Mermaid Duplicate Animatronics Photo

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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Ran across a photo from some backstage area which shows the duplicated animatronic turtles which appear several times in DCA's Mermaid attraction, in the "Under the Sea" scene and the "Finale" which recycled these animatronics. I'm guessing these are all for the same ride (DCA's) though perhaps they made duplicate scenes for MK an DCA at the same time?

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http://www.mouseplanet.com/9291/Walt_Disney_World_Resort_Update


Identical animatronic scenes to go into the same ride, for example:

http://www./wp-content/uploads/2011/06/5792045014_ded6fc4faa1.jpg

These characters pop up again and again

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I believe that the turtle's "rock" has been placed in several different areas of the ride. Obviously, the turtles are the same, kind of a cheap way to save money, IMHO.

Hope MK gets a more creative "finale" scene.
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Magenta Panther said:
So do I. That static turtle statue isn't even marginally appealing or amusing IMO, and it's worse because it's a figure in motion that isn't moving. :p
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The turtles have a twisty motion, this is what is disconcerting/noticeable for some guests because you see the same turtles doing the exactly same dance in different scenes, and I think there are duplicate turtles in the "Uner the Sea" scene.
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
JustInTime said:
I think it's smart to make duplicates. I mean, Splash Mountain does it.
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Splash Mountain has more than one Br'er rabbit, Br'er Fox, Br'er bear, but they look different in different scenes, and are integral to telling the story.

Mermaid also has different "Ariel's" and a single Ursula (if you don't count the paper cut-out), and two Prince Erics, which are posed differently for the different scenes, so everything is OK with the main characters, (ignoring the cut-out Ursula and the three computer screen Ariel's)

BUT, Mermaid's final scene used animatronic fish, turtles, newts, and other critters doing the exact same dance as from the Under the Sea scene, and it doesn't look good with the wedding music, IMHO. It is obviously a way to save money by building a whole lot of dancing lobsters, turtles, newts and to use the *exact* same programing/movements. Of course, with the twisty turtles, all they do it twist so there is no programing really.

PLUS, the some of the similar characters in Splash look slightly different from each other, and are "programmed" differently for different scenes in the ride, as far as I remember. I never rode Splash Mountain that realized that some of the critters were duplicates, though obviously within a scene you can have several different frogs, on Mermaid it is pretty obvious.

Splash has a lot more details in the scenes, plus there are a whole plethora of characters, Mermaid seems to just recycle the same ones again and again.
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
My other pet peeve with Mermaid is that there is a big metal bar connecting the "twirling" fish which were put in to imply that they twirled Ariel's hair into a Dole Whip, . . . a hairstyle which has been replaced.
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
unkadug said:
Fish, turtles, newts all look alike anyway and they can only physically do one happy dance, why shouldn't they be duplicates?
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There was nothing stopping them from building turtles that could something else besides Chubby Checker's twist! The reason why they were simply duplicated was because some of the last 2-3 scenes in Mermaid in DCA apparently had nothing planned, in that the finale was never "revealed" in the Blue Sky Cellar, so they made it a wedding party, recycling plastic fish and Chubby Checker turtles from elsewhere in the ride. Nothing wrong with having a couple of turtles dancing the same way, but several in two different scenes?

And its not just the turtles, but the lobsters, newts . . . and even re-painted plastic fish.

I assume they didn't create new animals/scenes because they ran out of money to complete some scenes, such as the wedding scene, which does have an Ariel in wedding gown/Prince Eric and a King Triton with super bush eyebrows, but then they added stuff from a previous scene making it confusing, including plastic fish that do nothing but gawk! The "destruction of Ursula/Ariel gets her voice back" are nothing but thirty feet of a paper cut-out Ursula and a computer screen showing Ariel's shadow getting her voice back.

I'm say that the ride was built very differently from other rides built by WDI where they started out with the scenes they wanted, and then figured out how to build them . . . with the second half of DCA's Mermaid, some of the stuff was obviously done pretty quickly, and using computer screens and exact copies from stuff in other scenes.

It would have been better, IMHO, if they had added scenes which each one was designed differently, like probably just about every other Disney attraction. It would be like riding Pirates and having those guys in the jail scene pop up in other scenes, like maybe leaning through a fence or something else, but doing the exact same thing with the exact same dog.
 
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The Small World characters below are dressed differently, and don't pop up wearing the same clothes in another part of the ride. Of course, many of the dolls have the same Mary Blair inspired faces, but they are dressed differently and hence acting out different roles in different parts of the ride. The turtles are 100% identical, and do the same thing in two different scenes . . . would it have been that hard to make a whole ton of unique sea creatures? Or maybe figure out how to make the turtles do something else besides Chubby Checker's twist?

Cmdr_Crimson said:
OMG!! REALLY! It's a Small World uses the same Mold on every kid! But in different Shades!!!
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Pixiedustmaker

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
unkadug said:
Because of guests complaints!
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Yes, of course. I was just pointing out that the fish connected to the bars don't serve the same purpose as before, and that the bar looks very bad as it is plainly visible.

I wish they had connected the plastic fish to nearly transparent wires and had them glide around the room. Harder to do that just putting up a gigantic fish mobile.
 
ChristianG

ChristianG

Well-Known Member
This is like the 1,000th thread you have made about this. We get it. I agree with you, I don't like the fact that they recycle the animatronics, it looks cheap. But come on, there's really nothing we can do about it. Making duplicate threads just becomes annoying.
 

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