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Walt Disney robot. Yay or nay?

The_bup

The_bup

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Recently, footage has surfaced of the new show “Walt Disney: A Magical Life”, celebrating(?) the 70th anniversary of Disneyland park in California.


From: https://youtu.be/aK_uVxlhEoo?si=RQ3pXgt_H2YkZV3Y


Just like old Abraham those 70+ years ago, reviving deceased notable figures as a robot tends to turn some heads, and cutting edge technology always lands itself in some hot water.
Does this bother you at all?
Is the animatronic actually any good?
Is the animatronic too good?
Is Robowalt going to conquer the world?
Anything but if Walt would’ve wanted this!

In my opinion, raising Walt from the dead is just like… okay. I guess. I’ve heard people say he said “statues are for dead people”, neglecting the fact he is dead now, and I suppose a statue would be permitted, but then there are already statues of him everywhere, and we’ve been looking at a Robolincon for a very long time and everyone’s fine with that. Maybe he would’ve liked it. Maybe he wouldn’t. He proved chaotic and we’ll never know - although generally this WWWT (Would Walt Want This) discussion really gets on my nerves.

The animatronic is very good. The sitting up and down motion is very convincing. I also appreciate the movement feels a lot more in depth than just arm flailing, like on Tiana’s or even the Shaman of Songs. The face is quite off though, too fat, he looks too smiley and his mouth moves like a puppet.

Anyway, well done Disney. You built another really good robot, like last time, and this time you didn’t even make us queue for a log flume to let us look at it! Well done for succeeding again in an area that you have excelled in for your entire existence! Wow! I just love looking at fancy robots and nothing else!
jokes aside, I understand that this is an entirely different experience, so it is warranted as it is parallel to the hall of presidents, so it is different than the frequent “ride is just okay but you’re here for the robot” type rides I feel Disney have just been doing to my disappointment for the last decade. Oh my god. I used to like these things but it feels like it’s all that matters too them now.

Opinions, anyone?
 
My initial reaction was that it looked like they based it on an older version of him that never existed. More like Grandpa Walt than Uncle Walt. In my head this is how he would have looked had he still be alive in the 1970s.
It's the slightly too round face (which from a practical perspective was probably a necessity to fit all the motors in). When you compare it to the wax work Madame Tussauds made that looks more true to his actual body shape... did I just say Merlin made a more accurate Disney than Disney did 😅

From an animation perspective though it's fantastic. There's a few things that could be improved but they did capture his movements well and I personally relate a lot to the lines they chose for this show.
 
The animatronic itself is incredible, but that is to be expected from a Disney animatronic these days.

But it doesn't look overly like Walt, it's too fat in the face for a start. And the voice is over processed. It does look slightly better from the audience view than the close up photos.

I'm very much of the view that they should never have done this in the first place. Walt would have hated it for a start! Yes they have turned other people in to animatronics but I think it's different when they're doing it for the person who founded the company, and they have always been very protective over his IP.

Ironically the Roland Mack animatronic in Pirates looks more like Roland than this one looks like Walt!
 
If Imagineering are creating state of the art patents like animatronic stunt doubles and HoloTiles, they should be able to faithfully recreate an animatronic's face to look just like the man whose name is on their payslips.

Whilst I don't believe this show was necessary and think they could've just used the Disney 100 Exhibition hologram, I bet Walt's bestie, railway nerd enabler and alleged 'cryogenic' rumour starter Ward Kimball would've been tickled pink by this.
 
Well, it's very good. I didn't think I'd be seeing robots that realistic in my lifetime. As for ethics, I can't really see a problem with it, as it's very much in line with what Disney has always done. I suspect Walt Disney would be more annoyed with them changing the designs of his parks so much. Getting rid of the open spaces, so much Marvel/Pixar/Star Wars etc, how it's much less fairytale-based than it used to be, and how they don't really make rides like Pirates of the Caribbean any more. Not trying to re-open those debates, but that's where his spirit really is, rather than in the robot!
 
It's certainly impressive movement, especially the stand and step forward.

I saw a side by side yesterday of Walt speaking vs the animatronic, can't find it now. The one big mannerism difference seems to be the real Walt always brought his hands together in front of him when he was speaking, but animatronic Walt doesn't. I'm guessing that is very difficult to do and would draw attention too much to the hands.
 
The animatronic is incredible - particularly given it's completely stage lit & you sit there and watch it for several minutes (unlike the ROTR or Avatar examples which you pass relatively quickly and are lit more dramatically according to the scene). The worst bit about it is the sound - I'm sure they could've remastered the original Walt voice track to make it sound less like it was from a 1950s mic and more from a 2025 mic. But I suppose it's the one element that pulls it back to the past.
 
Other than the funky face I think it's pretty well done. There are a dozen or more ways this could have been a disaster (I'm imagining an AI-generated Walt voice discussing the wonders of Avengers Campus) but this one seems like a pretty tasteful way to pay tribute to the man. I do really appreciate that they didn't reuse one of the three Walt speeches that are already used all over the place and instead picked some lesser-known audio for it.
 
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