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Walt Disney – A Magical Life
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
Incomudro
Well-Known Member
It looks like he got an eye job like Kenny Rogers did.
Andrew C
You know what's funny?
Ooooh, yes!
MoonRakerSCM
Well-Known Member
It's like they made a Lilian figure and then realized they had to make Walt. They then 'made it work'.
How did they miss this mark yet hit the Johnny Depp one so well so many years ago? Even the Johnny Depp figures that are the worst of the bunch are still Johnny Depp looking. I'm completely baffled at how they could blow this.
How did they miss this mark yet hit the Johnny Depp one so well so many years ago? Even the Johnny Depp figures that are the worst of the bunch are still Johnny Depp looking. I'm completely baffled at how they could blow this.
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
For a more recent example, see the new Trump face. Also, you never told me, how did the Easter side turn out? I was eating a sweet potato the other day and thought of your post. haha
Captain Culpepper Cline
Active Member
Today’s performance will have Norm from Cheers playing Walt Disney. Magical!
britain
Well-Known Member
You can achieve full range of expressions, but you may lose a person's specific look (search up that wacky Lincoln head that Garner Holt made a few years back). You can nail a person's look, but only with a limited set of expressions.
Seems like they put all their eggs in the "Twinkle-in-the-Eye-Walt" basket, but that meant his face is almost entirely looking like that the whole time, rather than reverting to 'blank-and-slightly-dour-Walt' which is what he really would do in between punctuated moments of twinkle.
Plus there's the artistic direction question: Do we make this look perfect for the front row audience or back row audience? Or the YouTube audience? I have a feeling they went with the back row audience. Which may account for why his head looks large. I felt Humphry Bogart in the Great Movie Ride had the same problem (solution?).
Ultimately, this is an illusion, not a resurrection. And illusions rely on creative misdirection - the whole show - to give an impression, not to make something that will survive close video scrutiny. Very tough to do this right. I don't envy them. They probably pulled off a lot of technical miracles here, and because it's falling kind of short, a world of critics comes down on them.
But that voice...? That should have an easy win.
Seems like they put all their eggs in the "Twinkle-in-the-Eye-Walt" basket, but that meant his face is almost entirely looking like that the whole time, rather than reverting to 'blank-and-slightly-dour-Walt' which is what he really would do in between punctuated moments of twinkle.
Plus there's the artistic direction question: Do we make this look perfect for the front row audience or back row audience? Or the YouTube audience? I have a feeling they went with the back row audience. Which may account for why his head looks large. I felt Humphry Bogart in the Great Movie Ride had the same problem (solution?).
Ultimately, this is an illusion, not a resurrection. And illusions rely on creative misdirection - the whole show - to give an impression, not to make something that will survive close video scrutiny. Very tough to do this right. I don't envy them. They probably pulled off a lot of technical miracles here, and because it's falling kind of short, a world of critics comes down on them.
But that voice...? That should have an easy win.
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Animaniac93-98
Well-Known Member
If the figure looks best in theatrical lighting or from a distance, than it was a mistake to release a brightly lit close up of his face.
Disney's marketing is often not the best at selling its own product.
Disney's marketing is often not the best at selling its own product.
flynnibus
Premium Member
This version of lincoln was 15 years ago and has plenty of expression
And he's been updated again since
The Opera House theater is a pretty small theater. It only has like.. 12 rows of seating or something.
Disney Irish
Premium Member
As an old skool WWF fan, I appreciate a good Paul Bearer/Undertaker reference.
Disstevefan1
Well-Known Member
OK, after seeing it a few times, knowing its not possible to get Walt's face perfect, the movements, especially the leaning on the desk to standing and back looks really good! The exhibits look really interesting, it looks like a good attraction.
I wonder if WDW will ever get a Walt animatronic?
I wonder if WDW will ever get a Walt animatronic?
britain
Well-Known Member
Yes, exactly my point. If you want to do a wide range of expression (anger, fear, coy, embarrassment, mischeieousness, etc.) you can do it, but you won't be able to make it look like Walt's version of every single one of those emotions. You're more likely to succeed at nailing Walt at one emotion ('Twinkley Eyed Walt') but that will be a burden on all the other moments that aren't supposed to be that emotion. Since we don't know what suprised-lincoln, angry-lincoln, happy-lincoln looked like, we don't recoil at that figure's range.
Jack Sparrow works because Johnny Depp was deliberately channeling stone-faced Buster Keaton during a lot of the bits in the film. "Look at gun, look at sword, look at key..." He let the comedy come from the situation, not from emoting. And that same stone-faced-comedy works well in the ride with the Capt Jack figures (I'll point out that the Jack-in-a-barrel figure is more impressive than the final singing Jack for this very reason).
ChrisFL
Premium Member
mickEblu
Well-Known Member
As an old skool WWF fan, I appreciate a good Paul Bearer/Undertaker reference.
lol thanks. I try to make a reference where I can. Still waiting for the right time to post a Bushwhackers reference.
flynnibus
Premium Member
I don't follow your rational. They aren't trying to nail a wide range of emotions.. they have a very narrow set given the script.
And I don't think people are hating on the articulation.. they are hating on them missing on the visual character model.
The fat head, the proportion to the body, the eyebrows, the pronounced chest, etc, etc etc.
And even if they did end up in a trap like you said... when you step back and assess.. you should say "well, that works, but the total doesn't.. so lets rethink that"
Jack has the benefit that you only see a very small portion of his human shape due to all the costuming.. the head piece, the braids, etc. His skull is largely obfuscated and he's in dark show scenes.
Walt is like the Lincoln figure before it... in close proximity on an isolated, well lit stage.
WDI clearly is proud over their human movement... they just forgot the most important thing was people knew more about his recognizable face than they cared about his lean!
flynnibus
Premium Member
and wear noise cancelling headphones too it seems
Tha Realest
Well-Known Member
Pretty cool that as a throwback they used mid-60’s era AA technology.
Who are we kidding - those COP/Pirates/HM AAs look better than this.
Who are we kidding - those COP/Pirates/HM AAs look better than this.