MerlinTheGoat
Well-Known Member
One thing i've been wondering. I know A1000's are quite expensive. And they're clearly trying to move away from hydraulic and go all electric. But during the hydraulics era of AA's, they seemed to have a better variety for how complex the figures could get.
Mr Bluebird for example was probably the simplest true AA in Splash, as he was somewhat similar to the Tiki Birds in complexity. And yet he still had more dynamic audio-synced motion than the new critter figures (despite their larger size) that just pivot back and forth on a couple of axes in a very repetitive motion. Then you had figures like the squatting frogs which were a little step above him. And then above him were the minor critters such as the geese, chickens, alligators, etc used in the intro and finale scenes (with a lot more like these at Disneyland). And then lastly the main Brers who had a handful of figures that were the most complex in the ride.
With Tiana however, the moving characters seem to occupy two extremes. The 14 legitimate animatronics for the returning film characters are very intricate and complex. However, again all of the remaining critters are very simple moving props. Like the kinds you'd often see in old dark rides such as the old Dwarf cottage band from Snow White and 7DMT. And there's nothing really in between those two extremes. Pretty much all of these new critters should have been proper AA's. They shouldn't all need to have the insane range as an A1000, but something similar to Splash's geese, alligators and chickens would seem reasonable. Do they just not have any less expensive all-electric designs for these?
Moving props have their place as well. Splash also had plenty of those in addition to the 55ish genuine animatronics. These sorts of props are what they could have used to fill out all of the empty dead space people have noted. As yensidtlaw1969 suggested in his mockup with regular storks, spoonbills, turtles, frogs etc etc.
Mr Bluebird for example was probably the simplest true AA in Splash, as he was somewhat similar to the Tiki Birds in complexity. And yet he still had more dynamic audio-synced motion than the new critter figures (despite their larger size) that just pivot back and forth on a couple of axes in a very repetitive motion. Then you had figures like the squatting frogs which were a little step above him. And then above him were the minor critters such as the geese, chickens, alligators, etc used in the intro and finale scenes (with a lot more like these at Disneyland). And then lastly the main Brers who had a handful of figures that were the most complex in the ride.
With Tiana however, the moving characters seem to occupy two extremes. The 14 legitimate animatronics for the returning film characters are very intricate and complex. However, again all of the remaining critters are very simple moving props. Like the kinds you'd often see in old dark rides such as the old Dwarf cottage band from Snow White and 7DMT. And there's nothing really in between those two extremes. Pretty much all of these new critters should have been proper AA's. They shouldn't all need to have the insane range as an A1000, but something similar to Splash's geese, alligators and chickens would seem reasonable. Do they just not have any less expensive all-electric designs for these?
Moving props have their place as well. Splash also had plenty of those in addition to the 55ish genuine animatronics. These sorts of props are what they could have used to fill out all of the empty dead space people have noted. As yensidtlaw1969 suggested in his mockup with regular storks, spoonbills, turtles, frogs etc etc.
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