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Walking Animatronic Dinosaur At Disney Park
Dan Howland writes "Shades of Jurassic Park: Disney's first walk-around, interactive animatronic character, Lucky the dinosaur, is now strolling around Disney's California Adventure, but will probably move to Disney's Animal Kingdom in the coming weeks. It kinda walks on two legs, just as the rumors promised, but actually pulls a cart for additional balance (and to hide the computers). Videos can be found on the link above. More photos, and a video of Lucky blowing his nose here."
Last year I was at Disney and they had this talking trach can that I assume was radio controlled. It looked like all the other trash cans except it would more around and talk. It really shocked the hell out of people. This dinosaur should be a riot!
"God fights on the side with the best artillery." - Napoleon, Marshal of France - speaking truth to power
man, when I went there last I saw a child freaking out when it had to leave Mickey mouse..
Sort of felt sorry for the big mouse.. that kid freaked..
Now I can just imagine the kids wanting to ride a dino..
Wow.. I can hear the screaming from here..
anime+manga together at last.. in real time.
Basically, it's a big remote controlled Robie Robot Jr that looks like a dinosaur. By the way, does anyone else remember the Radio Shack Robie Robot Jr, or was I the only person to get one as a kid when I was 6?
Every time I think that Disney is dying, they come up with something like this that convinces me Walt's spirit is still in there somewhere.
I forget who said this...
"Walt Disney has contributed more happiness to the world than all the religions combined."
Now if only the spirit of Walt would appear to take care of this copyright extension nonsense...
End of lesson. You may press the button.
...imagine a beowulf cluster of these!
I am dieing to have an R2D2 at home :)
so, um, is anyone going to welcome our new mechasaur overlords?
Go hug some trees.
Here's a mirror in case the site is slow.
And it was scary...*shiver*
if(!cool) exit(-1);
can he play soccer? If so I wanna see him vs. Abio.
StrategyTalk.com, PC Game Forums
This makes me imagine a bad movie based on a cross between Westworld and Jurassic Park.
Let's hope this time it's not being controlled by... Newman!!! (any Seinfeld fan will know what I mean)
Go hug some trees.
I, for one, welcome our new Disney Walking-Talking Animatronic Overlords.
I would think they would have started with something more Disney-ish, like Mickey Mouse or his close friend Darl McBride.
I think the legs are more like props then support. Judging from the video the dinosaur is really supported by the large cart it's carrying around.
it's still pretty slick looking though, but it would be much cooler if it really walked on its own.
-Jon
this is my sig.
looks like the dinosaur stomped on their server *ducks*
BSD is for people who love UNIX. Linux is for those who hate Microsoft.
until it starts eating the tourists.
Ben
Work Safe Porn
I don't like how they have introduced it to slavery.
They actually already made one. As N8F8 mentioned the talking trash can, a very identical robot was made to represent R2D2. He rolled around with one of the parades. Both are fairly ingenious. They look like they are completely self controlled and no one has anything to do with them. However, if you watch the people who are nearby, you will see someone who looks like they have a messanger bag on their back with their hand stuck in it. (Put on hand on the small of your back, and then imagine a messanger bag covering it) Inside that bag are the controls for the robot. The cast member controlling the robot dresses and acts like a tourist, the only giveaway is that he follows the trash can alot, and goes backstage after the robot. I'm not sure how the trashcan talks, cause I didn't see the cast members mouth move (ventriloquism?) but there is very possibly a camera in the trash can, which stream video to another cast member who provides the voice. I'm not sure. The one who walks with R2D2 was dressed like the cast members who simply police the parade route. They are using something similar for Lucky. I'm not sure which article I read that mentioned this, but he has two cast members who control him. (Three cast members for such a small attraction seems high by their current casting levels) I imagine the same thing applies. Look for two people who are following the dinosaur around with their hands hidden behind their back in a messanger bag.
Google cache here
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WARNING:Slashdot karma not redeemable in the afterlife.
Lost dog, medium size, brown with bald spots. Missing eye, half an ear, three legs, name..Lucky.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
"Walt Disney has contributed more happiness to the world than all the religions combined."
