1 00:00:04,440 --> 00:00:12,360 Speaker 1: Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 2 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:15,520 Speaker 1: and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host job and Strickland. 3 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:18,759 Speaker 1: I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 4 00:00:18,880 --> 00:00:19,479 Speaker 1: tech are you? 5 00:00:20,160 --> 00:00:20,960 Speaker 2: It is Friday. 6 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,759 Speaker 1: It's time for a classic episode of tech Stuff. This 7 00:00:23,800 --> 00:00:28,920 Speaker 1: one originally published back on June twenty third, twenty seventeen. 8 00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,559 Speaker 1: It is called the Wonderful world of Audio Animatronics, a 9 00:00:33,680 --> 00:00:35,800 Speaker 1: topic that is near and dear to my heart. I've 10 00:00:35,800 --> 00:00:39,920 Speaker 1: talked about it more than once on this show. Audio 11 00:00:39,920 --> 00:00:43,199 Speaker 1: animatrics have popped up a few times in different episodes. 12 00:00:43,240 --> 00:00:48,239 Speaker 1: This one is dedicated to the technology enjoy I am 13 00:00:48,320 --> 00:00:53,360 Speaker 1: an enormous Disney fanatic. I consider myself a Disney fan 14 00:00:54,000 --> 00:00:59,120 Speaker 1: of film, of television, of their theme parks. Probably not 15 00:00:59,160 --> 00:01:02,440 Speaker 1: necessarily in that or maybe film first then theme parks 16 00:01:02,480 --> 00:01:05,399 Speaker 1: than television, but I'm a huge fan of Disney stuff. 17 00:01:05,920 --> 00:01:08,880 Speaker 1: And recently, when I was on a trip to Los 18 00:01:08,920 --> 00:01:13,120 Speaker 1: Angeles to attend E three, I found myself with a 19 00:01:13,240 --> 00:01:17,120 Speaker 1: day with nothing to do. I had hoped to book 20 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,319 Speaker 1: some meetings that did not happen, so instead of just 21 00:01:20,360 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 1: sitting around my hotel room feeling sorry for myself, in 22 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,759 Speaker 1: a city where I really didn't know anybody. 23 00:01:25,959 --> 00:01:27,679 Speaker 2: I decided to hop on down to. 24 00:01:27,680 --> 00:01:32,160 Speaker 1: Orange County, California, that is the home of Disneyland, and 25 00:01:32,200 --> 00:01:33,880 Speaker 1: to go to the happiest place on Earth. It was 26 00:01:33,920 --> 00:01:37,600 Speaker 1: not my first time at Disneyland, but this was the 27 00:01:37,640 --> 00:01:40,839 Speaker 1: first time I'd ever gone to Disneyland completely on my own, 28 00:01:41,240 --> 00:01:43,319 Speaker 1: and I was a little worried about that, like, how 29 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,880 Speaker 1: am I going to have fun just by myself. Turns out, 30 00:01:45,920 --> 00:01:48,120 Speaker 1: Disneyland did most of the work for me. I didn't 31 00:01:48,160 --> 00:01:50,360 Speaker 1: have to worry so much and had a great time. 32 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:53,640 Speaker 1: But it also reminded me of how much I love 33 00:01:53,760 --> 00:01:57,840 Speaker 1: the technology and innovation that goes behind Disneyland. And honestly, 34 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:02,960 Speaker 1: I could do maybe a dozen episodes about different technologies 35 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:06,840 Speaker 1: that were pioneered or perfected at the Disney theme parks, 36 00:02:06,920 --> 00:02:09,960 Speaker 1: because there are a ton of them that Disney either 37 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:15,320 Speaker 1: directly had a hand in developing or tweaked it in 38 00:02:15,320 --> 00:02:17,800 Speaker 1: a way to elevate it beyond what it used to be. 39 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:20,480 Speaker 2: There are plenty of examples of that. 40 00:02:20,919 --> 00:02:25,920 Speaker 1: Today, we're specifically going to focus on audio animatronics. And 41 00:02:25,960 --> 00:02:28,480 Speaker 1: for those who have not heard what this term is 42 00:02:28,639 --> 00:02:31,639 Speaker 1: or have any idea what it means this was a 43 00:02:31,680 --> 00:02:36,960 Speaker 1: system that Walt Disney's company pioneered to create animated, physical, 44 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,040 Speaker 1: three dimensional figures. So in a way, it's kind of 45 00:02:41,080 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: similar to puppetry, right with a puppet, typically you're manipulating 46 00:02:46,200 --> 00:02:49,720 Speaker 1: some sort of three dimensional figure. Beyond shadow puppets and 47 00:02:49,800 --> 00:02:52,040 Speaker 1: that sort of puppet tree, which is amazing all on 48 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:56,560 Speaker 1: its own, I'm talking about your traditional hand puppets, rod puppets, 49 00:02:56,600 --> 00:03:01,840 Speaker 1: and marionettes. That involves manipulating and inanimate object in a 50 00:03:01,880 --> 00:03:04,519 Speaker 1: way to make it seem like it has life, that 51 00:03:04,720 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: has anima, and that you are using some sort of system, 52 00:03:09,280 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 1: whether it's rods or the puppet is essentially a glove puppet, 53 00:03:14,200 --> 00:03:17,360 Speaker 1: or you're using strings with a marionette to create this 54 00:03:17,440 --> 00:03:21,320 Speaker 1: illusion of movement. Well, Disney wanted to create something similar, 55 00:03:21,480 --> 00:03:25,160 Speaker 1: only these would run on a mechanical system that would 56 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:30,240 Speaker 1: be painstakingly programmed rather than being under the direct control 57 00:03:30,440 --> 00:03:34,520 Speaker 1: of a human being. Those figures, when they're working properly, 58 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:39,200 Speaker 1: would replicate those same motions and have the same performance 59 00:03:39,560 --> 00:03:43,040 Speaker 1: every single time. So the one hundredth time the character 60 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,920 Speaker 1: is doing a show, it's exactly the way it was 61 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:49,760 Speaker 1: the first time. So once you perfect a show, and 62 00:03:49,880 --> 00:03:53,040 Speaker 1: you program that into these these figures, you then have 63 00:03:53,160 --> 00:03:57,120 Speaker 1: the perfect show every single time you run it, assuming 64 00:03:57,160 --> 00:03:59,800 Speaker 1: everything's working properly. Now, anyone who has been to Disney 65 00:03:59,840 --> 00:04:02,720 Speaker 1: and times knows that's a big assumption to make. 66 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:06,160 Speaker 2: Sometimes things just don't do not work really well. 67 00:04:06,360 --> 00:04:08,440 Speaker 1: I'll tell you about one of those times that I 68 00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:14,240 Speaker 1: experienced firsthand later on in this show. But the technology 69 00:04:14,280 --> 00:04:17,880 Speaker 1: itself is phenomenal, and even when it isn't working properly, 70 00:04:18,040 --> 00:04:22,119 Speaker 1: that does not take away from how amazing this tech 71 00:04:22,360 --> 00:04:25,640 Speaker 1: really is, especially when you consider what people had to 72 00:04:25,680 --> 00:04:29,039 Speaker 1: work with back in the fifties and early sixties when 73 00:04:29,040 --> 00:04:34,960 Speaker 1: they were first developing these systems. It is pretty amazing stuff. Now, 74 00:04:35,040 --> 00:04:37,680 Speaker 1: the reason why Disney wanted this in the first place 75 00:04:37,800 --> 00:04:41,560 Speaker 1: is he really loved the idea of creating a real, 76 00:04:42,000 --> 00:04:45,200 Speaker 1: three dimensional experience, similar to what you would get with 77 00:04:45,279 --> 00:04:49,640 Speaker 1: an animated film. Animated films can be perfected right, you 78 00:04:49,680 --> 00:04:52,160 Speaker 1: can sit there and sketch it out and get it 79 00:04:52,400 --> 00:04:55,000 Speaker 1: just right before you release it as a movie. He 80 00:04:55,040 --> 00:04:57,279 Speaker 1: wanted to have that same sort of experience, but in 81 00:04:57,320 --> 00:05:01,320 Speaker 1: the real physical world. He was a stickler for perfection, 82 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:05,840 Speaker 1: had very, very very high standards and the people who 83 00:05:05,920 --> 00:05:09,360 Speaker 1: worked for him. They also would end up having very 84 00:05:09,400 --> 00:05:12,400 Speaker 1: high standards. Everyone wanted to make sure that they met 85 00:05:12,920 --> 00:05:18,440 Speaker 1: Disney's expectations. Now you can find animatronic figures in lots 86 00:05:18,440 --> 00:05:22,640 Speaker 1: of Disney attractions, including the Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of 87 00:05:22,680 --> 00:05:26,240 Speaker 1: the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Great Moments with Mister Lincoln, 88 00:05:26,320 --> 00:05:28,320 Speaker 1: the Hall of Presidents which would be over at the 89 00:05:28,320 --> 00:05:31,720 Speaker 1: Magic Kingdom, and Disney World, and tons more. There are 90 00:05:31,839 --> 00:05:34,920 Speaker 1: lots of examples. There are also some attractions that had 91 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:40,039 Speaker 1: moving figures that didn't use the audio animatronic system. So, 92 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,640 Speaker 1: for example, the Jungle Cruise ride has animated animal figures. 93 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:50,279 Speaker 1: As you ride through, you see hippopotamuses and crocodiles and elephants, 94 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:55,159 Speaker 1: but these were running on a very simple mechanical loop system. 95 00:05:55,279 --> 00:05:58,240 Speaker 1: They were not specifically audio animatronic. 96 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,000 Speaker 2: They worked on something that was a little. 97 00:06:00,880 --> 00:06:05,720 Speaker 1: Less sophisticated than what would follow. So you have both 98 00:06:05,920 --> 00:06:10,640 Speaker 1: at Disney Parks. And I'm also sad that I can't 99 00:06:10,680 --> 00:06:13,800 Speaker 1: have Holly on this episode. Holly, who's one of the 100 00:06:13,839 --> 00:06:16,800 Speaker 1: co hosts of Stuff You Missed in History Class. Apart 101 00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:21,760 Speaker 1: from being a brilliant podcaster and an avid historian. She 102 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:29,360 Speaker 1: is an enormous fan of all things Disney, and she 103 00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:31,200 Speaker 1: doesn't just give me a run for my money, she 104 00:06:31,320 --> 00:06:34,000 Speaker 1: leaves me in the dust. I love Disney, I have 105 00:06:34,080 --> 00:06:38,720 Speaker 1: been to the Disney parks dozens of times, but Holly 106 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:43,080 Speaker 1: is a step beyond even my own obsession. So I 107 00:06:43,120 --> 00:06:45,280 Speaker 1: am sad that I can't have her here because I 108 00:06:45,320 --> 00:06:49,880 Speaker 1: am absolutely certain that she would be here dropping nuggets 109 00:06:49,880 --> 00:06:53,359 Speaker 1: of knowledge and trivia about these various Disney attractions that 110 00:06:53,560 --> 00:06:55,279 Speaker 1: I have yet to uncover. 111 00:06:55,839 --> 00:06:57,719 Speaker 2: So maybe someday I will be. 112 00:06:57,720 --> 00:06:59,800 Speaker 1: Able to have Holly on this show, and we'll do 113 00:06:59,880 --> 00:07:04,120 Speaker 1: it Disney oriented episode about some other type of tech. 114 00:07:04,839 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: In the meantime, there are some other podcasts we've done 115 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:11,720 Speaker 1: that relate to Disney. I did one about the Pepper's 116 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:16,360 Speaker 1: Ghost effect, which is used extensively. 117 00:07:15,680 --> 00:07:17,840 Speaker 2: In the Haunted Mansion ride. 118 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:22,600 Speaker 1: Pepper's Ghost involves reflective surfaces and using lighting in a 119 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,160 Speaker 1: way so that you can create the illusion of a 120 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: ghostly figure appearing before you, but what you're actually looking 121 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,680 Speaker 1: at is a reflection of a physical figure that's just 122 00:07:32,880 --> 00:07:36,280 Speaker 1: lit in a very bright space, whereas you're in a 123 00:07:36,360 --> 00:07:41,680 Speaker 1: very dark space. The famous ballroom sequence in The Haunted 124 00:07:41,680 --> 00:07:45,200 Speaker 1: Mansion ride is a big example of Pepper's Ghost. So 125 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:47,600 Speaker 1: you can go and check out those episodes of tech stuff. 126 00:07:47,640 --> 00:07:50,000 Speaker 1: If this is not enough Disney for you, all right, 127 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:54,560 Speaker 1: let's talk specifically about what I wanted to concentrate on today. 128 00:07:55,320 --> 00:07:58,960 Speaker 1: To do that, we have to mention Walt Disney because 129 00:07:58,960 --> 00:08:01,600 Speaker 1: he's central to our story. He's kind of our main 130 00:08:01,760 --> 00:08:05,960 Speaker 1: character if this were a narrative. His full name was 131 00:08:06,120 --> 00:08:09,440 Speaker 1: Walter Elias Disney. He was born in nineteen oh one 132 00:08:09,480 --> 00:08:13,360 Speaker 1: in Illinois. He grew up in Missouri and attended high 133 00:08:13,360 --> 00:08:17,920 Speaker 1: school in Chicago. He was studying art primarily. When he 134 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:20,920 Speaker 1: was sixteen, he dropped out to join the army, but 135 00:08:21,040 --> 00:08:24,200 Speaker 1: they rejected him because he was too young. He then 136 00:08:24,520 --> 00:08:27,960 Speaker 1: joined the Red Cross and was shipped over to Europe 137 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:33,160 Speaker 1: and drove ambulances during World War One in France. Once 138 00:08:33,640 --> 00:08:36,920 Speaker 1: is his work with the Red Cross was done over there, 139 00:08:37,040 --> 00:08:39,880 Speaker 1: he moved back to the United States and he began 140 00:08:39,960 --> 00:08:42,960 Speaker 1: to work for an ad company. He was making film 141 00:08:43,080 --> 00:08:46,480 Speaker 1: and animations. Then he would go on to create his 142 00:08:46,559 --> 00:08:51,480 Speaker 1: own studio, which saw some modest success, but then it 143 00:08:51,600 --> 00:08:55,679 Speaker 1: ran into some hard times. Eventually he had to declare bankruptcy. 144 00:08:55,800 --> 00:09:01,240 Speaker 1: Under his first studio, but that he didn't give up. 145 00:09:01,480 --> 00:09:04,000 Speaker 1: He decided to make a go at it again, and 146 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:07,160 Speaker 1: he and his brother Roy were able to co found 147 00:09:07,360 --> 00:09:11,520 Speaker 1: the Walt Disney Company, and from that moment forward, his 148 00:09:11,640 --> 00:09:14,839 Speaker 1: influence on tech has been considerable, from actual innovations and 149 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:19,760 Speaker 1: technology to how creators can protect their intellectual property. Now, 150 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: not all of those influences have been met with enthusiasm. 151 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:26,040 Speaker 1: Disney is one of the reasons why the United States 152 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:33,320 Speaker 1: has such incredibly extensive intellectual property protection laws, stuff like 153 00:09:33,400 --> 00:09:37,680 Speaker 1: copyright and trademark laws that protect well beyond the lifetime 154 00:09:38,080 --> 00:09:41,880 Speaker 1: of the creator. A lot of that has to do 155 00:09:42,040 --> 00:09:48,439 Speaker 1: with Disney, as a corporate entity, lobbying to extend those parameters. 156 00:09:48,520 --> 00:09:53,800 Speaker 1: So Disney's impact on technology has been enormous in both 157 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 1: very specific ways that relate to particular technologies to the 158 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:03,080 Speaker 1: way that the those technologies are protected under intellectual property law. 159 00:10:04,960 --> 00:10:08,200 Speaker 1: So Disney's use of sound with animation was a huge 160 00:10:08,280 --> 00:10:11,920 Speaker 1: leap forward in the nineteen twenties, Steamboat Willie being the 161 00:10:11,960 --> 00:10:16,200 Speaker 1: first cartoon with sound, and Disney himself voiced the iconic 162 00:10:16,360 --> 00:10:20,000 Speaker 1: character of Mickey Mouse, who struck a chord with viewers 163 00:10:20,400 --> 00:10:25,920 Speaker 1: and propelled Disney into enormous success. Over the following decades, 164 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,920 Speaker 1: he would see a lot more success, including going into 165 00:10:28,920 --> 00:10:31,800 Speaker 1: feature link animation, which had not been done before, and 166 00:10:32,040 --> 00:10:35,760 Speaker 1: he was able to succeed with Snow White and the 167 00:10:35,800 --> 00:10:39,200 Speaker 1: Seven Dwarfs, and he also continued to see success with 168 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:43,280 Speaker 1: short form stuff. Now, depending upon the account you read, 169 00:10:43,679 --> 00:10:45,880 Speaker 1: because there are a couple different versions of the story, 170 00:10:47,160 --> 00:10:52,480 Speaker 1: we actually begin either in France or the French Quarter 171 00:10:52,640 --> 00:10:56,160 Speaker 1: in New Orleans. The story goes that Disney was on 172 00:10:56,440 --> 00:10:59,960 Speaker 1: vacation with his family, and as he was on vacation, 173 00:11:00,040 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: and he decided to look into some antique shops and 174 00:11:05,200 --> 00:11:10,920 Speaker 1: he came across some various clockwork toys, wind up birds, 175 00:11:10,920 --> 00:11:14,319 Speaker 1: and that sort of thing. One specific toy he came 176 00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,960 Speaker 1: across in an antique shop was a bird cage that 177 00:11:18,040 --> 00:11:20,480 Speaker 1: had a mechanical bird inside of it that would chirp 178 00:11:20,559 --> 00:11:24,960 Speaker 1: and sing, and it would make little motions that you 179 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:28,920 Speaker 1: could describe as being somewhat robotic. They were pretty primitive motions, 180 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: but you know, close enough to being an actual bird 181 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:34,439 Speaker 1: that you knew what it was. It wasn't like it 182 00:11:34,480 --> 00:11:39,120 Speaker 1: looked like a monstrosity or anything like that. He thought 183 00:11:39,120 --> 00:11:41,920 Speaker 1: it was absolutely charming, and he felt that there was 184 00:11:41,960 --> 00:11:44,560 Speaker 1: a lot of potential there that he could use to 185 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 1: create three dimensional, physical animated figurines, potentially in a theme park. 186 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:53,000 Speaker 1: That was one of the things he had been considering 187 00:11:53,120 --> 00:11:57,600 Speaker 1: around this time, although Disneyland had not yet become a reality. 188 00:11:58,920 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: So he brought the antique bird cage with the mechanical 189 00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:06,360 Speaker 1: bird inside of it back to his company, and he 190 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:10,839 Speaker 1: went to some of his top thinkers over at the 191 00:12:10,880 --> 00:12:14,280 Speaker 1: Walt Disney Company and said, figure out how this thing works. 192 00:12:15,040 --> 00:12:17,600 Speaker 1: So they took it apart, and they took a look 193 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:20,760 Speaker 1: at it, and they began to formulate ideas of how 194 00:12:20,800 --> 00:12:24,280 Speaker 1: they could create their own technology that would also allow 195 00:12:24,400 --> 00:12:28,920 Speaker 1: for animation of this type sort of this automated puppetry 196 00:12:29,040 --> 00:12:32,560 Speaker 1: that I was talking about now. Disney was really excited 197 00:12:32,600 --> 00:12:35,840 Speaker 1: about this prospect of having fully realized, three dimensional characters 198 00:12:35,880 --> 00:12:40,800 Speaker 1: capable of delivering a performance consistently. And Jack Gladish, who 199 00:12:40,880 --> 00:12:43,200 Speaker 1: was one of the engineers who would work on developing 200 00:12:43,320 --> 00:12:46,720 Speaker 1: audio animatronic technology, one of many, as it turns out, 201 00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:50,240 Speaker 1: would say that Disney once joked to him, I'm tired 202 00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:53,199 Speaker 1: of finicky actors. I want to develop a fully animated, 203 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,560 Speaker 1: articulated human being to use in place of motion picture 204 00:12:57,720 --> 00:13:02,520 Speaker 1: actors and actresses. So this was Disney having a bit 205 00:13:02,520 --> 00:13:04,880 Speaker 1: of fun saying that, Hey, the real reason why I 206 00:13:04,880 --> 00:13:06,800 Speaker 1: want to develop this technology is because then I can 207 00:13:06,840 --> 00:13:09,680 Speaker 1: get rid of all these pesky humans that keep on 208 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:14,680 Speaker 1: asking questions or having issues, whereas the animatronic ones will 209 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:17,320 Speaker 1: just do what we tell them to do. And it's 210 00:13:17,400 --> 00:13:20,880 Speaker 1: kind of funny because there's another famous director who said 211 00:13:20,920 --> 00:13:27,240 Speaker 1: something very similar about Disney's cast. That famous director was 212 00:13:27,280 --> 00:13:33,200 Speaker 1: Alfred Hitchcock, who of course made incredible films of thriller 213 00:13:33,679 --> 00:13:38,400 Speaker 1: and psychological horror genres, things like The Birds and Psycho, 214 00:13:38,480 --> 00:13:43,600 Speaker 1: that sort of stuff. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly once said Disney 215 00:13:43,679 --> 00:13:46,160 Speaker 1: has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor, 216 00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:51,480 Speaker 1: he just tears him up. So Hitchcock's joke and Disney's 217 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:54,760 Speaker 1: joke were very similar in that respect, this idea of 218 00:13:54,800 --> 00:13:58,240 Speaker 1: the frustrated director who has to contend with the delicate 219 00:13:58,280 --> 00:14:02,319 Speaker 1: sensibilities of actors and actress. But in truth, Disney just 220 00:14:02,360 --> 00:14:04,520 Speaker 1: thought this was a really cool technology and he saw 221 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:07,400 Speaker 1: a lot of potential in it, and he was always 222 00:14:07,400 --> 00:14:10,600 Speaker 1: looking at new ways to make use of the immense 223 00:14:10,800 --> 00:14:14,920 Speaker 1: talent he had attracted to the Walt Disney Company. Whereas 224 00:14:14,920 --> 00:14:17,000 Speaker 1: a lot of these people started off in the animation 225 00:14:17,080 --> 00:14:20,720 Speaker 1: department where they were working on various films and shorts 226 00:14:20,720 --> 00:14:24,600 Speaker 1: for Disney, they would eventually move into very different departments 227 00:14:24,640 --> 00:14:29,400 Speaker 1: and develop stuff like the actual Disneyland theme park disney 228 00:14:29,440 --> 00:14:34,359 Speaker 1: World later on, as well as visual effects and props 229 00:14:34,360 --> 00:14:37,680 Speaker 1: and sets and things of that nature for the various 230 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:40,440 Speaker 1: live action films that Disney was getting into as well. 231 00:14:40,800 --> 00:14:44,160 Speaker 1: So you had people who started off as animators kind 232 00:14:44,160 --> 00:14:48,960 Speaker 1: of specializing in different areas. This was the dawn of 233 00:14:49,040 --> 00:14:52,640 Speaker 1: the imagineering age. There was no such thing as an 234 00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:56,920 Speaker 1: imagineer yet, no one had called it that, but eventually 235 00:14:57,520 --> 00:15:00,920 Speaker 1: Disney would end up referring to people who worked in 236 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:05,200 Speaker 1: this sort of field as imagineers. They were thinking outside 237 00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:10,680 Speaker 1: the box, using engineering and creativity married together to create 238 00:15:10,800 --> 00:15:14,800 Speaker 1: really interesting experiences that you could not find anywhere else. 239 00:15:14,920 --> 00:15:18,320 Speaker 1: That was the value that Disney wanted to create to 240 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:21,560 Speaker 1: justify charging people admission to come and. 241 00:15:21,560 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 2: Check it out. 242 00:15:23,200 --> 00:15:29,200 Speaker 1: So he was really excited about this potential opportunity, and 243 00:15:29,320 --> 00:15:32,200 Speaker 1: he had a lot of potential ways of using this 244 00:15:32,320 --> 00:15:34,560 Speaker 1: technology already at this time. 245 00:15:34,600 --> 00:15:36,040 Speaker 2: He was thinking ahead. 246 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:38,760 Speaker 1: One of those was the fact that he wanted to 247 00:15:38,760 --> 00:15:42,320 Speaker 1: open up an amusement park that would eventually become Disneyland. 248 00:15:42,680 --> 00:15:45,080 Speaker 1: He thought, well, I need to have attractions for people 249 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:48,400 Speaker 1: to come and experience at this park, and he thought 250 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:52,359 Speaker 1: this technology could potentially provide some of those experiences. 251 00:15:53,160 --> 00:15:54,720 Speaker 2: He also had. 252 00:15:54,800 --> 00:15:59,920 Speaker 1: An ability to contribute to a massive event that would 253 00:16:00,040 --> 00:16:02,960 Speaker 1: happened in the mid nineteen sixties, That is, the nineteen 254 00:16:03,080 --> 00:16:06,920 Speaker 1: sixty four World's Fair in New York that was going 255 00:16:06,960 --> 00:16:10,480 Speaker 1: to end up requiring a lot of work on Disney's part. 256 00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,680 Speaker 1: Years in advance, he knew that he was going to 257 00:16:13,720 --> 00:16:19,440 Speaker 1: be providing four attractions for this World's Fair, and he 258 00:16:19,520 --> 00:16:22,200 Speaker 1: knew that the entire attention of the world was going 259 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:25,520 Speaker 1: to be on New York for this event. So he 260 00:16:25,600 --> 00:16:29,000 Speaker 1: wanted to make absolutely certain that the attractions that his 261 00:16:29,080 --> 00:16:34,280 Speaker 1: company designed were phenomenal and unlike anything anyone had ever experienced, 262 00:16:34,320 --> 00:16:37,960 Speaker 1: and for that he needed to pioneer a new technology. 263 00:16:38,920 --> 00:16:42,120 Speaker 1: So all he had to do from that point forward 264 00:16:42,840 --> 00:16:51,160 Speaker 1: was just invent it. No big shakes, right, So to start. 265 00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:55,720 Speaker 1: One of the earliest experiments with this idea of animating 266 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:59,680 Speaker 1: a three dimensional figure was what would eventually be called 267 00:16:59,680 --> 00:17:05,000 Speaker 1: the Day Dancing Man or the Little Man project. This 268 00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:08,119 Speaker 1: would be of a figure that measured about nine inches 269 00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:13,280 Speaker 1: tall and was meant to dance based upon this automated 270 00:17:13,320 --> 00:17:17,359 Speaker 1: system or mechanical system at least if not fully automated. 271 00:17:18,000 --> 00:17:21,879 Speaker 1: The story goes that Walt Disney approached the artist Ken Anderson, 272 00:17:21,920 --> 00:17:25,840 Speaker 1: who was working for Disney. Anderson would become instrumental for 273 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:32,400 Speaker 1: the design and implementation of various elements in Disneyland, and 274 00:17:33,080 --> 00:17:35,359 Speaker 1: he said, you know what, You're working on a lot 275 00:17:35,400 --> 00:17:37,320 Speaker 1: of stuff, but I want to pay you out of 276 00:17:37,320 --> 00:17:40,080 Speaker 1: my own pocket for a project that I really believe 277 00:17:40,119 --> 00:17:43,480 Speaker 1: in that's not really a company project yet. I want 278 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:47,480 Speaker 1: to create scenes that evoke the American way of life, 279 00:17:48,160 --> 00:17:52,520 Speaker 1: and Disney had a very idyllic sense of what that meant. 280 00:17:52,760 --> 00:17:56,560 Speaker 1: That small town feel that you get when you walk 281 00:17:56,640 --> 00:18:00,320 Speaker 1: down Main Street, USA, if you're ever at Disneyland or 282 00:18:00,359 --> 00:18:03,400 Speaker 1: disney World and you're walking down Main Street, especially if 283 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:05,320 Speaker 1: you're doing it at a time when there's not a 284 00:18:05,400 --> 00:18:09,280 Speaker 1: huge crowd there, it evokes the sense of a small 285 00:18:09,400 --> 00:18:13,600 Speaker 1: town maybe early nineteen hundreds, around the time when Walt 286 00:18:13,640 --> 00:18:16,280 Speaker 1: Disney himself would have been growing up, where if things 287 00:18:16,359 --> 00:18:22,520 Speaker 1: appeared to be simple and elegant. That's what Disney wanted 288 00:18:22,560 --> 00:18:24,840 Speaker 1: to create, and so he talked to Anderson, said, I 289 00:18:24,880 --> 00:18:27,679 Speaker 1: want to have this idea of building this kind of 290 00:18:27,720 --> 00:18:30,760 Speaker 1: experience in miniature where people can look at the different 291 00:18:30,800 --> 00:18:34,720 Speaker 1: miniatures we design and different elements of it actually come 292 00:18:34,800 --> 00:18:38,920 Speaker 1: to life. So at first he wanted to get some paintings, 293 00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:41,760 Speaker 1: some sketches of this. So Anderson got to work and 294 00:18:41,760 --> 00:18:44,680 Speaker 1: one of the first things he created was a Norman 295 00:18:44,880 --> 00:18:50,560 Speaker 1: Rockwell esque scene of a soft shoe dancer performing on. 296 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:52,960 Speaker 2: A stage, a small stage. 297 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,560 Speaker 1: So something that you might see in an old Vaudevillian theater, 298 00:18:57,480 --> 00:19:01,399 Speaker 1: and Disney immediately connected to it. He thought, that's exactly 299 00:19:01,440 --> 00:19:04,800 Speaker 1: what I wanted to see. And he felt that this 300 00:19:05,040 --> 00:19:07,880 Speaker 1: was a figure that if they could create a three 301 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:11,119 Speaker 1: dimensional version of it and build it in a miniature 302 00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:14,080 Speaker 1: set and it could move around and do its little 303 00:19:14,160 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: dance routine for people, that would be phenomenal. So he 304 00:19:17,840 --> 00:19:23,639 Speaker 1: took Anderson's design and he then decided to work with 305 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:28,960 Speaker 1: a couple of other folks over at Disney. He went 306 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:31,639 Speaker 1: to a sculptor who was working for the company at 307 00:19:31,680 --> 00:19:36,960 Speaker 1: the time. The sculptor's name was Charles Clarence Cristadoro, and 308 00:19:37,240 --> 00:19:43,440 Speaker 1: Cristadoro's dad was a famous agricultural scientist and farmer who 309 00:19:43,840 --> 00:19:48,040 Speaker 1: had written extensively about agriculture. Cristadora himself had become a 310 00:19:48,119 --> 00:19:53,760 Speaker 1: notable sculptor, working both in the public spaces, designing statues 311 00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:57,960 Speaker 1: that were shown in San Diego and other areas of California, 312 00:19:58,040 --> 00:20:00,400 Speaker 1: and also working in the movie industry. He had worked 313 00:20:00,400 --> 00:20:04,240 Speaker 1: for Disney once during the nineteen thirties, left the company, 314 00:20:04,240 --> 00:20:07,600 Speaker 1: and then came back in the early nineteen fifties. He 315 00:20:07,760 --> 00:20:10,400 Speaker 1: was given the sketch and told to make a physical 316 00:20:10,480 --> 00:20:14,640 Speaker 1: model of the dancer, which he did. He sculpted a 317 00:20:14,680 --> 00:20:20,680 Speaker 1: physical model based upon the Ken Anderson painting and gave 318 00:20:20,720 --> 00:20:23,560 Speaker 1: that to Disney. Disney then took the model over to 319 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:27,280 Speaker 1: the machine shop, and he also brought in the animation department. Now, 320 00:20:27,359 --> 00:20:28,920 Speaker 1: right now seems like it would be a good time 321 00:20:28,920 --> 00:20:32,240 Speaker 1: to summarize all the areas that came together to make 322 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,240 Speaker 1: audio animatronics even possible. And I realized I haven't even 323 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:38,680 Speaker 1: gotten to what audio animatronics can do and how they 324 00:20:38,760 --> 00:20:41,600 Speaker 1: do it. But it's important to understand the different departments 325 00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:44,600 Speaker 1: to kind of get a grip on why it was 326 00:20:44,640 --> 00:20:48,360 Speaker 1: so complicated and why it called for a multidisciplinary approach 327 00:20:48,400 --> 00:20:53,320 Speaker 1: because that's exactly what audio animatronics were. It required people 328 00:20:53,359 --> 00:20:56,639 Speaker 1: of vastly different disciplines and knowledge base in order to 329 00:20:56,680 --> 00:20:57,520 Speaker 1: make this happen. 330 00:20:58,800 --> 00:21:00,320 Speaker 2: So, in no. 331 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:03,440 Speaker 1: Particular order, here are some of the departments at Disney 332 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:08,679 Speaker 1: that worked on pioneering audio animatronics. First, there was the 333 00:21:08,760 --> 00:21:12,000 Speaker 1: Sound Department. Now it might seem weird that I'm starting 334 00:21:12,119 --> 00:21:17,600 Speaker 1: with the Sound department instead of the Mechanical Shop or animation, 335 00:21:17,760 --> 00:21:21,399 Speaker 1: but the reason for that is the Sound department was 336 00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:27,160 Speaker 1: in charge of the audio animatronic projects because those depended 337 00:21:27,200 --> 00:21:31,240 Speaker 1: so heavily on that audio component. I'll explain more about 338 00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:35,639 Speaker 1: how and a little bit. The sound department was ultimately 339 00:21:36,920 --> 00:21:39,919 Speaker 1: the one that was holding onto the project, the project 340 00:21:40,040 --> 00:21:44,760 Speaker 1: leader that was the head of development. This would end 341 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:48,720 Speaker 1: up actually causing some issues later on. There'd be some 342 00:21:48,840 --> 00:21:52,560 Speaker 1: disagreements between the Sound department and some other departments, and 343 00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:56,040 