Walt Disney – A Magical Life

[Professortango1]

If reminds me a lot of the L. Ron Hubbard shrine/museum experience near the Pantages. Where, after being told how amazing and strong-willed he was through clips and history, the programmed curtains part and an idol of the man is presented for us to marvel at and swallow that Kool-Aid.

Its decent but has a very creepy/cultish feeling being present within a Disney park. Might have worked better at a Museum of traveling exhibit.

 

[Disney Irish]

If reminds me a lot of the L. Ron Hubbard shrine/museum experience near the Pantages. Where, after being told how amazing and strong-willed he was through clips and history, the programmed curtains part and an idol of the man is presented for us to marvel at and swallow that Kool-Aid.

Its decent but has a very creepy/cultish feeling being present within a Disney park. Might have worked better at a Museum of traveling exhibit.

No offense, but who would willing go to an L. Ron Hubbard "experience"?

 

[Phroobar]

If reminds me a lot of the L. Ron Hubbard shrine/museum experience near the Pantages. Where, after being told how amazing and strong-willed he was through clips and history, the programmed curtains part and an idol of the man is presented for us to marvel at and swallow that Kool-Aid.

Its decent but has a very creepy/cultish feeling being present within a Disney park. Might have worked better at a Museum of traveling exhibit.

Perfect for the Cult of Disney.

 

[Professortango1]

No offense, but who would willing go to an L. Ron Hubbard "experience"?

I was watching Book of Mormon with my dad at the Pantages and we had an hour to kill. It was free and it was an experience I enjoyed ironically, especially as my dad was a huge pulp/early Hollywood fan and kept asking the ill-informed docent about errors in the stuff about Hubbard's early life as a pulp writer and trying to work in Hollywood.

 

[D.Silentu]

Speaks to the fact that experience like this has to be delicately handled if they wish to be respectful. I’ll nominate the Ronald Reagan experience, at his namesake library, as another swing and a miss. You sit in a theater and at the sound of hoofbeats the announcer says, “Here comes Mr. Reagan now!” So in walks Mr. Reagan, via Musion effect, in his riding gear. We are then treated to an awkward Q & A between the recorded announcer and former president. It ends fairly quickly, which disappointed no one.

 

[PiratesMansion]

If the face has indeed been worked on, I would love to see the updated version, if anyone has a picture to share.

Perhaps they've been doing some good work with those 8 PM closings after all!

 

[SuddenStorm]

The Lincoln show is only effective because no one had a frame of reference for his mannerisms, voice, and stature. It had to look believable, and since Lincoln was a larger than life figure, his figure could be taller and slightly exaggerated and it only helped the effect.

There's hundreds of hours of Walt Disney footage and of Ronald Reagan footage. That's why the 'bring them back to life for a speech' type shows don't work. It just feels uncanny.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

All things considered, despite being pretty hard on him in the past, though I honestly think Tom Fitzgerald and his team did a pretty darn good job on this one. It does need some plussing here & there (Walt’s eyebrows and thinning of the face to look more accurate, removing the animation where his eyes go wide (like where he does it in the “stimulate everybody” line), changing Iger’s narration either back to the Julie Andrews one or possibly getting Corey Burton or someone else that knew Walt personally to narrate it and also taking the AI-filter off of the Walt voice recordings) but again, that stuff should be fairly easy to pluss I think to make it a particularly solid attraction, otherwise a good show that I feel captured Walt Disney’s spirit well. The queue/lobby area especially is a real treat, it’s honestly perfect IMO, and I’m especially happy the decision was made to keep the ‘09 enhanced classic Lincoln show, something BIG for us fans of the classic attractions, also shows they care about truly preserving the legacy which is a ‘very’ good sign. Reminds me much more of the earlier work Tom and the folks he worked with did back in the late 70s-early 90s. We can get nearly to that level again I feel like if it’s plussed the way I’ve described.

 

[AJFireman]

Walt Disney audio animatronic is being added to Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom. Curious to see if they make any modifications or did they already have this in the plan and already have an exact replica made.

Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics Figure Coming to the Carousel of Progress - Disney Parks Blog

New Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics will debut at Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom.

disneyparksblog.com

 

[aladdin2007]

Walt Disney audio animatronic is being added to Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom. Curious to see if they make any modifications or did they already have this in the plan and already have an exact replica made.

Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics Figure Coming to the Carousel of Progress - Disney Parks Blog

New Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics will debut at Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom.

disneyparksblog.com

Figured this was coming,,hope its improved. Concept art looks like its greatly improved anyway.

 

[Yidsid2020]

Figure: Face narrowed, particularly around sides, cheeks and bridge of nose (some can be corrected with repainting), eyebrows trimmed correctly and made less bushy (can still be done), slightly baggier under-eyes (fudged with re-paint), iris darker brown (biggie, shouldn't be skipped) mustache made less bushy and trimmed correctly.(can still be done) As is... It's about 75% Walt.

With repaint/trim,different lighting he'd be closer to 80%. Enlarged shoulder pads and a fuller torso would also help "shrink" his head. Bringing likeness closer to 85% without a new face sculpt.

It's not Trump 1.0 bad and it definitely surpassed the uncanny valley. Passing resemblance but is that adequate for WALT DISNEY? :shrugs:

Sound: I think I'd prefer a voice artist honestly. They have the skills to back it up. AI can assist where needed. AI enhanced dialogue ripped from footage... terrible.

