Photos/Video: Elsa and her "Frozen" Friends and Family Get Fully Articulated in Long-Awaited Update at EPCOT

A day many Disney Parks fans have been waiting for has arrived. For years, a particular sect of Disney fans have been waiting to see more traditional faces on the Audio Animatronic figures featured in EPCOT’s popular Frozen Ever After attraction. Now, after a short closure of the attraction, they have finally been switched out from their projected predecessors. 

The faces of the human characters have been switched out to the fully sculpted and animated faces on the similar Frozen-based attractions in Hong Kong, and soon to open in Paris. Yes, Tokyo DisneySea also has a Frozen-themed boat ride, but it is unique to that park and not like those at EPCOT, Hong Kong Disneyland, and soon to be at Disney Adventure World, though it too has fully sculpted figures. 

Since 2016, Frozen Ever After has pulled crowds into the park’s Norway pavilion. While on board the attraction, a makeover of the classic Maelstrom boat ride that was featured in the pavilion, Frozen fans encountered their favorite characters - many of which had digitally projected faces.  They were very similar to other Audio Animatronic advancements made several years earlier over at the Magic Kingdom’s Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. 

While at the time they were deemed reasonable even, dare we say, evolutionary for the form - their flaws soon took center stage. In the age of social media, videos would surface of faceless characters, or a “replace bulb” warning across a Human-esque face mold. Still, all seemed passable until the debut of the same attraction in the World of Frozen at Hong Kong Disneyland. 

Now, the figures had full, dimensional, and completely animated faces in what is largely an identical copy of the attraction featured at EPCOT. There was a bit of fan outcry that only got exacerbated when a Frozen attraction in Tokyo (though very different) also featured fully sculpted faces, and later when another attraction - again, seemingly identical to EPCOT’s - was revealed to be coming to Paris. 

Back in October, it was revealed that this upgrade would be coming, with fans who had seen even just videos of the Hong Kong and Tokyo version of the Frozen characters rejoicing that they would be coming to EPCOT. The attraction was promised to receive the upgrades in Early 2026, with the attraction closing in late January, shuttering for barely over two weeks to install the enhancements. 

Frozen Ever After is now open once again for EPCOT guests, complete with the enhancements and fully articulated faces. To see them for yourself, be sure to reach out to our friends at Mouse Fan Travel who can assist with all your Walt Disney World planning needs.

P.S. You can also compare this updated version to its previous form as well as the Hong Kong Disneyland Version of the ride below: