1 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,840 Speaker 1: Get tests of technology with text stuff from stuff works 2 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:14,280 Speaker 1: dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. I 3 00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:18,119 Speaker 1: am your host, Jonathan Strickland. I'm a senior writer with 4 00:00:18,239 --> 00:00:21,239 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com and I cover all things 5 00:00:21,280 --> 00:00:25,759 Speaker 1: what beat. As my old co host Chris Palette would say, 6 00:00:26,040 --> 00:00:31,080 Speaker 1: stuff what Beeps was the alternative title for tech Stuff. Well, 7 00:00:31,160 --> 00:00:33,879 Speaker 1: today we're going to talk about something that's near and 8 00:00:33,920 --> 00:00:38,320 Speaker 1: dear to my heart, and that is Audio animatronics, specifically 9 00:00:38,440 --> 00:00:45,120 Speaker 1: their origin with Disneyland. I am an enormous Disney fanatic. 10 00:00:45,440 --> 00:00:50,200 Speaker 1: I consider myself a Disney fan of film, of television, 11 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:54,320 Speaker 1: of their theme parks, probably not necessarily in that order, 12 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,840 Speaker 1: maybe film first, then theme parks, then television, but I'm 13 00:00:57,880 --> 00:01:01,720 Speaker 1: a huge fan of Disney stuff. And recently, when I 14 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,040 Speaker 1: was on a trip to Los Angeles to attend E three, 15 00:01:06,080 --> 00:01:08,960 Speaker 1: I found myself with a day with nothing to do. 16 00:01:09,240 --> 00:01:12,720 Speaker 1: I had hoped to book some meetings that did not happen. 17 00:01:12,840 --> 00:01:15,840 Speaker 1: So instead of just sitting around my hotel room feeling 18 00:01:15,880 --> 00:01:18,960 Speaker 1: sorry for myself in a city where I really didn't 19 00:01:18,959 --> 00:01:23,280 Speaker 1: know anybody, I decided to hop on down to Orange County, California, 20 00:01:23,360 --> 00:01:26,480 Speaker 1: that is the home of Disneyland and to go to 21 00:01:26,520 --> 00:01:28,520 Speaker 1: the happiest place on Earth. It was not my first 22 00:01:28,560 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: time at Disneyland, but this was the first time I'd 23 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:35,480 Speaker 1: ever gone to Disneyland completely on my own, and I 24 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:37,560 Speaker 1: was a little worried about that, like, how am I 25 00:01:37,600 --> 00:01:40,479 Speaker 1: going to have fun just by myself. Turns out Disneyland 26 00:01:40,480 --> 00:01:42,200 Speaker 1: did most of the work for me. I didn't have 27 00:01:42,240 --> 00:01:44,720 Speaker 1: to worry so much and had a great time. But 28 00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:47,800 Speaker 1: it also reminded me of how much I love the 29 00:01:47,840 --> 00:01:52,200 Speaker 1: technology and innovation that goes behind Disneyland. And honestly, I 30 00:01:52,240 --> 00:01:57,000 Speaker 1: could do maybe a dozen episodes about different technologies that 31 00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:00,760 Speaker 1: were pioneered or perfected at the Disney any theme parks, 32 00:02:00,880 --> 00:02:03,919 Speaker 1: because there are a ton of them that Disney either 33 00:02:04,520 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: directly had a hand in developing or tweeked it in 34 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:11,839 Speaker 1: a way to elevate it beyond what it used to be. 35 00:02:12,800 --> 00:02:16,120 Speaker 1: There are plenty of examples of that. Today, we're specifically 36 00:02:16,120 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 1: going to focus on audio animatronics, And for those who 37 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:23,040 Speaker 1: have not heard what this term is or have any 38 00:02:23,040 --> 00:02:26,760 Speaker 1: idea what it means, this was a system that Walt 39 00:02:26,800 --> 00:02:33,480 Speaker 1: Disney's company pioneered to create animated physical three dimensional figures. 40 00:02:33,520 --> 00:02:37,079 Speaker 1: So in a way, it's kind of similar to puppetry, right, 41 00:02:37,639 --> 00:02:40,959 Speaker 1: with a puppet, typically you're manipulating some sort of three 42 00:02:40,960 --> 00:02:44,679 Speaker 1: dimensional figure. Beyond shadow puppets and that sort of puppetry, 43 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:47,600 Speaker 1: which is amazing all on its own, I'm talking about 44 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:52,680 Speaker 1: your traditional hand puppets, rod puppets, and marionettes. That involves 45 00:02:52,720 --> 00:02:56,639 Speaker 1: manipulating an inanimate object in a way to make it 46 00:02:56,680 --> 00:03:00,840 Speaker 1: seem like it has life, that has anima, and that 47 00:03:01,040 --> 00:03:04,200 Speaker 1: you are using some sort of system, whether it's rods 48 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:08,040 Speaker 1: or you know, the puppet is essentially a glove puppet, 49 00:03:08,200 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: or you're using strings with a marionette to create this 50 00:03:11,400 --> 00:03:15,360 Speaker 1: illusion of movement. Well, Disney wanted to create something similar, 51 00:03:15,400 --> 00:03:19,120 Speaker 1: only these would run on a mechanical system that would 52 00:03:19,120 --> 00:03:24,160 Speaker 1: be painstakingly programmed rather than being under the direct control 53 00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,480 Speaker 1: of a human being. Those figures, when they're working properly, 54 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:33,200 Speaker 1: would replicate those same motions and have the same performance 55 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:37,440 Speaker 1: every single time. So the time the character is doing 56 00:03:37,440 --> 00:03:40,800 Speaker 1: a show, it's exactly the way it was the first time. 57 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: So once you perfect a show and you program that 58 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:48,040 Speaker 1: into these these figures, you then have the perfect show 59 00:03:48,680 --> 00:03:52,440 Speaker 1: every single time you run it, assuming everything is working properly. Now, 60 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:55,760 Speaker 1: anyone who has been to Disney enough times knows that's 61 00:03:55,760 --> 00:03:58,120 Speaker 1: a big assumption to make. Sometimes things just don't do, 62 00:03:58,160 --> 00:04:01,440 Speaker 1: not work really well. I'll tell you about one of 63 00:04:01,480 --> 00:04:05,280 Speaker 1: those times that I experienced firsthand later on in this show. 64 00:04:06,640 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: But the technology itself is phenomenal, and even when it 65 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:13,800 Speaker 1: isn't working properly, that does not take away from how 66 00:04:13,880 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: amazing this tech really is, especially when you consider what 67 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:21,440 Speaker 1: people had to work with back in the fifties and 68 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:25,359 Speaker 1: early sixties when they were first developing these systems. It 69 00:04:25,520 --> 00:04:30,719 Speaker 1: is pretty amazing stuff. Now, the reason why Disney wanted 70 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:32,800 Speaker 1: this in the first place is he really loved the 71 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:38,200 Speaker 1: idea of creating a real, three dimensional experience similar to 72 00:04:38,320 --> 00:04:41,440 Speaker 1: what you would get with an animated film. Animated films 73 00:04:41,880 --> 00:04:44,960 Speaker 1: can be perfected right. You can sit there and sketch 74 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:47,719 Speaker 1: it out and get it just right before you release 75 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,080 Speaker 1: it as a movie. He wanted to have that same 76 00:04:50,120 --> 00:04:53,760 Speaker 1: sort of experience, but in the real physical world. He 77 00:04:53,880 --> 00:04:57,920 Speaker 1: was a stickler for perfection, had very very very high standards, 78 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:01,560 Speaker 1: and um and the people who were for him, they 79 00:05:01,640 --> 00:05:04,919 Speaker 1: also would end up having very high standards. Everyone wanted 80 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: to make sure that they met Disney's expectations. Now, You 81 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:14,200 Speaker 1: can find animatronic figures in lots of Disney attractions, including 82 00:05:14,279 --> 00:05:18,200 Speaker 1: the Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, 83 00:05:18,520 --> 00:05:21,520 Speaker 1: Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, the Hall of Presidents, which 84 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:23,719 Speaker 1: would be over at the Magic Kingdom, and Disney World, 85 00:05:24,040 --> 00:05:27,440 Speaker 1: and tons more. There are lots of examples. There are 86 00:05:27,440 --> 00:05:31,520 Speaker 1: also some attractions that had moving figures that didn't use 87 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:35,680 Speaker 1: the audio animatronics system. So, for example, the Jungle Cruise 88 00:05:35,800 --> 00:05:40,320 Speaker 1: ride has animated animal figures. As you ride through, you 89 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:45,520 Speaker 1: see hippopotamuses and crocodiles and elephants, but these were running 90 00:05:45,520 --> 00:05:49,760 Speaker 1: on a very simple mechanical loop system. They were not 91 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:54,400 Speaker 1: specifically audio animatronic. They they worked on something that was 92 00:05:54,440 --> 00:05:58,960 Speaker 1: a little less sophisticated than what would follow. So you 93 00:05:59,040 --> 00:06:04,080 Speaker 1: have both at Disney Parks. And I'm also sad that 94 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 1: I can't have Holly on this episode. Holly, who's one 95 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:10,400 Speaker 1: of the co hosts of Stuff You Missed in History Class. 96 00:06:10,440 --> 00:06:15,120 Speaker 1: Apart from being a brilliant podcaster and an avid historian, 97 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:21,839 Speaker 1: she is an enormous fan of all things Disney and 98 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:24,520 Speaker 1: uh and she doesn't just give me a run for 99 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,719 Speaker 1: my money, she leaves me in the dust. I love Disney. 100 00:06:27,760 --> 00:06:31,320 Speaker 1: I have been to the Disney parks dozens of times, 101 00:06:31,800 --> 00:06:36,599 Speaker 1: but Holly is a step beyond even my own obsession. 102 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:38,640 Speaker 1: So I am sad that I can't have her here 103 00:06:38,720 --> 00:06:42,120 Speaker 1: because I am absolutely certain that she would be here 104 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,599 Speaker 1: dropping nuggets of knowledge and trivia about these various Disney 105 00:06:46,640 --> 00:06:51,239 Speaker 1: attractions that I have yet to uncover. So maybe someday 106 00:06:51,279 --> 00:06:53,240 Speaker 1: I will be able to have Holly on this show, 107 00:06:53,320 --> 00:06:56,960 Speaker 1: and we'll do a Disney oriented episode about some other 108 00:06:57,400 --> 00:07:00,279 Speaker 1: type of tech. In the meantime, there are are some 109 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:04,280 Speaker 1: other podcasts we've done that relate to Disney. I did 110 00:07:04,320 --> 00:07:09,480 Speaker 1: one about the Pepper's Ghost effect, which is used extensively 111 00:07:09,600 --> 00:07:14,760 Speaker 1: in the Haunted Mansion Ride. Pepper's Ghost involves reflective surfaces 112 00:07:15,120 --> 00:07:17,720 Speaker 1: and using lighting in a way so that you can 113 00:07:17,720 --> 00:07:22,000 Speaker 1: create the illusion of a ghostly figure appearing before you, 114 00:07:22,040 --> 00:07:25,240 Speaker 1: but what you're actually looking at is a reflection of 115 00:07:25,280 --> 00:07:29,120 Speaker 1: a physical figure that's just lit in a very bright space, 116 00:07:29,440 --> 00:07:33,720 Speaker 1: whereas you're in a very dark space. Uh. The famous 117 00:07:33,760 --> 00:07:37,080 Speaker 1: ballroom sequence in the Haunted Mansion Ride is a big 118 00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:40,080 Speaker 1: example of Pepper's Ghost. So you can go and check 119 00:07:40,080 --> 00:07:42,360 Speaker 1: out those episodes of tech stuff. If this is not 120 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:46,400 Speaker 1: enough Disney for you. All right, Let's talk specifically about 121 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:49,720 Speaker 1: what I wanted to concentrate on today. To do that, 122 00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,640 Speaker 1: we have to mention Walt Disney because he's central to 123 00:07:53,720 --> 00:07:56,720 Speaker 1: our story. He's kind of our main character if this 124 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:01,640 Speaker 1: were a narrative. His full name was Walter Elias Disney. 125 00:08:01,680 --> 00:08:05,160 Speaker 1: He was born in nineteen o one in Illinois. He 126 00:08:05,200 --> 00:08:08,280 Speaker 1: grew up in Missouri and attended high school in Chicago. 127 00:08:08,920 --> 00:08:12,800 Speaker 1: He was studying art primarily. When he was sixteen, he 128 00:08:12,920 --> 00:08:16,000 Speaker 1: dropped out to join the army, but they rejected him 129 00:08:16,040 --> 00:08:19,160 Speaker 1: because he was too young. He then joined the Red 130 00:08:19,240 --> 00:08:23,600 Speaker 1: Cross and was shipped over to Europe and drove ambulances 131 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:28,040 Speaker 1: during World War One in France. Once he is his 132 00:08:28,080 --> 00:08:31,080 Speaker 1: work with the Red Cross was done over there, he 133 00:08:31,280 --> 00:08:33,960 Speaker 1: moved back to the United States and he began to 134 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:38,160 Speaker 1: work for an ad company. He was making film and animations. 135 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,240 Speaker 1: Uh then he would go on to create his own studio, 136 00:08:42,480 --> 00:08:45,960 Speaker 1: which saw some modest success, but then it ran into 137 00:08:46,000 --> 00:08:49,600 Speaker 1: some hard times and eventually he had to declare bankruptcy 138 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:55,160 Speaker 1: under his first studio. But despite that, he didn't give up. 139 00:08:55,440 --> 00:08:57,920 Speaker 1: He decided to make a go at it again, and 140 00:08:57,960 --> 00:09:01,160 Speaker 1: he and his brother Roy were able to co found 141 00:09:01,320 --> 00:09:05,480 Speaker 1: the Walt Disney Company, and from that moment forward, his 142 00:09:05,559 --> 00:09:08,800 Speaker 1: influence on tech has been considerable, from actual innovations and 143 00:09:08,840 --> 00:09:13,720 Speaker 1: technology to how creators can protect their intellectual property. Now, 144 00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:17,000 Speaker 1: not all of those influences have been met with enthusiasm. 145 00:09:17,160 --> 00:09:20,000 Speaker 1: Disney is one of the reasons why the United States 146 00:09:20,040 --> 00:09:27,280 Speaker 1: has such incredibly extensive intellectual property protection laws, stuff like 147 00:09:27,320 --> 00:09:31,640 Speaker 1: copyright and trademark laws that protect well beyond the lifetime 148 00:09:32,080 --> 00:09:35,600 Speaker 1: of the creator. UH. A lot of that has to 149 00:09:35,679 --> 00:09:40,160 Speaker 1: do with Disney, as a corporate entity, lobbying to extend 150 00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:47,240 Speaker 1: those parameters. So Disney's impact on technology has been enormous 151 00:09:47,280 --> 00:09:52,760 Speaker 1: in both very specific ways that relate to particular technologies 152 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:56,439 Speaker 1: to the way that those technologies are protected under intellectual 153 00:09:56,440 --> 00:10:01,720 Speaker 1: property law. So Disney's use of sound with animation was 154 00:10:01,760 --> 00:10:05,400 Speaker 1: a huge leap forward in the nineteen twenties, Steamboat Willie 155 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,840 Speaker 1: being the first cartoon with sound, and Disney himself voiced 156 00:10:09,480 --> 00:10:13,040 Speaker 1: the iconic character of Mickey Mouse, who struck a chord 157 00:10:13,280 --> 00:10:19,040 Speaker 1: with viewers and propelled Disney into enormous success. Over the 158 00:10:19,040 --> 00:10:22,280 Speaker 1: following decades, he would see a lot more success, including 159 00:10:22,400 --> 00:10:25,360 Speaker 1: going into feature length animation which had not been done before, 160 00:10:25,640 --> 00:10:29,560 Speaker 1: and he was able to uh succeed with snow White 161 00:10:29,559 --> 00:10:32,559 Speaker 1: and the Seven Dwarves, and he also continued to see 162 00:10:32,600 --> 00:10:36,720 Speaker 1: success with short form stuff. Now, depending upon the account 163 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:39,120 Speaker 1: you read, because there are a couple of different versions 164 00:10:39,160 --> 00:10:45,439 Speaker 1: of the story, we actually begin either in France or 165 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:49,400 Speaker 1: the French Quarter in New Orleans. The story goes that 166 00:10:49,440 --> 00:10:53,320 Speaker 1: Disney was on vacation with his family, and as he 167 00:10:53,360 --> 00:10:56,920 Speaker 1: was on vacation, he decided to look into some uh 168 00:10:57,040 --> 00:11:02,600 Speaker 1: some antique shops and he came across some various clockwork toys, 169 00:11:03,400 --> 00:11:06,600 Speaker 1: like wind up birds and that sort of thing. One 170 00:11:06,679 --> 00:11:10,560 Speaker 1: specific toy he came across in an antique shop was 171 00:11:10,760 --> 00:11:13,560 Speaker 1: a bird cage that had a mechanical bird inside of 172 00:11:13,600 --> 00:11:16,439 Speaker 1: it that would chirp and sing, and it would make 173 00:11:16,480 --> 00:11:21,320 Speaker 1: little motions that you could describe as being somewhat robotic. 174 00:11:21,400 --> 00:11:24,199 Speaker 1: They were pretty primitive motions, but you know, close enough 175 00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:26,520 Speaker 1: to being an actual bird that you knew what it was. 176 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: It was. It wasn't like it looked like a a 177 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:34,240 Speaker 1: monstrosity or anything like that. He thought it was absolutely charming, 178 00:11:34,559 --> 00:11:36,760 Speaker 1: and he felt that there was a lot of potential 179 00:11:36,840 --> 00:11:40,320 Speaker 1: there that he could use to create three dimensional physical 180 00:11:40,480 --> 00:11:45,440 Speaker 1: animated figurines potentially and a theme park that was one 181 00:11:45,440 --> 00:11:47,920 Speaker 1: of the things he had been considering around this time, 182 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:53,120 Speaker 1: although Disneyland had not yet become a reality. So he 183 00:11:53,200 --> 00:11:57,400 Speaker 1: brought the antique bird cage with the mechanical bird inside 184 00:11:57,440 --> 00:12:01,120 Speaker 1: of it back to his company and he went to 185 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:05,040 Speaker 1: some of his uh top thinkers over at the Walt 186 00:12:05,080 --> 00:12:08,240 Speaker 1: Disney Company and said, figure out how this thing works. 187 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,560 Speaker 1: So they took it apart, and they took a look 188 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,720 Speaker 1: at it, and they began to formulate ideas of how 189 00:12:14,720 --> 00:12:18,200 Speaker 1: they could create their own technology that would also allow 190 00:12:18,360 --> 00:12:22,960 Speaker 1: for animation of this type sort of this automated puppetry 191 00:12:23,000 --> 00:12:26,520 Speaker 1: that I was talking about now. Disney was really excited 192 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:29,760 Speaker 1: about this prospect of having fully realized, three dimensional characters 193 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:34,760 Speaker 1: capable of delivering a performance consistently. And Jack Gladish, who 194 00:12:34,800 --> 00:12:37,200 Speaker 1: was one of the engineers who would work on developing 195 00:12:37,240 --> 00:12:40,640 Speaker 1: audio animatronic technology, one of many, as it turns out, 196 00:12:41,200 --> 00:12:44,200 Speaker 1: would say that Disney wants joked to him, I'm tired 197 00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,160 Speaker 1: of finicky actors. I want to develop a fully animated, 198 00:12:47,480 --> 00:12:51,520 Speaker 1: articulated human being to use in place of motion picture 199 00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:56,440 Speaker 1: actors and actresses. So this was Disney having a bit 200 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,800 Speaker 1: of fun saying that, Hey, the real reason why I 201 00:12:58,840 --> 00:13:00,760 Speaker 1: want to develop this technolog jeus because then I can 202 00:13:00,800 --> 00:13:03,679 Speaker 1: get rid of all these pesky humans that keep on 203 00:13:03,800 --> 00:13:08,600 Speaker 1: asking questions or having issues, whereas the animatronic ones will 204 00:13:08,640 --> 00:13:11,280 Speaker 1: just do what we tell them to do. And it's 205 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:14,840 Speaker 1: kind of funny because there's another famous director who said 206 00:13:14,880 --> 00:13:21,160 Speaker 1: something very similar about Disney's cast. That famous director was 207 00:13:21,200 --> 00:13:27,160 Speaker 1: Alfred Hitchcock, who of course made incredible films of thriller 208 00:13:27,640 --> 00:13:32,319 Speaker 1: and psychological horror genres, things like The Birds and Psycho, 209 00:13:32,440 --> 00:13:37,520 Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly once said Disney 210 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:40,160 Speaker 1: has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor, 211 00:13:40,320 --> 00:13:45,400 Speaker 1: he just tears him up. So Hitchcock's joke and Disney's 212 00:13:45,480 --> 00:13:48,720 Speaker 1: joke were very similar in that respect, this idea of 213 00:13:48,760 --> 00:13:52,200 Speaker 1: the frustrated director who has to contend with the delicate 214 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:56,280 Speaker 1: sensibilities of actors and actresses. But in truth, Disney just 215 00:13:56,320 --> 00:13:58,439 Speaker 1: thought this was a really cool technology and he saw 216 00:13:58,480 --> 00:14:01,360 Speaker 1: a lot of potential in it, and he was always 217 00:14:01,360 --> 00:14:04,599 Speaker 1: looking at new ways to make use of the immense 218 00:14:04,720 --> 00:14:08,880 Speaker 1: talent he had attracted to the Walt Disney Company. Whereas 219 00:14:08,880 --> 00:14:11,000 Speaker 1: a lot of These people started off in the animation 220 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,680 Speaker 1: department where they were working on various films and shorts 221 00:14:14,679 --> 00:14:18,520 Speaker 1: for Disney. They would eventually move into very different departments 222 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:23,360 Speaker 1: and develop stuff like the actual Disneyland theme park disney 223 00:14:23,360 --> 00:14:28,280 Speaker 1: World later on, as well as visual effects and props 224 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:31,680 Speaker 1: and sets and things of that nature for the various 225 00:14:31,680 --> 00:14:34,360 Speaker 1: live action films that Disney was getting into as well. 226 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:38,080 Speaker 1: So you had people who started off as animators kind 227 00:14:38,080 --> 00:14:42,920 Speaker 1: of specializing in different areas. This was the dawn of 228 00:14:42,960 --> 00:14:46,600 Speaker 1: the imagineering age. There was no such thing as an 229 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:50,880 Speaker 1: imagineer yet, no one had called it that, but eventually 230 00:14:51,480 --> 00:14:54,880 Speaker 1: Disney would end up referring to people who worked in 231 00:14:54,920 --> 00:14:59,200 Speaker 1: this sort of field as imagineers. They were thinking outside 232 00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:04,160 Speaker 1: the box. You using engineering and creativity married together to 233 00:15:04,280 --> 00:15:08,760 Speaker 1: create really interesting experiences that you could not find anywhere else. 234 00:15:08,880 --> 00:15:12,240 Speaker 1: That was the value that Disney wanted to create to 235 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:16,120 Speaker 1: justify charging people admission to come and check it out. 236 00:15:17,160 --> 00:15:23,200 Speaker 1: So he was really excited about this potential opportunity, and 237 00:15:23,280 --> 00:15:26,160 Speaker 1: he had a lot of potential ways of using this 238 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,000 Speaker 1: technology already at this time. He was he was thinking ahead. 239 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:32,680 Speaker 1: One of those was the fact that he wanted to 240 00:15:32,720 --> 00:15:36,280 Speaker 1: open up an amusement park that would eventually become Disneyland. 241 00:15:36,640 --> 00:15:39,000 Speaker 1: He thought, well, I need to have attractions for people 242 00:15:39,040 --> 00:15:42,400 Speaker 1: to come and experience at this park, and he thought 243 00:15:42,440 --> 00:15:47,200 Speaker 1: this technology could potentially provide some of those experiences. He 244 00:15:47,360 --> 00:15:53,560 Speaker 1: also had an ability to contribute to a massive event 245 00:15:53,640 --> 00:15:55,960 Speaker 1: that would happen in the mid nineteen sixties, that is, 246 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:00,440 Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty four World's Fair in New York that 247 00:16:00,560 --> 00:16:03,520 Speaker 1: was going to end up requiring a lot of work 248 00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:07,120 Speaker 1: on Disney's part. Years in advance, he knew that he 249 00:16:07,160 --> 00:16:12,320 Speaker 1: was going to be providing for attractions for this World's Fair, 250 00:16:13,200 --> 00:16:15,680 Speaker 1: and he knew that the entire attention of the world 251 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:18,920 Speaker 1: was going to be on New York for this event. 252 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:22,280 Speaker 1: So he wanted to make absolutely certain that the attractions 253 00:16:22,320 --> 00:16:27,120 Speaker 1: that his company designed were phenomenal and unlike anything anyone 254 00:16:27,160 --> 00:16:30,600 Speaker 1: had ever experienced. And for that he needed to pioneer 255 00:16:30,720 --> 00:16:35,160 Speaker 1: a new technology. So all he had to do from 256 00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:41,040 Speaker 1: that point forward it was just invented, No big shakes, right, 257 00:16:42,880 --> 00:16:47,880 Speaker 1: So to start. One of the earliest experiments with this 258 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:52,840 Speaker 1: idea of animating a three dimensional figure was what would 259 00:16:52,840 --> 00:16:56,880 Speaker 1: eventually be called the Dancing Man or the Little Man project. 260 00:16:58,840 --> 00:17:01,680 Speaker 1: This would be of a figure that measured about nine 261 00:17:01,720 --> 00:17:06,040 Speaker 1: inches tall and was meant to dance based upon this 262 00:17:06,600 --> 00:17:11,320 Speaker 1: automated system, or mechanical system at least if not fully automated. 263 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:15,800 Speaker 1: The story goes that Walt Disney approached the artist Ken Anderson, 264 00:17:15,880 --> 00:17:19,720 Speaker 1: who was working for Disney. Anderson would become instrumental for 265 00:17:19,840 --> 00:17:27,040 Speaker 1: the design and implementation of various elements in Disneyland, and 266 00:17:27,040 --> 00:17:29,040 Speaker 1: he said, you know, you know what, You're working on 267 00:17:29,080 --> 00:17:30,639 Speaker 1: a lot of stuff, but I wanna I want to 268 00:17:30,680 --> 00:17:33,160 Speaker 1: pay you out of my own pocket for a project 269 00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,640 Speaker 1: that I really believe in that's not really a company 270 00:17:35,680 --> 00:17:39,879 Speaker 1: project yet. I want to create scenes that evoke the 271 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:44,679 Speaker 1: American way of life. And Disney had a very idyllic 272 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: sense of what that meant. That small town feel that 273 00:17:49,359 --> 00:17:52,600 Speaker 1: you get when you walk down Main Street, USA. If 274 00:17:52,640 --> 00:17:55,560 Speaker 1: you're ever at Disneyland or disney World and you're walking 275 00:17:55,560 --> 00:17:58,359 Speaker 1: down Main Street, especially if you're doing it at a 276 00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:01,560 Speaker 1: time when there's not a huge crowd there, it evokes 277 00:18:01,600 --> 00:18:06,400 Speaker 1: the sense of a small town maybe early nineteen hundreds, 278 00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:08,639 Speaker 1: around the time when Walt Disney himself would have been 279 00:18:08,640 --> 00:18:14,199 Speaker 1: growing up, where things appeared to be simple and elegant. 