Sure, but has he Walt killed and tortured as many?
I THINK NOT!
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Animatronic Slavery
Their Imagineers were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should!
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What will archaeologists of the future think of this when they unearth its remains?
What kind of dinosaur is Lucky supposed to be? Looks suspiciously like a velociraptor. All I can think of when I look at the photos of Lucky is how funny it would be for him to leap on another animatronic dino and start eating him. Like this: Scenes cut from Jurassic Park: Velociraptors Devour a Barney (from Dr Fun).
Wouldn't 2-legged dynosaurs be more likely to jump like kangaroo?
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
I can't wait to head down to Disneyland and check it out.
Oh, wait a minute. We're supposed to be boycotting these evil, copyright abusing bastards... and I already compromised on Finding Nemo, so I can't do it again.
How about if I sneak into the park and promise not to have fun while I'm there?
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
Ub Iwerks. That's the correct spelling. Google is your friend.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
>|<*:=
it's just a friendly walking dinosaur. what could possiblai.... er.. possibly go wrong?
I'm more of a fan of SRL (www.srl.org) where they are downright dangerous. That in mind though I have to wonder if the creators of this robot have seriously taken the dangers into account. With srl danger is just implied and you know these things can hurt you. In this case I want to know if can it step on a child? Can it run a child over? Just curious. end15 my ears are ringing and I can't answer them...
All glory to the Hypnotoad!
I don't think Lucky looks much like the velociraptors on JP, except for being a bipedal dinosaur. Without consulting any references, I'd say he looks a lot more like a prosauropod (bipedal ancestors of the giant quadripedal sauropods) or possibly camptosaur. The head is certainly very sauropod-like. /humourless scientist
Freedom: "I won't!"
Slashdot vs. Robot Dinosaur Slashdot wins after 5 comments.
Now I'm praying for mecha-Jurassic park. Maybe the robots will go crazy, and eat a lawyer. Just like the movie yeah! Ohhh, and they could go crazy and kill lots more people and Disney-World/Land would get nuked.
Maybe then lawyers will band together and shutdown that poor excuse for entertainment. I mean come on, what has Disney done lately? Other than appeal to the widest deomgraphic with crap entertainment to get your money. Just so they can lobby congress to extend their copyrights on what was once good media and is now only exploited for more money...
Another useless rant by some guy who obviously never got to go to Disney theme parks because his parents didn't want to be 'bilked' of their savings.
I'm too lazy to use a sig field so you'll have to read this I guess.
is the dinosaurs name Darl McBride? he looks kind of dinosaurish.
All it takes to fly is to hurl yourself at the ground... and miss. -Douglas Adams
How fun that would be?
"Hi! My name is Tux! I *respect* your freedom to choose! Won't you come and compile with me?"
Stay sentient. Don't drink bad milk.
John Hammond: All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked.
Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but John, if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don't eat the tourists.
-Valen
... welcome our robotic-dinosaur overlords!
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Well, I just hope he's not running Windows.
Good times!
I had Robie Sr and he kicked ass! :) You could play music with the cassette player in his torso, and you could also record movement sequences on said tape deck. You could talk through the remote control and have your voice come out through his head. In fact (wow, serious flashback!) I hacked my telephone and wired the audio into the mic in jack on Robie, so everyone I talked to on the phone had a robotic avatar of sorts.
I programmed a sequence for him to wake me up each morning (using his built-in alarm clock) to roll over to my bed side and start yelling at me (in my own voice) to get out of bed. I used to have him hold my police scanner, too, and jacked the audio to the line in. I don't know, I guess everything seemed funnier when the sound was routed through a robot whose mouth lit up as a VU meter. That, and being able to turn his eyes on as headlights was pretty cool, too. I really tinkered with that thing, too. I figured out how to route my voice to his command channel, what pitch to shriek at to emulate commands from the remote, and how to cut the power to the remote with the voice channel open and use him to listen to neighbors' cordless phones. Man, I have been a geek for a long, long time.
