Walt Disney Imagineering has always been at the forefront of technology in the theme park world. The company’s audio-animatronics are always pushing the boundaries of what’s possible, and in just the last couple of years, we have seen incredible leaps forward in the tech. They even made Walt Disney part of the only Disney Park he ever walked inside. Fans love some of the newest animated characters, and so, it turns out, do birds.
A video has recently gone viral on X that shows Rapunzel’s Tower, a relatively new addition to Tokyo DisneySea as part of the Fantasy Springs expansion. We see Rapunzel in her tower, signing to the guests, all while a murder of crows absolutely goes to town on her hair.
シーのラプンツェル、カラスに食われててやばい pic.twitter.com/WYSJLoQdn8April 1, 2026
I’m pretty sure Rapunzel is about to be turned into a nest. To be fair, her long hair will probably make excellent material.
Although I have to say, it’s the placid look on Rapunzel’s face while these crows attempt to devour her that makes the scene go from something mildly funny to something honestly more than a little terrifying. I know Disney Princesses tend to get along with animals, but not like this. Rapunzel is just smiling and singing like it’s no big deal. I can imagine kids seeing this and being scared by it.
It’s just a bad week to be a mechanical creation in a Disney theme park. Rapunzel’s starring role in Disney’s remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds comes only a couple of days after another viral video that shows Imagineering’s new Olaf robot completely collapsing in front of guests in his new home at Disney Adventure Park at Disneyland Paris.
According to some other posts, the Rapunzel animatronic has since been removed from the window. One assumes it will stay down until they can find a way to protect it from the birds. I am simultaneously fascinated that something like this took this long to happen, and very curious about what could be done to prevent it. Now that crows know they can go to town on Rapunzel, one imagines it will be an ongoing problem. But anything that might block the birds would probably also make the animatronic viewing less magical for guests.
Things going slightly wrong with audioanimatronics, and now actual robots, are things that are never going to be completely avoidable. Anything with moving parts will break now and then, and anything exposed to nature is going to sometimes have trouble with the natural world. Having an animatronic attacked by birds may not seem the same as getting a fireworks show rained out, but sometimes nature has other plans.
I certainly have the incredible Tokyo Disney Resort on my theme park bucket list, and I hope that there’s some simple way to keep the birds away from Rapunzel and still let her sing for the guests. Fantasy Springs is generally seen as one of the best new additions to any Disney theme park, and it would be a shame if it lost this little piece of magic.