280 00:18:15,280 --> 00:18:17,960 Speaker 1: That's what Disney wanted to create, and so he talked 281 00:18:17,960 --> 00:18:20,280 Speaker 1: to Anderson, said, I want to have this idea of 282 00:18:20,359 --> 00:18:23,919 Speaker 1: building this kind of experience in miniature where people can 283 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:27,440 Speaker 1: look at the different manatures we design and different elements 284 00:18:27,560 --> 00:18:30,800 Speaker 1: of it actually come to life. So at first he 285 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:34,479 Speaker 1: wanted to get some paintings, some sketches of this. So 286 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:36,720 Speaker 1: Anderson got to work and one of the first things 287 00:18:36,720 --> 00:18:41,880 Speaker 1: he created was a Norman Rockwell esque scene of a 288 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:46,320 Speaker 1: soft shoe dancer performing on a stage, a small stage, 289 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: so something that you might see in an old Vaudevillian theater, 290 00:18:51,440 --> 00:18:55,359 Speaker 1: and Disney immediately connected to it. He thought, that's exactly 291 00:18:55,400 --> 00:18:58,800 Speaker 1: what I wanted to see. And he felt that this 292 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:01,840 Speaker 1: was a figure that if they could create a three 293 00:19:01,840 --> 00:19:05,080 Speaker 1: dimensional version of it and build it in a miniature 294 00:19:05,160 --> 00:19:08,040 Speaker 1: set and it could move around and do its little 295 00:19:08,119 --> 00:19:11,679 Speaker 1: dance routine for people, that would be phenomenal. So he 296 00:19:11,760 --> 00:19:17,119 Speaker 1: took Anderson's design, and he then decided to UH to 297 00:19:17,240 --> 00:19:20,440 Speaker 1: work with a couple of other folks over at Disney. 298 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:24,919 Speaker 1: He UH went to a sculptor who was working for 299 00:19:24,960 --> 00:19:27,639 Speaker 1: the company at the time. As a sculptor's name was 300 00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:35,720 Speaker 1: Charles Clarence Christodoro and Christodorro's dad was a famous agricultural 301 00:19:36,040 --> 00:19:40,360 Speaker 1: scientist and farmer who had written extensively about agriculture. Christodorro 302 00:19:40,480 --> 00:19:45,000 Speaker 1: himself had become a notable sculptor, working both in the 303 00:19:45,040 --> 00:19:49,640 Speaker 1: public spaces, designing statues that were shown in San Diego 304 00:19:49,800 --> 00:19:52,879 Speaker 1: and other areas of California, and also working in the 305 00:19:52,880 --> 00:19:56,000 Speaker 1: movie industry. He had worked for Disney once during the 306 00:19:56,040 --> 00:19:58,919 Speaker 1: nineteen thirties, left the company, and then came back in 307 00:19:58,920 --> 00:20:03,000 Speaker 1: the early nineteen fIF these. He was given the sketch 308 00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:06,200 Speaker 1: and told to make a physical model of the dancer, 309 00:20:06,720 --> 00:20:10,160 Speaker 1: which he did. He sculpted a physical model based upon 310 00:20:10,320 --> 00:20:15,320 Speaker 1: the the Ken Anderson painting and gave that to Disney. 311 00:20:15,359 --> 00:20:18,439 Speaker 1: Disney then took the model over to the machine shop, 312 00:20:18,800 --> 00:20:21,439 Speaker 1: and he also brought in the animation department. Now, right 313 00:20:21,480 --> 00:20:22,960 Speaker 1: now seems like it would be a good time to 314 00:20:22,960 --> 00:20:27,120 Speaker 1: summarize all the areas that came together to make audio 315 00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:30,440 Speaker 1: animatronics even possible. And I realized I haven't even gotten 316 00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:33,000 Speaker 1: to what audio animatronics can do and how they do it. 317 00:20:33,560 --> 00:20:35,880 Speaker 1: But it's important to understand the different departments to kind 318 00:20:35,880 --> 00:20:39,520 Speaker 1: of get a grip on why it was so complicated 319 00:20:39,560 --> 00:20:42,840 Speaker 1: and why it called for a multidisciplinary approach, because that's 320 00:20:42,880 --> 00:20:48,000 Speaker 1: exactly what audio animatronics were. It required people of vastly 321 00:20:48,119 --> 00:20:52,920 Speaker 1: different disciplines and knowledge base in order to make this happen. So, 322 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,840 Speaker 1: in no particular order, here are some of the departments 323 00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:02,399 Speaker 1: at Disney that worked on pioneering audio animatronics. First, there 324 00:21:02,440 --> 00:21:05,240 Speaker 1: was the Sound Department. Now it might seem weird that 325 00:21:05,280 --> 00:21:10,240 Speaker 1: I'm starting with the sound department instead of the Mechanical 326 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,480 Speaker 1: Shop or animation, but the reason for that is the 327 00:21:14,520 --> 00:21:18,520 Speaker 1: Sound department was in charge of the audio animatronic projects 328 00:21:18,520 --> 00:21:24,120 Speaker 1: because those depended so heavily on that audio component. I'll 329 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:28,280 Speaker 1: explain more about how in a little bit. The Sound 330 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:33,400 Speaker 1: department was ultimately the one that was holding onto the project, 331 00:21:33,400 --> 00:21:38,280 Speaker 1: the project leader that was the head of development. This 332 00:21:38,320 --> 00:21:42,239 Speaker 1: would end up actually causing some issues later on. There 333 00:21:42,240 --> 00:21:44,919 Speaker 1: would be some disagreements between the Sound Department and some 334 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:49,160 Speaker 1: other departments, and they were run by different unions, which 335 00:21:49,200 --> 00:21:52,480 Speaker 1: also meant that they would run into these weird problems. 336 00:21:52,520 --> 00:21:55,000 Speaker 1: There was a story in one of the articles I 337 00:21:55,080 --> 00:22:01,239 Speaker 1: read about how the mechanical department, the Mechanic Shop, they 338 00:22:01,320 --> 00:22:04,439 Speaker 1: might be working on an audio animatronic figure and they 339 00:22:04,480 --> 00:22:06,679 Speaker 1: would need to disconnect it so that they can make 340 00:22:06,720 --> 00:22:10,480 Speaker 1: an adjustment before reconnecting it. But they weren't allowed to 341 00:22:10,520 --> 00:22:14,760 Speaker 1: actually disconnect the figure because that was a union job 342 00:22:14,880 --> 00:22:17,280 Speaker 1: that one of the sound department guys would have to do. 343 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:19,320 Speaker 1: So they'd have to go and get someone from the 344 00:22:19,320 --> 00:22:23,520 Speaker 1: sound department to come over to the machine shop disconnect 345 00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,440 Speaker 1: a tube, wait until the mechanical shop people had made 346 00:22:27,440 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 1: their adjustments, reconnect the tube, and then they could proceed. 347 00:22:31,320 --> 00:22:35,000 Speaker 1: By union rules, the machine shop folks were not allowed 348 00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,440 Speaker 1: to do that on their own, so it got very 349 00:22:37,480 --> 00:22:43,320 Speaker 1: frustrating at times. Then you've got the Animation Department Disney, 350 00:22:43,359 --> 00:22:46,000 Speaker 1: of course famous for animation. This was the group of 351 00:22:46,080 --> 00:22:49,240 Speaker 1: artists who had studied movement extensively. If you're going to 352 00:22:49,280 --> 00:22:52,639 Speaker 1: animate movement, you have to understand how movement works, or 353 00:22:52,680 --> 00:22:55,000 Speaker 1: else you can't replicate it properly and it's not going 354 00:22:55,040 --> 00:22:58,399 Speaker 1: to look right when you watch an animated film. And 355 00:22:58,480 --> 00:23:02,920 Speaker 1: more importantly, they had been studying animated movement in film itself. 356 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:06,280 Speaker 1: As it turns out, film or at least magnetic tape, 357 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:10,280 Speaker 1: would become incredibly important with audio animatronics. They leverage their 358 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:13,119 Speaker 1: expertise to help design not just the physical objects that 359 00:23:13,160 --> 00:23:17,640 Speaker 1: would be animated and the actual motions those objects would make, 360 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:23,840 Speaker 1: but also the very technique for programming the objects, and 361 00:23:23,840 --> 00:23:26,960 Speaker 1: i'll explain more about that in a little bit. Then 362 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:29,720 Speaker 1: you had the modeling department. These were the people who 363 00:23:29,720 --> 00:23:33,320 Speaker 1: would make three dimensional models and sculptures of the various 364 00:23:33,440 --> 00:23:36,200 Speaker 1: components that you wanted so that other departments could use 365 00:23:36,240 --> 00:23:39,399 Speaker 1: that as a reference. And then you had the machine shop. 366 00:23:39,920 --> 00:23:43,200 Speaker 1: The machine department had to fabricate all the physical pieces 367 00:23:43,240 --> 00:23:47,080 Speaker 1: that would be used in these various figures, and then 368 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:49,760 Speaker 1: you also had props and costumes that would end up 369 00:23:49,960 --> 00:23:53,639 Speaker 1: outfitting these different figures. So there are a lot of 370 00:23:53,640 --> 00:23:59,919 Speaker 1: different moving parts, both metaphorically and literally, as it turns 371 00:24:00,040 --> 00:24:02,639 Speaker 1: out when you get to audio animatronics, in order to 372 00:24:02,640 --> 00:24:05,560 Speaker 1: make it possible, and all of those groups had their 373 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:08,920 Speaker 1: own leaders and their own priorities, but the fact that 374 00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:11,399 Speaker 1: they were able to collaborate and create a system as 375 00:24:11,440 --> 00:24:15,000 Speaker 1: intricate as audio animatronics is pretty amazing all on its own. 376 00:24:15,520 --> 00:24:18,600 Speaker 1: And we haven't even gotten to the technology yet. So 377 00:24:19,440 --> 00:24:21,760 Speaker 1: I want to get to that technology, and I will 378 00:24:21,840 --> 00:24:25,560 Speaker 1: in just a moment, but first let's take a quick 379 00:24:25,600 --> 00:24:35,000 Speaker 1: break and thank our sponsor all right. So you got 380 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,240 Speaker 1: the machine shop and they were creating the Dancing Man 381 00:24:38,480 --> 00:24:42,879 Speaker 1: or the Little Man, and Disney decided that he needed 382 00:24:42,880 --> 00:24:46,200 Speaker 1: to have someone in charge of figuring out the animation 383 00:24:46,480 --> 00:24:48,600 Speaker 1: for this, like figuring out what moves would need to 384 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:51,680 Speaker 1: be animated, so he tapped a guy named Waffle Rogers 385 00:24:52,119 --> 00:24:54,560 Speaker 1: to work on the animation for it Now. Rogers was 386 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:58,000 Speaker 1: born in Stratton, Colorado, in nine and he was a 387 00:24:58,080 --> 00:25:01,880 Speaker 1: sculptor and engineer. He attended an art institute in Los 388 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:04,560 Speaker 1: Angeles and was recruited directly out of school to the 389 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:07,879 Speaker 1: Walt Disney Studios in nineteen thirty nine. He worked as 390 00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:12,399 Speaker 1: an animator on films like Pinocchio and Bambi. During World 391 00:25:12,400 --> 00:25:15,760 Speaker 1: War Two, he took leave of the Disney Company and 392 00:25:15,840 --> 00:25:18,280 Speaker 1: served in the United States Marine Corps as a staff 393 00:25:18,359 --> 00:25:22,119 Speaker 1: sergeant in the photographic section. And when he wasn't animating, 394 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:25,680 Speaker 1: he was tinkering. He was creating toys and model trains, 395 00:25:26,119 --> 00:25:29,959 Speaker 1: and Walt Disney was also a model train fanatic. He 396 00:25:30,040 --> 00:25:33,600 Speaker 1: loved model trains, including trains large enough to ride on, 397 00:25:34,080 --> 00:25:37,280 Speaker 1: and he had a couple at his at his property, 398 00:25:37,480 --> 00:25:41,760 Speaker 1: like he had a private little railroad track because he 399 00:25:42,119 --> 00:25:46,040 Speaker 1: just loved trains, and he loved that romantic image of 400 00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:49,800 Speaker 1: travel by train. Um a lot of the things that 401 00:25:49,840 --> 00:25:52,480 Speaker 1: Disney worked on he worked on while he was traveling 402 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:57,520 Speaker 1: via train, So he and Rogers had a lot of 403 00:25:57,960 --> 00:26:01,040 Speaker 1: common ground there. And Disney thought that Rogers had a 404 00:26:01,040 --> 00:26:06,560 Speaker 1: lot of potential to work on actual physical implementations, not 405 00:26:06,960 --> 00:26:11,159 Speaker 1: just animation, so he began to rely on Rogers to 406 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:14,359 Speaker 1: sculpt objects for live action pictures, and in nineteen fifty 407 00:26:14,400 --> 00:26:17,280 Speaker 1: four he tapped Rodgers to help design buildings for Disneyland, 408 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:21,119 Speaker 1: so Rogers went from animator to kind of almost like 409 00:26:21,119 --> 00:26:24,760 Speaker 1: an architect. Rogers would also become a chief contributor to 410 00:26:24,800 --> 00:26:28,040 Speaker 1: this audio animatronics project. In fact, some would argue that 411 00:26:28,080 --> 00:26:30,720 Speaker 1: he was, essentially, when you got down to it, the 412 00:26:30,920 --> 00:26:36,440 Speaker 1: lead audio animatronic engineer. He is also immortalized by the 413 00:26:36,480 --> 00:26:40,879 Speaker 1: way at Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. You can find his 414 00:26:41,000 --> 00:26:43,919 Speaker 1: tombstone there. One of the tombstones has a name that 415 00:26:44,160 --> 00:26:48,880 Speaker 1: is a and homage to him. It was created while 416 00:26:48,880 --> 00:26:54,800 Speaker 1: he was still alive. Uh. The tombstone reads, here rests Wattle, 417 00:26:54,840 --> 00:26:59,720 Speaker 1: our bender. He rode to Glory on a fender peaceful. 418 00:27:01,280 --> 00:27:04,679 Speaker 1: So what his actual name was Rogers, not Bender. That's 419 00:27:04,760 --> 00:27:08,719 Speaker 1: in honor of him now as a reference. Disney decided 420 00:27:08,760 --> 00:27:11,600 Speaker 1: to bring in an actor to actually perform a soft 421 00:27:11,720 --> 00:27:14,880 Speaker 1: shoe routine, and they were going to shoot this actor 422 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:18,760 Speaker 1: with film film cameras, not actually shoot the actor, even 423 00:27:18,920 --> 00:27:21,840 Speaker 1: Disney would not do something so brazen as that, but 424 00:27:22,000 --> 00:27:24,800 Speaker 1: rather to film the actor as he was doing the 425 00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:28,400 Speaker 1: soft shoe routine against a background that was a grid, 426 00:27:28,840 --> 00:27:32,639 Speaker 1: so that the animators could review the footage, use the 427 00:27:32,640 --> 00:27:36,320 Speaker 1: grid as reference points, watch every little motion, and try 428 00:27:36,359 --> 00:27:38,360 Speaker 1: and figure out how they were going to translate that 429 00:27:38,480 --> 00:27:42,120 Speaker 1: into animation when they built this system that they were 430 00:27:42,119 --> 00:27:46,120 Speaker 1: working on. The actor that they got, by the way, 431 00:27:46,240 --> 00:27:49,840 Speaker 1: was Buddy Epson, who was originally going to play the 432 00:27:49,920 --> 00:27:52,400 Speaker 1: role of the Tin Man in the nineteen thirty nine 433 00:27:52,400 --> 00:27:56,199 Speaker 1: Wizard of Oz masterpiece, but Ebson ended up having a 434 00:27:56,240 --> 00:27:59,680 Speaker 1: massive allergic reaction to the aluminum makeup that was used 435 00:27:59,680 --> 00:28:03,639 Speaker 1: for the Tin Woodsman, and so he would end up 436 00:28:03,640 --> 00:28:07,000 Speaker 1: being replaced by Jack Haley. However, you can actually still 437 00:28:07,000 --> 00:28:11,160 Speaker 1: hear Ebsen's voice in the Wizard of Oz. Uh it's 438 00:28:11,240 --> 00:28:13,919 Speaker 1: his voice in the song We're off to see the 439 00:28:13,960 --> 00:28:18,600 Speaker 1: Wizard that Dorothy Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman sing after 440 00:28:18,680 --> 00:28:21,560 Speaker 1: they've rescued the Tin Woodsman, so that that bit where 441 00:28:22,080 --> 00:28:25,600 Speaker 1: there skipping off into the distance. The voice you hear 442 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,960 Speaker 1: is not Jack Hayley's, it's Buddy Ebsen. Uh. He also, 443 00:28:29,080 --> 00:28:31,879 Speaker 1: by the way, played Jed clamp It in The Beverly Hillbillies, 444 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,080 Speaker 1: so if you ever watched that television series, he was 445 00:28:34,160 --> 00:28:37,280 Speaker 1: Jed clamp It. Ebsen was a song and dance man 446 00:28:37,400 --> 00:28:40,040 Speaker 1: back in the day, so it was a natural choice 447 00:28:40,160 --> 00:28:41,880 Speaker 1: for Disney to bring him on. He would end up 448 00:28:41,880 --> 00:28:48,800 Speaker 1: working on several Disney UH initiatives, including hum Davy Crockett, 449 00:28:49,280 --> 00:28:51,920 Speaker 1: but for this he just got up. He did a 450 00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,880 Speaker 1: soft shoe routine. They took several takes of it, and 451 00:28:54,920 --> 00:28:57,360 Speaker 1: they used that to be their reference that the animators 452 00:28:57,360 --> 00:28:59,840 Speaker 1: could use and that the machine shop could use to 453 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,480 Speaker 1: make sure that the pieces they designed would be capable 454 00:29:03,640 --> 00:29:07,760 Speaker 1: of replicating all the different motions that would be necessary. Now, 455 00:29:08,200 --> 00:29:10,920 Speaker 1: ideally you would be able to create pieces that did 456 00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:14,240 Speaker 1: exactly what you needed and nothing else. Because if you 457 00:29:14,320 --> 00:29:18,200 Speaker 1: design a figure to do moves that it doesn't need 458 00:29:18,240 --> 00:29:22,240 Speaker 1: to replicate, that's time you wasted on that effort. Because 459 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:25,160 Speaker 1: no one's ever going to see it, so ideally you 460 00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:28,080 Speaker 1: figure out exactly what you need and you designed for 461 00:29:28,280 --> 00:29:33,440 Speaker 1: that specifically. Now, one of the mechanical engineers who was 462 00:29:33,480 --> 00:29:40,360 Speaker 1: working on this project was Roger Edward Braggy technically Rogert E. Braggy, Sr. 463 00:29:40,520 --> 00:29:43,560 Speaker 1: His son was also working for Disney and would become 464 00:29:43,560 --> 00:29:47,120 Speaker 1: an imagineer. Braggy had moved to California from Chicago in 465 00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:50,240 Speaker 1: the late nineteen twenties with experience in machine shop training. 466 00:29:50,400 --> 00:29:54,840 Speaker 1: He joined Disney in nineteen nine, so he was originally 467 00:29:54,880 --> 00:29:57,360 Speaker 1: working on some of their live action films. He helped 468 00:29:57,400 --> 00:30:00,640 Speaker 1: design special effects for twenty thousand leagues under this see 469 00:30:00,680 --> 00:30:03,280 Speaker 1: he also helped Walt Disney build some of those model 470 00:30:03,360 --> 00:30:07,120 Speaker 1: trains for his personal collection, and Broggy was one of 471 00:30:07,160 --> 00:30:11,120 Speaker 1: the engineers working on this Dancing Man project. He would 472 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:15,920 Speaker 1: later say that was a huge challenge in part because Ebsen, 473 00:30:16,240 --> 00:30:18,600 Speaker 1: when he did his soft shoe routine for the cameras, 474 00:30:19,320 --> 00:30:23,680 Speaker 1: never repeated movements in the routine. So all the movements 475 00:30:23,680 --> 00:30:28,560 Speaker 1: he did were original and not patterned. They weren't repetition, 476 00:30:29,280 --> 00:30:32,080 Speaker 1: and that's difficult if you're an animator. You would like 477 00:30:32,200 --> 00:30:35,240 Speaker 1: to have that repetition because you can design it once 478 00:30:35,680 --> 00:30:38,680 Speaker 1: and then essentially cut and paste it and use it again. 479 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:43,000 Speaker 1: But if everything is new, then you have to design 480 00:30:43,040 --> 00:30:45,479 Speaker 1: it from scratch all the way through. It made their 481 00:30:45,600 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: job more difficult. Ultimately, they produced this nine inch tall 482 00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,240 Speaker 1: figure and they used cables to attach to various points 483 00:30:54,240 --> 00:30:57,840 Speaker 1: on the figure. And this was controlled by external machinery. 484 00:30:57,920 --> 00:31:00,840 Speaker 1: So you would have one amounts to a very complex 485 00:31:00,880 --> 00:31:05,640 Speaker 1: gearbox that used cams and cables in order to control 486 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,560 Speaker 1: the figure. Now, a cam in case you don't know 487 00:31:08,600 --> 00:31:11,600 Speaker 1: what that term is, it's a rotating or sliding piece 488 00:31:11,600 --> 00:31:16,280 Speaker 1: of machinery, particularly used to transform rotary motion into linear 489 00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:20,560 Speaker 1: motion or vice versa. So in other words, you can 490 00:31:20,800 --> 00:31:24,920 Speaker 1: turn a rotational motion into a back and forth or 491 00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:28,400 Speaker 1: up and down motion a linear one using these, or 492 00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:31,520 Speaker 1: you can use a linear motion to create a rotational motion. 493 00:31:31,560 --> 00:31:35,280 Speaker 1: If you have heard the term camshaft in vehicles, that's 494 00:31:35,320 --> 00:31:39,760 Speaker 1: what a camshaft does. Uh. This was not yet an 495 00:31:39,800 --> 00:31:43,920 Speaker 1: example of audio animatronics. This figure, it didn't quite work 496 00:31:43,920 --> 00:31:46,720 Speaker 1: on a full audio animatronic system, but it did help 497 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:49,959 Speaker 1: plot the course for the next innovation. And Disney, not 498 00:31:50,520 --> 00:31:53,920 Speaker 1: satisfied with creating this nine inch tall figure, wanted to 499 00:31:53,960 --> 00:31:59,000 Speaker 1: create something more complicated. His next thought was a barbershop quartet, 500 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:03,000 Speaker 1: a little chanical barbershop quartet that could move and dance 501 00:32:03,040 --> 00:32:06,080 Speaker 1: and sing. He wanted to sing Sweet add a line. 502 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:10,840 Speaker 1: But the system that the machine shop had created wasn't 503 00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:16,840 Speaker 1: really sufficient because the dancing figure couldn't make very subtle movements. 504 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:20,200 Speaker 1: It was all because all or nothing really. With each 505 00:32:20,200 --> 00:32:22,280 Speaker 1: of the movements this thing made, it jerked around a lot, 506 00:32:22,280 --> 00:32:25,920 Speaker 1: and it wasn't really a lifelike representation. The mechanism that 507 00:32:25,960 --> 00:32:27,880 Speaker 1: controlled the figure had to be within a couple of 508 00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:31,120 Speaker 1: feet of it, So this gearbox essentially had to be 509 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:34,720 Speaker 1: really close to the dancing figure. Uh, which meant that 510 00:32:34,760 --> 00:32:37,800 Speaker 1: you had spatial issues you had to take into accounts. 511 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:41,680 Speaker 1: So Disney's original thought was this could be an attraction 512 00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,920 Speaker 1: where maybe you walk up to a cabinet, you plunk 513 00:32:44,960 --> 00:32:48,760 Speaker 1: a quarter in, a little curtain draws back, and you 514 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:53,200 Speaker 1: see this dancing figure dance for a quarter, and then 515 00:32:53,280 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: once it's done, the curtain draws close and you move on. 516 00:32:57,520 --> 00:33:02,240 Speaker 1: But the mechanic said, well, here's the problem. The amount 517 00:33:02,240 --> 00:33:04,440 Speaker 1: of money it took to develop this and the amount 518 00:33:04,440 --> 00:33:07,160 Speaker 1: of money it will take to maintain it. You will 519 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:11,720 Speaker 1: never recapture by going a quarter of you. Cents of 520 00:33:11,800 --> 00:33:13,600 Speaker 1: you is not going to cut it, and you can't 521 00:33:13,640 --> 00:33:16,280 Speaker 1: really go more expensive than that because at the time 522 00:33:16,840 --> 00:33:20,920 Speaker 1: cents was, you know, not insignificant amount of money. And 523 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:25,480 Speaker 1: keep in mind, this is the nineteen fifties, so these 524 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:28,000 Speaker 1: initial attempts to create an animated figure in real life 525 00:33:28,040 --> 00:33:31,080 Speaker 1: had kind of stalled out, but plans for Disneyland were 526 00:33:31,120 --> 00:33:34,360 Speaker 1: continuing at the same time. The park opened in July 527 00:33:34,560 --> 00:33:38,080 Speaker 1: nineteen fifty five, but the first attraction to use audio 528 00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:42,800 Speaker 1: animatronics would follow in five years. That was a ride 529 00:33:42,840 --> 00:33:46,280 Speaker 1: called the Mind Train through Nature's Wonderland, which opened in 530 00:33:46,400 --> 00:33:50,200 Speaker 1: May nineteen sixty. And this was able to take advantage 531 00:33:50,240 --> 00:33:52,640 Speaker 1: of something that some of the engineers had noticed. They said, 532 00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:56,000 Speaker 1: you know, these small figures, they require all these cams 533 00:33:56,040 --> 00:33:58,680 Speaker 1: and cables and everything has to be external. We have 534 00:33:58,760 --> 00:34:03,120 Speaker 1: to build the actual power system outside of the figure, 535 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:06,120 Speaker 1: so you've always got to figure out how to mask 536 00:34:06,360 --> 00:34:08,880 Speaker 1: all the cables that are running up to the figure. 537 00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:12,840 Speaker 1: If we make the figures larger life size, then we 538 00:34:12,880 --> 00:34:15,880 Speaker 1: can store a lot of these mechanical components inside the 539 00:34:15,920 --> 00:34:20,080 Speaker 1: figures themselves. It won't have to be externally controlled. You 540 00:34:20,120 --> 00:34:23,760 Speaker 1: could actually build these figures that they have the internal parts, 541 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:26,719 Speaker 1: and that's so you have a lot more freedom to 542 00:34:26,920 --> 00:34:29,479 Speaker 1: stage them the way you want to. And this really 543 00:34:29,520 --> 00:34:32,520 Speaker 1: appealed to Disney. So one of the first implementations they 544 00:34:32,560 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: had was this Mind Train through Nature's Wonderland. Now that 545 00:34:37,719 --> 00:34:40,880 Speaker 1: ride might sound unfamiliar to you if you've been to 546 00:34:40,960 --> 00:34:43,840 Speaker 1: Disneyland and you're wondering where the Mind Trained through Nature's 547 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:47,040 Speaker 1: Wonderland ride is. Well, it used to be where Big 548 00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:49,920 Speaker 1: Thunder Mountain is now, so Big Thunder Mountain is a 549 00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:52,799 Speaker 1: totally different kind of train ride. The Mind Train through 550 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:56,160 Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland was a slow moving ride that puts you 551 00:34:56,239 --> 00:35:00,239 Speaker 1: through various scenes that were inspired by the West Stern 552 00:35:00,400 --> 00:35:03,880 Speaker 1: United States of America. It was kind of the Western 553 00:35:04,080 --> 00:35:07,400 Speaker 1: version of Jungle Cruise. So if you've ever been on 554 00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:09,440 Speaker 1: the Jungle Cruise, that's a boat ride where you go 555 00:35:09,600 --> 00:35:15,720 Speaker 1: through areas have been inspired by India and Africa. The 556 00:35:15,800 --> 00:35:18,520 Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland was similar, except it was a train ride 557 00:35:18,640 --> 00:35:23,399 Speaker 1: through the Western US inspired areas and included things like 558 00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:27,160 Speaker 1: bears playing around in a pond. Now, that was the 559 00:35:27,200 --> 00:35:31,680 Speaker 1: first attraction to feature audio animatronics, and I guess now 560 00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,160 Speaker 1: as good a time as any as to explain what 561 00:35:34,239 --> 00:35:40,960 Speaker 1: audio animatronics are. Audio animatronics take on these mechanical figures 562 00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,759 Speaker 1: that you can power in various ways, and they pair 563 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:48,000 Speaker 1: it with a system that is programmable that uses audio 564 00:35:48,560 --> 00:35:52,640 Speaker 1: as its method of transmitting information and taking the information 565 00:35:52,719 --> 00:35:57,840 Speaker 1: and turning it into action. So everything is based off sound, 566 00:35:58,760 --> 00:36:00,839 Speaker 1: which is kind of weird to think about it, but 567 00:36:01,280 --> 00:36:04,279 Speaker 1: you would store the information on these massive cassettes, these 568 00:36:04,320 --> 00:36:08,280 Speaker 1: magnetic tapes. Really they're magnetic reels. They weren't really cassettes. 569 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:11,160 Speaker 1: So you take magnetic reels of tape and you would 570 00:36:11,239 --> 00:36:15,480 Speaker 1: encode information in sound on the tape, and when you 571 00:36:15,560 --> 00:36:20,920 Speaker 1: played it back, that's what would create the uh, it's 572 00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:24,680 Speaker 1: what would allow circuits to be completed to create the movement. 