Disney’s Magical Companion debuts at CES with some assist from Amazon

Alexa’s bought some firm. I met Disney’s new voice assistant at CES this week, and it’s fairly cute. Called “Disney’s Magical Companion,” the disembodied voice is born from fairy mud and lives inside Amazon’s Echo sensible audio system and shows. Its function is to name up varied characters — together with Disney, Pixar, and Star Wars faves — that can assist you out with frequent voice assistant chores (timers, alarms, climate), in addition to entertain with tales, video games, and different sprinkles of Disney magic.

You conjure the assistant with the phrase “Hey Disney!” — right here’s a fast demo I did at CES this week:

One neat factor concerning the integration is you by no means know which character will reply your question — it might be Dory from Finding Nemo or Olaf from Frozen one second, then Mater from Cars or Animal from The Muppets the subsequent.

Currently, “Hey Disney!” is in restricted lodge rooms at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort as a part of a phased rollout throughout Disney’s resorts, the place it additionally helps as a kind of digital concierge. But the Magical Companion can also be coming to your property in 2023, via the Alexa Skills retailer. No pricing has been introduced, however it is going to be included free with an Amazon Kids Plus subscription.