Disney finally showed what it's doing to the Carousel of Progress - and the answer is more sweeping than almost anyone expected.
At the D23 Expo's "Imagineering: Horizons" pavilion on August 14, Disney revealed concept art and details for the Magic Kingdom classic's reimagining. The bones survive: the rotating theater stays, the same central family carries the show, and the Sherman Brothers' "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" keeps its job as the soundtrack. Everything else moves.
The attraction's four acts, which have opened in the same era since the last major overhaul in 1993, all jump forward in time. Act 1 relocates to the 1960s, set against the Apollo 11 moon landing. Act 2 lands in a 1980s Halloween. Act 3 moves to 1999 - the dot-com years, Y2K jitters included. And the finale becomes an entirely new future setting, replacing the dated "smart kitchen" scene that has been gently mocked by fans for three decades.
The biggest addition comes before the show even starts: an Audio-Animatronic figure of Walt Disney himself, introducing the attraction he created for the 1964-65 World's Fair.
The Carousel of Progress closed on July 6 to begin the transformation, and Disney is targeting a reopening sometime in 2027 - no firm date yet.
Whether this lands as a love letter or a betrayal depends on which kind of Carousel fan you ask, and coverage of the reveal (Inside the Magic's writeup was literally headlined "Disney Fans Have Thoughts") suggests the debate started before the concept art was off the screen. The case for the change is the one Walt made himself: this was always meant to be a show that kept moving. It just hasn't actually moved since 1993.
We covered the original closure announcement earlier this summer; this is the first full picture of what comes next.
Sources
Disney Dining, Aug 14, 2026 - disneydining.com/d23-reveals-first-look-at-carousel-of-progress-retheme-at-magic-kingdom-el1/
Inside the Magic, Aug 2026 - insidethemagic.net/2026/08/magic-kingdoms-carousel-of-progress-concept-art-debuts-at-d23-disney-fans-have-thoughts-el1/
Cover photo: Theme Park Tourist - CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.