Mr. Lincoln, Version 3.0, Debuts

Poor Honest Abe. He freed the slaves and kept the nation together despite the Civil War, earning him a piece of the rock at Mt. Rushmore and an unshakable place in history.

But at Disneyland, Abraham Lincoln once almost lost his job to Kermit the Frog.

“Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln,” which Walt Disney unveiled in 1965 to crowds who were blown away by a gesturing, talking Abe-like robot, was a beloved Disneyland icon. But for subsequent generations raised on ever more sophisticated special effects, the attraction became a sort of snooze-fest.

“It was very impressive back then; it was like you were in a room with Mr. Lincoln,” said David Koenig, an Aliso Viejo writer who has penned three unauthorized books on the Disney empire. “Today you could make him fly, but it wouldn’t matter. It’s lost the wow factor, and you can’t get that back.”

Disneyland, however, is giving it a try.

On Tuesday, the theme park introduced a new and improved Abraham Lincoln, giving the 16th president a make-over that today’s politicians could only dream of.

“We updated him to today’s standards,” said Steven Spiegel, a senior show writer at Disneyland who worked for a year on the project. “He has a new skin. . . . More natural looking.”

Lincoln also got a change of clothes, a new hairdo and a new story line enhanced by historic photos and 3-D audio technology.

Gone is the tale of Lincoln’s rise from a log cabin to the White House. In its place is the story of a fictional Union soldier who jokes with famed photographer Mathew Brady, meets Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, goes to war, is wounded and has a leg amputated.

All in less than 12 minutes.

“I’m a huge history buff, and my original idea was to do a three-hour show,” Spiegel joked. “They kind of narrowed me down a bit.”

The show, of course, still ends with the Lincoln robot, who mouths the Gettysburg Address while gesturing through what appears to be a severe attack of arthritis.

Walt Disney called this technology audio-animatronics, and when Lincoln first took the stage at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, it was amazing stuff.

“I was your typical cynical teenager, and I remember when the statue stood up it was one of the most amazing things,” said Jamie O’Boyle, a Philadelphia-based cultural analyst who has studied Disneyland. “They captured me at that instant.”

Within a few years, however, Lincoln’s appeal began to wane, Koenig said. In the early 1970s, his act was replaced with an exhibit honoring Walt Disney. The move upset those who believe that Disney’s vision shouldn’t be tinkered with. Lincoln eventually came back, although he got second billing. Today, the attraction is still called “The Walt Disney Story Featuring Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln.”

The robot was refurbished in 1984, but it did little to jump-start Lincoln’s draw at the gate. In 1990, Disneyland considered replacing him with the Muppets. Fans of Mr. Lincoln got their stovepipe hats in a twist, and the idea was scrapped.

Disneyland, O’Boyle said, is “a symbolic landscape for Americans. . . . It’s a tricky place to modify. You’re playing with people’s memories, playing with people’s cultural touchstones.”

On Tuesday, Disneyland’s 46th birthday, the spiffed-up Lincoln took the stage after a six-month hiatus. Park officials wouldn’t say how much the full treatment cost. But one score and 17 years after his New York debut, the Great Emancipator received uniformly good reviews.

“I love Lincoln,” said Pam Ray, a 46-year-old attorney who visits the park three times a week and was wearing Mickey Mouse antennae and Disneyland earrings. “It’s a more personal Lincoln, more down-to-earth. I want to go up and hug him at the end.”

A large crowd of invited guests lined up for the first showing at 8 a.m. An hour later, the numbers already had thinned.

Steve Rogers, on vacation from Wyoming, brought his 13-year-old son and 8-year-old daughter to see Lincoln rise, speak, move stiffly about and sit down.

“I have a fascination with Lincoln. I like to renew it whenever I come here,” Rogers said. On the other hand, he added, “the 8-year-old wasn’t that interested.”

As hundreds of visitors flowed past the Opera House that seats about 500 on their way to Disneyland’s core, Rogers waited quietly with two dozen others for Lincoln’s next show.

“It seems like it’s never busy in here,” Rogers said. “It’s a relaxing escape from the long lines.”