Is This the Death of Audio-Animatronics?

[indianajack]

A Disney park without AA's would not be much of a Disney experience. Digital projections in a supplementary role can be useful but they cannot replace the verisimilitude that the AA's create.

[DoctorQ9]

With Garner Holt recently installed as exclusive animatronics provider to Disney, I think we can safely continue to enjoy our beloved robots. If a time comes when Disney attractions are primarily projection-based, I definitely will no longer have an annual pass. Those are what MAKE Disney Disney for me.

Thanks for the info, SpectroMan -- I did not know this. So Disney has broken all ties to SARCOS?!

[fifthrider]

There is a place for various type of elements, such as using video, however recently, I've really had my fill (ok, it's an OVERDOSE) of 3D glasses attractions. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.

This. Exactly.

Yes, there are several things that can be done with the 3D Glasses that wouldn't be possible otherwise

True, but there's things you can do with live action you couldn't ( or wouldn't ) otherwise. Even if a 3D movie *could* be originally made to do things you couldn't see in an AA ride, it will pretty much be that experience over and over. Theme parks rarely refilm a new attraction. ( Star Tours a rare exception. ) You are pretty much locked into that one film and one experience in the jumbotron ride. I would point to recent complaints about Soarin' becoming mundane as an example.

Conversely some of my best memories from DL animatronic-based attractions involved ir-reproducable moments of just being in the right place at the right time.

1) On POTC riding through the grotto only to find two maintenance cast members down there fixing something; as each boat passed they stopped working and began acting like animatronics.
2) A JC skipper spotting a live cat walking through the strip of land between the JC and Indy line and calling it out as a "domesticus felis, weighing up to 400 lbs and capable of leaping 30 feet."
3) A live bird that would fly inside the Tiki Room then freak out when the show started, etc.

Although these are not intentional moments designed into the ride, they just sort of happen if only for the reason that these are AA based attractions. Meanwhile you can go on Harry Potter a million times and it'll pretty much be the same series of screens and the same ride. These fun and mostly cast-member driven moments just set the AA based attraction so much higher than the mere jumbotron ride to me.

[PecosBill]

Not when future AA's can do this...

[MaxFischer]

Sarcos hasn't existed as its own entity for many years...they are owned by Raytheon.

And you might recall a little tiff Disney had with Sarcos over their sale of proprietary A-100 technologies to other folks, like Universal and others.

[DoctorQ9]

Sarcos hasn't existed as its own entity for many years...they are owned by Raytheon.

And you might recall a little tiff Disney had with Sarcos over their sale of proprietary A-100 technologies to other folks, like Universal and others.

I must have missed that episode of "60 Minutes" but it sounds like a great story, Max. Can you share more of the details?

[Ravjay12]

No Audio animatronics are not dead. This projection technology is just another way to entertain and help tell the story, and to keep costs down. There are still hundreds of attractions that use AA's, and would be the death of these rides if they switched over to projection.

[danyoung]

Hundreds?