Culture

Disney’s Going To Unleash Lifelike Robots In Its Theme Parks And We’ve Seen This TV Show Before

"Y'all know 'Westworld' isn't a how-to guide right?"

by Merryana Salem  24 August 2021
disney robots photo

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The Disney corporation is working on uncannily life-like robots for their theme parks and everyone is a little freaked out — have the folks at Disney not seen Westworld?

An article published in the New York Times by Brooks Barnes has revealed that the Disney Imagineers (AKA the developers and researchers responsible for Disney Theme parks) have been working on the kind of project that would have Sarah Conner sweating: sentient robots that will interact with parkgoers at Disney parks.

According to Jon Snoddy, a senior Imagineering executive quoted in the NYT piece, these new robots are designed to interact with guests at the park, where they can talk, emote, and respond to your behaviour.

“A new trend that is coming into our animatronics is a level of intelligence,” said Snoffy. “More believable. More outrageous.”

The article features gif footage and vivid description from Barnes of an extraordinarily life-like Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy. Barnes writes that the robotic Groot’s “demeanour changed” when he didn’t respond to it immediately. “This guy represents our future,” Snoddy said. “It’s part of how we stay relevant.”

In his description of other projects glimpsed in the Imagineering lab, Barnes speculates a possible sighting of an Incredible Hulk-like “giant hand.” When he asked the Imagineers for confirmation, they remained silent.

That future, Barnes assures us, is not one where humans are replaced by Disney robots. At least not yet. The intention of Project Kiwi, as robotic Groot and his classified colleagues were codenamed, is to create less passive more immersive experiences in Disney Parks. “We want to create incredible experiences outside of a show box,” said Leslie Evans, a senior Imagineering executive.

That’s all very impressive, but the dystopic elephant in the room can be boiled down to one question: Have the Disney Imagineers seen Westworld? It’s hard not to make the comparison, especially when some of the photography included in the article could’ve been grabbed from a Westworld episode.

Westworld, both the films from the 1970s and the HBO series that has been running since 2016, warn us about the dangers of installing humanoid robots in theme parks in much the same spirit as Jurassic Park warns us about dinosaur theme parks. Not a coincidence since Michael Crichton originally penned both the Westworld film and the Jurassic Park novel.

But if this peek at Disney’s robotic intentions are anything to go by, much like the protagonists of the aforementioned stories, we’re not very good at heeding those warnings.