It’s been a repeated request from Disney Parks fans for years: “Fix the Yeti.” But fixing Expedition Everest’s star Audio-Animatronic resident isn’t easy, as legendary Imagineer Joe Rohde recently discussed on Twitter.
Spinning off from a discussion about the Disney’s Animal Kingdom attraction’s circular layout resulting from the need to economize space, a fan asked if this space-saving need is the reason the Yeti was placed in the middle of the mountain, making it extremely difficult to repair.
Rohde responded, mentioning that maintenance was involved in the design of the attraction and that their work was considered to be a “model collaborative process.” He then explained that the Yeti has created an “unexpected and unforeseen set of issues…with no easy or timely solutions as of yet.”
When the attraction opened in 2006, the Yeti was the most advanced Audio-Animatronic ever created. And with new technology, new issues are bound to follow, as Rohde discussed: “Innovation is like physical exploration of unknown spaces. There is stuff out there you didn’t know, and you only encounter it by exploration. But then… there it is.”
The Yeti broke just months after the attraction opened, and has operated in “B-mode” ever since. But Rohde’s words suggest that no matter how long it takes, Disney continues to work on a solution as complex as the problem itself.