573 00:36:24,760 --> 00:36:27,600 Speaker 1: You see now, how that all works, It requires a 574 00:36:27,640 --> 00:36:32,239 Speaker 1: bit more of a deeper dive. First of all, the 575 00:36:32,320 --> 00:36:36,880 Speaker 1: earliest audio animatronic systems were digital. Now by that, I 576 00:36:36,880 --> 00:36:41,960 Speaker 1: don't mean they were computer systems. This is purely mechanical approach. 577 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,560 Speaker 1: It's not electronic, it's not uh, you know, there's no 578 00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:50,680 Speaker 1: microprocessors or transistors. It's all mechanical elements. But it is 579 00:36:50,800 --> 00:36:53,600 Speaker 1: digital in the sense that it's binary and that you 580 00:36:53,640 --> 00:36:57,120 Speaker 1: have two positions, you have on and off. That meant 581 00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:00,680 Speaker 1: that any emotion you wanted to make had only two 582 00:37:00,680 --> 00:37:08,120 Speaker 1: outcomes arrest position, which would be whatever it started off as. 583 00:37:08,440 --> 00:37:11,120 Speaker 1: So let's take let's say that it's a human figure 584 00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:14,640 Speaker 1: that you're trying to animate, and one of your animations 585 00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:17,759 Speaker 1: is your human figure needs to turn her head to 586 00:37:17,840 --> 00:37:22,800 Speaker 1: the left, So in the off position, in the rest position, 587 00:37:23,360 --> 00:37:27,880 Speaker 1: she's just staring straight forward and isn't moving. When you 588 00:37:27,920 --> 00:37:32,080 Speaker 1: activate a circuit, then she moves her head to the left, 589 00:37:33,120 --> 00:37:37,080 Speaker 1: but she can't halfway move her head to the left. 590 00:37:37,080 --> 00:37:39,399 Speaker 1: She can't move it a quarter of the way. It's 591 00:37:39,440 --> 00:37:42,280 Speaker 1: either all the way to the left, as far as 592 00:37:42,280 --> 00:37:46,520 Speaker 1: her freedom of movement allows, or it's in the that 593 00:37:46,640 --> 00:37:49,919 Speaker 1: rest position. That's it, those two positions on or off, 594 00:37:50,040 --> 00:37:54,120 Speaker 1: zero or one. That's why we call it digital. This 595 00:37:54,200 --> 00:37:57,040 Speaker 1: was a little primitive. It limited what the animators could do. 596 00:37:57,160 --> 00:37:59,920 Speaker 1: They could not put in subtle movements, so it was 597 00:38:00,080 --> 00:38:04,319 Speaker 1: good for certain types of audio animatronics early on, but 598 00:38:04,440 --> 00:38:07,919 Speaker 1: it had limited use. It also was limited in how 599 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:14,920 Speaker 1: much force it could use. That these original audio animatronics 600 00:38:15,040 --> 00:38:19,440 Speaker 1: used one of two different systems to create movement. Either 601 00:38:19,520 --> 00:38:24,520 Speaker 1: it was using pneumatics or it was using solenoids. A 602 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:29,120 Speaker 1: pneumatic system uses compressed air. Compressed air is what creates 603 00:38:29,200 --> 00:38:34,600 Speaker 1: the force that translates into mechanical motion in your system. 604 00:38:34,640 --> 00:38:37,560 Speaker 1: So you would have tubes, pneumatic tubes that would move 605 00:38:37,600 --> 00:38:41,120 Speaker 1: through this figure. You would have them, you know, wherever 606 00:38:41,160 --> 00:38:44,600 Speaker 1: they needed to be, and you would have valves that 607 00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:48,000 Speaker 1: when they're closed, do not allow air to move through. 608 00:38:48,840 --> 00:38:51,719 Speaker 1: When you would complete a circuit, it would make the 609 00:38:51,840 --> 00:38:54,960 Speaker 1: valve open, which would allow air to move through, which 610 00:38:54,960 --> 00:38:59,160 Speaker 1: would then create the mechanical force necessary to make the 611 00:38:59,200 --> 00:39:02,200 Speaker 1: figure move whichever way you wanted it to. So let's 612 00:39:02,239 --> 00:39:06,560 Speaker 1: say it's a bird in the enchanted Tiki Room, which 613 00:39:06,600 --> 00:39:10,080 Speaker 1: was one of the earliest audio animatronic attractions outside of 614 00:39:10,160 --> 00:39:16,239 Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland and still exists to this day. The pneumatics 615 00:39:16,239 --> 00:39:20,160 Speaker 1: would allow the mouth to open. The closed position would 616 00:39:20,160 --> 00:39:23,520 Speaker 1: be the rest position, and it would allow the mouth 617 00:39:23,560 --> 00:39:27,520 Speaker 1: to open up. And when you do a lot of 618 00:39:27,520 --> 00:39:30,400 Speaker 1: opening and closing, it gives the illusion that the bird 619 00:39:30,520 --> 00:39:34,160 Speaker 1: is actually talking when you pair it with the appropriate sound. 620 00:39:35,560 --> 00:39:38,799 Speaker 1: That was one way of creating motion, But the solenoids 621 00:39:38,800 --> 00:39:41,239 Speaker 1: were a different way that was also being used in 622 00:39:41,280 --> 00:39:46,280 Speaker 1: this digital system. Solenoids are a variation on electro magnets. 623 00:39:46,400 --> 00:39:49,040 Speaker 1: So those of you who have listened to me talk 624 00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:53,759 Speaker 1: endlessly about electromagnetism, get ready for some more so. Your 625 00:39:53,800 --> 00:39:57,880 Speaker 1: basic electromagnet consists of a coil of conductive material. Often 626 00:39:57,960 --> 00:40:01,840 Speaker 1: it is insulated copper wire. You run a current through 627 00:40:01,920 --> 00:40:06,760 Speaker 1: this coil and that generates a magnetic field. The magnetic 628 00:40:06,880 --> 00:40:09,520 Speaker 1: field can then be used to attract any sort of 629 00:40:09,560 --> 00:40:13,840 Speaker 1: Faro magnetic material. That's the case of a solenoid, where 630 00:40:13,960 --> 00:40:17,320 Speaker 1: you have a core that connect kind of like a piston. 631 00:40:18,280 --> 00:40:21,359 Speaker 1: So when it's in his rest position, the core is 632 00:40:21,600 --> 00:40:25,080 Speaker 1: outside of the cylinder. May his positioned right at the 633 00:40:25,160 --> 00:40:28,560 Speaker 1: very end, so the cylinder is big enough so that 634 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:31,879 Speaker 1: the core can fit completely inside the cylinder. And when 635 00:40:31,920 --> 00:40:35,360 Speaker 1: you run a current through the coil, it generates a 636 00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:40,359 Speaker 1: magnetic field which attracts the faro magnetic core into the cylinder, 637 00:40:40,560 --> 00:40:44,200 Speaker 1: pulls it in. And if you connect something to the 638 00:40:44,200 --> 00:40:48,400 Speaker 1: other end of that little core, like a cable, that 639 00:40:48,480 --> 00:40:53,800 Speaker 1: then attaches to a piece on a larger animatronic figure, 640 00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:58,560 Speaker 1: like let's say a mouth of a character. Whenever the 641 00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:02,200 Speaker 1: circuit activates will pull the solenoid in the core into 642 00:41:02,200 --> 00:41:05,480 Speaker 1: the solenoid, which in turn pulls on the wire or 643 00:41:05,560 --> 00:41:10,880 Speaker 1: cable which is attached to whatever body part the mouth 644 00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:15,320 Speaker 1: let's say of Mr. Lincoln, and pull pulls it down, 645 00:41:15,400 --> 00:41:19,279 Speaker 1: pulls it open, and then by turning off the electricity 646 00:41:19,360 --> 00:41:24,040 Speaker 1: to this coil, it negates that magnetic field. It returns 647 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:28,239 Speaker 1: to rest position, and Lincoln shuts his trap. And thus, 648 00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:33,160 Speaker 1: by controlling the the flow of electricity through the solenoid, 649 00:41:33,320 --> 00:41:36,400 Speaker 1: you can open and close the mouth of one of 650 00:41:36,440 --> 00:41:42,720 Speaker 1: the greatest presidents of United States history, and thus magnificence 651 00:41:42,800 --> 00:41:46,080 Speaker 1: is born. I mean, this was a an enormous use 652 00:41:46,120 --> 00:41:49,200 Speaker 1: of technology, a very innovative use of technology at the time. 653 00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:53,319 Speaker 1: So that was the basics for the movement, but that 654 00:41:53,400 --> 00:41:55,600 Speaker 1: we still haven't talked about the audio part. That's kind 655 00:41:55,600 --> 00:41:59,000 Speaker 1: of more the animatronic part, the idea of this animated 656 00:42:00,360 --> 00:42:05,880 Speaker 1: physical being. But whether it was a bird or a president, 657 00:42:06,640 --> 00:42:09,840 Speaker 1: or a hippopotamus or whatever it might be that was 658 00:42:09,960 --> 00:42:15,000 Speaker 1: using audio animatronics, the secret sauce was in that audio. 659 00:42:17,840 --> 00:42:19,960 Speaker 1: They found that what they could do is create a 660 00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:25,279 Speaker 1: tone on a cassette or on a magnetic reel, I 661 00:42:25,280 --> 00:42:28,800 Speaker 1: should say, they could create a tone, and they used 662 00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:33,239 Speaker 1: these little metal reads that would connect to circuits. When 663 00:42:33,239 --> 00:42:36,319 Speaker 1: the reds would vibrate, it would close the circuit and 664 00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:40,160 Speaker 1: allow a current to pass through. So if you made 665 00:42:40,200 --> 00:42:44,279 Speaker 1: the reds vibrate, it would create a physical circuit that 666 00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:48,200 Speaker 1: would end up making the pneumatic or solenoid system activate 667 00:42:48,760 --> 00:42:51,640 Speaker 1: and thus be either on or off. You know, well 668 00:42:51,840 --> 00:42:54,600 Speaker 1: on really, and once it stopped activating, it would be off. 669 00:42:55,080 --> 00:42:57,720 Speaker 1: You could have your character open his or her mouth 670 00:42:57,840 --> 00:42:59,720 Speaker 1: or move his or her head, or whatever the action 671 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:02,920 Speaker 1: need it to be. And the reason the way they 672 00:43:02,960 --> 00:43:06,400 Speaker 1: would make it vibrate is they would use a resonant frequency. 673 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:11,120 Speaker 1: So resonant frequencies are the natural vibrating frequency of any 674 00:43:11,160 --> 00:43:14,560 Speaker 1: given material. If you have a glass and you tap 675 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:17,120 Speaker 1: the glass and it makes a little ringing noise, that 676 00:43:17,280 --> 00:43:20,200 Speaker 1: is its resonant frequency, and if you're able to replicate 677 00:43:20,239 --> 00:43:23,800 Speaker 1: that resonant frequency, then you will make the glass vibrate 678 00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,359 Speaker 1: just by exposing it to that frequency. So if you 679 00:43:28,400 --> 00:43:32,240 Speaker 1: create a sound that is of the same pitch as 680 00:43:32,400 --> 00:43:35,720 Speaker 1: an object's resonant frequency, it will naturally begin to vibrate. 681 00:43:35,760 --> 00:43:38,520 Speaker 1: And if you then amplify that signal. In other words, 682 00:43:38,520 --> 00:43:42,239 Speaker 1: if you increase the volume, you will increase the amount 683 00:43:42,880 --> 00:43:47,440 Speaker 1: of vibration that you're creating in that material. So again 684 00:43:47,520 --> 00:43:50,160 Speaker 1: with the example of a glass, if you have a 685 00:43:50,200 --> 00:43:53,440 Speaker 1: crystal glass, then it generates a particular tone when you 686 00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,880 Speaker 1: strike it. If you replicate that tone and you amplify 687 00:43:56,920 --> 00:43:59,879 Speaker 1: the signal enough, you can make the glass vibrate an 688 00:44:00,040 --> 00:44:02,520 Speaker 1: enough so that it shatters. This is what we see 689 00:44:02,520 --> 00:44:05,640 Speaker 1: when opera singers replicate a particular note and they try 690 00:44:05,640 --> 00:44:07,920 Speaker 1: and shatter a glass. Some people can do it, but 691 00:44:08,000 --> 00:44:10,000 Speaker 1: it all depends on the glass. It all depends on 692 00:44:10,040 --> 00:44:13,000 Speaker 1: the person's range and how how pitch perfect they are 693 00:44:13,040 --> 00:44:16,560 Speaker 1: and creating that particular frequency. It has to be close enough. 694 00:44:17,239 --> 00:44:19,880 Speaker 1: There's actually a small range where it will work, but 695 00:44:19,960 --> 00:44:21,560 Speaker 1: you need to be as close as possible to really 696 00:44:21,560 --> 00:44:24,080 Speaker 1: get the maximum effect. It's a it's much easier to 697 00:44:24,120 --> 00:44:28,560 Speaker 1: do with amplification than it is unamplified. But that's the 698 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:31,600 Speaker 1: basis for audio animatronics. They had these little metallic reads 699 00:44:32,040 --> 00:44:35,359 Speaker 1: that would be connected to the various circuitry, and each 700 00:44:35,400 --> 00:44:39,120 Speaker 1: one would have its own specific resonant frequency. When you 701 00:44:39,200 --> 00:44:43,120 Speaker 1: played the magnetic tape back it would play tones at 702 00:44:43,160 --> 00:44:48,360 Speaker 1: that resonant frequency for whichever particular action it needed, That 703 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:53,720 Speaker 1: specific metallic read would start to vibrate. Close that specific circuit, 704 00:44:53,800 --> 00:44:56,000 Speaker 1: and then you get the motion. So if it's a 705 00:44:56,040 --> 00:45:00,440 Speaker 1: figure that has several motions associated with it, let's say 706 00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:03,440 Speaker 1: it's a bird that can turn its head, flap its wings, 707 00:45:03,719 --> 00:45:06,719 Speaker 1: or open its mouth. That's three different motions. That means 708 00:45:06,760 --> 00:45:10,040 Speaker 1: you would have three different circuits with three different metallic reads, 709 00:45:10,320 --> 00:45:13,359 Speaker 1: with three different resonant frequencies. So that way you could 710 00:45:13,400 --> 00:45:18,480 Speaker 1: produce different tones and make the specific outcome that you wanted. Otherwise, 711 00:45:18,840 --> 00:45:21,799 Speaker 1: every time you generated a tone, everything would go off 712 00:45:22,120 --> 00:45:24,880 Speaker 1: and you would have chaos. More on that in a 713 00:45:24,920 --> 00:45:29,360 Speaker 1: little bit. Again, this is a digital system, so there's 714 00:45:29,360 --> 00:45:32,040 Speaker 1: no variation here. You could not have the bird turn 715 00:45:32,120 --> 00:45:34,560 Speaker 1: its head halfway. It's always going to turn it as 716 00:45:34,600 --> 00:45:38,840 Speaker 1: far as the animatronic is allowed. Whatever it's freedom of 717 00:45:38,880 --> 00:45:41,600 Speaker 1: movement is, that's where it's going to go to. So 718 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:46,560 Speaker 1: it's still had limitations. However, by creating a specific circuit 719 00:45:46,640 --> 00:45:50,280 Speaker 1: for every single motion, you could make a pretty sophisticated figure. 