Walt Disney – A Magical Life

[Yidsid2020]

Hummmmm.... I'm going to push back a little on that. I do not think it was out of line to expect a top-notch quality reproduction.

I don't think they implied come and see a marginally well done reproduction of Walt Disney. The attraction here is supposed to be a viable and excellently executed reproduction of Walt Disney. This isn't it.

I do think they have done better. Just based on the partner statue alone I was anticipating a better outcome. They have plenty of experience recreating real people because of the hollow presidents at Walt Disney World: George Bush ,Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, are all much better facsimiles of their inspiration, as is Jack Sparrow of Johnny Depp in pirates of the Caribbean , then this one is of Walt Disney.

You wrote, "...They have plenty of experience recreating real people because of the hollow presidents at Walt Disney World..." Have you actually taken a good look at the presidents you mentioned? The heads are 'cartoonish' at the best. The sculptors took familiar portions of these presidents (as well as a number of others on the set) and made them. They got the wardrobe right at least. Next time you visit the presentation, bring binoculars or a good lens on a camera and take a good look at the displayed presidents and you will see possibly why Walt Disney's head came out the way it did for this new display. With all of these scores of artists throughout the world, why couldn't Disney locate someone who would perform 'contract work' for any head they intend to animate? It can't be from the lack of money.

 

[Disone]

This is a great point:

With Monsters Unleashed, has Universal surpassed WDI in the AA game?

Kind of different. Monsters audio animatronics are impressive but they are fiction. Walt's audio animatronic is non-fiction.

 

[Disone]

You wrote, "...They have plenty of experience recreating real people because of the hollow presidents at Walt Disney World..." Have you actually taken a good look at the presidents you mentioned? The heads are 'cartoonish' at the best. The sculptors took familiar portions of these presidents (as well as a number of others on the set) and made them. They got the wardrobe right at least. Next time you visit the presentation, bring binoculars or a good lens on a camera and take a good look at the displayed presidents and you will see possibly why Walt Disney's head came out the way it did for this new display. With all of these scores of artists throughout the world, why couldn't Disney locate someone who would perform 'contract work' for any head they intend to animate? It can't be from the lack of money.

I'm not going to repost the Trump 2.0 picture that has been posted so many times already.

Having said that... I do not think the heads are "cartoon ish at best." You can say that. But I'm not going to agree to it.

I think the Trump 2.0 is very good, and either way it is certainly far better than the first attempt.


Binoculars? Nah. Like the Walt Disney audio animatronic I'm judging from pictures available on the internet and not from sitting in the theater though yes I have seen the presentation plenty of times.

At best I will give you that summer done better than others. But none of them are cartoonish.

 

[Yidsid2020]

Disney did Johnny Depp likeness pretty good with his character years back. Why all the sudden artistically is getting off?

It's easier to recreate a caricature of a character. The added advantage is having the added make-up, added wardrobe, and hair that encompasses most of Depp's face. All that's needed is to create the remainder. When a sculptor is going to create a full head, they require to have the innate talent to let their hands translate what their eyes see. That's a rare find I can assure you. There are those who have this ability (call it their 'super power'). I guess the powers that be at Disney didn't want Walt Disney or all of those presidents in the other display to look close to what they did in reality.

 

[tanc]

I've watched more videos of it and I guess I've warmed up to it. I really can't wait to see it in person though. Although it's not perfect it's still a genuinely impressive animatronic.

 

[flynnibus]

And yet instead of addressing the original hyperbolic claim you’re addressing me. So I don’t really understand this exchange.

Because the other goof is on ignore - so I don't see that drivel.

 

[Disney Irish]

Because the other goof is on ignore - so I don't see that drivel.

The point is still the same. Take it up with the original poster. If you have them on ignore well then that should be the end of it. As you know as you’ve been here long enough, a hyperbolic post usually gets one in response around here, same thing happens all day every day on every thread on this site by many posters.

 

[Andrew C]

The point is still the same. Take it up with the original poster. If you have them on ignore well then that should be the end of it. As you know as you’ve been here long enough, a hyperbolic post usually gets one in response around here, same thing happens all day every day on every thread on this site by many posters.

Below is my original post that you’re still going on about after a day. Goodness. As if it’s the most offensive thing ever.

It is mind blogging that some seem to think Disney doesn't have the technology in 2025 to do a better job with Walt's face, or at the very least, it somehow doesn't matter to implement this tech to do the best job possible? Settle, settle, settle...that is what we do.

 

[Disney Irish]

Below is my original post that you’re still going on about after a day. Goodness. As if it’s the most offensive thing ever.

And where is anyone here actually settling though? I think the general consensus in this thread is that this was a bad job by Disney in regards to the face. The rest of the AA seems impressive, but the face is a bad job. Should they have done better absolutely, but its here now, so that brings us back to my original question, what would you have any of us do about it? It seemed like you expected pitchforks and calls for boycotts in this thread, but when you didn't see that you call it settling. So yeah, your whole post is hyperbolic. In addition since we don't know the challenges here some are trying to explain the potential reasons why it could have happened. But that in no way its an excuse or trying to let Disney off the hook, just an explanation on the potential whys. But again you don't seem interested in that, instead trying to label that talk as again settling.

So I pose the question again to you, what would you have any of us do? The AA is here, we've seen it, and most of everyone here thinks the face is bad and acknowledge it. What now? What do you want any of us to do about it?

 

[Disney Analyst]

I've watched more videos of it and I guess I've warmed up to it. I really can't wait to see it in person though. Although it's not perfect it's still a genuinely impressive animatronic.

I feel the same

 

[Disney Irish]

I read that post "settling settling settling" .

