{"id":816175,"date":"2026-08-17T03:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T03:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/816175\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T03:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T03:50:11","slug":"expedition-everest-yetis-original-animator-speaks-out-reveals-b-mode-was-his-idea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/816175\/","title":{"rendered":"Expedition Everest Yeti&#8217;s Original Animator Speaks Out, Reveals B Mode Was His Idea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The original animator behind the Yeti at Expedition Everest has spoken out following Disney&#8217;s announcement that the animatronic is getting fixed.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wdwmagic.com\/attractions\/expedition-everest\/gallery\/16aug2026-expedition-everest-yeti-update-concept-art\/67432.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 2268\/1520;\" width=\"2268\" height=\"1520\" data-twic-src=\"https:\/\/www.wdwmagic.com\/attractions\/expedition-everest\/news\/image:\/ElementGalleryItems\/attractions\/Fullsize\/Expedition-Everest_Full_67432.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wdwmagic.twic.pics\/ElementGalleryItems\/attractions\/Fullsize\/Expedition-Everest_Full_67432.jpg?twic=v1\/output=preview\" title=\"Expedition Everest Yeti Update Concept Art\" alt=\"Expedition Everest Yeti Update Concept Art\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Ethan Reed, who worked on the figure during development, shared his reaction on Instagram, and revealed a detail fans didn&#8217;t know: he suggested the strobe effect that became &#8220;b mode.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m genuinely thrilled to hear that the original Yeti figure at WDW will finally be animated again.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>I was fortunate to be the animator on the figure during development and pre-programming, so I spent a lot of time with this beast. Unfortunately, I didn&#8217;t make it to the attraction for final installation and integration because I was busy helping get the cast of characters for Monsters, Inc. Mike &amp; Sulley to the Rescue finished up. But the Yeti was still a pretty big part of my life for a while, and I did get to see him functioning beautifully in the attraction once.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been strange for nearly 20 years, knowing that the Yeti was sitting there, essentially waiting for its chance to come back to life. I&#8217;ve also carried a little regret about suggesting the strobe effect for the B-show, which ultimately replaced the motion our team created.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>So I&#8217;m really happy to see the Walt Disney World and Walt Disney Imagineering teams bringing our Yeti back to life. Huge kudos to everyone involved in making it happen.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>And an even bigger shout out to whoever had the genius idea to have Gloria Gaynor sing &#8220;I Will Survive&#8221; for the big reveal.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s a fun little full circle moment for me in all of this. I distinctly remember sitting there in 2005 with my Sony Discman, animating this beast and listening to the Man on the Moon soundtrack, including Tony Clifton&#8217;s wonderfully bizarre version of &#8220;I Will Survive.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really looking forward to seeing the Yeti move again.<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<\/p>\n<p>Reed was the senior show animator on the Yeti during pre-programming. He spent months working on the figure&#8217;s movement before it was installed at Disney&#8217;s Animal Kingdom. He said he did not make it to final installation because he was helping finish character work on Monsters, Inc. Mike &amp; Sulley to the Rescue. He did see the Yeti running in the attraction once, before it broke down in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>The &#8220;b mode&#8221; strobe effect Reed mentions has run in place of full motion since the Yeti&#8217;s structural damage in late 2007. It became the version of the Yeti most guests have known for nearly 20 years.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wdwmagic.com\/attractions\/expedition-everest\/gallery\/16aug2026-expedition-everest-yeti-update-concept-art\/67374.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 2560\/1164;\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1164\" data-twic-src=\"https:\/\/www.wdwmagic.com\/attractions\/expedition-everest\/news\/image:\/ElementGalleryItems\/attractions\/Fullsize\/Expedition-Everest_Full_67374.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/wdwmagic.twic.pics\/ElementGalleryItems\/attractions\/Fullsize\/Expedition-Everest_Full_67374.jpg?twic=v1\/output=preview\" title=\"Ethan Reed, WDI senior show animator\" alt=\"Ethan Reed, WDI senior show animator\"\/><\/a> <\/p>\n<p>                         Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The original animator behind the Yeti at Expedition Everest has spoken out following Disney&#8217;s announcement that the animatronic&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":816176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[3995,244018,88,346328,206,3,346329],"class_list":["post-816175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-asia","tag-disneys-animal-kingdom","tag-entertainment","tag-expedition-everest-yetis-original-animator-speaks-out","tag-movies","tag-news","tag-reveals-b-mode-was-his-idea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=816175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/816175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=816175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=816175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=816175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}