{"id":180448,"date":"2026-02-16T19:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/180448\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:07:14","slug":"disneyland-to-play-walt-disney-and-abe-lincoln-animatronic-shows-in-rotation-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/180448\/","title":{"rendered":"Disneyland to play Walt Disney and Abe Lincoln animatronic shows in rotation \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disneyland will begin showing the Walt Disney and Abe Lincoln audio-animatronic shows in rotation after the Great Emancipator took a 10-month hiatus so the Anaheim theme park\u2019s founder could hog the spotlight during the 70th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d returned to the Main Street Opera House at Disneyland for a full day\u2019s run on Friday, Feb. 13 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. while \u201cWalt Disney \u2014 A Magical Life<\/a>\u201d remains dark for the day.<\/p>\n

Starting on Saturday, Feb. 14, the daily schedule will feature \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. and \u201cWalt Disney \u2014 A Magical Life\u201d from 2 to 8 p.m.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland lets attic brides get married at the Haunted Mansion \u2014 Husbands beware!<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d closed in April so Walt Disney Imagineering could install \u201cWalt Disney \u2014 A Magical Life\u201d in the Main Street Opera House.<\/p>\n

Imagineering redesigned the Main Street Opera House with a turntable stage to allow \u201cWalt Disney \u2014 A Magical Life\u201d and \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d to play in rotation.<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney greets visitors to the Main Street Opera House during \u201cWalt Disney \u2013 A Magical Life\u201d inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The world\u2019s first Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics figure debuted on July 17 at the Main Street Opera House as part of Disneyland\u2019s 70th anniversary celebration.<\/p>\n

\u201cA Magical Life\u201d allows visitors to sit down in Walt Disney\u2019s office and listen to the park\u2019s visionary founder talk about how he got started, his thoughts on his career and his dreams for the future.<\/p>\n

\"WaltWalt Disney now she\u2019s top billing with Abraham Lincoln on the Main St., Opera House as Disney unveils \ufffcan Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney during \u201cWalt Disney \u2013 A Magical Life\u201d inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. \ufffc (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The \u201cWalt Disney \u2014 A Magical Life\u201d animatronic show initially ran solo for seven months while \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d remained dark.<\/p>\n

Disneyland occasionally ran the \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d show whenever the Walt Disney animatronic malfunctioned during the 70th anniversary run.<\/p>\n

\"WaltWalt Disney now she\u2019s top billing with Abraham Lincoln on the Main St., Opera House as Disney unveils \ufffcan Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney during \u201cWalt Disney \u2013 A Magical Life\u201d inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. \ufffc (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Keeping \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d in the Main Street Opera House was important to Imagineering.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing able to keep Lincoln in his home was really great,\u201d Imagineering Portfolio Executive Creative Producer Jeff Shaver-Moskowitz said during the media preview in July. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to Disneyland and the DNA of Disneyland.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AnAn Audio-Animatronics of Walt Disney greets visitors to the Main Street Opera House during \u201cWalt Disney \u2013 A Magical Life\u201d inside Disneyland on July 14, 2025, in Anaheim, CA. \ufffc (Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

Disneyland filed building permits in 2024 valued at $5 million<\/a> with the city of Anaheim that called for an existing platform to be replaced with a new turntable in the Main Street Opera House, according to city records.<\/p>\n

The former platform raised and lowered the Lincoln animatronic so the theater could be used for traditional stage presentations.<\/p>\n

\"VisitorsVisitors to the Opera House watch Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln on Main Street, U.S.A. in Anaheim, California, on Wednesday, June 28, 2017.
\n(Photo by Jeff Gritchen, Orange County Register\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

\u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d was inspired by a pavilion exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World\u2019s Fair that displayed wax figures of all the U.S. presidents with recorded voice tracks explaining their roles in American history. Walt Disney thought he could bring the presidents to life for the 1964-65 New York World\u2019s Fair with Imagineering\u2019s burgeoning audio-animatronic technology.<\/p>\n

When the $4.4 million price tag to build animatronic figures of all the U.S. presidents proved too expensive, Walt Disney decided to press forward with a show based around Lincoln as the centerpiece attraction in the Illinois state pavilion at the New York World\u2019s Fair.<\/p>\n

ALSO SEE: Disneyland \u2018Blinkin\u2019 Lincoln\u2019 animatronic used to go crazy and smash his chair in a robotic fit<\/a><\/p>\n

After the World\u2019s Fair, \u201cGreat Moments with Mr. Lincoln\u201d was transported cross-country to Disneyland and set up in the Main Street Opera House.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Disneyland will begin showing the Walt Disney and Abe Lincoln audio-animatronic shows in rotation after the Great Emancipator…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":177053,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[2223,163,165,164,7,2222,1341,611,420],"class_list":["post-180448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-amusement-parks","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-california","tag-disney-california-adventure","tag-disneyland","tag-orange-county","tag-things-to-do"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}