It is not disingenuous nor is it the same thing as calling for a pitchforks and boycotts. His opinion that many are settling. Just as it is your opinion that they're not settling but instead they are trying to explain the difficulties of making this.

That's a fine line.

Your opinion is that no one is saying this is the best Disney can do. Okay.

Me? I am of the opinion That if they were going to do this they absolutely needed to nail it and they didn't.

I would suggest that perhaps they should have delayed the opening until they could have put out a Walt Disney AA that literally was the best they can do.

Except if you read the thread the face is almost universally acknowledged to be bad. So again I come back to who is "settling"? And then the follow-up question would be, what would you have any of us here do about it after its acknowledged? Its not like we can go in and update it ourselves (let alone know if anyone here really has the skills to be able to do any better). Nor can we make Disney do anything about it. So again I ask what are we to do other than to post endless about it, as we're doing now?

And yes maybe they shouldn't have opened it with that face, but we're here now, so we're beyond that point.

 

[Yidsid2020]

Disney has only themselves to blame for today’s fan backlash. No one held a gun to their heads and made them do this. Nobody forced them to hype up this AA as their best ever.

Again, I still think he could look fine from 50 feet away and the attraction could be very charming. Time will tell.

I realize this film is Walt in around 1965-66 but still you can see more "side by side" differences.

The idea that Disney couldn't locate an artist to create a claying of Walt's head doesn't make sense. They have the financial backing to pay someone a fair price to create one. Saying 'that's the best they can do' doesn't really cut it in the world of expertise today. They should have held off until they found the talent. The people behind the animation can work with anything (they have proven that in the past). They lowered the bar and allowed 'this' to be presented to the public. Such a shame.

 

[flynnibus]

Reality is.. no one forced them to open an attraction with AA Walt - They chose to do it, and upon reviewing their work, they made a conclusion this was acceptable to release.

You can be damn sure that if by sampling hundreds of people you got so many 'what the..' responses with his looks, you know people inside the company thought so as well. But the people in charge either didn't agree, or felt the compromises were acceptable.

None of us know if they were amazed, settled, or whatever -- All we know is they felt this was worthy enough to put out there as an attraction. And we as their customers are free to judge what they put out as product... after all, the product IS FOR US.

 

[Yidsid2020]

Good call. Why was it necessary to place the ash tray on the desk? Why couldn't place an award or statue of Mickey or?

Watch the movements of the left arm and hand. I guess they couldn't figure out what to do with it except place it back in the same position. Unfortunately, facing the display, he looks like 'a little tea pot."

 

[Andrew C]

And where is anyone here actually settling though? I think the general consensus in this thread is that this was a bad job by Disney in regards to the face. The rest of the AA seems impressive, but the face is a bad job. Should they have done better absolutely, but its here now, so that brings us back to my original question, what would you have any of us do about it? It seemed like you expected pitchforks and calls for boycotts in this thread, but when you didn't see that you call it settling. So yeah, your whole post is hyperbolic. In addition since we don't know the challenges here some are trying to explain the potential reasons why it could have happened. But that in no way its an excuse or trying to let Disney off the hook, just an explanation on the potential whys. But again you don't seem interested in that, instead trying to label that talk as again settling.

So I pose the question again to you, what would you have any of us do? The AA is here, we've seen it, and most of everyone here thinks the face is bad and acknowledge it. What now? What do you want any of us to do about it?

Yikes, as I said in my original post...some. Disagree or agree, I don't care at this point. Are we done?

Because I ultimately don’t really think it’s a poor quality AA. It’s not 1:1, but I think it looks pretty damn good (in the videos, at least). I’m struggling to think of another human animatronic that actually looks more human. It’s far above any of the HoP and American Adventure AAs.

Scott Gustin also saying online that the figure looks “drastically different” in person than it does on video.

Laughing Place, in their review, also mentioned that the figure is more convincing in person than on video.

With Walt, we're looking at what is meant to be just the guy. And honestly, it's as close to just the guy as an AA was ever going to get. People have been talking in here about the Biden AA and second Trump AA, but those aren't really any closer to their subject than this. They're suggestive, just as this one is suggestive.

As far as AA tech has come, it just is not currently possible to make a figure that really and truly looks like the real individual it's depicting. Especially when it's a contemporary figure that people have a pretty firm grasp on the appearance of.

Well, I'm not. Everyone here is criticizing Walt's face. Well, let's look at Lincoln. Same issue. Maybe it's time to settle down and realize its an AA, not a living person.

Animatronics have never looked like real people. I'm not sure what people were expecting.

I'm still not a big fan of this project at all, but drawing the line at how the robot looks is weird.

 

[Disney Irish]

Yikes, as I said in my original post...some. Disagree or agree, I don't care at this point. Are we done?

And I don’t call any of that settling, but to each their own. I stand by what I said, and still pose the question, what would you have any of us do beyond acknowledgement?

 

[mickEblu]

And I don’t call any of that settling, but to each their own. I stand by what I said, and still pose the question, what would you have any of us do beyond acknowledgement?

I think the fact that you don’t call any of that settling is the disconnect here. What does someone need to say to qualify as “settling” to you?

 

[Disney Irish]

I think the fact that you don’t call any of that settling is the disconnect here. What does someone need to say to qualify as “settling” to you?

How about someone answer my question first before I answer any more. What would those that think people here are settling have anyone do beyond acknowledgement?

 

[Baloo124]

Although it's not perfect it's still a genuinely impressive animatronic.

This.
The only valid and serious description of the new AA I've read so far, at least from what videos have leaked online.

 

[mickEblu]

How about someone answer my question first before I answer any more. What would those that think people here are settling have anyone do beyond acknowledgement?

Those people are not acknowledging though. They are attempting to explain why Walt’s face is good enough. Also could be described as “settling.”