose, and gingerly carried him backstage as groans could be heard from the crowd.
Given the amount of time, money, and publicity Disney has invested in the Olaf animatronic, I can’t imagine it’ll be long before they work the bugs out of the little guy and put him back on public display. As far as AI malfunctions go, a fainting Olaf is certainly on the milder side. That said, in Terminator 2, when Skynet dropped the bomb, at least parents weren’t stuck with the awkward task of having to explain what happened to their kids’ favorite Disney character.
