7DMT Animatronics

[doctornick]

No the cottage scene is in the second 20 - 30 second outdoor section after the indoor 60 second show scene. It is a very brief slow-down at the cottage.

Ok. If true, then that tends to support the idea that the cottage scene will not be anything too impressive. You if the Snow White AA was truly "better than Ursula", you would expect WDI to make sure that you spend some substantial time enjoying it.

 

[kap91]

They look very good.
Much better than the figures that were originally designed.

This is actually really interesting. How many times in Disney or theme park history is there an instance of something being redone and made better than the original design? Especially this late into the process. Usually it's the exact opposite - cool ideas get cut/shortened/etc.

 

[sshindel]

Ok. If true, then that tends to support the idea that the cottage scene will not be anything too impressive. You if the Snow White AA was truly "better than Ursula", you would expect WDI to make sure that you spend some substantial time enjoying it.

How long do we really spend in front of Ursula though? 5-10 seconds?
I'm not saying that because I really think that Snow White will be spectacular or anything, but some of their more complicated AA figures we really don't get a lot of time with by design.

RIP Yeti!

 

[wdwmagic]

Ok. If true, then that tends to support the idea that the cottage scene will not be anything too impressive. You if the Snow White AA was truly "better than Ursula", you would expect WDI to make sure that you spend some substantial time enjoying it.

That doesn't always seem to be the case. Take the Yeti on Everest and the final Captain Jack on pirates - both scenes are passed by very quickly.

 

[The Duck]

I think they look very good. The glow is a little strange but reminds me of the AAs in Radiator Springs Racers.

The "Glow" effect makes me think of a figure that was lit by a black light. Sort of a new take on an old school effect.
Overall. I'm very impressed so far.

 

[NormC]

Looks great! Can't wait to ride. Hopefully in 2015 sometime. I think our next trip will be California. Kids have never been there so it will be fun and it has been years since wife and I have been so a lot has changed out there.

 

[doctornick]

How long do we really spend in front of Ursula though? 5-10 seconds?
I'm not saying that because I really think that Snow White will be spectacular or anything, but some of their more complicated AA figures we really don't get a lot of time with by design.

RIP Yeti!

That doesn't always seem to be the case. Take the Yeti on Everest and the final Captain Jack on pirates - both scenes are passed by very quickly.

Ok, fair enough. Though in terms of the final Jack, I feel like I get a lot of time in front of him since the boats always seem to back up at unload nowadays.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I'll also mention regarding the "glow" effect of the figures- This may actually be a result of trying to record projection effects with a camera, it's plausible that it's not as noticeable when seen in person. The lighting of a projected element can appear odd (often either too light or too dark) and will often have a flickering effect when recorded. It's very difficult to film a projection and it almost never comes out as it should. The effects of the faces look good on camera, but they'll probably look at least a little better in person. At least that's my experience from seeing projected elements recorded on video. Even with the best cameras it never comes out as well as it does in person.

I'm still worried about what will happen when these figures' faces inevitably break. It's not exactly the imagineer's fault, but WDW management is notoriously bad. Especially when it comes to elements with video screens. I've been pretty lucky in regards to not seeing Haunted Mansion's faces always working properly, but all of the other New Fantasyland projections have been very temperamental since they opened (along with the poor quality of projections all across the rest of the parks such as Soarin, the Davy Jones/Blackbeard mist screen, the poor quality of at least two of the 3D movies etc)...

 

[Lee]

Yeah, although I feel a lot of people are going to end up disappointed that they queue 2 hours for a 100 to 120 second ride, when I think some are expecting something along the scale of Splash Mountain.

That.

 

[raymusiccity]

It's one of those things you know you can't do but wish you could. However, I do expect that someone will do it some day. Hope not, but I'm sure it's happened on other rides.

I've only seen anecdotal references to incidents, but, I understand it warrants immediate ejection from the park and a lifetime ban from ever returning. (not sure about any criminal charges for trespass). :-(

 

[Mawg]

No 5 trains will be the max, that is determined by the number of brake zones and cannot really be changed.

So ride length is 2 minutes. I'm assuming this does not include load and unload. How often do you think a train will leave the loading zone? Every 90 seconds sound fair? That would mean 40 trains would leave loading every hour with 20 people and a max hr capacity of 800. Terrible! Are there two loading stations? Is there a separate load and unload? Maybe they can get it down to a train leaves every 60 seconds, 60 trains leave an hr with 20 people, 1200 hr capacity is still not great. To get to a max capacity of 1500 people an hour, a train would have to leave the loading area every 48 seconds. Is that possible with one load and unload area, even with separate areas?

