Walt Disney Co. said it plans to close its World of Disney store on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue when the lease expires in 2010 and replace it with a smaller store in the area.

World of Disney stores are operated by the company’s parks and resorts division and are bigger than the chain stores operated by the consumer products division. The closure leaves World of Disney stores operating only at the Anaheim and Orlando theme parks, the Burbank company said.

In a separate release, Disney announced an initiative to upgrade the visitor experience at its theme parks and improve the animation technology for its motion pictures.

It will establish collaborative labs at Pittsburgh-based Carnegie Mellon University and the Zurich-based Federal Institute of Technology for research into computer animation, computational cinematography, autonomous interactive characters and robotics.

Among the projects will be making the robotic and virtual theme park characters at Disneyland and Disney World more interactive with park guests, said Jessica Hodgins, CMU robotics professor and lab director, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Business Times. Disney did not disclose how much it will spend on the five-year project.

Disney shares were down 53 cents, or 2 percent, to $32.27 in mid-morning trading on Tuesday.