Great ideas. Should they follow your idea, they might as well adjust the left arm movement so Walt doesn't keep putting his hand near his side so many times. They could work on his height (give him lifts, make it an easy adjustment). They could hem his pants. They can add velcro to the neck and shirt so when Walt turns his head, there won't be a gap like when you see a ventriloquist figure's head move. There's more to the list (for both of us no doubt), but if they started with this list, Walt might reach (maybe?) 80% Walt. Good ideas! Thanks for your input.

 

[Disney Irish]

Walt Disney audio animatronic is being added to Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom. Curious to see if they make any modifications or did they already have this in the plan and already have an exact replica made.

Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics Figure Coming to the Carousel of Progress - Disney Parks Blog

New Walt Disney Audio-Animatronics will debut at Carousel of Progress at Magic Kingdom.

disneyparksblog.com

While they're at it why don't they bring back CoP with Walt to DL's TL and revive the rest of the land with a retro-futurist revival of TL67 which Walt was heavily involved with.

 

[Yidsid2020]

While they're at it why don't they bring back CoP with Walt to DL's TL and revive the rest of the land with a retro-futurist revival of TL67 which Walt was heavily involved with.

If they go that far...bring back "Inner Space" too!

 

[PiratesMansion]

While they're at it why don't they bring back CoP with Walt to DL's TL and revive the rest of the land with a retro-futurist revival of TL67 which Walt was heavily involved with.

I would be fine with all of this, but I don't know that COP would be appreciated by modern audiences, not helped by the well-documented aversion to static shows within DLR's audience. It was already suffering from declining audiences when it left, and that was 1973. Bring it into the park now, and people without the historical intel won't know what to make of it, and I imagine you'd lose audience interest even more quickly than in the seventies.

Had it stayed, it might have been grandfathered in as a DL relic that must stay because it's a Walt classic; now, I'm not sure that'd be the case.

I think it's fine at WDW; really, the only thing I could ask is that they take better care of it. But at least it's getting some love, which also points to it not being a target for imminent removal.

 

[Disney Irish]

I would be fine with all of this, but I don't know that COP would be appreciated by modern audiences, not helped by the well-documented aversion to static shows within DLR's audience. It was already suffering from declining audiences when it left, and that was 1973. Bring it into the park now, and people without the historical intel won't know what to make of it, and I imagine you'd lose audience interest even more quickly than in the seventies.

Had it stayed, it might have been grandfathered in as a DL relic that must stay because it's a Walt classic; now, I'm not sure that'd be the case.

I think it's fine at WDW; really, the only thing I could ask is that they take better care of it. But at least it's getting some love, which also points to it not being a target for imminent removal.

You can redo the show by adding a preshow that provides that historical context. This is also likely what they are doing with the Walt AA at WDW, it’ll probably be excerpts from his CoP behind-the-scenes special for the worlds fair to give more historical context for modern audiences.

 

[Phroobar]

So we are saying there is a chance they will bring up America Sings for the 250th?

 

[Yidsid2020]

You can redo the show by adding a preshow that provides that historical context. This is also likely what they are doing with the Walt AA at WDW, it’ll probably be excerpts from his CoP behind-the-scenes special for the worlds fair to give more historical context for modern audiences.

They could segue/morph from the last set of COP with the characters/family into what the future has in store. There were numerous inventions after the COP was halted. Now they can pick up where they left off. Except, bring the presentation up to 2025 and beyond. The audience attention span is not getting better. Technology of 3-D and advanced AA could allow the show to advance with positive possibilities. There's a great big beautiful tomorrow, shining at the end of every day...now, they just have to...imagine...

 

[PiratesMansion]

You can redo the show by adding a preshow that provides that historical context. This is also likely what they are doing with the Walt AA at WDW, it’ll probably be excerpts from his CoP behind-the-scenes special for the worlds fair to give more historical context for modern audiences.

That is what they're doing with the Walt animatronic.

I just think it makes more sense to leave COP where it is and give Disneyland something new in that space. That way WDW retains one key historic attraction on its roster and DL gets something else. Everyone wins.

It sounds nice and like it has a ring of poetic justice to it to bring the Carousel home to Disneyland, but I just don't foresee it being rediscovered and beloved by the public at this point in time, thus best to leave it where it is.

 

[Disney Irish]

That is what they're doing with the Walt animatronic.

I just think it makes more sense to leave COP where it is and give Disneyland something new in that space. That way WDW retains one key historic attraction on its roster and DL gets something else. Everyone wins.

It sounds nice and like it has a ring of poetic justice to it to bring the Carousel home to Disneyland, but I just don't foresee it being rediscovered and beloved by the public at this point in time, thus best to leave it where it is.

Yes leave the current CoP where it is, wasn’t suggesting remove it from WDW to bring it back to DL. My point is there is no reason why they can’t build a clone since it originally was in DL after the Worlds Fair. Or god forbid build a spiritual successor of CoP with an updated show focusing on the modern world and into the future.

Point is DL’s TL should be getting a similar show with a Walt AA as its host.

 

[Rich Brownn]

While they're at it why don't they bring back CoP with Walt to DL's TL and revive the rest of the land with a retro-futurist revival of TL67 which Walt was heavily involved with.

My understanding is the building in Disneyland can't even rotate anymore