Speaker 1: they were run by different unions, which also meant that 344 00:21:56,640 --> 00:21:58,959 Speaker 1: they would run into these weird problems. There was a 345 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:02,600 Speaker 1: story in one of the articles I read about how 346 00:22:03,320 --> 00:22:08,080 Speaker 1: the mechanical department, the Mechanical Shop, they might be working 347 00:22:08,160 --> 00:22:11,040 Speaker 1: on an audio animatronic figure, and they would need to 348 00:22:11,119 --> 00:22:13,840 Speaker 1: disconnect it so that they can make an adjustment before 349 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:17,679 Speaker 1: reconnecting it. But they weren't allowed to actually disconnect the 350 00:22:17,680 --> 00:22:21,320 Speaker 1: figure because that was a union job that one of 351 00:22:21,359 --> 00:22:24,200 Speaker 1: the sound department guys would have to do. So they'd 352 00:22:24,200 --> 00:22:26,000 Speaker 1: have to go and get someone from the sound department 353 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:30,520 Speaker 1: to come over to the machine shop, disconnect a tube, 354 00:22:31,440 --> 00:22:34,240 Speaker 1: wait until the mechanical shop people had made their adjustments, 355 00:22:34,400 --> 00:22:38,840 Speaker 1: reconnect the tube, and then they could proceed. By union rules, 356 00:22:39,200 --> 00:22:41,359 Speaker 1: the machine shop folks were not allowed to do that 357 00:22:41,440 --> 00:22:44,520 Speaker 1: on their own, so it got very frustrating at times. 358 00:22:46,680 --> 00:22:50,400 Speaker 1: Then you've got the animation Department Disney, of course, famous 359 00:22:50,400 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: for animation. This was the group of artists who had 360 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:56,199 Speaker 1: studied movement extensively. If you're going to animate movement, you 361 00:22:56,280 --> 00:22:59,359 Speaker 1: have to understand how movement works, or else you can't 362 00:22:59,359 --> 00:23:01,640 Speaker 1: replicate it properly and it's not going to look right 363 00:23:01,680 --> 00:23:05,560 Speaker 1: when you watch an animated film. And more importantly, they 364 00:23:05,560 --> 00:23:09,320 Speaker 1: had been studying animated movement in film itself. As it 365 00:23:09,359 --> 00:23:12,879 Speaker 1: turns out, film or at least magnetic tape, would become 366 00:23:13,000 --> 00:23:17,040 Speaker 1: incredibly important with audio animatronics. They leveraged their expertise to 367 00:23:17,080 --> 00:23:19,520 Speaker 1: help design not just the physical objects that would be 368 00:23:19,560 --> 00:23:24,199 Speaker 1: animated and the actual motions those objects would make, but 369 00:23:24,359 --> 00:23:30,080 Speaker 1: also the very technique for programming the objects, and i'll 370 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: explain more about that in a little bit. 371 00:23:32,840 --> 00:23:34,360 Speaker 2: Then you had the modeling department. 372 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: These were the people who would make three dimensional models 373 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:41,040 Speaker 1: and sculptures of the various components that you wanted so 374 00:23:41,080 --> 00:23:44,040 Speaker 1: that other departments could use that as a reference. And 375 00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:47,040 Speaker 1: then you had the machine shop. The machine department had 376 00:23:47,080 --> 00:23:50,920 Speaker 1: to fabricate all the physical pieces that would be used 377 00:23:51,000 --> 00:23:54,240 Speaker 1: in these various figures, and then you also had props 378 00:23:54,240 --> 00:23:58,400 Speaker 1: and costumes that would end up outfitting these different figures. 379 00:23:58,800 --> 00:24:02,560 Speaker 1: So there were a lot of different moving parts, both 380 00:24:02,720 --> 00:24:06,880 Speaker 1: metaphorically and literally, as it turns out when you get 381 00:24:06,920 --> 00:24:10,520 Speaker 1: to audio animatronics, in order to make it possible, and 382 00:24:10,640 --> 00:24:12,959 Speaker 1: all of those groups had their own leaders and their 383 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:15,720 Speaker 1: own priorities, but the fact that they were able to 384 00:24:15,720 --> 00:24:19,200 Speaker 1: collaborate and create a system as intricate as audio animatronics 385 00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:22,000 Speaker 1: is pretty amazing all on its own. And we haven't 386 00:24:22,000 --> 00:24:25,840 Speaker 1: even gotten to the technology yet. So I want to 387 00:24:25,880 --> 00:24:28,800 Speaker 1: get to that technology, and I will in just a moment. 388 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:33,520 Speaker 1: But first let's take a quick break and thank our sponsor. 389 00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:41,840 Speaker 2: All right. 390 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,720 Speaker 1: So you've got the machine shop and they were creating 391 00:24:44,760 --> 00:24:49,760 Speaker 1: the Dancing Man or the Little Man, and Disney decided 392 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:52,760 Speaker 1: that he needed to have someone in charge of figuring 393 00:24:52,760 --> 00:24:55,600 Speaker 1: out the animation for this, like figuring out what moves 394 00:24:55,600 --> 00:24:57,960 Speaker 1: would need to be animated, so he tapped a guy 395 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,359 Speaker 1: named Wathel Rogers to work on the animation for it Now. 396 00:25:01,440 --> 00:25:05,040 Speaker 1: Rogers was born in Stratton, Colorado, in nineteen nineteen, and 397 00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:08,560 Speaker 1: he was a sculptor and engineer. He attended an art 398 00:25:08,560 --> 00:25:11,320 Speaker 1: institute in Los Angeles and was recruited directly out of 399 00:25:11,359 --> 00:25:14,280 Speaker 1: school to the Walt Disney Studios in nineteen thirty nine. 400 00:25:14,760 --> 00:25:18,160 Speaker 1: He worked as an animator on films like Pinocchio and Bambi. 401 00:25:19,280 --> 00:25:22,440 Speaker 1: During World War Two, he took leave of the Disney 402 00:25:22,480 --> 00:25:25,320 Speaker 1: Company and served in the United States Marine Corps as 403 00:25:25,320 --> 00:25:28,639 Speaker 1: a staff sergeant in the photographics section. And when he 404 00:25:28,680 --> 00:25:32,239 Speaker 1: wasn't animating, he was tinkering. He was creating toys and 405 00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:37,200 Speaker 1: model trains, and Walt Disney was also a model train fanatic. 406 00:25:37,280 --> 00:25:40,919 Speaker 1: He loved model trains, including trains large enough to ride on, 407 00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:46,200 Speaker 1: and he had a couple at his property. He had 408 00:25:46,560 --> 00:25:51,040 Speaker 1: a private little railroad track because he just loved trains. 409 00:25:51,160 --> 00:25:56,399 Speaker 1: He loved that romantic image of travel by train. A 410 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:58,520 Speaker 1: lot of the things that Disney worked on, he worked 411 00:25:58,520 --> 00:26:03,600 Speaker 1: on while he was traveling via train, So he and 412 00:26:03,680 --> 00:26:07,320 Speaker 1: Rogers had a lot of common ground there, and Disney 413 00:26:07,400 --> 00:26:10,040 Speaker 1: thought that Rogers had a lot of potential to work 414 00:26:10,119 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 1: on actual physical implementations, not just animation, so he began 415 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 1: to rely on Rogers to sculpt objects for live action pictures, 416 00:26:20,800 --> 00:26:23,040 Speaker 1: and in nineteen fifty four he tapped Rogers to help 417 00:26:23,080 --> 00:26:27,159 Speaker 1: design buildings for Disneyland, so Rogers went from animator to 418 00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:31,480 Speaker 1: almost like an architect. Rogers would also become a chief 419 00:26:31,520 --> 00:26:35,000 Speaker 1: contributor to this audio animatronics project. In fact, some would 420 00:26:35,080 --> 00:26:37,760 Speaker 1: argue that he was, essentially, when you got down to it, 421 00:26:38,119 --> 00:26:43,800 Speaker 1: the lead audio animatronic engineer. He is also immortalized by 422 00:26:43,840 --> 00:26:48,119 Speaker 1: the way at Disney's Haunted Mansion attraction. You can find 423 00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:51,160 Speaker 1: his tombstone there. One of the tombstones has a name 424 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:56,439 Speaker 1: that is an homage to him, has created while he 425 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:03,240 Speaker 1: was still alive. The tombstone reads, here rests Wothel r Bender. 