Any Talking Characters News?

[disnyfan89]

It would make no sense to use the voice manipulation tech in a show, where they can just use a character voice track like they've done for years (that's exactly what they do for Dream Along). This tech is new and seems specifically designed for real time interactions in meet and greets. Anything else and the tech would be superfluous and wasted.

You miss understand me. It will be a show like Turtle Talk or MILF. Hell, they could prob incorporate it into an all new castle show if they wanted to.

 

[nickeymouse]

WOWAZ!
So neat and I can't wait to see it in person! :sohappy:

 

[JPWDW2]

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For the 'dream along with mickey' show: the performers playing Mickey Minnie, etc. move there middle and ring fingers on their left or right hand. The right controls the mouth, the left hand controls the eyes (or vice versa). The performer moves there middle and ring fingers closer to there palm to close the eyes/mouth.

This is a hell of a job! It actually works like this: Right hand moves the mouth and left hand moves the eyes. The characters that have this mechanism are Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Chip & Dale and eventually Timon at DAK. Its hard to notice at first time, as when they talk they are usually moving their arms and hands at the same time or walking around the stage. The glove/hand has a connection to the Tower control at the Hub and from there a signal is directed to their "heads" to do the movement.

I found this really unnecessary, because why would the person inside should move the face and mouth if its always the same audio track that plays on every show? They aren't interacting, yet. Also, this is very hard to do for the person inside the outfit; coordinate dance moves, blinking, mouth moving and also seeing that they don't feel down or snap with another person in-stage???

Why Disney? Nevertheless not to many people think on this while enjoying the Disney Magic.

 

[raven]

The new Mickey M&G area at Magic Kingdom will have a separate room with a closed door (like you see on the video). The room will be decorated like a dressing room as guests will experience this "backstage V.I.P. pass" to see him. Hopefully this new technology will be introduced at the time it opens as well but I haven't heard about that yet nor the completion date.

 

[mewhunter67]

The first time I saw these, and as far as I know they are still using them, was at this year's Mickey Christmas Party. The main stage show had the fully animated characters (parades did not; i guess it doesn't work well there). Granted, it wasn't a meet and greet, but it was something to see the characters talk on stage with their words (and ruin every photo as they blinked! goofy was good at that! )

 

[Magenta Panther]

I saw the talking Mickey, Donald, Goofy etc. outfits at the Castle stage show. Very effective (and they blink too!) :lol: It's a great innovation...but what I'm really hoping for is a Living Character Initiative version of Mickey. Imagine an AA of our beloved Mouse that's only like 2 feet tall, cute as a button, driving a little car around Fantasyland and talking and responding to guests. "Hiya, pal! Having a fun day? Wow, that's swell! Nice to meet ya!" and so on. That would add an incredible level of magic to the Kingdom. Maybe something like that will happen someday...

Another idea is a holographic image of Mickey, dancing onstage and interacting with live performers. Something like that was done with an anime character in Japan recently - a 3D girl character was projected onto a live stage, and she sang and danced, with a live band providing backup. She attracted a huge crowd. She looked like the typical anime girl character - neon-colored hair, big eyes, long skinny legs etc., not very realistic looking, but she still wowed the crowd and has a huge fan club besides. Disney ought to be doing cutting-edge stuff like that in the parks IMO...especially with the competition it's facing from Universal. If a Japanese firm could manage such a feat, why not Disney Imagineering?

 

[DiPSU224]

The last Living character test was during early Spring at DL when Mickey's voice finnally came back..."magically"
[youtube]Tdt5cpzC1HA[/youtube]

Watching those children react to Mickey was absolutely priceless. Watching moments like that makes you forget about all the faults and negativity that is so focused on around here sometimes. Can't wait to see this magical meet and greet start up in the parks.

 

[Figments Friend]

You mean like the one I heard last Wednesday? The guy just sounded high...not like Crush. It was so bizarre. :shrug:

Heh heh...maybe his shell was on too tight....

( laughs)

:lol:

 

[aka_emilicious]

The only living characters (not audio tracks) have been tested in CA, right?

 

[BigThunderMatt]

And for the newest Mickey, to my knowledge, the performer uses a mic that transforms what ever they says into a mickey voice. The mouth is also controlled by what the performer says. It is able recognizes words and opens and closes the mouth accordingly

This isn't how it was done at all. That technology still doesn't exist. This test that was performed was actually done with Bret Iwan (the current voice of Mickey Mouse) listening to the conversations and watching the interactions over monitors and through headphones in a different room and then speaking some pre-scripted lines along with ad-libbed ones that they had been practicing for months to coordinate the movements of the actual character performer. This is why some movements in regard to what Mickey is saying seem a little delayed and others are spot-on.

This is also why you won't see this technology anywhere on property anytime in the near future.