PEOPLE
Hunt for Stolen Disney World Animatronic Revealed Vast Black Market of Items Snatched from the Parks (Exclusive)
The documentary 'Stolen Kingdom' explores over 30 years of misdeeds at Disney World and how they led to the alleged theft of nearly half a million dollars in props
By Colson Thayer Published on May 17, 2026 08:05AM EDT
For nearly 20 years, the Buzzy animatronic in EPCOT's Cranium Command attraction delighted families as he navigated the world through the eyes of Bobby, a 12-year-old boy.
Beginning in 1989, guests were welcomed into a theater-style control room to witness Buzzy's antics as he controlled the boy's brain. However, the beloved attraction shut its doors on Jan. 1, 2007, when the park officially closed its Wonders of Life pavilion.
The attraction sat abandoned and Buzzy was left at the center of an empty theater for years, until one day, he vanished.
Following the land's closure, Wonders of Life became an alluring target for intrepid — and often unlawful — urban explorers, including those looking to make a quick buck. In August 2018, Buzzy made headlines after his headphones, hat and bomber jacket were stolen. Only a few months later, the entire animatronic went missing.
Documentary filmmaker Joshua Bailey still remembers the day it was reported that Buzzy was gone. As a central Florida native, he had long had a fascination with the parks and their attractions. He also developed an interest in urban exploration via YouTube. When Buzzy disappeared, he was fully ingratiated with both communities.
After years of developing sources within the community of Disney urban explorers, in 2021, Bailey began filming a documentary exploring an unseen side of the “Most Magical Place on Earth.” The director's new film, Stolen Kingdom, explores over 30 years of misdeeds at the Walt Disney World Resort and how, he claims, they led to the theft of almost half a million dollars' worth of props.
“The black market aspect was something that we weren't aware of before we shot the film, and was part of the decision in making it,” Bailey tells PEOPLE. “We learned more about it while shooting, but not a lot. It's a tough nut to crack. We just had no knowledge of there being a Disney prop black market."
That all changed when he met Patrick Spikes, a former Disney World employee and the film's primary antagonist.
Spikes opened Bailey's eyes to just how deep the underground community goes. In fact, while filming, Spikes was involved in multiple criminal investigations related to thousands of dollars of missing memorabilia.
“We did worry about Patrick and his [alleged] crimes and Buzzy-related information, because that is still an open case,” Bailey says of the two featured interviews with Spikes, filmed about a year apart. “Patrick starts admitting all these things that maybe aren't in the police report, maybe he's never talked about before… We were like, ‘Wow, Patrick. If you wish to admit things, go ahead, but if they asked us for this footage, I don't think we can say no.'”
He adds: “Patrick cares about Disney, but at the same time, he says he did do some things that were considered desecration to big Disney fans. But we'll never know how Patrick Spike's brain works.”
The mystery of Buzzy's disappearance remains one of the most infamous urban legends in Disney parks history, but for Bailey, the story is about more than just a missing robot. Stolen Kingdom aims to pull back the curtain on a subculture where nostalgia and greed collide.
After premiering at the Slamdance Film Festival last year, Stolen Kingdom is going on tour beginning May 21. Bailey is taking the film across the country for screenings at select cinemas until June 14. Stolen Kingdom will be released via TVOD on June 16.
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