Joe Rohde Says Disney Will Replace the Expedition Everest Yeti, Not Fix It: 'If They Could Fix the Yeti, They Would've Fixed the Yeti'

The Disco Yeti is not getting fixed, says the Imagineer behind Disney's Animal Kingdom. He says it is getting replaced.

Joe Rohde, the former Imagineer who led the design of Disney's Animal Kingdom, said on the Welcome Home Podcast that Disney's plan for the broken Yeti inside Expedition Everest is a new figure, not a repair of the old one. WDW News Today quotes him:

"To be clear, they're gonna replace the Yeti. If they could fix the Yeti, they would've fixed the Yeti."

Disney's concept art for the Yeti, released at D23 in August. Image: Disney

Wait, wasn't it being fixed?

That is how most of us told it in August, ourselves included. At D23, Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum announced, "We're bringing the Yeti back to life inside Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom!" Our own story at the time led with Disney Is Fixing the Expedition Everest Yeti, and outlets across the fan press used the same word.

Neither the D23 stage announcement nor the Disney Parks Blog post spelled out how. Blog Mickey reports that Disney "previously said that the current figure would be repaired, not replaced, and that it would be located in the same spot in the attraction," and that Walt Disney World did not respond when Blog Mickey asked whether the figure will be replaced or fixed.

Blog Mickey's August report said it could confirm the current figure was being repaired, not replaced, without naming who confirmed it. So for now there are two versions on the table: a repair, per Blog Mickey, and a replacement, per Rohde.

What Rohde actually knows, and what he doesn't

Rohde is retired and is not publicly part of the Yeti project. He was promoting his new book, Floating Mountains: The Art of Imagining the Impossible, and he was candid that his knowledge only goes so far.

• He wrote the book without knowing a solution had been settled, and learned of the plans only after it went to print, per both outlets.
• He does not know what the new figure will do. In WDWNT's transcription: "I don't actually know what it's gonna do. I only know that they believe they have found a solution."
• To him, the point is movement, not choreography, per WDWNT: "The purpose of the Yeti within the context of that story is to establish that it is alive. In order to do that, it needs to move."

The current Yeti, frozen mid-swipe, seen without the strobe in a 2017 video frame. Image: WDW News Today

Why it took nearly 20 years

The figure has been stuck for most of the ride's life. WDW News Today blames a cracked foundation, and Disney uses a strobe light to give it the illusion of motion, which is how it earned the "Disco Yeti" nickname.

Rohde says the obstacles are not only technical. WDWNT reports he cited money, time and the logistics of "getting the old Yeti out and a new Yeti in" on a ride that stays popular even with a Yeti that doesn't move. Blog Mickey adds his point that any solution has to be affordable and has to fit a realistic window without putting the schedule at risk, because if that schedule slips, there is no second attempt.

His summary of the approach, referencing a chapter in his book: "The solution to the problem is not necessarily doing over what you just did."

The torn track high on Expedition Everest, one of the ride's signs of the Yeti. Image: Disney

What we still don't know

There is still no timeline. Disney has not said when the work happens, whether Expedition Everest will close for it, or what the Yeti will do when it returns. Rohde's comments describe a replacement rather than a repair, but they come from a retired designer, not from Disney.

The Forbidden Mountain at dusk. Image: Disney

New Yeti or old Yeti brought back to life, does it matter to you, as long as it finally moves?

Sources

• Blog Mickey, Rohde: Disney Will Completely Replace the Current Yeti, Not Fix It
• WDW News Today, Joe Rohde Says Disney Will Replace Expedition Everest Yeti, Not 'Fix' It
• Welcome Home Podcast on YouTube, Interview with Disney Legend Joe Rohde on Imagining the Impossible
• Blog Mickey, New Details on Yeti Resurrection Project Coming to Expedition Everest
• Disney Parks Blog, Yeti Audio-Animatronic Coming Back to Life Inside Expedition Everest

Image credits: Disney (Yeti concept art, track and mountain photos). Current Yeti video frame by WDW News Today.