720 00:45:51,040 --> 00:45:56,040 Speaker 1: The individual motions were pretty primitive, but collectively it could 721 00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,480 Speaker 1: be very sophisticated, It did require a lot of work, 722 00:46:00,040 --> 00:46:05,080 Speaker 1: and it required a lot of cheating, I guess is 723 00:46:05,120 --> 00:46:07,520 Speaker 1: the right way of putting it. So. For example, one 724 00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:11,759 Speaker 1: of the figures that Disney was working on for the 725 00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:17,120 Speaker 1: New York World's Fair was Abraham Lincoln, and in order 726 00:46:17,160 --> 00:46:20,160 Speaker 1: to make all the different motions of the face the 727 00:46:20,200 --> 00:46:23,239 Speaker 1: way they wanted to UH, they had to put in 728 00:46:23,320 --> 00:46:27,200 Speaker 1: more components than could fit within the constraint of a 729 00:46:27,280 --> 00:46:30,040 Speaker 1: human head, and they weren't They didn't really have the 730 00:46:30,080 --> 00:46:33,600 Speaker 1: option of scaling it up. They couldn't build Lincoln larger 731 00:46:33,640 --> 00:46:36,120 Speaker 1: than human sized and get the effect they wanted. They 732 00:46:36,120 --> 00:46:40,520 Speaker 1: wanted to keep Lincoln at the dimensions that they felt 733 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:44,920 Speaker 1: were important for him to get the feeling across that 734 00:46:44,960 --> 00:46:47,799 Speaker 1: they wanted to make. So they had to figure out, well, 735 00:46:47,840 --> 00:46:49,920 Speaker 1: how can we fit all these components inside a human 736 00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:53,440 Speaker 1: head when they're larger than what the space can contain. 737 00:46:53,480 --> 00:46:56,120 Speaker 1: And eventually they were able to make a head that 738 00:46:56,160 --> 00:46:57,920 Speaker 1: had kind of a bulge in the back of it, 739 00:46:58,000 --> 00:47:01,080 Speaker 1: and they were able to fake it with the wig 740 00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:04,400 Speaker 1: that they put on Mr. Lincoln. Although apparently, and at 741 00:47:04,480 --> 00:47:06,920 Speaker 1: least some of the wigs that they designed for the 742 00:47:07,400 --> 00:47:10,239 Speaker 1: character UH, the bulge in the back of the head 743 00:47:10,280 --> 00:47:15,520 Speaker 1: was noticeable. So, considering Lincoln's fate, that might have been 744 00:47:15,600 --> 00:47:18,799 Speaker 1: viewed as being tasteless, but they were working within the 745 00:47:18,840 --> 00:47:22,640 Speaker 1: constraints of a very new technology. Now I mentioned that 746 00:47:23,960 --> 00:47:27,400 Speaker 1: this approach had its limitations that you could only be 747 00:47:27,719 --> 00:47:30,760 Speaker 1: on or off, and that they needed to have something 748 00:47:30,800 --> 00:47:35,719 Speaker 1: with a little bit more of a spectrum of outcomes 749 00:47:35,840 --> 00:47:38,600 Speaker 1: in order to get the effect that they really wanted. 750 00:47:39,680 --> 00:47:43,359 Speaker 1: That approach required them to switch from pneumatic and solenoid 751 00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:48,640 Speaker 1: systems to hydraulic systems. Hydraulic system uses liquid. Typically it's 752 00:47:48,680 --> 00:47:52,279 Speaker 1: just water as its means of creating that same sort 753 00:47:52,320 --> 00:47:56,359 Speaker 1: of mechanical force. You can't really compress water, as it 754 00:47:56,400 --> 00:47:59,080 Speaker 1: turns out, so if you just put force behind water, 755 00:47:59,200 --> 00:48:01,920 Speaker 1: it will push again whatever constraints you have it in. 756 00:48:02,520 --> 00:48:04,800 Speaker 1: So if you put a good amount of water pressure 757 00:48:04,840 --> 00:48:08,320 Speaker 1: in and you use valves to control where that water 758 00:48:08,400 --> 00:48:11,879 Speaker 1: can go by opening and closing those valves, you can 759 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:16,200 Speaker 1: allow for some pretty powerful movements, including stuff that's strong 760 00:48:16,320 --> 00:48:19,759 Speaker 1: enough to do something like lift and arm. Because the 761 00:48:19,880 --> 00:48:25,200 Speaker 1: various pieces of machinery that Disney engineers were creating, they 762 00:48:25,239 --> 00:48:27,520 Speaker 1: weighed a good amount of they had a good amount 763 00:48:27,520 --> 00:48:30,000 Speaker 1: of weight to him, a good amount of mass to them, 764 00:48:30,040 --> 00:48:33,360 Speaker 1: and pneumatic ability on pneumatic systems weren't strong enough to 765 00:48:33,400 --> 00:48:36,799 Speaker 1: move them, especially not smoothly. If you want to build 766 00:48:36,840 --> 00:48:39,959 Speaker 1: a compressed air system that can move a significant amount 767 00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:42,320 Speaker 1: of weight, chances are you're going to end up with 768 00:48:42,360 --> 00:48:45,319 Speaker 1: an air catapult, which was not exactly what Disney was 769 00:48:45,360 --> 00:48:49,239 Speaker 1: hoping for when he was thinking of these different designs. 770 00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:53,560 Speaker 1: So imagineers switched to these hydraulic systems UH, and it 771 00:48:53,600 --> 00:48:57,320 Speaker 1: also meant that they wanted to create more gradations of movement. 772 00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,080 Speaker 1: They didn't want to just be on and off in 773 00:49:00,239 --> 00:49:03,120 Speaker 1: just want to be open and closed, or left or right. 774 00:49:03,280 --> 00:49:06,640 Speaker 1: They wanted to have some different abilities. They wanted to 775 00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:11,880 Speaker 1: create a lot of different potential movements within the limbs 776 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:15,560 Speaker 1: of characters. One of the UH exhibits that they were 777 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,279 Speaker 1: working on for the New York World's Fair was the 778 00:49:18,320 --> 00:49:21,880 Speaker 1: Carousel of Progress, which you can still see in certain 779 00:49:21,920 --> 00:49:26,759 Speaker 1: Disney parks. The Carousel Progress features multiple scenes of a 780 00:49:26,840 --> 00:49:33,440 Speaker 1: family through different eras of human history, including near future, 781 00:49:33,719 --> 00:49:37,720 Speaker 1: where you get to see the innovation of progress, how 782 00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:42,680 Speaker 1: systems have improved over time to make our lives more 783 00:49:42,760 --> 00:49:47,759 Speaker 1: convenient and enjoyable, and all of these various exhibits a 784 00:49:47,840 --> 00:49:52,799 Speaker 1: New York had different sponsors, so Disney was partnering with 785 00:49:52,840 --> 00:49:56,040 Speaker 1: other companies that had a vested interest in the public 786 00:49:56,320 --> 00:50:02,400 Speaker 1: seeing this stuff. So there were branded materials inside Carousel 787 00:50:02,440 --> 00:50:04,960 Speaker 1: of Progress so that people would say, oh, you know what, 788 00:50:05,040 --> 00:50:09,120 Speaker 1: I need to buy X kind of refrigerator because I 789 00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:10,719 Speaker 1: want my life to be as convenient as it was 790 00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:14,759 Speaker 1: for those robots we just saw. So in order to 791 00:50:14,800 --> 00:50:19,319 Speaker 1: make this look convincing, they wanted the human characters to 792 00:50:19,480 --> 00:50:23,759 Speaker 1: have very lifelike motions. Well, you can't do that with 793 00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:26,279 Speaker 1: just the digital system, so they needed to go with 794 00:50:26,400 --> 00:50:30,960 Speaker 1: an analog system. Analog means that you can have a 795 00:50:31,080 --> 00:50:35,680 Speaker 1: variable element. It's not just on or off. That's what 796 00:50:35,719 --> 00:50:39,200 Speaker 1: digital is. Either the signals going or it's not. Variable 797 00:50:39,200 --> 00:50:42,600 Speaker 1: means you can actually create variations, and you do this 798 00:50:42,680 --> 00:50:46,560 Speaker 1: through voltage. By changing the amount of voltage in a 799 00:50:46,640 --> 00:50:50,520 Speaker 1: system and by increasing it or decreasing it, you could 800 00:50:50,600 --> 00:50:56,600 Speaker 1: create different ranges of motion within a properly designed system. 801 00:50:56,640 --> 00:50:59,520 Speaker 1: So that's what the imagineers started working on with both 802 00:50:59,600 --> 00:51:03,120 Speaker 1: Link and the Caresel Progress. They wanted to create more 803 00:51:03,160 --> 00:51:08,360 Speaker 1: sophisticated systems that would allow for this sort of realistic motion, 804 00:51:09,480 --> 00:51:15,480 Speaker 1: and by pairing the hydraulic systems with this analog voltage system, 805 00:51:15,520 --> 00:51:21,680 Speaker 1: they could then create a more natural movement. Now, in 806 00:51:21,760 --> 00:51:27,440 Speaker 1: order to encode that, they had to use varying tones 807 00:51:28,040 --> 00:51:31,200 Speaker 1: on this magnetic tape, and to do that, they ended 808 00:51:31,239 --> 00:51:34,440 Speaker 1: up having to use multiple tracks on a single piece 809 00:51:34,480 --> 00:51:37,840 Speaker 1: of magnetic tape in order to conserve space, because otherwise 810 00:51:38,160 --> 00:51:41,480 Speaker 1: you would have to have a real for every single 811 00:51:42,600 --> 00:51:48,960 Speaker 1: component that is controlled by some sort of hydraulic system, 812 00:51:49,000 --> 00:51:53,600 Speaker 1: and that's just not feasible. So they ended up creating 813 00:51:53,800 --> 00:51:58,839 Speaker 1: multi track systems where they could record I think up 814 00:51:58,880 --> 00:52:02,120 Speaker 1: to twenty four are eventually different tracks. But not all 815 00:52:02,160 --> 00:52:04,759 Speaker 1: of those tracks were for the actual animatronic figures. Some 816 00:52:04,840 --> 00:52:09,040 Speaker 1: of them were for theatrical elements like lighting queues, or 817 00:52:09,800 --> 00:52:14,080 Speaker 1: whether or not certain uh like products would open, like 818 00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:17,680 Speaker 1: the refrigerator door might open, a drawer might slide out, 819 00:52:18,480 --> 00:52:21,399 Speaker 1: an element in the fridge might tilt so people can 820 00:52:21,400 --> 00:52:24,000 Speaker 1: get a better look at it. All of those were 821 00:52:24,000 --> 00:52:27,000 Speaker 1: their own separate little circuits, and they all needed to 822 00:52:27,040 --> 00:52:32,160 Speaker 1: be programmed into the audio animatronic reels, which again we're 823 00:52:32,200 --> 00:52:35,520 Speaker 1: still using tones. So the sound department was still heavily 824 00:52:35,560 --> 00:52:40,200 Speaker 1: involved in this. As you can imagine this complicated thing 825 00:52:40,360 --> 00:52:43,680 Speaker 1: significantly once they got to the part where it was 826 00:52:43,719 --> 00:52:47,919 Speaker 1: time to program the carousel of Progress and the great 827 00:52:47,960 --> 00:52:50,759 Speaker 1: Moments with Mr Lincoln, and I'll explain how some of 828 00:52:50,800 --> 00:52:54,399 Speaker 1: that turned out in just a minute, but first let's 829 00:52:54,400 --> 00:53:04,439 Speaker 1: take another quick break and thank our sponsor. So when 830 00:53:04,440 --> 00:53:07,879 Speaker 1: we talk about programming this system where you've got all 831 00:53:07,920 --> 00:53:13,239 Speaker 1: these different tracks that control these different elements within an 832 00:53:13,280 --> 00:53:17,799 Speaker 1: animatronic UH system, keep in mind that depending on how 833 00:53:17,840 --> 00:53:20,799 Speaker 1: many figures you have, and how many points of articulation 834 00:53:20,840 --> 00:53:23,319 Speaker 1: they have and what they need to do, these could 835 00:53:23,320 --> 00:53:28,120 Speaker 1: be incredibly complicated. From a macro standpoint, each individual figure 836 00:53:28,200 --> 00:53:32,240 Speaker 1: might be fairly simple, but taken as a as a whole, 837 00:53:32,760 --> 00:53:36,720 Speaker 1: it gets to be enormously complex. One of the earliest 838 00:53:36,760 --> 00:53:41,800 Speaker 1: ways that they experimented with programming was using silver paint. 839 00:53:42,440 --> 00:53:45,560 Speaker 1: They use these old Moviola movie editors that were designed 840 00:53:45,600 --> 00:53:48,799 Speaker 1: to edit film, but instead of that, what they did 841 00:53:48,920 --> 00:53:53,400 Speaker 1: was they took this this tape and they would paint 842 00:53:54,320 --> 00:53:59,080 Speaker 1: silver lines on it to create a circuit, and whenever 843 00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:03,480 Speaker 1: the reading head would pass over the silver it would 844 00:54:03,480 --> 00:54:08,120 Speaker 1: create UH an electrical circuit that then would send out 845 00:54:08,160 --> 00:54:12,759 Speaker 1: as a command for the various action to happen. So 846 00:54:12,840 --> 00:54:15,560 Speaker 1: let's say again that it's a parent opening its beak, 847 00:54:16,960 --> 00:54:19,280 Speaker 1: and you would use a little line of silver paint 848 00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:23,640 Speaker 1: along the length of this tape to indicate this is 849 00:54:23,680 --> 00:54:27,279 Speaker 1: where the beak needs to be opened. Because they were 850 00:54:27,360 --> 00:54:32,000 Speaker 1: using animators to design the system, in part, the animators 851 00:54:32,080 --> 00:54:34,360 Speaker 1: loved it. They were using it very similar to the 852 00:54:34,360 --> 00:54:38,760 Speaker 1: way they would edit animation reels. With animation, you think 853 00:54:38,920 --> 00:54:44,719 Speaker 1: of the work in terms of feet, not necessarily in seconds. 854 00:54:44,760 --> 00:54:47,719 Speaker 1: So instead of saying, oh I need this mouth to 855 00:54:47,719 --> 00:54:49,799 Speaker 1: be opened for two seconds, you might say, oh, I 856 00:54:49,840 --> 00:54:53,799 Speaker 1: need this to happen for two ft of film. So 857 00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:57,000 Speaker 1: you would literally mark out the spot on the tape 858 00:54:57,080 --> 00:54:59,799 Speaker 1: where the action needed to start, and you would mark 859 00:54:59,800 --> 00:55:02,440 Speaker 1: out the spawn the tape where the action needed to stop, 860 00:55:02,920 --> 00:55:04,920 Speaker 1: and you would just connect those two points with some 861 00:55:05,000 --> 00:55:08,600 Speaker 1: silver paint, and then when it would read through the system, 862 00:55:08,760 --> 00:55:10,560 Speaker 1: it would play back that way. When it would hit 863 00:55:10,640 --> 00:55:14,839 Speaker 1: that point in the tape, the action would happen. So 864 00:55:14,880 --> 00:55:19,160 Speaker 1: as long as you either had all of your tracks 865 00:55:19,360 --> 00:55:21,840 Speaker 1: on one tape, and they could do up to six 866 00:55:22,080 --> 00:55:25,400 Speaker 1: tracks on this method. This was just the prototype method. 867 00:55:26,400 --> 00:55:30,160 Speaker 1: If you had six different sets of actions, all on 868 00:55:30,200 --> 00:55:33,319 Speaker 1: their each individual lines. You had six contacts that could 869 00:55:33,320 --> 00:55:36,360 Speaker 1: create the different circuits. Then you could program up to 870 00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:41,640 Speaker 1: six different components of your audio animatronic scene using one 871 00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:44,880 Speaker 1: reel of tape, and they'd all be synchronized because you 872 00:55:44,880 --> 00:55:46,880 Speaker 1: would just measure it out on the physical tape and 873 00:55:46,960 --> 00:55:51,240 Speaker 1: draw where you needed the elements to happen. So maybe 874 00:55:51,239 --> 00:55:54,120 Speaker 1: you'd say, all right, well, in three seconds in I 875 00:55:54,120 --> 00:55:56,720 Speaker 1: need the bird to flap its wings, and at second 876 00:55:56,760 --> 00:55:59,680 Speaker 1: number four I needed to start talking. But by second 877 00:55:59,760 --> 00:56:01,800 Speaker 1: number five and he had to stop flapping its wings. 