When you’re a theme park fan, it’s always fun to hear from a Disney Imagineer because it feels like we’re getting a peak behind a secret curtain. Recently, Jim Shull, a retired Walt Disney Imagineer after a 33-year career, shared some thoughts about Toy Story Land’s latest addition. Disney’s Hollywood Studios is adding new magic to Alien Swirling Saucers starting on Friday, September 25th, where they’ll be introducing Lilypad from Toy Story 5.
The frog-shaped smart tablet is on a mission to connect friends and she’s using her tech to bring toys together for an all-new soundtrack to the appropriately titled Alien Swirling Saucers: Lilypad’s Jams. This new music line-up will include reimagined Toy Story classics and brand-new songs written just for the attraction, remixed and mashed up by DJ Lilypad. But that’s where the Imagineer who’s worked on projects at Disney World, Disneyland Paris, and Shanghai Disneyland has some issues and pointed out that size does, indeed, matter.
For more than eight years, Toy Story Land has operated around the idea that when you step inside, you thereby shrink to the size of a toy inside Andy’s backyard. The oversized toys and various other objects throughout work to establish the scale as they transport you into Andy’s world. That guided and shaped what could and could not be put inside the land, until now.
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Also Andy and Bonnie are a generation apart. Bonnie has her own backyard and she wouldn’t be in Andy’s.September 17, 2026
The first issue that Toy Story Land designer Jim Shull has with the addition of Lilypad is that, at least in the artist concept image, the scale feels wrong. He says that he started with Andy’s shoe print and scaled every toy to that, which means that a Lilypad built to scale should be much larger. It’s hard to know whether that was taken into consideration or not when designing this new overlay, but I’ll definitely be on the lookout for any further explanation for how and why the sizing doesn’t seem to match.
The other issue that Shull has with all of this is that Lilypad actually belongs to Bonnie, and was purchased by her parents to help her socialize with other children who prefer electronic devices over traditional toys. As such, she should be in Bonnie’s own backyard and not Andy’s, as they’re a generation apart and each have their own space.
This may seem like a small, nitpicky thing, and in the grander scheme of theme park expansion, it kind of is. But it might play into the larger issue of self-imposed theme park constraints, which Disney has been trying to undo with its changes to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and the planet of Batuu. Plus, if the whole point of the park is pure immersion, then why opt for any inaccuracies that could potentially pull park-goers out of the illusion.
This is just a tiny addition among a sea of D23 2026 announcements about Walt Disney World’s upcoming lands for Villains, Monsters Inc., Tropical Americas and Piston Peak. But it does pose interesting questions about how strictly theme parks should be following the rules they set up for themselves. General park goers are largely just excited to see their favorite characters and ride the rides in any given land, and Toy Story remains one of Disney’s most popular franchises, with no clear end in sight. We’ll know soon enough if the complaints get louder or if fans are just happy to embrace the changes.
Find Toy Story 5 streaming via Disney+ subscription starting on September 23.