Disney’s biggest D23 announcements stretched well beyond movies and television this year. During the Horizons: Disney Experiences Showcase, the company revealed new details about attractions and themed lands coming to resorts around the world, including projects based on Indiana Jones, Encanto, The Lion King, Cars and Monsters, Inc.
For the voiceover industry, these announcements highlight an aspect of character performance that can easily be overlooked. A character’s life no longer necessarily ends when the movie, series or game is complete. Familiar personalities can continue through attractions, Audio-Animatronics and other location-based experiences that require storytelling to work within a physical environment.
Disney even opened its Experiences presentation with a celebration of that history. Host Neil Patrick Harris was joined by Darren Criss, Skylar Astin, Megan Hilty, Tig Notaro and Jack McBrayer for a musical tribute to Disney’s Audio-Animatronics, referencing characters and attractions from across the parks.
The performance provided an appropriate introduction to a showcase filled with new ways for established characters to step beyond the screen.
Indiana Jones Gets an Original Theme Park Adventure
One of the clearest examples is the new Indiana Jones attraction being developed for Tropical Americas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Rather than rebuilding a scene from one of the movies, Walt Disney Imagineering is creating an original adventure centered on an ancient Maya temple. The attraction will place Indiana Jones into a new story developed specifically for the park, giving Imagineers an opportunity to expand the character beyond his existing film adventures.
Disney also confirmed at D23 that the attraction will incorporate new-generation Audio-Animatronics, including an Indiana Jones figure.
That combination of original storytelling and physical character performance illustrates how themed entertainment differs from simply adapting a movie scene. Indiana Jones has to exist convincingly within a sequence experienced by guests moving through an actual environment. Physical movement, dialogue, music, effects and ride timing all have to function together repeatedly throughout the day.
Disney has not announced who will provide the character’s voice for the attraction, and there is no reason to assume that Harrison Ford or another previous performer will necessarily be involved. The more relevant point for voiceover is that an original attraction creates another storytelling environment in which an established character needs to maintain a recognizable personality.
Encanto Turns Casita Into a Physical Story
The upcoming Encanto attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom provides an even more direct example of animated characters moving into themed entertainment.
Disney revealed that guests will enter Casita for a story centered on Antonio receiving his magical gift. The attraction will feature multiple Audio-Animatronics and members of the Madrigal family, bringing characters audiences first encountered in the 2021 animated film into a three-dimensional environment.
Encanto writer and director Jared Bush appeared during the D23 presentation to share new details about the project, which will become one of the major attractions within the Tropical Americas area.
For performers, a theme-park version of an animated character presents a different storytelling challenge. Film dialogue is recorded for scenes whose timing can be controlled through editing. An attraction has its own rhythm dictated by ride systems, guest movement, physical effects and Audio-Animatronic sequences.
A character may have only seconds to establish a moment before the guest moves somewhere else. Dialogue must remain clear while competing with music, environmental sounds and the movement of the attraction itself.
There is also the issue of familiarity. Audiences already know how Mirabel, Antonio, Bruno and the other Madrigals sound and behave. Any attraction using those characters inherits expectations created by the movie, even though Disney has not yet announced which performers will provide voices for the new experience.
The Lion King Moves From Animation Into Audio-Animatronics
Disneyland Paris is preparing another ambitious translation from screen to physical entertainment with its first major attraction based on The Lion King.
The attraction will anchor a new themed area at Disney Adventure World and recreate major moments from the 1994 animated film. Disney says the experience will combine Audio-Animatronics, special effects and music as guests follow Simba’s journey, with characters including Simba and Scar appearing physically throughout the attraction.
Unlike the new Indiana Jones adventure, which creates an original storyline, The Lion King project has the challenge of translating material audiences already know extremely well.
That includes its music and performances. The Lion King has accumulated an unusually large performance history since 1994, spanning the original animated film, sequels, television, stage productions, international dubbing casts and later screen interpretations. The Disneyland Paris attraction adds another format in which those characters will need to feel recognizable.
Theme-park storytelling cannot simply reproduce a feature-length movie. Familiar moments have to be condensed and reorganized around the physical journey guests are taking, while character performances must work alongside Audio-Animatronic movement and large-scale effects.
Disney has not announced the attraction’s voice cast, but the project demonstrates how a vocal identity originally created for animation can become part of the foundation for an entirely different entertainment experience.
Cars and Monsters Inc. Turn Characters Into Part of the Environment
Not every character needs to lead a traditional narrative attraction to have a performance role in the parks.
Disney’s plans for Piston Peak at Magic Kingdom include Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along, a new experience inspired by the demolition-derby character from Cars 3. Disney says the attraction will feature a school-bus-sized Miss Fritter Audio-Animatronic that effectively hosts the chaotic event.
That changes the character’s function. Miss Fritter is no longer simply appearing within a movie story. She becomes part of the attraction environment and a personality helping define what guests are experiencing.
At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the developing Monstropolis area takes that concept much further by attempting to turn the world of Monsters, Inc. into a place guests can physically enter.
Disney announced at D23 that portions of the land are expected to begin opening in 2027. Composer Randy Newman has also written a new song specifically for the themed environment, adding original music to a world already strongly associated with his work on the films.
Together, these projects demonstrate that themed entertainment can require much more than attraction narration. Characters can become hosts, inhabitants and guides, while dialogue, music and environmental audio help maintain the illusion that visitors have entered an existing fictional world.
Theme Park Voice Performance Has Different Demands
The growth of increasingly sophisticated character attractions also highlights how different themed-entertainment voiceover can be from traditional animation.
An animated performance is ultimately built around a fixed finished sequence. Editors and animators can adjust timing around dialogue, and audiences experience the story in essentially the same order every time.
Theme parks introduce different constraints. Recorded dialogue may need to synchronize precisely with an Audio-Animatronic figure. A line might have to finish before a ride vehicle reaches the next scene. Important story information has to remain understandable amid music, effects and surrounding guests. Some experiences also require multiple audio variations or localized versions for different markets.
Performances may be heard hundreds or thousands of times each day, making consistency between voice, physical movement and environmental storytelling particularly important.
Advances in Audio-Animatronics add another layer to that relationship. Disney’s announcement of new-generation figures for the Indiana Jones attraction reflects how much more expressive physical characters are becoming. As those figures gain greater movement and subtlety, the accompanying vocal performance becomes one component of a larger coordinated character.
The result is a form of performance built jointly through acting, animation, engineering, sound design and physical space.
A Character’s Performance No Longer Ends With the Movie
The D23 Experiences Showcase did not announce voice actors for every new attraction, and these projects should not be interpreted as a confirmed wave of new casting opportunities. Many of the performers behind the announced experiences remain unknown.
What Disney did reveal is a substantial collection of new places where character performance will be required.
Indiana Jones is receiving an original adventure rather than another retelling of his movies. The Madrigal family is moving into a physical Casita. Simba and Scar are becoming Audio-Animatronic characters in Paris. Miss Fritter is transforming into an attraction host, while an entire Monsters, Inc. world is being constructed for guests to explore.
Each project extends characters beyond the medium where audiences originally met them.
For the voiceover industry, that is the more interesting development. Animation, film and games may establish a character’s personality, but theme parks increasingly give that performance another life. Dialogue has to work with moving figures, music, engineering and environmental storytelling to convince audiences that the character exists in the same physical space they do.
D23 2026 offered plenty of announcements about Disney’s next generation of attractions. It also demonstrated something broader about modern character performance: for many familiar voices and personalities, the screen is only the beginning.