426 00:27:03,480 --> 00:27:08,840 Speaker 1: He rode to glory on a fender peaceful rest. So 427 00:27:09,119 --> 00:27:12,320 Speaker 1: while his actual name was Rogers, not Bender. That's in 428 00:27:12,440 --> 00:27:16,280 Speaker 1: honor of him now as a reference, Disney decided to 429 00:27:16,280 --> 00:27:19,960 Speaker 1: bring in an actor to actually perform a soft shoe routine, 430 00:27:20,240 --> 00:27:22,920 Speaker 1: and they were going to shoot this actor with film 431 00:27:23,520 --> 00:27:27,040 Speaker 1: film cameras, not actually shoot the actor, even Disney would 432 00:27:27,040 --> 00:27:29,840 Speaker 1: not do something so brazen as that, but rather to 433 00:27:30,119 --> 00:27:32,720 Speaker 1: film the actor as he was doing the soft shoe 434 00:27:32,800 --> 00:27:36,600 Speaker 1: routine against a background that was a grid, so that 435 00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:40,520 Speaker 1: the animators could review the footage, use the grid as 436 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,160 Speaker 1: reference points, watch every little motion and try and figure 437 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:46,760 Speaker 1: out how they were going to translate that into animation 438 00:27:47,000 --> 00:27:50,080 Speaker 1: when they built this system that they were working on. 439 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:54,520 Speaker 1: The actor that they got, by the way, was Buddy Epsen, 440 00:27:55,080 --> 00:27:57,760 Speaker 1: who was originally going to play the role of the 441 00:27:57,800 --> 00:28:01,600 Speaker 1: Tin Man in the nineteen thirty nine With of Oz Masterpiece. 442 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,080 Speaker 1: But Ebsen ended up having a massive allergic reaction to 443 00:28:05,119 --> 00:28:08,280 Speaker 1: the aluminum makeup that was used for the ten Woodsman, 444 00:28:08,840 --> 00:28:13,240 Speaker 1: and so he would end up being replaced by Jack Haley. However, 445 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:17,040 Speaker 1: you can actually still hear Ebsen's voice in the Wizard 446 00:28:17,119 --> 00:28:20,960 Speaker 1: of Oz. It's his voice in the song We're off 447 00:28:21,000 --> 00:28:24,200 Speaker 1: to see the Wizard that Dorothy Scarecrow and the Tin 448 00:28:24,240 --> 00:28:27,879 Speaker 1: Woodsman sing after they've rescued the Tin Woodsman. So that 449 00:28:28,400 --> 00:28:32,679 Speaker 1: bit where they're skipping off into the distance, the voice 450 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,440 Speaker 1: you hear is not Jack Hayley's, it's Buddy Ebsen. He also, 451 00:28:36,520 --> 00:28:39,320 Speaker 1: by the way, played Jed Clampet in The Beverly Hillbillies, 452 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:41,520 Speaker 1: so if you ever watched that television series, he was 453 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,000 Speaker 1: Jed Clampitt. Ebsen was a song and dance man back 454 00:28:45,040 --> 00:28:47,760 Speaker 1: in the day, so it was a natural choice for. 455 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:48,680 Speaker 2: Disney to bring him on. 456 00:28:48,680 --> 00:28:53,800 Speaker 1: He would end up working on several Disney initiatives, including 457 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:59,080 Speaker 1: Davy Crockett, but for this he just got up. He 458 00:28:59,120 --> 00:29:01,840 Speaker 1: did a soft shoe route. They took several takes of it, 459 00:29:02,240 --> 00:29:04,200 Speaker 1: and they used that to be their reference that the 460 00:29:04,200 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: animators could use and that the machine shop could use 461 00:29:07,320 --> 00:29:10,400 Speaker 1: to make sure that the pieces they designed would be 462 00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:15,200 Speaker 1: capable of replicating all the different motions that would be necessary. Now, 463 00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,360 Speaker 1: ideally you would be able to create pieces that did 464 00:29:18,440 --> 00:29:21,680 Speaker 1: exactly what you needed and nothing else. Because if you 465 00:29:21,760 --> 00:29:25,680 Speaker 1: design a figure to do moves that it doesn't need 466 00:29:25,680 --> 00:29:29,680 Speaker 1: to replicate, that's time you wasted on that effort. Because 467 00:29:29,680 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: no one's ever going to see it, so ideally you 468 00:29:32,640 --> 00:29:35,640 Speaker 1: figure out exactly what you need and you design for 469 00:29:35,720 --> 00:29:40,880 Speaker 1: that specifically. Now, one of the mechanical engineers who was 470 00:29:40,920 --> 00:29:46,520 Speaker 1: working on this project was Roger Edward Broggie technically Roger E. 471 00:29:46,720 --> 00:29:50,560 Speaker 1: Broggy Senior. His son was also working for Disney and 472 00:29:50,560 --> 00:29:53,920 Speaker 1: would become an imagineer. Broggy had moved to California from 473 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,920 Speaker 1: Chicago in the late nineteen twenties with experience in machine 474 00:29:56,920 --> 00:30:00,400 Speaker 1: shop training. He joined Disney in nineteen thirty nine, so 475 00:30:01,280 --> 00:30:04,240 Speaker 1: he was originally working on some of their live action films. 476 00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,280 Speaker 1: He helped design special effects for twenty thousand Leagues under 477 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,200 Speaker 1: the Sea. He also helped Walt Disney build some of 478 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,239 Speaker 1: those model trains for his personal collection, and Broggy was 479 00:30:14,320 --> 00:30:17,400 Speaker 1: one of the engineers working on this Dancing Man project. 480 00:30:18,240 --> 00:30:21,280 Speaker 1: He would later say that was a huge challenge in 481 00:30:21,320 --> 00:30:25,280 Speaker 1: part because Ebsen, when he did his soft shoe routine 482 00:30:25,280 --> 00:30:30,239 Speaker 1: for the cameras, never repeated movements in the routine, so 483 00:30:30,400 --> 00:30:34,680 Speaker 1: all the movements he did were original and not patterned. 484 00:30:34,800 --> 00:30:38,760 Speaker 1: They weren't repetition, and that's difficult if you're an animator. 485 00:30:38,880 --> 00:30:41,440 Speaker 1: You would like to have that repetition because you can 486 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,719 Speaker 1: design it once and then essentially cut and paste it 487 00:30:45,240 --> 00:30:49,600 Speaker 1: and use it again. But if everything is new, then 488 00:30:49,600 --> 00:30:52,440 Speaker 1: you have to design it from scratch all the way through. 489 00:30:52,480 --> 00:30:56,920 Speaker 1: It made their job more difficult. Ultimately, they produced this 490 00:30:57,160 --> 00:31:00,720 Speaker 1: nine inch tall figure, and they used cables to attach 491 00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:03,920 Speaker 1: to various points on the figure, and this was controlled 492 00:31:03,920 --> 00:31:07,200 Speaker 1: by external machinery, so you would have what amounts to 493 00:31:07,280 --> 00:31:12,080 Speaker 1: a very complex gearbox that used cams and cables in 494 00:31:12,200 --> 00:31:15,320 Speaker 1: order to control the figure. Now, a cam in case 495 00:31:15,360 --> 00:31:18,000 Speaker 1: you don't know what that term is, it's a rotating 496 00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:22,440 Speaker 1: or sliding piece of machinery, particularly used to transform rotary 497 00:31:22,520 --> 00:31:26,960 Speaker 1: motion into linear motion or vice versa. So in other words, 498 00:31:27,200 --> 00:31:31,840 Speaker 1: you can turn a rotational motion into a back and 499 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:35,600 Speaker 1: forth or up and down motion a linear one using these, 500 00:31:35,760 --> 00:31:37,360 Speaker 1: or you can use a linear motion to. 501 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:38,920 Speaker 2: Create a rotational motion. 502 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:42,720 Speaker 1: If you have heard the term camshaft in vehicles, that's 503 00:31:42,760 --> 00:31:47,640 Speaker 1: what a camshaft does. This was not yet an example 504 00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:48,920 Speaker 1: of audio animatronics. 505 00:31:48,960 --> 00:31:49,600 Speaker 2: This figure. 506 00:31:49,960 --> 00:31:53,200 Speaker 1: It didn't quite work on a full audio animatronic system, 507 00:31:53,240 --> 00:31:55,720 Speaker 1: but it did help plot the course for the next innovation, 508 00:31:56,520 --> 00:32:00,600 Speaker 1: and Disney, not satisfied with creating this nine inched figure, 509 00:32:00,640 --> 00:32:04,959 Speaker 1: wanted to create something more complicated. His next thought was 510 00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:09,200 Speaker 1: a barbershop quartet, a little mechanical barbershop quartet that could 511 00:32:09,240 --> 00:32:13,440 Speaker 1: move and dance and sing. He wanted to sing sweet Autline. 512 00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:18,240 Speaker 1: But the system that the machine shop had created wasn't 513 00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:24,280 Speaker 1: really sufficient because the dancing figure couldn't make very subtle movements. 