 

[Bairstow]

I'm still worried about what will happen when these figures' faces inevitably break. It's not exactly the imagineer's fault, but WDW management is notoriously bad. Especially when it comes to elements with video screens. I've been pretty lucky in regards to not seeing Haunted Mansion's faces always working properly, but all of the other New Fantasyland projections have been very temperamental since they opened (along with the poor quality of projections all across the rest of the parks such as Soarin, the Davy Jones/Blackbeard mist screen, the poor quality of at least two of the 3D movies etc)...

...plus both Buzz and Potato Head have proved to be terribly unreliable, though part of me wonders if this is merely because maintenance doesn't "have" to actually fix them; one of those breaking can be "fixed" by drawing a curtain around it rather than making a popular attraction 101.

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

...plus both Buzz and Potato Head have proved to be terribly unreliable, though part of me wonders if this is merely because maintenance doesn't "have" to actually fix them; one of those breaking can be "fixed" by drawing a curtain around it rather than making a popular attraction 101.

You may be right, and that may be why i've not ever seen any of the Haunted Mansion faces broken. I know in older rides they used to implement checks where if major show elements broke that the ride would shut down and not begin operating again until it's fixed. Don't know whether the HM heads are included in some of those checks (hell I don't even know whether these checks are still in older rides at all) but it's plausible I suppose. I've not visited since 2012 but HM's projected faces have always consistently worked properly for me and were in good condition. A far cry from the poor quality and working order of projections littering other attractions around WDW.

I have to wonder what's going to happen with the Dwarf faces though when they break.

 

[durangojim]

Yeah, although I feel a lot of people are going to end up disappointed that they queue 2 hours for a 100 to 120 second ride, when I think some are expecting something along the scale of Splash Mountain.

That's where FP+ comes in

 

[kap91]

Yeah, although I feel a lot of people are going to end up disappointed that they queue 2 hours for a 100 to 120 second ride, when I think some are expecting something along the scale of Splash Mountain.

I agree with this, but on the other hand - people wait just as long for Rockin' Roller Coaster, which is a very short ride, and don't seem to have much issue with it. The actual coaster portion of Everest is really short too. Heck people used to wait 2 hours for dumbo.

 

[ASilmser]

I don't know if it's the glow from the projection faces or the frame rate, but something is off on those. They just look a little weird. Maybe they'll look better in person, but they don't seem to be that huge a step over Buzz to me. Granted, the integration with expanded motion is a huge step up, sure. But the faces themselves don't seem to be a massive improvement. As I said, though, maybe I will be far more impressed seeing them in the wild as opposed to a video.

Whenever you film a video of a video, it always looks funny. The different frame rates essentially compete with one another. Try recording or skyping your TV. Even with high quality video recordings, you still get a little of that effect.

No.
They were legit and reflected designs described to me a few years back.

Glad they made the change. Clearly, anyone who calls these things (at least the ones that were shown in the video) "animated figures" after watching that is just plain thick-headed.

It's becoming more clear that what was hinted in a previous Disney publication (DVC newsletter?) was closer to the truth than puffery, as some of us predicted. Someone with control of the design and budget on this project said, "Hey, we can do better." S/he put things on pause and told imagineering to go back to the drawing board and create figures that are more innovative and sophisticated (dare I say "cutting edge?") than what was originally designed.

Would this account for the delay in the project that some have been complaining about? Could this also account for at least some of the "cost overruns" that some have been complaining about? Most likely.

I am in no means trying to pick a fight with anyone here (I agree with most of the systemic criticisms about WDW that are frequently mentioned on this forum, which is why I frequently visit). But I think we need to at least give credit where credit is due. If there are going to be delays and cost overruns on projects, a change from what was originally planned to something like this would be a legitimate (and welcome) reason IMO.

 

[danlb_2000]

I agree with this, but on the other hand - people wait just as long for Rockin' Roller Coaster, which is a very short ride, and don't seem to have much issue with it. The actual coaster portion of Everest is really short too. Heck people used to wait 2 hours for dumbo.

... and home long to they get with Anna and Elsa after a 300 minute wait?

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

It is quite interesting that they decided to upgrade these figures over what we saw from D23, they seemingly did so rather quickly too because the figures Lee saw were supposedly from just a year ago (heck they may have made the change after the D23 event even). I actually wonder who the people were that allowed it to happen. The imagineers don't control the budget for sure and it had to have cost substantially more money over the simpler figure diagrams at D23. So I wonder who approved a larger budget for this. Or did they simply redirect funds from another aspect of the ride (like removing outside theming)?

 

[Bairstow]

Having seen these things, imagine the possibilities of a re-done Winnie the Pooh ride with these new techniques!

Tigger's face probably doesn't lend itself to internal projection, but Pooh and Piglet's would.

 

[Mawg]

It is quite interesting that they decided to upgrade these figures over what we saw from D23. I actually wonder who the people were that allowed it to happen. It had to have cost substantially more money over the simpler figures we saw diagrams of at D23 so I wonder who approved a larger budget for this.

Maybe it was the same budget and they decided to make the ride shorter for the better animatronics?