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Disney to Create Walking Animatronic Dinosaur
nakhla writes "I came across this article discussing Disney's plans to create an animatronic dinosaur that can roam free through it's Disney's California Adventure park. Disney's Imagineering unit has been working on the technology for several years now. While short on technical details, the article does mention that it will be able to interact with guests in numerous ways. Hopefully it won't go berzerk like the animatronic characters in that old Simpsons episode!" No, hopefully it will go berzerk!
Need to make some Animatronic Japanese tourists to run in front of it screaming!
Please don't moddd me down, Niiiice Laaadyy!
DJMD - The fourth man - Planetary
Strom Thurmond to be fitted with prosthetic walking aids.
Moo
An as-yet unnamed dinosaur (Tyrannosaurus, of course - is there any other kind?) will begin roaming (rampaging) through a designated area ("Bloodbath Town") of either California Adventure or Disneyland this spring, said Marty Sklar, vice chairman of Imagineering. This will be the first test of untethered (unfettered) Audio-Animatronics and the next phase in Imagineering's quest to increase interaction (exterminate) with visitors.
Disney created Audio-Animatronic figures and has used them in attractions since 1963, beginning with birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room (and they all look like what they really are - stupid moving dolls). But this will be the first one that's not fixed to a spot (cause the engineers got sick of doing that boring shit). An unseen operator (HAHAHA!! You will NEVER catch ME!!!) will guide the dinosaur's movements, allowing it to respond (chase) to guests (and eat them).
"That's the magic," Sklar said. "When people see, hear and touch (and get fragged by) this character, it will be a real groundbreaking experience (not to mention a real blast for the guys who get to run it and stomp on all those drooling rugrats who infest the park)."
The character doesn't talk (hey, six-inch teeth - who needs to talk? Just smile!), but can respond with movements ("slam jaws together over lawyer's head"... oops, wrong movie). Some of its potential antics are eating popcorn (sorry, I meant "people"), "stealing" a guest's hat (and the head under it) and sneezing (gotta get the blood of its snout somehow, right?).
Imagineers have long dreamed about walking Animatronics, but it took technology a while to catch up with their creative minds (yeah, getting them to walk and chew at the same time is a bitch).
Especially when it roams around the park, bonking people over the head with blunt objects and yelling, "Not the Mama!"
Mod Karma -1: I sed bad wurds. If I cep my mouf shut, I wud be at riyses.
The world's most expensive Turok level!!!
When I was a young child on vacation with my family in Disney, we met up with some employees of the park who were friends of my uncles.
He was telling us some of the horror stories they have had with malfunctioning animatronics. The one that always stuck in my memory was when they were testing the Hall of Presidents. A prop table had been moved in front of President Lincoln and forgotten about. The routine began, Lincoln began talking, lifted up his arms to gesture and lifted the prop, he then lowered his hands to stand up from his chair and in the process dropped and smashed the table.
I was also fortunate enough to be in Universal Studios Florida on opening day, there was a terrible storm predicted but the clouds were holding. After waiting for 2 hours past the opening time, they opened the park. They informed us that a few rides might not be working, so for every ticket purchased, we would be recieving an additional ticket to be used at a later date. We went into the park, and here is what I remember.
Jetsons Wild Ride - went fine.
Jaws - Broke down while we were in line, people were stuck in the boats.
Godzilla, broke down just after we got off.
The best by far was ET! After waiting in a huge line, we get our cards with our names imprinted on the Mag stripe so ET can say our names, then we go to another line. This line was themed to look like the forest that ET was chased through. There was an animatronic of an ET elder, who came up through the forest floor, after some smoke, He kept malfunctioning and jumping up and down in clouds of smoke, speaking the whole while. A red light was supposed to run through the bushes to look like it was ET being chased, this too had problems as it was blinking and stopping. We get all the way up in the line, just about to hand them our cards when the power goes out completely and the place goes pitch black. About 30 Seconds later, the emergency lights come on and they guide us out with flashlights. On the way out they walked us through a part of the ride where I looked up, and some other unfortunate riders were stranded on the Bicycle platform suspended in mid air about 30 Ft. off the ground. We were given another free ticket each on our way out of the park, and I kept my ET magstrip card.
Theme Parks have a long history of covering up these types of things. Disney has a policy of not stopping CPR until a person has left the park grounds. Rumor has it that this was even done in Disneyland during the infamous Beheading on Space Mountain.
I was an employee of Six Flags Great Adventure for 3 years. Mentioning the Haunted House ( which caught fire and killed 3 ) is a terminable offense. While working there I did have the chance to witness a few other events. 1997 - From the High Dive, the diver lost his footing and fell into the water flailing and landing on his back. The ripples in the water caused multiple lacerations in his skin. I was on lunch break when the call came over the radio for First Aid. Like any other teen would have done, we all ran to see. I've also seen a (stupid) man get out of his bumper car and get hit, and seen two of the parks coasters (Red Track on "Batman and Robin: The Chiller and Great American Scream Machine) get stuck upside down.
"it's a large enough character to get their attention." -- Or scare the shit right out of them...
Other potential antics include:
1. Knocking the living shit out of obnoxous visitors
2. "Tip over and land on fat guy mode" This is where the dinosaur pretends to have a mechanical glitch and falls towards the fat guy with the 64oz big gulp...
3. "popcorn ball butt cannon" since it's been eating all that popcorn, it's got ammo!
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.