514 00:32:24,320 --> 00:32:27,720 Speaker 1: It was all all or nothing really. With each of 515 00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:29,720 Speaker 1: the movements this thing made, it jerked around a lot, 516 00:32:29,760 --> 00:32:33,360 Speaker 1: and it wasn't really a lifelike representation. The mechanism that 517 00:32:33,400 --> 00:32:35,320 Speaker 1: controlled the figure had to be within a couple of 518 00:32:35,320 --> 00:32:38,560 Speaker 1: feet of it, so this gearbox essentially had to be 519 00:32:38,640 --> 00:32:42,280 Speaker 1: really close to the dancing figure, which meant that you 520 00:32:42,320 --> 00:32:45,440 Speaker 1: had spatial issues you had to take into account. So 521 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:49,720 Speaker 1: Disney's original thought was this could be an attraction where 522 00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:52,440 Speaker 1: maybe you walk up to a cabinet, you plunk a 523 00:32:52,520 --> 00:32:56,440 Speaker 1: quarter in, a little curtain draws back, and you see 524 00:32:56,440 --> 00:33:00,960 Speaker 1: this dancing figure dance for a quarter, and then once 525 00:33:00,960 --> 00:33:03,800 Speaker 1: it's done, the curtain draws closed and you move on. 526 00:33:04,920 --> 00:33:09,719 Speaker 1: But the mechanics said, well, here's the problem. The amount 527 00:33:09,720 --> 00:33:11,880 Speaker 1: of money it took to develop this and the amount 528 00:33:11,880 --> 00:33:14,640 Speaker 1: of money it will take to maintain it, you will 529 00:33:14,680 --> 00:33:18,840 Speaker 1: never recapture by going a quarter of you, twenty five 530 00:33:18,880 --> 00:33:20,640 Speaker 1: cents of you is not going to cut it, and 531 00:33:20,680 --> 00:33:23,440 Speaker 1: you can't really go more expensive than that because at 532 00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:26,800 Speaker 1: the time, twenty five cents was a not insignificant amount 533 00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:27,200 Speaker 1: of money. 534 00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:30,160 Speaker 2: And keep in mind, this is the nineteen fifties. 535 00:33:31,480 --> 00:33:34,640 Speaker 1: All right, We're going to interrupt this classic episode about 536 00:33:34,640 --> 00:33:37,120 Speaker 1: audio animatronics in order for us to take a quick 537 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:50,560 Speaker 1: break to thank our sponsors. So these initial attempts to 538 00:33:50,600 --> 00:33:52,600 Speaker 1: create an animated figure in real life had kind of 539 00:33:52,600 --> 00:33:56,040 Speaker 1: stalled out, but plans for Disneyland were continuing at the 540 00:33:56,080 --> 00:33:59,840 Speaker 1: same time. The park opened in July nineteen fifty five, 541 00:34:00,240 --> 00:34:04,360 Speaker 1: but the first attraction to use audio animatronics would follow 542 00:34:04,440 --> 00:34:07,760 Speaker 1: in five years. That was a ride called the Mind 543 00:34:07,880 --> 00:34:11,960 Speaker 1: Train through Nature's Wonderland, which opened in May nineteen sixty. 544 00:34:12,800 --> 00:34:14,880 Speaker 1: And this was able to take advantage of something that 545 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:17,400 Speaker 1: some of the engineers had noticed. They said, you know, 546 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:20,960 Speaker 1: these small figures, they require all these cams and cables 547 00:34:21,000 --> 00:34:23,400 Speaker 1: and everything has to be external. We have to build 548 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:28,160 Speaker 1: the actual power system outside of the figure. So you've 549 00:34:28,160 --> 00:34:30,880 Speaker 1: always got to figure out how to mask all the 550 00:34:30,960 --> 00:34:33,759 Speaker 1: cables that are running up to the figure. If we 551 00:34:33,840 --> 00:34:37,600 Speaker 1: make the figures larger life size. Then we can store 552 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:41,040 Speaker 1: a lot of these mechanical components inside the figures themselves. 553 00:34:41,040 --> 00:34:44,840 Speaker 1: It won't have to be externally controlled. You could actually 554 00:34:44,880 --> 00:34:48,640 Speaker 1: build these figures that they have the internal parts, and 555 00:34:49,200 --> 00:34:51,680 Speaker 1: thus you have a lot more freedom to stage them 556 00:34:51,719 --> 00:34:54,600 Speaker 1: the way you want to. And this really appealed to Disney, 557 00:34:54,920 --> 00:34:57,520 Speaker 1: so one of the first implementations they had was this 558 00:34:57,920 --> 00:35:02,720 Speaker 1: Mind Train through Nature's Wonderland. Now that ride might sound 559 00:35:02,800 --> 00:35:06,040 Speaker 1: unfamiliar to you if you've been to Disneyland and you're 560 00:35:06,040 --> 00:35:08,960 Speaker 1: wondering where the Mine Train through Nature's Wonderland ride is. 561 00:35:09,680 --> 00:35:11,400 Speaker 2: Well, it used to be where Big. 562 00:35:11,239 --> 00:35:14,080 Speaker 1: Thunder Mountain is now, so Big Thunder Mountain is a 563 00:35:14,080 --> 00:35:17,000 Speaker 1: totally different kind of train ride. The Mine Train through 564 00:35:17,080 --> 00:35:20,319 Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland was a slow moving ride that puts you 565 00:35:20,400 --> 00:35:24,920 Speaker 1: through various scenes that were inspired by the Western United 566 00:35:24,960 --> 00:35:28,600 Speaker 1: States of America. It was kind of the western version 567 00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,680 Speaker 1: of Jungle Cruise. So if you've ever been on the 568 00:35:31,719 --> 00:35:34,040 Speaker 1: Jungle Cruise, that's a boat ride where you go through 569 00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,719 Speaker 1: areas that have been inspired by India and Africa. The 570 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:42,680 Speaker 1: Nature's Wonderland was similar, except it was a train ride 571 00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:48,440 Speaker 1: through the Western US inspired areas. Included things like bears 572 00:35:48,480 --> 00:35:51,560 Speaker 1: playing around in a pond. Now, that was the first 573 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:56,040 Speaker 1: attraction to feature audio animatronics. And I guess now as 574 00:35:56,040 --> 00:35:58,720 Speaker 1: good a time as any as to explain what audio 575 00:35:58,719 --> 00:36:05,319 Speaker 1: animatronics are. Audio animatronics take on these mechanical figures that 576 00:36:05,400 --> 00:36:08,080 Speaker 1: you can power in various ways, and they pair it 577 00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:12,959 Speaker 1: with a system that is programmable that uses audio as 578 00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:17,000 Speaker 1: its method of transmitting information and taking the information and 579 00:36:17,040 --> 00:36:22,000 Speaker 1: turning it into action. So everything is based off sound, 580 00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:24,920 Speaker 1: which is kind of weird to think about it, but 581 00:36:25,440 --> 00:36:28,399 Speaker 1: you would store the information on these massive cassettes, these 582 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:32,440 Speaker 1: magnetic tapes. Really they're magnetic reels. They weren't really cassettes. 583 00:36:32,680 --> 00:36:35,319 Speaker 1: So you take magnetic reels of tape and you would 584 00:36:35,440 --> 00:36:39,680 Speaker 1: encode information in sound on the tape, and when you 585 00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:45,080 Speaker 1: played it back, that's what would create the well, it's 586 00:36:45,120 --> 00:36:48,840 Speaker 1: what would allow circuits to be completed to create the movement. 587 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:51,759 Speaker 1: You see now, how that all works, It requires a 588 00:36:51,760 --> 00:36:56,279 Speaker 1: bit more of a deeper dive. First of all, the 589 00:36:56,520 --> 00:37:01,040 Speaker 1: earliest audio animatronic systems were digital. Now by that I 590 00:37:01,080 --> 00:37:06,120 Speaker 1: don't mean they were computer systems. This is purely mechanical approach. 