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File this one under “we’ll believe it when we see it.” At Saturday night’s D23 Parks Panel, Chairman of Disney Experiences Thomas Mazloum stood in front of God and all his creations and vowed that Disney’s Animal Kingdom would be fixing the Yeti on Expedition Everest.
For the non-theme park obsessives, the Yeti was the crowning jewel of Imagineering when Animal Kingdom opened in 1998. It was the biggest and most complex audio-aniatronic ever made. A giant cryptid would attack the rollercoaster with lifelike ferocity. And it was this ferocity that was its undoing, as the animatronic was so powerful it shook the foundations of the fake mountain in which it resided. Famously, people don’t like it when rollercoasters collapse on top pf them, so Disney switched the Yeti into a stationary, less impressive B-mode. Imagineering legend and earring GOAT Joe Rodhe promised that he would get the Yeti fixed before he retired. Then he retired.
“We’re bringing the Yeti back to life inside Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom!” Mazloum shouted at host Neil Patrick Harris. Then Gloria Gaynor sang “I Will Survive,” in honor of the “Disco Yeti” we’ve had lo these many years. It was a tonally odd panel. No word yet on when the Yeti is coming back to life, how long Expedition Everest will be down while they fix the dang mountain, or when Disneyland will ever return the PeopleMover to its former glory. That last one is unrelated, but the people want to know!
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