Patent filing reveals upcoming Disney theme park holograms

Theme park expert Len Testa revealed on his podcast The Disney Dish that Disney is developing a new holographic system for its ride systems that will appear to put characters closer to your vehicle than ever before.

Testa found a patent application filed by Disney Enterprises Inc. on May 16, 2024, and published on November 20, 2025, for “Holographic Character Creation.”

The Background section of the application states that the advantage of holographic images on ride systems is that if physical figures are placed too close to guests, they can touch or interfere with them. Holographic images of characters can appear closer to guests without that danger.

“Rides or attractions often attempt to bring characters from the screen (e.g., animation, movies, television, video game, etc.) into the real world. Some solutions use animatronics or other physical models placed physically in the environment, such as near a ride vehicle or track. However, the animatronic or physical model must be moved or positioned such that contact with the physical animatronic or model is prevented. For example, careful controls must exist to prevent undesired contact of a person or ride vehicle with the physical animatronic or model. Such systems may require a lot of space, a large facility input, and a high expense. An animated figure may also require large and/or complicated infrastructure and safety systems to prevent undesired contact. [0003]

Therefore a need exists for systems and methods of creating a holographic character (e.g., hologram), such as to optically place a 2D or 3D character in the real world environment, that addresses the concerns above or at least offers an alternative to existing solutions.“

Testa further speculates that the attraction on which this system may be implemented is a ride, currently under construction and planned for a 2027 opening, based on the 2021 Encanto animated movie. This ride will be in the Tropical Americas land of Animal Kingdom, in Orlando’s Disney World. It will feature animals like the alligator in the application, that the character Antonio has supernatural powers to communicate with. But a more important clue is that the ride vehicle depicted in the application matches the vehicles that are rumored to be planned for the ride.

In the podcast, Testa says to his co-host Jim Hill:

“So, if you look in the diagram, we’ve got to two ride vehicles. Each ride vehicle has two rows of seats and they’re connected into a train of two cars. So one car with two rows attached to another car with two rows. Jim, that is the same configuration as the ride vehicles in the Encanto ride documentation.”

He goes on to hint that he and Jim have information from one of their many inside Disney sources, and that the turn of the track and placement of the show scene look like the first scene after the ride load area in the upcoming Encanto ride track. “Allegedly. Allegedly. Not that we have any inside knowledge on what the track layout looks like. … None whatsoever. No one has shown us anything.”

Here is a video that goes through much more of the inside information Testa has revealed.