Tomorrowland’s favorite revolving time machine is preparing for another turn. Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is temporarily unavailable at Magic Kingdom, but its next chapter is already taking shape—and it is headed for late spring 2027.
The refreshed attraction will welcome Disney Legend Jamie Lee Curtis and Emmy-winning actor Bryan Cranston as the new voices of Mom and Dad, bring Walt Disney himself into the story through Audio-Animatronics technology, and send the beloved family spinning through entirely new decades.
For an attraction built on the idea that progress never stands still, standing still was never really an option.
A Walt Disney World Classic Gets a Fresh Spin
Carousel of Progress has been celebrating optimism, invention and the wonderfully familiar chaos of family life for 60 years. It remains the most performed stage show in American theater history, although its journey began long before it arrived in Tomorrowland.
In the 1950s, Walt Disney imagined Edison Square as an expansion of Disneyland’s Main Street, U.S.A. Its planned centerpiece, Harnessing the Lightning, would have explored how electricity and technology changed everyday American life. Edison Square was never built, but its big idea survived: technology may race ahead, while people remain reassuringly human.
That concept evolved into Carousel of Progress for the 1964–1965 New York World’s Fair. The Progressland pavilion introduced the attraction’s rotating theater, along with the Sherman Brothers anthem, “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.” It became a major hit—and a project Walt personally shaped right down to Uncle Orville’s wiggling toes in the bathtub.
After the fair, Carousel of Progress opened at Disneyland in 1967 with an updated Progress City finale inspired by Walt’s vision for EPCOT. The show then moved to Walt Disney World in 1975, where it continued changing with new scripts, voice performers, time periods and scene updates.
For its first two decades in Florida, “The Best Time of Your Life” replaced the original Sherman Brothers song; that tune still plays as background music around Tomorrowland. The last major update arrived in 1994, bringing back “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” and a revised finale.
Mom and Dad Have New Voices
At the Horizons: A Carousel of Progress presentation during D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, host Neil Patrick Harris announced the show’s newest household names. Jamie Lee Curtis will take on the role of Mom, while Bryan Cranston becomes Dad.
A preview from the new 1980s scene also revealed where this perpetually adapting family is headed. The update will retain “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” as the musical thread connecting each era, because some progress is simply too catchy to replace.
Walt Steps Into the Story
The revamped attraction will begin with Walt Disney, brought to life with Audio-Animatronics technology. The scene takes inspiration from the 1964 special Disneyland Goes to the World’s Fair, where Walt introduced the Carousel of Progress concept and shared his belief that progress could help shape a better tomorrow.
Imagineers are recreating props seen in that special, including a prototype Tiki bird, a model of the Tower of the Four Winds and an “it’s a small world” doll. This new opening will set up the next act for John, Sarah, their family and their lovable dog.
The Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic appearance was announced last year.
Four New Stops on the Progress Express
Every scene is being updated to a new time period, with physical props, painted backdrops and practical effects tailored to each decade. The goal is a show built around eras that today’s audiences can recognize, remember and perhaps quietly debate over at the kitchen table.
The journey starts in the summer of 1969. Sixty years before the present day, John, Sarah and the family gather around the television with millions of others to watch the historic moon landing. It is a moment of awe, possibility and giant leaps—an especially fitting launchpad for this attraction.
Next comes Halloween night in 1985, when Sarah takes center stage for the first time. New appliances and gadgets are making life easier around the house, while John hands out candy from the porch. Uncle Orville, naturally, is stuck in the bathroom with “no privacy around here!”
The third act lands on New Year’s Eve 1999. As the family prepares to welcome 2000, the Internet is drawing John, Sarah, Jimmy and Patty closer to one another—and to the wider world. Grandpa has already fallen asleep before the countdown, while Grandma quietly switches the television over to wrestling.
The final scene leaps into the possible future, inside an out-of-this-world home where helpful robots lend a hand with daily tasks and space travel has become part of ordinary life. Imagineers drew inspiration for this finale from original future-focused concept sketches by Disney Legend John Hench.
A Poster With One Foot in Yesterday—and One in Tomorrow
A new attraction poster has also been revealed, paying tribute to the original poster created for Carousel of Progress’ Disneyland debut. Like the show itself, the design nods to its history while looking toward whatever comes next.
When the Carousel Turns Again
Carousel of Progress is temporarily unavailable during its transformation. This new version of the Magic Kingdom classic is scheduled to debut in late spring 2027.
Until then, the future remains just out of reach—but this time, it has a 1969 moon landing, 1985 trick-or-treaters, a 1999 countdown and a robot-assisted home waiting on the other side.
