From this week, Walt Disney returns to his original Magic Kingdom with a little help from Magic-Makers at Imagineering.
Through the Audio Animatronics technology, Walt Disney introduced when he opened Disneyland 70 years ago, the development of the show robots has gone from static positioning with some movements that first looked at the songbirds in the enchanted Tiki space, to a roaming animatronic by Uncle Walt. Stationed in the Main Street Opera House is (M) Animatronic Crown Jewel in Walt Disney – a magical life Show, where he, along with the help of Disney CEO Bob Iger, as the program’s narrator gets sitting in front and center to share his story with his words.
The experience begins with IG’s introduction about the mythical man who disappeared behind the ubiquitous name in front of so many classic films from childhood and theme park memories. We get a little about his upbringing with his words over the film and insight into how he fed his creativity to animate himself out of the farm and went to Hollywood using a Mickey Mouse. When it comes to how his daughters influenced him to create a space where families could have fun in the form of Disneyland and how it jumped into an even bigger dream, the curtain rises and you are in a recreation of Walt’s Office. There he sits on his desk and continues to regale the quite captured audience with several anecdotes about what he is doing for the business, or at least what he did when he reached Uncle Walt status, the friendly face on the television introduced The wonderful world of DisneyOr the man who would walk around the park – and it’s completely surreal. Even as someone who was wondering what it would be like to run into Walt in the park, I can certainly describe it as creepy, yet gripping at the same time.
There is no avoidance of Westworld Comparisons, but the intention is not to make him an attraction that is aware of the world that the real Walt Disney built. It is still just an experiment to call the man even in his iconic gray suit and surrounded by the busy work on his desk. Imagineers on hand talked about inspiration to bring Walt back to Disneyland’s 70 -year anniversary.
Tom Fitzgerald, Imagineer and Senior Creative on the project to bring Walt back to his home park, shared: “We are happy to finally were long ago and many people did not have that connection with him, and [they] Don’t understand that Walt Disney was a person as well as Walt Disney, who of course was the company, ”he said.
“So we really wanted to kind of bring the connection of what we felt that we were growing up with Walt to an audience today. And not just that, but that his story is so relevant. I believe when you see the movie before you see the figure actually, the life lessons that he learned are really amazing and important. Follow your dream, never give up, turn down to success, and give the world your very best. Today as in Val’s time. “
Disney was one of the last modern influential global numbers to make something of itself from the idea that you could pull yourself up by bootstraps before it became anything but an adventure these days in most places. And it was one that I myself believed in from his story. Yes, the real Walt Disney was a complicated man, progressive for his time, but still not free of criticism that has been interrogated over the years since his departure in 1966 when Disney Empire grew. Here we meet him as an idealized figure in the robot form of Imagineering’s latest breakthrough. He even quotes his well -expelled confirmation for “keeping moving on”, a mantra that made me through school and made me feel fulfilled as milestones overcame the hard times as a writer more and more. Seeing him deliver that line left me Verklemempt; It’s something I needed to hear today. And yet, I found myself a little spooked by the experience of being in the presence of a robot that was programmed to get up and walk around when he said these words, complete with a twinkle in his eye.
Fitzgerald reminded the invited audience that a human -like animatronic is not necessarily something incredibly new to image. “We have done every president and we have made film stars,” he said, referring to the stationary equality of Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones as well as sitting presidents.
“But when you say,” I want to make an animatronic figure of Walt Disney, “which brings a huge responsibility. Probably as much as Walt felt to bring Abraham Lincoln to life – back to New York World’s Fair in 1964. And then it became a kind of what we call, moonshot for our team, which is to say, how can we promote art and technology By walt of we with the progress we have made in recent years, the technology had moved on to the point where we could make it faithful.
He shared that the glimpse of the eye was intentional. “We have that [Imagineering] Groups that say, ‘Let me find out.’ And they figured out that the reason we get the little one [twinkle in] Our eye is because [of] What is called a corneal bone. And then physically our [animatronic] The numbers hadn’t had it before. And then they repeated a corneal floor, so when you look at him you get it twinkle in the eye, which is great. “In addition, there is more credible animation behind the muscle structure of the face movement, drawn from archive recordings of Walt combed through to best capture the subject.
It’s actually important, and do we dare say, fun? But of course we have to put our Ian Malcolm glasses on and consider that even though we knew this was something Disney could do, they should have?
“I think because of these moon shots and all the work that was done, we really think it is the most fluid performance of an audio Animatronics figure we have ever done. It’s really interesting, because in many cases you represent figures that people have never seen before. We don’t know how the presidents actually moved, we know how pirates actually move,” Exurections, Walt, Walt, Walt, Waltering.
“But this is a person with whom we are all very familiar with. If you get it wrong, it’s like, ‘No, that’s not so, Walt would do it. He would move his hand like this; he had already put it back here.’ And then it is really important that you spend so much time focusing on Walt’s way and his look to make sure you get it as accurately as possible because we all love Walt Disney and we want to make sure this is a tribute to Walt great.
Seeing a man’s dream becoming the first step in an eerie, lifelike animatronic determined is something. It speaks to the place where his mind may have started things with a mouse, but it has led to an impossible place where a mouse of another species may be what activates him.
Walt Disney – a magical life Opens July 17 at Disneyland.
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