Pirates of the Carribean Reopens At Disneyland Today With a New Animatroic Using the Dreaded Face Mapping Technology

Pirates of the Caribbean reopened at Disneyland Park today with a new animatronic sitting on the treasure.  This one uses face-mapping technology to turn into a skeleton while holding one of the cursed gold coins.

This is the same technology Disney used on the original Frozen Ever After animatronics at Walt Disney World. Later, they switched them to newer models without the projection technology.  A move that was mostly applauded by fans.

Now, one of Disney’s most iconic attractions has also received the face-mapping update to one of the pirates. Honestly, it would stick out like a sore thumb against all the traditional animatronic figures.

Take a look

Disney Parks shared a video on social media showing the transformation.

According to TechRadar, the animatronic is being powered by Disney’s “next-gen tech” featuring a hybrid system using a traditional animatronic body and core, with a changing face.

The face is created using a 3D-printed facial shell that has no moving parts.  Facial expressions and the transformation are created using a “high-fidelity map projection system” (face mapping) using light to create the two faces and the transformation in between.

Shanghai’s Pirates of the Caribbean attraction does something similar with Captain Jack Sparrow. However, it’s more of a Pepper’s Ghost effect and not so much the mapping seen here.

However, Disney has had problems in the past with these animatronics, as Tha Homie Dav pointed out on X.

The reception from fans has been mixed on this change.

But most of the comments aren’t positive.

-“NOOOOO that’s my favorite pirate 😭

-I’m sorry, but this is gonna make the ride feel more campy instead of serious. WTF are they even doing anymore 😩” – Megan

-“This fu*king sucks a$s. Ruined one of the coolest and most atmospheric parts of the ride.” – kiosk-at-the-mall

-“dude that looks awesome. imaginering you did it.“- corey coleman

-“Trying the projector mapping again huh? 🙄” -ImmaFinna

-“Was just at Legoland yesterday and THIS is what makes a theme park IMO! Disney is so far ahead of everyone else it’s sad” – Jimmy Palmer

-“So… a screen. 👎“- J

-“I’m sure it looks better in person, but I’m still generally not a fan of projection mapped faces. I remember all the hype this got when it was showcased at imagineering, but at the end of the day, it’s still projected and it never looks very good no matter how advanced it is.” – Drew Edwards

-“It’s just a face projection. Monsters Unchained does it better in the pre-show imo.”– Cwoolboy

-“They got rid of the projection mapping in Frozen only to put it in POTC?” – Rez-2-Net

-“Seems like an effect that could be useful on the Coco ride” – TheMaxRebo

-“I hate this. It doesn’t fit with the attraction. They did this digital crap at Haunted Mansion and it doesn’t fit.” – UtilidoorFunk

It’s not going over well. 

Pirates of the Caribbean is an attraction that Walt Disney himself worked on. In fact, this Disneyland attraction was the LAST attraction Walt worked on, so people feel somewhat protective of it. Walt Disney World’s version is very different (and less good) so people are more accepting of changes there before they are willing to accept changes to the original.

Like it or not, Disney did it.

What do you think? Is this a good idea?
Comment and let us know!