Walt Disney has been dead for nearly 57 years. In the coming weeks, however, he will begin greeting museum visitors on two continents.
As part of its 100th anniversary marketing-palooza, the Walt Disney Company used archival video and artificial intelligence tools to create a lifelike hologram of its founder — a full-size digital avatar that speaks in Walt’s voice and appears as part of interactive exhibitions of Disney artwork, props and costumes that will tour the globe until at least 2028.
“I get goose bumps every time I see it,” said Becky Cline, director of the Disney Archives.
Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to buy tickets — and Disney, more than any time in recent memory, needs them to leave with a similar emotion: Ah, yes, the magical entertainment brand that marries nostalgia with how-did-they-do-that technical wizardry. Let’s go see a Disney movie, buy some Disney bedsheets and book a vacation at a Disney theme park.