878 00:56:01,800 --> 00:56:06,520 Speaker 1: But it keeps talking on and off until second number ten. Well, 879 00:56:06,600 --> 00:56:09,520 Speaker 1: that's how you would mark it out on your magnetic tape, 880 00:56:09,520 --> 00:56:11,759 Speaker 1: and you would just draw one line to be the 881 00:56:11,760 --> 00:56:14,239 Speaker 1: control for the beak and another line to be the 882 00:56:14,239 --> 00:56:17,319 Speaker 1: control for the wings, and as it would move through 883 00:56:17,360 --> 00:56:21,360 Speaker 1: the Moviola editor and the contacts that the engineers that 884 00:56:21,520 --> 00:56:25,279 Speaker 1: essentially added into this Moviola editor, it would play it 885 00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:28,279 Speaker 1: back the same way every time. Now, this was not 886 00:56:28,400 --> 00:56:32,360 Speaker 1: the system that Disney decided to use for everything. They 887 00:56:32,400 --> 00:56:36,520 Speaker 1: again switched to an audio tone format instead of using 888 00:56:36,600 --> 00:56:39,719 Speaker 1: lines of silver paint, the reason being that you could 889 00:56:39,760 --> 00:56:42,280 Speaker 1: only play the tape so many times before the silver 890 00:56:42,320 --> 00:56:44,520 Speaker 1: paint started to flake off, and once it started to 891 00:56:44,520 --> 00:56:46,760 Speaker 1: flake off, then you no longer had a strong signal. 892 00:56:46,840 --> 00:56:50,919 Speaker 1: You never didn't necessarily have the circuit completing anymore, and 893 00:56:51,000 --> 00:56:55,759 Speaker 1: so you would get jitter emotions, or sometimes enough paint 894 00:56:55,760 --> 00:56:58,640 Speaker 1: would peel off where you wouldn't even get the result 895 00:56:58,719 --> 00:57:01,760 Speaker 1: you wanted at all. So it wasn't a permanent solution, 896 00:57:02,000 --> 00:57:05,120 Speaker 1: but it was an interesting step towards what they needed. 897 00:57:05,840 --> 00:57:08,680 Speaker 1: When they went with the tones, they found that that 898 00:57:09,480 --> 00:57:12,640 Speaker 1: was a better approach. But as they started programming the 899 00:57:12,680 --> 00:57:15,200 Speaker 1: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, they started to run into 900 00:57:15,320 --> 00:57:19,760 Speaker 1: some serious issues. The way they did this is they 901 00:57:19,800 --> 00:57:23,880 Speaker 1: had editing machines and had playback machines. The playback machines 902 00:57:23,920 --> 00:57:28,080 Speaker 1: all they could do was play the magnetic tape back again, 903 00:57:28,360 --> 00:57:33,280 Speaker 1: and this was they would call these machines dummies, because 904 00:57:33,320 --> 00:57:35,400 Speaker 1: that's all they could do is just play something back. 905 00:57:36,080 --> 00:57:39,120 Speaker 1: So they had more dummies than they had editing machines. 906 00:57:39,160 --> 00:57:43,400 Speaker 1: Where they could write to magnetic tape, they would record 907 00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:46,800 Speaker 1: to magnetic tape both the tones that would control the 908 00:57:46,880 --> 00:57:51,480 Speaker 1: various animatronic actions, the lighting of the theater, any other 909 00:57:51,560 --> 00:57:53,959 Speaker 1: elements that needed to happen within the theater, they would 910 00:57:53,960 --> 00:57:57,080 Speaker 1: all be encoded on this magnetic tape as well, and 911 00:57:57,120 --> 00:58:01,919 Speaker 1: they would also have the audio for the actual presentation. 912 00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:05,640 Speaker 1: So in the case of Great Moments with Mr Lincoln, 913 00:58:05,960 --> 00:58:09,760 Speaker 1: the various speeches that Mr Lincoln delivers had to be 914 00:58:09,840 --> 00:58:13,560 Speaker 1: on that magnetic tape as well. You would first produce 915 00:58:13,760 --> 00:58:17,200 Speaker 1: an individual tape for every single one of those, and 916 00:58:17,240 --> 00:58:22,920 Speaker 1: then you would end up combining those onto a master tape. Eventually, 917 00:58:23,280 --> 00:58:25,800 Speaker 1: there's actually a step in between, called a submaster, but 918 00:58:25,840 --> 00:58:29,200 Speaker 1: we're gonna simplify for the purposes of this podcast, so 919 00:58:29,200 --> 00:58:31,320 Speaker 1: that if ultimately you would end up with a master 920 00:58:31,400 --> 00:58:34,600 Speaker 1: tape that would have everything you needed on it, you 921 00:58:34,680 --> 00:58:38,520 Speaker 1: might imagine that having one master tape that has multiple 922 00:58:38,600 --> 00:58:41,920 Speaker 1: tracks numbering and more than two dozen in some cases, 923 00:58:42,800 --> 00:58:45,160 Speaker 1: that you could run into some interference and you would 924 00:58:45,160 --> 00:58:49,040 Speaker 1: be right. It turned out that some of these, because 925 00:58:49,080 --> 00:58:52,200 Speaker 1: of the different volumes that they recorded at the tones 926 00:58:52,280 --> 00:58:56,560 Speaker 1: would sometimes mask one another and or other times they 927 00:58:56,560 --> 00:59:00,280 Speaker 1: would activate more than one element and you'd end up 928 00:59:00,280 --> 00:59:03,960 Speaker 1: with chaos. So Mr Lincoln might end up having a 929 00:59:04,000 --> 00:59:06,680 Speaker 1: bit of a freak out on stage while delivering the 930 00:59:06,680 --> 00:59:10,760 Speaker 1: Getty's brig address, and that just doesn't convey the stately 931 00:59:10,920 --> 00:59:16,120 Speaker 1: nature that you want when you're trying to reenact one 932 00:59:16,160 --> 00:59:19,720 Speaker 1: of the most iconic moments in American history that there is. 933 00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:24,480 Speaker 1: Having Abraham Lincoln's eyebrows go crazy all over his face 934 00:59:24,480 --> 00:59:28,120 Speaker 1: while he's talking might be a little distracting, so it 935 00:59:28,240 --> 00:59:32,960 Speaker 1: required a painstaking process of editing. They would get the 936 00:59:32,960 --> 00:59:35,720 Speaker 1: magnetic tape, they would run it through the system using 937 00:59:35,800 --> 00:59:40,200 Speaker 1: one of these dummies. They would take notes, copious notes 938 00:59:40,320 --> 00:59:45,320 Speaker 1: about everything that was going on with the performance of 939 00:59:45,360 --> 00:59:49,240 Speaker 1: the audio animatronic show, in this case Great Moments with 940 00:59:49,360 --> 00:59:52,360 Speaker 1: Mr Lincoln, and anything that went wrong they had to 941 00:59:52,400 --> 00:59:56,560 Speaker 1: make note of whether it was a hand motion or 942 00:59:56,600 --> 00:59:59,480 Speaker 1: an eyebrow, or the mouth wasn't moving in sync with 943 00:59:59,600 --> 01:00:01,800 Speaker 1: the sound owned or maybe the sound itself was at 944 01:00:01,800 --> 01:00:03,840 Speaker 1: the wrong volume. Whatever the problem was, they had to 945 01:00:03,840 --> 01:00:06,400 Speaker 1: make note of it, and then they had to take 946 01:00:06,480 --> 01:00:09,920 Speaker 1: that same magnetic tape back and figure out how they 947 01:00:09,920 --> 01:00:12,720 Speaker 1: could fix it. Sometimes they could fix it by making 948 01:00:12,760 --> 01:00:15,800 Speaker 1: a couple of tweaks. Sometimes it require re recording an 949 01:00:15,960 --> 01:00:19,520 Speaker 1: entire section, so it might be that you're recording a 950 01:00:19,640 --> 01:00:22,320 Speaker 1: brand new section just to control the fingers on the 951 01:00:22,400 --> 01:00:26,800 Speaker 1: left hand. That's how exacting this had to be. And 952 01:00:26,800 --> 01:00:28,840 Speaker 1: again you had to make sure that you were synchronizing 953 01:00:28,880 --> 01:00:31,640 Speaker 1: it with everything else, and it may be that you 954 01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:34,479 Speaker 1: would find that one element is slightly out of sync 955 01:00:34,520 --> 01:00:37,160 Speaker 1: of everything else. You had planned it out, you plotted it, 956 01:00:37,320 --> 01:00:39,480 Speaker 1: you recorded it. When you laid down the tracks, you 957 01:00:39,520 --> 01:00:42,160 Speaker 1: didn't realize that they didn't quite line up the way 958 01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:44,640 Speaker 1: you wanted them to, and that might require you to 959 01:00:45,280 --> 01:00:47,760 Speaker 1: cut out one of the tracks and then splice it 960 01:00:47,840 --> 01:00:51,560 Speaker 1: back in by hand cranking the system to the right 961 01:00:51,640 --> 01:00:55,360 Speaker 1: starting point and adjusting it that way. So maybe you 962 01:00:55,400 --> 01:00:57,280 Speaker 1: would say, all right, well, the track for the left 963 01:00:57,280 --> 01:01:00,600 Speaker 1: hand needs to start at second number two point four, 964 01:01:00,920 --> 01:01:04,600 Speaker 1: and unfortunately it's starting at two point eight, and because 965 01:01:04,640 --> 01:01:07,760 Speaker 1: of that, the left hand is making gestures point four 966 01:01:07,800 --> 01:01:11,280 Speaker 1: seconds after it's supposed to, and it looks ridiculous. You 967 01:01:11,320 --> 01:01:13,720 Speaker 1: would have to go back and try and hand crank 968 01:01:13,760 --> 01:01:15,440 Speaker 1: it to the spot where it needs to start and 969 01:01:15,520 --> 01:01:18,959 Speaker 1: splice it back in that section that track back into 970 01:01:18,960 --> 01:01:22,880 Speaker 1: the master. Worst case scenario scenario, you'd have to rerecord 971 01:01:22,920 --> 01:01:25,760 Speaker 1: the master and just make sure everything is lined up 972 01:01:25,760 --> 01:01:29,720 Speaker 1: in its new orientation based upon the notes you made 973 01:01:30,320 --> 01:01:32,480 Speaker 1: to make matters even more complicated. They were using a 974 01:01:32,520 --> 01:01:35,920 Speaker 1: sound studio that was busy during the day, so the 975 01:01:35,960 --> 01:01:39,480 Speaker 1: only time the engineers could actually work on this project, 976 01:01:39,720 --> 01:01:42,760 Speaker 1: which had to be done before the World's Fair opened, 977 01:01:43,360 --> 01:01:46,480 Speaker 1: was at night. They would go to this recording studio 978 01:01:46,520 --> 01:01:49,400 Speaker 1: at night that had its equipment on different floors, so 979 01:01:49,440 --> 01:01:52,320 Speaker 1: they actually had to run cabling systems to go up 980 01:01:52,320 --> 01:01:54,960 Speaker 1: and down floors so that they could connect the various 981 01:01:55,000 --> 01:01:57,520 Speaker 1: parts that they were using in order to make these 982 01:01:57,560 --> 01:02:03,240 Speaker 1: minute changes. It was incredibly painstaking process to get the 983 01:02:03,240 --> 01:02:08,400 Speaker 1: the performance that they wanted, all using this combination of pneumatics, hydraulics, 984 01:02:08,400 --> 01:02:12,720 Speaker 1: and solenoids to see if they can get the right 985 01:02:13,120 --> 01:02:18,320 Speaker 1: sequence of movements to match the prerecorded audio and give 986 01:02:18,960 --> 01:02:24,400 Speaker 1: the experience that they intended to their audience. Programming this 987 01:02:24,440 --> 01:02:28,440 Speaker 1: way took a lot of work. If you watch there's 988 01:02:28,480 --> 01:02:32,840 Speaker 1: a Wonderful World of Color episode where they talk about 989 01:02:32,960 --> 01:02:37,280 Speaker 1: the Disneyland presence at the World's Fair and the way 990 01:02:37,280 --> 01:02:40,720 Speaker 1: the audio animatronics work. There's a point where Walt Disney 991 01:02:40,720 --> 01:02:43,880 Speaker 1: walks up to one of his imagineers who's wearing this 992 01:02:44,240 --> 01:02:49,360 Speaker 1: weird harness. Uh, there's a control system. It's directly connected 993 01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:53,240 Speaker 1: to the father character of Carousel of Progress. So when 994 01:02:53,280 --> 01:02:56,560 Speaker 1: the guy makes a big motion with his arm, you 995 01:02:56,680 --> 01:02:59,800 Speaker 1: see the Carousel of Progress character make that same motion, 996 01:03:00,440 --> 01:03:03,320 Speaker 1: and Disney refers to that as programming, but that's not 997 01:03:03,400 --> 01:03:08,000 Speaker 1: actually how they programmed it. They programmed it more more 998 01:03:08,400 --> 01:03:13,960 Speaker 1: granularly than that. They could control a character directly using 999 01:03:14,000 --> 01:03:17,120 Speaker 1: this method, but that was only really good for one 1000 01:03:17,160 --> 01:03:19,880 Speaker 1: on one digital puppetry, as in, you have a human 1001 01:03:19,920 --> 01:03:23,480 Speaker 1: controller actually manipulating the character at that very moment. If 1002 01:03:23,480 --> 01:03:26,280 Speaker 1: you wanted it automated, you had to go through this other, 1003 01:03:26,440 --> 01:03:30,320 Speaker 1: very painstaking process. And this is pretty much how they 1004 01:03:30,520 --> 01:03:34,840 Speaker 1: used audio animatronics. For the next several years, they would 1005 01:03:34,920 --> 01:03:39,280 Speaker 1: develop lots of different rides that used audio animatronic figures. 1006 01:03:39,440 --> 01:03:43,080 Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, rides like that, 1007 01:03:43,240 --> 01:03:46,200 Speaker 1: where you had some sophisticated movements, something a little more 1008 01:03:46,680 --> 01:03:50,240 Speaker 1: advanced than just a static character turning. A lot of 1009 01:03:50,280 --> 01:03:54,120 Speaker 1: the dark rides in Fantasy Land are more primitive and 1010 01:03:54,200 --> 01:03:57,040 Speaker 1: don't need to be audio animatronic because there's no real 1011 01:03:57,160 --> 01:04:01,080 Speaker 1: articulation with the characters. They're kind of static and they 1012 01:04:01,160 --> 01:04:03,640 Speaker 1: can move up and down or turn left and right, 1013 01:04:03,680 --> 01:04:07,720 Speaker 1: but they don't have any facial motion, or their limbs 1014 01:04:07,720 --> 01:04:11,800 Speaker 1: don't really move in any meaningful way, as opposed to 1015 01:04:12,000 --> 01:04:15,360 Speaker 1: characters that say Pirates or Haunted Mansion, some of those 1016 01:04:15,520 --> 01:04:19,000 Speaker 1: have much more sophisticated movements and needed the audio animatronic 1017 01:04:19,040 --> 01:04:21,800 Speaker 1: system in order to do it. To me, it's fascinating 1018 01:04:22,160 --> 01:04:24,960 Speaker 1: that they were able to do all of this using tones, 1019 01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:28,720 Speaker 1: whether it was to just create that binary system or 1020 01:04:28,840 --> 01:04:33,480 Speaker 1: the UH analog system where you had the variable voltage 1021 01:04:33,560 --> 01:04:38,000 Speaker 1: that could create different types of movement. And I'm also 1022 01:04:38,040 --> 01:04:41,200 Speaker 1: fascinated by all the different people who worked on these systems. 