The family inside Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress is changing, but at least one very familiar voice will remain part of the attraction’s next chapter.
That represents one of the biggest structural changes in the attraction’s history.
The outgoing version jumped from the 1940s directly to a Christmas scene intended to represent contemporary life. That finale received periodic updates over the years, but references to technologies such as laser discs and car phones eventually became artifacts of the very era the scene was supposed to portray as modern.
A future-facing finale gives Disney considerably more creative freedom.
Another major addition will appear before guests even begin traveling through the decades.
Disney has already announced that a Walt Disney Audio-Animatronic figure will introduce Carousel of Progress in its new version, establishing a more direct connection between the attraction and the man who personally helped create it.
The original Carousel of Progress debuted at the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair inside General Electric’s Progressland pavilion. Walt Disney and his Imagineers developed the rotating-theater concept, while Richard and Robert Sherman wrote “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow.”
After the fair, the attraction moved to Disneyland in 1967 before eventually relocating to Magic Kingdom, where it opened in Tomorrowland in 1975.
The Florida version originally used another Sherman Brothers song, “The Best Time of Your Life,” before “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” returned during the 1990s overhaul.
Disney’s current project therefore continues a tradition of repeatedly updating Carousel of Progress while preserving connections to earlier versions.
Derryberry’s casting is perhaps the clearest example yet.
Instead of completely discarding the voices associated with the attraction’s previous generation, Imagineering has found a way for one of them to literally age along with the Carousel family.
Derryberry is also familiar far beyond Tomorrowland. Her extensive voice-acting career includes Jimmy Neutron, Coco Bandicoot and numerous animated television, film and video-game roles.
For Disney World fans, though, her voice has been part of Carousel of Progress since the early 1990s.
Disney has not announced whether Patricia herself will remain in the new show, who might voice her if she does, or whether other members of the previous cast will return in different capacities.
Those are now some of the most interesting unanswered questions surrounding the refurbishment.
What Disney has confirmed is that when Carousel of Progress begins rotating again in 2027, at least one voice from its previous three decades will still be inside.
Patricia has simply become Grandma.
