We Met Disney’s Most Advanced Robot Yet: Olaf From ‘Frozen’
When you get an email saying Olaf is in town for one day only, you drop what you’re doing and make plans to meet him. That’s what happened last week, as io9/Gizmodo was invited to the research and development section of Walt Disney Imagineering to meet the company’s most advanced robotics creation to date: Olaf, the magical snowman from Frozen. The Olaf robot was first introduced into the world back in November, with the promise to debut in the World of Frozen areas at both Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland Resort. But, before that happens, we and a small group of journalists and influencers got to talk to Kyle Laughlin, SVP of R&D at Walt Disney Imagineering, and Josh Gorin, VP of R&D at Walt Disney Imagineering and Disney Live Entertainment Innovation. They’re two of the many Imagineers involved with the project, which has been in the works for a while.
“We sat with all of our parks partners across the world, and the overwhelming character that they wanted for their lands, regardless of whether they had a Frozen World or not, was Olaf,” Laughlin said. © Disney Imagineering When Olaf enters a room (or, eventually, a theme park), the first thing you notice is the walk. Being a magical talking snowman, the character has a very recognizable and distinguished gait, and Gorin explained that nailing that was one of the first things they knew they had to get right. It was achieved with the aid of AI called “reinforcement learning” that they previously used to bring mobile characters, such as the BD-X droids in Star Wars Galaxy’s Edge, to life.
“Instead of hand animating every possible pose you would need to do a walk, we actually take the characters, and we bring them into a simulation environment, and they actually learn to walk,” Gorin said. “So what we do is, we do a full 3D CG simulation of the character—every motor, every wire, every bolt—and together that goes into a space with gravity and actual physics. The same way we all learned how to walk, it tries and tries again—millions and millions of times—until it learns how to stand upright and walk.”
Other robotics companies have also done this. But Disney, being the massive company that it is, can give the process a very unique touch. “The Disney difference is, and I think what differentiates our robotic characters so much from other sorts of robots you might see in the industry, is story and personality and character,” Gorin continued. “We don’t want our guests to see technology. We want our guests to fall in love with their favorite characters in the film. So, to do that, we bring in animation training data. We get the actual animators who worked on the Frozen films to create the poses and the movements, and we feed that into the training data. So Olaf doesn’t just learn how to stand and walk; he learns how to stand and walk like Olaf.” You can see some of that in this video below, provided by Disney.
He also better talk like Olaf, which, obviously, he does. “We work directly with Josh Gad on all of these lines,” Laughlin said. “We brought him into the studio to record as if he was recording for our animated features, so we’re continuing to build a library of lines that Josh is recording with us as a part of the performance.” That means, yes, Olaf has plenty to say now, but he’ll have even more to say as his adventures continue.
Those adventures began this week with an appearance at NVIDIA GTC 2026, which will then be followed by the character making his Disney Parks debut as part of the opening of World of Frozen in Disney Adventure World at Disneyland Paris on March 29. There, the character will largely be seen on a boat, along with the rest of the cast, so he can be visible to a lot of people at the same time. “What’s really exciting about these characters is that, unlike an animatronic that’s sort of designed for one scene and one ride, this can be used in [many different ways],” Gorin said. “Parades and meet-and-greets, in atmospheric entertainment, in shows. This allows us to truly think about them as total and complete characters. And so you’re going to see him doing more and saying more over time.”
Olaf in the World of Frozen. – Disney Parks That means, unfortunately, guests themselves won’t get to spend a lot of time with Olaf one-on-one. At least, not for now. “We don’t have a date to announce yet, but as you can imagine, the hug-ability of our character is incredibly powerful,” Laughlin said. “And that’s ultimately our North Star. That’s where we’re headed, and we’re doing everything we can to try and make that happen as fast as possible.” io9/Gizmodo did, however, get to have that interaction, and it was simultaneously wonderful and slightly disappointing. Like many of Disney’s current robotic creatures, Olaf is operated by a human with basically a big remote control somewhere off to the side to not ruin the illusion. That person is the one who keys in what the creature says when talking to people. And when talking to a group of journalists, it sure did sound like Olaf didn’t know a lot. Here are a few examples of exchanges we heard. “Olaf, what’s your favorite thing about summer?” “Hmm, I have to think about that.” “What’s your favorite thing about being a snowman?” “Hmm, I’ll get back to you on that.” “Olaf, how did you learn to walk?” “I will ask someone to think about that.” “Olaf, what’s your favorite season?” “Oh, I’m not sure.” Clearly, we didn’t hear every single thing Olaf could possibly say, and human response time plays a role here as well. But a few of those questions felt like very easy ones Olaf should have had an answer to. And yet, he did have four different ways to say “I don’t know,” which is impressive in its own right.
Olaf talking to press at Imagineering – io9/Gizmodo That said, there were more than enough magical moments to cover the few small hiccups. Simply seeing the character walk around and glimmer (thanks to iridescent fibers in his snow) was a sight to behold. He truly does move and look like the character from the film. If you’re lucky enough to get a picture, Olaf will shift his body slightly, spreading his twig arms and saying, “Cheese!” Before he leaves, he might sing a few lines of “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2. And for every question he may not have had an answer to, he had two or three fantastic things to say on other subjects. “This wandering thing is great,” Olaf said while walking around. “Oaken! I get it now,” screaming to one of the other characters in the film. Ask him about the whereabouts of Anna and Elsa, and he might say, “They’re probably doing official royal queen stuff.” Or he might suggest they’re off eating chocolate. At one point, Olaf even melted hearts when he said, “Want to know a secret? We’re friends now.” And of course, this is just the beginning. Laughlin called Olaf “bleeding edge” in terms of Disney’s character creation. Basically, he’s the culmination of everything they’ve done so far. The best of what’s possible. But also, that’s just today. Who knows what the future holds?
“Reinforcement learning allows us to develop these robots faster than ever, which gives us the opportunity to potentially deliver these experiences day and date,” Laughlin said. “We used to wait years, potentially, after a film was out to be able to deliver those experiences. Now, the technology is at a place where we can debut a robot and a character alongside the story that people have just seen.” That makes Olaf the most advanced Disney robot ever, until the next one. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