1023 01:04:41,560 --> 01:04:45,520 Speaker 1: There were a ton of them who all contributed, and 1024 01:04:45,680 --> 01:04:51,040 Speaker 1: without them, these just wouldn't even be a reality today. Uh. 1025 01:04:51,080 --> 01:04:54,080 Speaker 1: They were able to make a huge impact at the 1026 01:04:54,080 --> 01:04:57,280 Speaker 1: New York World's Fair, and this really did cement Disney 1027 01:04:57,280 --> 01:05:01,880 Speaker 1: as being an innovative company, not just in movies and animation, 1028 01:05:02,120 --> 01:05:07,000 Speaker 1: but also in theme parks and experiences. UH. It set 1029 01:05:07,040 --> 01:05:12,040 Speaker 1: them apart from their competitors. And it wasn't just the theming, 1030 01:05:12,320 --> 01:05:15,040 Speaker 1: which has always been one of disney strong suits, but 1031 01:05:15,160 --> 01:05:17,960 Speaker 1: the technology itself, the fact that the company was willing 1032 01:05:18,400 --> 01:05:22,200 Speaker 1: to be a pioneer in those spaces. So I find 1033 01:05:22,200 --> 01:05:24,800 Speaker 1: it one of the most interesting stories, and I love 1034 01:05:24,880 --> 01:05:27,439 Speaker 1: the fact that it also gives me the opportunity to 1035 01:05:27,440 --> 01:05:31,200 Speaker 1: touch on other elements of the mechanical and technological worlds, 1036 01:05:31,280 --> 01:05:35,720 Speaker 1: stuff like pneumatic systems, hydraulic systems, the concept of cams, 1037 01:05:35,800 --> 01:05:39,800 Speaker 1: the concept of solenoids. All of these elements are obviously 1038 01:05:40,520 --> 01:05:43,800 Speaker 1: components of the audio animatronic systems, but also it's fun 1039 01:05:43,880 --> 01:05:46,400 Speaker 1: to have that opportunity to just touch on those in 1040 01:05:46,440 --> 01:05:49,440 Speaker 1: this episode and to tell you, guys, you know what 1041 01:05:49,600 --> 01:05:53,280 Speaker 1: those were and how they were incorporated into this audio 1042 01:05:53,320 --> 01:05:57,640 Speaker 1: animatronic system. So the next time you ride one of 1043 01:05:57,680 --> 01:06:01,320 Speaker 1: these rides, think about all the technology that went into 1044 01:06:01,320 --> 01:06:03,919 Speaker 1: it and the fact that it's just magnetic tape that's 1045 01:06:03,960 --> 01:06:06,760 Speaker 1: giving all the instructions and not through any sort of 1046 01:06:06,960 --> 01:06:11,600 Speaker 1: computer program, but literally through sound. That the sound itself 1047 01:06:12,000 --> 01:06:15,280 Speaker 1: is what allows the circuits to complete, and it varies 1048 01:06:15,360 --> 01:06:18,720 Speaker 1: that voltage, and it allows Mr Lincoln to stand up 1049 01:06:19,120 --> 01:06:22,080 Speaker 1: as he addresses you. And here's where we get to 1050 01:06:22,280 --> 01:06:26,760 Speaker 1: my story of a funny little Disney World fail. This 1051 01:06:26,800 --> 01:06:30,760 Speaker 1: was at disney World, not at Disneyland, and it was 1052 01:06:30,800 --> 01:06:35,480 Speaker 1: the first time my wife had ever been to Disney World, 1053 01:06:35,920 --> 01:06:39,480 Speaker 1: and I was so excited because if you've been to 1054 01:06:39,520 --> 01:06:43,920 Speaker 1: Disney World several times, after a while, you know what 1055 01:06:44,040 --> 01:06:48,640 Speaker 1: to expect. And while it is still an amazing achievement 1056 01:06:48,800 --> 01:06:53,840 Speaker 1: to have built an amusement park so uh immersive and 1057 01:06:53,960 --> 01:06:57,920 Speaker 1: with such detail, and to then staff it with people 1058 01:06:57,920 --> 01:07:01,080 Speaker 1: who have some of the best customer service points in 1059 01:07:01,120 --> 01:07:05,280 Speaker 1: the world, that alone is amazing. But if you go 1060 01:07:05,440 --> 01:07:08,000 Speaker 1: with someone who has never been before and you've been 1061 01:07:08,080 --> 01:07:10,960 Speaker 1: several times, there's a special kind of joy there because 1062 01:07:11,000 --> 01:07:13,960 Speaker 1: you can almost experience Disney World for the first time 1063 01:07:14,720 --> 01:07:18,440 Speaker 1: by vicariously experiencing it through your friend who had not 1064 01:07:18,520 --> 01:07:20,680 Speaker 1: been there before. In this case, it was my wife. 1065 01:07:20,920 --> 01:07:23,280 Speaker 1: She had never been to Disney World, so I was 1066 01:07:23,320 --> 01:07:26,320 Speaker 1: having this wonderful experience of taking her to different rides 1067 01:07:26,360 --> 01:07:28,320 Speaker 1: and she gets to see them for the first time, 1068 01:07:28,680 --> 01:07:31,400 Speaker 1: and she's blown away, and I remember how special it 1069 01:07:31,560 --> 01:07:34,600 Speaker 1: is because again, I've ridden most of these rides dozens 1070 01:07:34,640 --> 01:07:37,600 Speaker 1: of times, so for me, while I enjoyed them, the 1071 01:07:37,640 --> 01:07:40,760 Speaker 1: special part it kind of worn off. Seeing it through 1072 01:07:40,800 --> 01:07:43,320 Speaker 1: her eyes brought it all back and it was amazing. 1073 01:07:44,840 --> 01:07:48,320 Speaker 1: Then we go to the Hall of Presidents, and at 1074 01:07:48,320 --> 01:07:51,800 Speaker 1: the Hall of Presidents, uh, the curtains open and if 1075 01:07:51,840 --> 01:07:54,240 Speaker 1: you've never been to the Hall of Presidents at Disney World, 1076 01:07:54,520 --> 01:07:57,560 Speaker 1: there's a point where curtains open up and you see 1077 01:07:58,280 --> 01:08:02,520 Speaker 1: all of the presidence of the United States. They're all there, 1078 01:08:02,760 --> 01:08:06,120 Speaker 1: Every single one who's ever sat as president is there, 1079 01:08:06,960 --> 01:08:10,440 Speaker 1: animated this audio animatronic and they all do little weird things, 1080 01:08:10,440 --> 01:08:13,880 Speaker 1: like they fidget, they look around. Some of them appear 1081 01:08:13,960 --> 01:08:16,280 Speaker 1: to be a little bored with what's going on. Some 1082 01:08:16,360 --> 01:08:19,000 Speaker 1: of them seem really engaged. It's kind of it's kind 1083 01:08:19,000 --> 01:08:23,280 Speaker 1: of charming. They introduced them one at a time. Well, 1084 01:08:23,400 --> 01:08:27,240 Speaker 1: Mr Lincoln uh sits in a chair and then when 1085 01:08:27,240 --> 01:08:32,000 Speaker 1: it's his turn to actually address the audience, because he first, 1086 01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:34,559 Speaker 1: they introduce everybody, and everyone does a little gesture. They 1087 01:08:34,640 --> 01:08:39,120 Speaker 1: might not or wave a hand, but ultimately Lincoln stands 1088 01:08:39,240 --> 01:08:42,400 Speaker 1: up and then delivers a speech to the audience. When 1089 01:08:42,439 --> 01:08:45,439 Speaker 1: the curtains open, Lincoln was already standing. He was not 1090 01:08:45,560 --> 01:08:48,040 Speaker 1: seated as he normally would be, which tells me that 1091 01:08:48,080 --> 01:08:52,479 Speaker 1: the hydraulic system for his legs had already activated. However, 1092 01:08:52,520 --> 01:08:57,000 Speaker 1: he was not standing tall. He was bent at the waist. 1093 01:08:58,080 --> 01:09:01,000 Speaker 1: So he's standing up bent out as if he's tying 1094 01:09:01,000 --> 01:09:05,200 Speaker 1: his shoes, and his two arms are dangling at his sides, 1095 01:09:05,520 --> 01:09:08,360 Speaker 1: but they're still animated, so you still see them fidget 1096 01:09:08,479 --> 01:09:12,639 Speaker 1: and gesture. When he's announced and the spotlight hits his chair, 1097 01:09:12,960 --> 01:09:15,200 Speaker 1: which he was not sitting in, so the spotlight's actually 1098 01:09:15,280 --> 01:09:18,799 Speaker 1: hitting behind where he was, his hand made a little motion. 1099 01:09:19,800 --> 01:09:22,439 Speaker 1: It was at that point that I expected someone from Disney, 1100 01:09:22,439 --> 01:09:24,680 Speaker 1: one of the cast members to come down and hit 1101 01:09:24,720 --> 01:09:28,760 Speaker 1: the stop on the show, but they had not yet 1102 01:09:28,800 --> 01:09:33,160 Speaker 1: noticed the problem, and so I was starting to get 1103 01:09:33,160 --> 01:09:36,599 Speaker 1: the giggles a little bit. My wife was definitely getting 1104 01:09:36,600 --> 01:09:39,719 Speaker 1: the giggles, and my dad was encouraging it. My dad 1105 01:09:39,840 --> 01:09:43,679 Speaker 1: is the ultimate dad joke dad, and I love him dearly. 1106 01:09:44,600 --> 01:09:47,200 Speaker 1: But I hear my dad just say I begged them 1107 01:09:47,200 --> 01:09:51,720 Speaker 1: not to make an animatronic John Wilkes booth completely inappropriate 1108 01:09:52,120 --> 01:09:57,920 Speaker 1: and hilarious and tragic and hilarious. So we're watching as 1109 01:09:57,960 --> 01:10:01,799 Speaker 1: Lincoln continues to just stick late while bent over, staring 1110 01:10:01,840 --> 01:10:05,080 Speaker 1: at the floor. Ah. And then it gets to his 1111 01:10:05,160 --> 01:10:09,080 Speaker 1: speech and the music swells and he starts to speak 1112 01:10:09,120 --> 01:10:12,160 Speaker 1: and move his arms more expressively, still bent at the waist, 1113 01:10:12,200 --> 01:10:14,720 Speaker 1: he does not stand up. It's at that point that 1114 01:10:14,760 --> 01:10:17,280 Speaker 1: a Disney cast member takes notice and rushes down and 1115 01:10:17,360 --> 01:10:19,599 Speaker 1: hits the stop button which closes the curtains, and says, 1116 01:10:19,960 --> 01:10:22,679 Speaker 1: Mr Lincoln is not feeling very well, please check back 1117 01:10:22,720 --> 01:10:26,479 Speaker 1: again later today. And as we walk out, I, you know, 1118 01:10:26,520 --> 01:10:29,000 Speaker 1: we start making other jokes like is that my face 1119 01:10:29,080 --> 01:10:32,720 Speaker 1: on that penny, Little jokes about Lincoln bent over for 1120 01:10:32,760 --> 01:10:37,080 Speaker 1: some reason. And uh, it's unfortunate because that's my wife's 1121 01:10:37,280 --> 01:10:41,200 Speaker 1: first and first impression of the Hall of Presidents. That's her, 1122 01:10:41,720 --> 01:10:44,760 Speaker 1: that's the memory she associates with it. And I know 1123 01:10:45,160 --> 01:10:47,760 Speaker 1: for a fact that I can never take her to 1124 01:10:47,800 --> 01:10:50,720 Speaker 1: the Hall of Presidents ever again and have her take 1125 01:10:50,760 --> 01:10:55,080 Speaker 1: it seriously at all. Whenever it gets to Lincoln, she's 1126 01:10:55,080 --> 01:10:57,800 Speaker 1: gonna get the giggles, and she's gonna expect him to 1127 01:10:57,840 --> 01:10:59,880 Speaker 1: stand up and bend over at the waist and just 1128 01:11:00,120 --> 01:11:01,840 Speaker 1: stare at the floor for the rest of the day. 1129 01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:09,400 Speaker 1: So these animatronics didn't always work perfectly. Sometimes some part 1130 01:11:09,400 --> 01:11:14,520 Speaker 1: of the system or other would fail, and once that happens, 1131 01:11:15,040 --> 01:11:18,160 Speaker 1: then you get these sort of experiences where maybe part 1132 01:11:18,200 --> 01:11:20,559 Speaker 1: of the animation just isn't working. It could be something 1133 01:11:20,560 --> 01:11:23,280 Speaker 1: as simple as an arm is not animating the way 1134 01:11:23,280 --> 01:11:25,759 Speaker 1: it's supposed to, or it could be something a little 1135 01:11:25,800 --> 01:11:29,240 Speaker 1: more noticeable, like a character is bent over and slumped 1136 01:11:29,240 --> 01:11:33,920 Speaker 1: down because they don't have the proper pressure to stand up. Uh. 1137 01:11:34,800 --> 01:11:38,280 Speaker 1: It probably was just a valve that had failed to open, 1138 01:11:38,800 --> 01:11:41,479 Speaker 1: so there was probably some circuit where it had no 1139 01:11:41,560 --> 01:11:46,360 Speaker 1: longer was completing, and therefore the hydraulic system could not 1140 01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:50,599 Speaker 1: actually activate through the upper half of Mr. Lincoln, so 1141 01:11:50,640 --> 01:11:54,160 Speaker 1: he couldn't stand up tall. That's that's my guess as 1142 01:11:54,200 --> 01:11:59,839 Speaker 1: a you know, armchair technologist taking a look at what happened. 1143 01:12:01,520 --> 01:12:05,160 Speaker 1: So that's it. That's how audio animatronics work. It is 1144 01:12:05,200 --> 01:12:09,120 Speaker 1: a really interesting system. I love the fact that it 1145 01:12:09,439 --> 01:12:13,200 Speaker 1: predates computer systems for theme parks. These days, you're going 1146 01:12:13,240 --> 01:12:17,680 Speaker 1: to find much more complicated programming. There's gonna be microprocessors 1147 01:12:17,680 --> 01:12:20,960 Speaker 1: and characters. I don't know for a fact that the 1148 01:12:21,080 --> 01:12:23,880 Speaker 1: characters they added to the Pirates of the Caribbean Ride, 1149 01:12:23,880 --> 01:12:28,280 Speaker 1: for example, are more advanced versions. Like there's a Johnny 1150 01:12:28,320 --> 01:12:31,320 Speaker 1: Depp character that shows up three times in the new 1151 01:12:31,360 --> 01:12:35,920 Speaker 1: Pirates of the Caribbean Ride. Uh, there's Barbosa character. Jeffrey 1152 01:12:35,960 --> 01:12:39,320 Speaker 1: Rush's character from the movies is also in that. I 1153 01:12:39,360 --> 01:12:42,559 Speaker 1: suspect that those are updated systems that are not running 1154 01:12:42,720 --> 01:12:46,719 Speaker 1: on the old audio animatronic system. But that's just a guess. 1155 01:12:47,320 --> 01:12:49,400 Speaker 1: I do not know that for a fact. They are 1156 01:12:49,479 --> 01:12:52,920 Speaker 1: certainly much more sophisticated than the original Pirates of the 1157 01:12:52,960 --> 01:12:56,240 Speaker 1: Caribbean characters were. Now, there's a lot more stuff I 1158 01:12:56,240 --> 01:12:59,200 Speaker 1: could talk about, Like I could talk about how Disney 1159 01:12:59,240 --> 01:13:01,679 Speaker 1: had to work on building a new type of material 1160 01:13:02,000 --> 01:13:04,880 Speaker 1: for these human figures called d reflex. It's not the 1161 01:13:04,920 --> 01:13:08,960 Speaker 1: same thing that you find in cars that have duraflex bumpers, 1162 01:13:09,360 --> 01:13:12,400 Speaker 1: but they had to created reflex because latex was too 1163 01:13:12,400 --> 01:13:15,799 Speaker 1: delicate to work over and over, especially in an environment 1164 01:13:15,800 --> 01:13:19,920 Speaker 1: that had lots of oil and moving parts. Uh sod. 1165 01:13:20,040 --> 01:13:21,960 Speaker 1: Reflex was the thing that they had to create in 1166 01:13:22,040 --> 01:13:26,519 Speaker 1: order to keep a realistic skin looking texture. But I 1167 01:13:26,600 --> 01:13:30,000 Speaker 1: figured that's for another episode further down the line. In 1168 01:13:30,040 --> 01:13:32,839 Speaker 1: the meantime, if you guys have any suggestions for future episodes, 1169 01:13:32,880 --> 01:13:35,680 Speaker 1: I should cover things topics that you've always wanted to 1170 01:13:35,720 --> 01:13:37,639 Speaker 1: know about, or people I should have on the show 1171 01:13:37,680 --> 01:13:40,919 Speaker 1: and interview. You should let me know. Send me a message. 1172 01:13:40,960 --> 01:13:44,439 Speaker 1: My email address is text Stuff at how stuff works 1173 01:13:44,479 --> 01:13:46,880 Speaker 1: dot com, or you can drop me a line on 1174 01:13:46,920 --> 01:13:49,280 Speaker 1: Facebook or Twitter. The handle at both of those is 1175 01:13:49,360 --> 01:13:53,439 Speaker 1: text stuff hs W and remember you can watch me 1176 01:13:53,760 --> 01:13:57,280 Speaker 1: live on Twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff. When I 1177 01:13:57,320 --> 01:14:00,559 Speaker 1: record these episodes, there are people watch them live right 1178 01:14:00,560 --> 01:14:02,920 Speaker 1: now as I record this, not as you hear it, 1179 01:14:03,280 --> 01:14:07,160 Speaker 1: but as I recorded, and they're awesome. So come join 1180 01:14:07,240 --> 01:14:10,160 Speaker 1: the awesome people. We have a chat room. We chatted 1181 01:14:10,240 --> 01:14:12,760 Speaker 1: up and uh, I would love to see you over there, 1182 01:14:13,040 --> 01:14:15,599 Speaker 1: so Twitch dot tv slash tech Stuff you can see 1183 01:14:15,600 --> 01:14:17,840 Speaker 1: what the schedule is over there. I hope to see 1184 01:14:17,880 --> 01:14:20,200 Speaker 1: you there soon and I'll talk to you guys again 1185 01:14:20,920 --> 01:14:24,000 Speaker 1: at the happiest place on Earth, I hope really soon. 1186 01:14:30,400 --> 01:14:32,840 Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics because 1187 01:14:32,880 --> 01:14:43,960 Speaker 1: it housetof works dot com