Worst Animatronics

mimitchi33

Well-Known Member
Despite not being an animation, THIS might as well be the creepiest thing ever in a Disney ride:
figment_moon.jpg

The moon will always be with us...


But...if you're talking about pure, unadulterated nightmare fuel....just go on the Carousel of Progress during a lightning storm.

John Carpenter's The Thing of Progress

This was during Tropical Storm Andrea according to the description, not a lightning storm. And I don't see the reason in freaking out over such a small thing...
 

ARoss

New Member
I dunno where the hate for Ariel's animatronics come from when we have 98% of the animatronics in Great Movie Ride to fix...

In my personal opinion, I'm not a fan of the animated face animatronics for Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff. Unlike the dwarves, they literally look like robots with a shiny projected face. I mean, that's what they are, but that's not what they're SUPPOSED to be. The faces look pretty distorted and just.. Weird. Worked great for dwarves though.
I 100% agree with you! Those AAs are wierd looking, but I think Olaf and Sven are so cool!
 

peterwendy

Member
I dunno where the hate for Ariel's animatronics come from when we have 98% of the animatronics in Great Movie Ride to fix...

In my personal opinion, I'm not a fan of the animated face animatronics for Elsa, Anna, and Kristoff. Unlike the dwarves, they literally look like robots with a shiny projected face. I mean, that's what they are, but that's not what they're SUPPOSED to be. The faces look pretty distorted and just.. Weird. Worked great for dwarves though.

The disappointment comes from the fact that the ride was built at a time where the animatronics should have been much more advanced and aesthetically pleasing than they turned out to be. The whole ride was hastily and lazily done. It could have been a really good ride but look what we ended up with. I mean look at 7DMT and then Ariel which were built pretty much at the same time. The dwarf AAs are amazing and Ariel is.... yeah.
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
The disappointment comes from the fact that the ride was built at a time where the animatronics should have been much more advanced and aesthetically pleasing than they turned out to be. The whole ride was hastily and lazily done. It could have been a really good ride but look what we ended up with. I mean look at 7DMT and then Ariel which were built pretty much at the same time. The dwarf AAs are amazing and Ariel is.... yeah.

I prefer the AAs in Mermaid as opposed to the awkward brightly lit faces in 7DMT.
My point is, is that there are PLENTY of worse animatronics at WDW than in Little Mermaid.
Like sorry, but the Carousel of Progress animatronics are embarrassing and awkward to watch. Mermaid's animatronics are not embarrassing or awkward.

I WILL say, I prefer Ursula with her head ON HER BODY, though.
 

Scuttle

Well-Known Member
I've asked that question before and never gotten an answer. I think the hippo might be winking, but it sure seems like a creepy stuck eyelid to me.
If you look up older video (pre recession) you'll notice that the hippo has two fully functioning eye lids. It bugs me as well.
 

Seabasealpha1

Well-Known Member
Any of them that hiss and click are the worst ones IMO. I loved dearly (and still do the Primeval World Diorama ones at DL) the plant chewing brontosaurs on UoE...but the damned hissing kills the effect. Same went for the "alien" in the GMR.

The hiss...seriously...should be the first they they strive to eliminate in some way...or at least greatly diminish...Oy!
 

MerlinTheGoat

Well-Known Member
I'm kind of late to the party on the Small World hippo discussion. But as far as I can tell, it has always winked one eye at WDW. I recall this to be the case in the 90s as well.

Here's a mid 80s video (go to about 3:05).


Another from 1981 (go to about 17:05)-


If this is a broken effect and both eyes are actually supposed to blink, then it has been broken for a VERY long time. I always assumed it was supposed to be winking.

The Ariel figures in Little Mermaid are quite poorly designed. They move okay, but the faces are quite poor. The Buzz Lightyear in the queue is also a poorly done facial projection.
 

peter11435

Well-Known Member
I'm kind of late to the party on the Small World hippo discussion. But as far as I can tell, it has always winked one eye at WDW. I recall this to be the case in the 90s as well.

Here's a mid 80s video (go to about 3:05).


Another from 1981 (go to about 17:05)-


If this is a broken effect and both eyes are actually supposed to blink, then it has been broken for a VERY long time. I always assumed it was supposed to be winking.

The Ariel figures in Little Mermaid are quite poorly designed. They move okay, but the faces are quite poor. The Buzz Lightyear in the queue is also a poorly done facial projection.

I’m fairly certain the hippos eyes have always ‘winked’ by design.
 

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