[/me slams phone down on the beach and exits frame right]
Intelligent Life on Earth
Ooooor, in reality land, there's a guy a block away with a walkie-talkie and a pair of binoculars :-)
(or, gasp, they've got canned phrases/noises!)
Please help metamoderate.
Mecha-Streisand? Terrorists beware!
georgewellian fuddite/unprecedented evile/walking dead, duke it out, whilst sinking into the bad hysteria of their owned phonIE stock markup FraUD execrable/doom.
walt would have enjoined this.
...Personality Transplant!
"In an amazing show of spontaneity and interactivity, Chandler breaks from the script to point out a flying pteradactyl (a helicopter) to Lucky, who then lifts his head and gazes up into the sky"
I guess the writer for the sight never learned stage magic. Lucky is quite cool, but Chandler's hand goes into his bag for controls before Lucky gives any reaction to the copter.
Looks like ye olde server has gone the way of...
Well, ya know.
I, for one, welcome our new robotic lizard overlords
Since the site is a bit slow, here is a torrent file containing all movies.
... my 5 year old "dino-crazed" kiddo will literally "shit a brick" when she hears about this...
My boeuf with DisneyCo isn't with the company's support of homosexuality as much as it is with the company's lobbying to change copyright law for the worse and with its use of sweatshop labor.
Will I retire or break 10K?
and I already compromised on Finding Nemo, so I can't do it again.
I take the Lessig Challenge (use Google if you aren't familiar). I'm not giving Disney more than twelve 99-cent movie rentals a year. I'll see Finding Nemo, but I'll wait until 1. it's on video and 2. it's no longer a new release.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Just pop that dinosaur on a Segway, problem solved.
You're welcome.
"Would it kill you to put down the toilet seat?" -- Maya Angelou
Disney finally remembered they have a theme park in California.
Nevermind. Lucky's going to florida. Now the only attractions are the peeling paint and the disintegrating rides.
-transiit
Going to be much much harder to push him over with that cart on the back.
I've left to find myself. If you happen to see me, please, keep me there until I return.
Ian Malcolm: "Oooh, ahhh, that's how this all starts. But later there's running and screaming."
Looks like the puppetry is really good. Looks like there's a giant mass of batteries in the cart. Sounds like the motors are really noisy - atleast when the head turns.
For a real walking robot dinosaur take a look at Troody.
Lucky has been removed from DCA. He will be making an appearance at the Natural History Museum tomorrow (Thursday) morning, and then he's "going home." We're not sure if "going home" means back to Glendale (Imagineering) or as rumored to the Animal Kingdom park in Florida. There are no more DCA appearances scheduled. This is all subject to change, but that's the latest as of today.
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
You've got to listen to me. Elementary chaos theory tells us that all robots will eventually turn against their masters and run amok in an orgy of blood and kicking and the biting with the metal teeth and the hurting and shoving.
It would have looked SO much better if they had an actor move around and grunt like a dinosaur, then put CGI over him.
filmcritic.com - Movie reviews on Internet time
The obligatory quote has not been said up till this point: "Frankly, I welcome our new animatronic rulers."
Sig it.
SkyNet 2, Location Disney, Orlando, Florida, 70foot thick concrete, servers burried 200 feet underground. Sealed, Lead coated Blast Doors. Nuclear Generator, the hole purpose of Splash Mountain is to lower the temperature of the reactor coolant, and to dispearse the radiation.
How is Disney Powered anyways...
this is just another example of mickey-mouse engineering.
It's so sad to see Lucky having to use a walker.
Short telomeres means arthritis by puberty. Won't somebody please think of the dinosaur children?
Combine this with My Pal Mickey and you can fire the tour guides. Until My Pal Evil Dinosaur starts eating people who won't buy what he tells you to.
Is that you, Shodan? ;)
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
rtfa
...Disney: Isla Nublar.
The Human Cow - bringing you scrumtrelescence since 1995
"I love you, you love me, homo-sexu-ality..."
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
I don't care who is controlling it, how noisey it is or what tricks they are using. Thats one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Suspend your belief and think like a child for a few minutes then go back and watch the movies again. Wow.
Obviously the Imagineers named this thing... as in "we'll be LUCKY if this thing works."
