It looks like Disney may need to adjust their “Hey Disney” Alexa devices in their resort rooms, because some very non-magical “facts” are being spewed that The Walt Disney Company would likely not be ok with.
“Hey Disney!” is a revolutionary voice-activated assistant that has transformed the guest experience at Walt Disney World Resort. This innovative device, powered by Amazon Alexa, brings the magic of Disney directly into your hotel room.
Available in all 28,000+ hotel rooms, “Hey Disney!” offers a wide range of features and capabilities. Guests can use their voice to order amenities, interact with cast members, get answers to common questions, plan park days, and enjoy engaging character interactions.
From Mickey Mouse to Olaf, “Hey Disney!” features a diverse cast of beloved Disney characters. Listen to a captivating Cars story, laugh along with Goofy’s jokes, relax with Star Wars soundscapes, or embark on a Muppets adventure.
Initially exclusive to Disney Resorts, the new “Hey Disney” service is now available on most Amazon Echo devices. It’s designed to replace many of the typical Alexa functions with a magical Disney twist. Instead of simply asking Alexa for the weather, imagine Tiana from The Princess and the Frog comparing Maryland’s humidity to what it’s like at her restaurant.
Or, instead of setting a timer with Alexa, you could have C-3PO inform you that dinner will be ready to come out of the oven in exactly 34 minutes.
With “Hey Disney!” by your side, you can experience the magic of Disney in a whole new way.
The overall experience is led by the “Disney Magical Companion,” which is essentially a Disney-themed version of Alexa. Disney developed this custom voice to guide users through the ‘Hey, Disney!’ experience.
At the resorts, the ‘Hey, Disney!’ service is offered through Alexa for Hospitality, an enterprise service designed to simplify tasks for hotel guests. This includes playing music, getting weather updates, contacting the front desk, ordering room service, controlling in-room temperature and lighting, and checking out.
Amazon markets Alexa for Hospitality to the industry as a way to “create voice-immersive experiences that help your property increase revenues, reduce costs, and improve guest satisfaction.” This service is already in use by several hotel chains, with Las Vegas being a particularly notable adopter of such hospitality innovations.
Jonas J. Campbell shared a video where the “Hey Disney” Amazon device, in a Disney resort room, noted that Walt Disney was antisemitic. In the video, we can see that the Amazon device diverted to Alexa, and it was not a programmed answer by Disney. That being said, it is clear that Disney did not block some of these highly controversial “facts” from being spoken from the device to guests if asked.
Looks like the Disney themed Alexa units in all the Disney Parks hotel rooms are telling people Walt Disney was antisemitic.
Disney, what are you doing?
Looks like the Disney themed Alexa units in all the Disney Parks hotel rooms are telling people Walt Disney was antisemitic.
Disney, what are you doing?pic.twitter.com/ejg03gAjLM
— Jonas J. Campbell (@JonasJCampbell) August 26, 2024
There have been allegations that Walt was anti-Semitic, according to Vulture:
” Well, there’s the famous Three Little Pigs scene, in which the wolf was portrayed as a Jewish peddler. (The scene was later reanimated.) And there is the fact that in 1938, a month after Kristallnacht, Disney personally welcomed Nazi director Leni Riefenstahl to his studios. In Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination (the most thorough biography of the mogul), Neal Gabler explores the rumors but argues that Disney practiced tolerance in his home life. “There is some dispute whether the same spirit of tolerance extended to the studio, but of the Jews who worked there, it was hard to find any who thought Walt was an anti-Semite.””
Gabler suggests that the accusations were rooted more in Disney’s connection with the strongly anti-Semitic Motion Picture Alliance, an organization he founded following a contentious labor dispute in 1941, rather than his personal actions. Although Disney may not have been personally anti-Semitic, Gabler concedes that he “willingly, even enthusiastically, embraced [anti-Semites] and aligned himself with them.”
The Walt Disney Family Museum, however, has rebuked these claims in a common misconceptions about Walt Disney section on their website, “Walt was also a frequent contributor to Jewish charities, including the Yeshiva College and the Jewish Home for the Aged. Walt Disney was made Man of the Year by the Beverly Hills Lodge of B’nai B’rith—the oldest continually-operating Jewish service organization, which fights anti-Semitism all over the world—and was awarded a recognition from Hadassah, a Jewish women’s organization that empowers youth in Israel and America.”
Disney Legend and animator Floyd Norman has been quoted saying: “It’s like the old ruse that Walt didn’t hire Jews, which was also ridiculous. There were plenty of Jews at Disney. Personally, I never felt any prejudice from Walt.”
While the Alexa claim does not make this “fact” true, it is unfortunate that that is the side of the internet from which the device tends to pull.
Disney has gone above and beyond in the past few years to ensure inclusivity and diversity in their theme parks and movies. One of the most prominent examples of this comes from Splash Mountain, a ride that was based on a racist film, Song of the South, being rethemed to Princess and the Frog and named Tiana’s Bayou Adventure.
With a diversity-forward agenda in mind, I would personally not be too shocked to see Disney somehow block the answer or change the answer to the anti-Semitic question for all “Hey Disney” devices.
These devices have also been accused as an invasion of privacy as it can listen in to guest conversations, read more on that here.
Do you think Disney will do something to address this issue?