Note to self, bring numerous cameras (with flash).
Mechanical Engineering Magazine (from ASME) has a couple of related articles on Disney Animatronics, for those interested:
Wild mouse in the funhouse (2000)
The fantastical meets the practical (1997)
I, for one, welcome our new robotic dinosaur overlords!
Since robots will eventually take over the human race, when they dig this up they will see that they were preceded by dinosaurs.
Perhaps the remains that humans have found ARE the "disneyized" remains, and our true ancestors remain undiscovered...
Spoon not. Fork, or fork not. There is no spoon.
There are three things at Walt Disney World that use the same concept. R2D2 in the Disney Stars and Motor Cars parade at the Disney-MGM Studios, The talking palm tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom and "Push" the talking trash can at the Magic Kingdom. It is the guy with the messenger bag that controls them.. (once you spot him it's painfully obvious.. but most people never notice) and he also does the voice .. you will notice him speaking into his hand occasionally.
-=SiGH=-
"Lucky." Yeah, right. See how lucky we are when this thing starts going Yul Brynner on somebody's ass.
Big dino dick in the ass...
I'd take it.
=-O
What ARe the thinking? Didn't they see what happened with the Ichy and Scratchy Land robots on the Simpsons?
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Nobody Belives me. The Pope is DEAD. He is NOT ALIVE. The Vadican Secretly paid Disney to make a FAKE POPE.
(Score:0, Interesting)
Don't forget that Disney is one of the caring organizations that bring you the RIAA. Treat them apropriately. Don't get charmed by trinkets and baubles.
Boycott Disney.
Huh? Not one mention of having one for xmas? There was a lot on the My Pal Mickey and Bob the Builder.
Saw some where the underlighing sheleton and was quite impresive.
Next week on FOX!
I love DisneyWorld (though I like it less and less as they change it), and I like watching the old clips of Walt going on about various projects.
What Disney lacks now is vision and soul. They are a zombie like shell that just keeps moving by sheer momentum - what will they do without Pixar to prop them up?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
...I can't help but start thinking about some of the Fun-But-Eevyl Things that one could do with this kind of hardware. The hack already done to the now-infamous 'Billy Bass' (or was it 'Boogie Bass?' I never was too clear on that) comes immediately to mind, as do the electronic surgical procedures performed on hapless furbys.
;-)
For example: I seem to recall that several of the parade floats have wireless receivers for the purpose of playing parade music through onboard speakers. I think it would be great fun to find what frequency they're on, use a transmitter powerful enough to override Disney's signal (FM does have that nice 'capture' effect), and broadcast a nice, juicy belch right in the middle of the event.
This idea took on new meaning with my recent (somewhat unwilling) exposure to the big parade at the Orlando park. Every time the stupid narration told the audience to yell "Pixie Dust," I found myself wondering how much effort it would take to substitute the words "Angel Dust!"
Same thing applies to Lucky. I'll bet that, with some creative tweaking, he could be made to do all kinds of things that would be, shall we say, less than politically correct?
All I can say is that I hope someone does it when the press is around to report it.
Bruce Lane, KC7GR,
Blue Feather Technologies
look at video 3
and you can see one of the cast members with their hands behind their back the whole time
Power is always a big problem with these things. Until the fuel cell people finally deliver, it's either severe battery life problems or an IC engine.
You can run the engine on butane, though, and muffle it until nobody can hear it.
The trailer solution is a bit tacky. After five years of R&D, I'd expected better.
Where are Ross and Monica and the rest of the Friends cast? In the cart?
bored and underpaid
... to Baghdad.
Whole fleet of them. Put food, water, and duracells in the cart.
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Nope, that's it..
It kinda walks on two legs, just as the rumors promised, but actually pulls a cart for additional balance...
They just invented the first dinosaur hobo.
Healthcare article at Kuro5hin
> It is the guy with the messenger bag that controls them
Hmmm... a guy who follows people around with his hand in a bag. Sounds like a good description of a terrorist to me. If I ever see one I'll just HAVE to call the cops on him -- you know, just doing my Patridiotic duty.