591 00:37:06,160 --> 00:37:10,920 Speaker 1: It's not electronic it's not you know, there's no microprocessors 592 00:37:10,960 --> 00:37:15,440 Speaker 1: or transistors. It's all mechanical elements. But it is digital 593 00:37:15,600 --> 00:37:17,960 Speaker 1: in the sense that it's binary in that you have 594 00:37:18,000 --> 00:37:21,480 Speaker 1: two positions, you have on and off. That meant that 595 00:37:21,600 --> 00:37:25,600 Speaker 1: any motion you wanted to make had only two outcomes, 596 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:32,360 Speaker 1: a rest position, which would be whatever it started off as. 597 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:34,040 Speaker 2: So let's take let's say that it's. 598 00:37:33,880 --> 00:37:37,879 Speaker 1: A human figure that you're trying to animate, and one 599 00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:40,760 Speaker 1: of your animations is your human figure needs to turn 600 00:37:41,080 --> 00:37:45,400 Speaker 1: her head to the left, so in the off position, 601 00:37:45,840 --> 00:37:50,400 Speaker 1: in the rest position, she's just staring straight forward and 602 00:37:50,520 --> 00:37:55,240 Speaker 1: isn't moving. When you activate a circuit, then she moves 603 00:37:55,280 --> 00:38:00,399 Speaker 1: her head to the left, but she can't halfway move 604 00:38:00,440 --> 00:38:02,319 Speaker 1: her head to the left. She can't move it a 605 00:38:02,400 --> 00:38:04,840 Speaker 1: quarter of the way. It's either all the way to 606 00:38:04,880 --> 00:38:08,080 Speaker 1: the left as far as her freedom of movement allows, 607 00:38:09,239 --> 00:38:12,879 Speaker 1: or it's in that rest position. That's it, those two 608 00:38:12,960 --> 00:38:15,560 Speaker 1: positions on or off, zero or one. That's why we 609 00:38:15,600 --> 00:38:19,880 Speaker 1: call it digital. This was a little primitive. It limited 610 00:38:19,920 --> 00:38:22,359 Speaker 1: what the animators could do. They could not put in 611 00:38:22,440 --> 00:38:25,719 Speaker 1: subtle movements, so it was good for certain types of 612 00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:30,680 Speaker 1: audio animatronics early on, but it had limited use. It 613 00:38:30,719 --> 00:38:35,239 Speaker 1: also was limited in how much force it could use. 614 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:41,480 Speaker 1: These original audio animatronics used one of two different systems 615 00:38:41,520 --> 00:38:45,880 Speaker 1: to create movement. Either it was using pneumatics or it 616 00:38:45,920 --> 00:38:52,080 Speaker 1: was using solenoids. A pneumatic system uses compressed air. Compressed 617 00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:56,320 Speaker 1: air is what creates the force that translates into mechanical 618 00:38:56,360 --> 00:39:00,719 Speaker 1: motion in your system. So you would have tubes, pneumatic 619 00:39:00,760 --> 00:39:04,319 Speaker 1: tubes that would move through this figure. You would have them, 620 00:39:04,560 --> 00:39:07,359 Speaker 1: you know, wherever they needed to be, and you would 621 00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:11,480 Speaker 1: have valves that when they're closed, do not allow air 622 00:39:11,520 --> 00:39:15,160 Speaker 1: to move through. When you would complete a circuit, it 623 00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:18,120 Speaker 1: would make the valve open, which would allow air to 624 00:39:18,160 --> 00:39:22,440 Speaker 1: move through, which would then create the mechanical force necessary 625 00:39:22,480 --> 00:39:25,200 Speaker 1: to make the figure move in whichever way you wanted 626 00:39:25,239 --> 00:39:29,480 Speaker 1: it to. So, let's say it's a bird in the 627 00:39:29,560 --> 00:39:31,960 Speaker 1: enchanted Tiki Room, which was one of the earliest audio 628 00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,960 Speaker 1: animatronic attractions outside of Nature's Wonderland and it still exists 629 00:39:36,960 --> 00:39:42,760 Speaker 1: to this day. The pneumatics would allow the mouth to open. 630 00:39:43,160 --> 00:39:46,160 Speaker 1: The closed position would be the rest position, and it 631 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:51,160 Speaker 1: would allow the mouth to open up. And when you 632 00:39:51,200 --> 00:39:53,080 Speaker 1: do a lot of opening and closing, it gives the 633 00:39:53,120 --> 00:39:56,520 Speaker 1: illusion that the bird is actually talking when you pair 634 00:39:56,560 --> 00:40:00,920 Speaker 1: it with the appropriate sound. That was one way of 635 00:40:00,960 --> 00:40:04,200 Speaker 1: creating motion, but the solenoids were a different way that 636 00:40:04,480 --> 00:40:08,520 Speaker 1: was also being used in this digital system. Solenoids are 637 00:40:08,640 --> 00:40:11,480 Speaker 1: a variation on electromagnets. So those of you who have 638 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:15,840 Speaker 1: listened to me talk endlessly about electromagnetism, get ready for 639 00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:20,440 Speaker 1: some more so. Your basic electromagnet consists of a coil 640 00:40:20,520 --> 00:40:24,319 Speaker 1: of conductive material. Often it is insulated copper wire. You 641 00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:28,560 Speaker 1: run a current through this coil and that generates a 642 00:40:28,560 --> 00:40:29,799 Speaker 1: magnetic field. 643 00:40:30,360 --> 00:40:31,680 Speaker 2: The magnetic field. 644 00:40:31,400 --> 00:40:35,080 Speaker 1: Can then be used to attract any sort of ferromagnetic material. 645 00:40:36,120 --> 00:40:38,759 Speaker 1: That's the case of a solenoid, where you have a 646 00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:42,560 Speaker 1: core that can act kind of like a piston. So 647 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:46,560 Speaker 1: when it's in its rest position, the core is outside 648 00:40:46,719 --> 00:40:49,799 Speaker 1: of the cylinder. Maybe it's positioned right at the very end. 649 00:40:50,280 --> 00:40:53,080 Speaker 1: So the cylinder is big enough so that the core 650 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:56,399 Speaker 1: can fit completely inside the cylinder. And when you run 651 00:40:56,520 --> 00:41:00,000 Speaker 1: a current through the coil, it generates a magnetic field 652 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:05,439 Speaker 1: which attracts the ferromagnetic core into the cylinder, pulls it in. 653 00:41:06,920 --> 00:41:08,960 Speaker 1: And if you connect something to the other end of 654 00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:13,560 Speaker 1: that little core, like a cable, that then attaches to 655 00:41:13,960 --> 00:41:19,319 Speaker 1: a piece on a larger animatronic figure, like let's say 656 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:24,320 Speaker 1: a mouth of a character. Whenever the circuit activates, it'll 657 00:41:24,360 --> 00:41:27,799 Speaker 1: pull the solenoid in the core into the solenoid, which 658 00:41:27,840 --> 00:41:31,040 Speaker 1: in turn pulls on the wire or cable which is 659 00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:35,920 Speaker 1: attached to whatever body part the mouth let's say, of 660 00:41:36,040 --> 00:41:41,080 Speaker 1: mister Lincoln, and pulls it down, pulls it open, and 661 00:41:41,120 --> 00:41:45,200 Speaker 1: then by turning off the electricity to this coil, it 662 00:41:45,800 --> 00:41:49,359 Speaker 1: negates that magnetic field. It returns to rest position, and 663 00:41:50,040 --> 00:41:55,200 Speaker 1: Lincoln shuts this trap. And thus, by controlling the flow 664 00:41:55,239 --> 00:41:58,640 Speaker 1: of electricity through this solenoid, you can open and close 665 00:41:58,719 --> 00:42:02,560 Speaker 1: the mouth of one of the greatest presidents of United 666 00:42:02,600 --> 00:42:07,960 Speaker 1: States history, and thus magnificence is born. I mean, this 667 00:42:08,120 --> 00:42:12,200 Speaker 1: was an enormous use of technology, a very innovative use 668 00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,440 Speaker 1: of technology at the time. So that was the basics 669 00:42:15,520 --> 00:42:18,239 Speaker 1: for the movement. But that we saw them and talked 670 00:42:18,239 --> 00:42:21,120 Speaker 1: about the audio part, that's kind of more the animatronic part, 671 00:42:21,200 --> 00:42:26,000 Speaker 1: the idea of this animated physical being. 672 00:42:26,440 --> 00:42:29,560 Speaker 2: But whether it was a bird or a. 673 00:42:29,480 --> 00:42:33,880 Speaker 1: President, or a hippopotamus or whatever it might be that 674 00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:41,160 Speaker 1: was using audio animatronics, the secret sauce was in that audio. 675 00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:43,279 Speaker 2: They found that what they could do. 676 00:42:43,320 --> 00:42:48,520 Speaker 1: Is create a tone on a cassette or on a 677 00:42:48,560 --> 00:42:51,600 Speaker 1: magnetic real I should say, they could create a tone, 678 00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:55,960 Speaker 1: and they used these little metal reeds that would connect 679 00:42:56,000 --> 00:42:59,800 Speaker 1: to circuits. When the reeds would vibrate, it would close 680 00:42:59,800 --> 00:43:03,440 Speaker 1: the circuit and allow a current to pass through. So 681 00:43:03,760 --> 00:43:06,920 Speaker 1: if you made the reads vibrate, it would create a 682 00:43:07,239 --> 00:43:10,680 Speaker 1: physical circuit that would end up making the pneumatic or 683 00:43:10,719 --> 00:43:14,600 Speaker 1: solenoid system activate and thus be either on or off. 684 00:43:15,440 --> 00:43:18,439 Speaker 1: Well on really, and once it stopped activating, it would 685 00:43:18,440 --> 00:43:21,360 Speaker 1: be off. You could have your character open his or 686 00:43:21,360 --> 00:43:23,200 Speaker 1: her mouth or move his or her head. 687 00:43:23,040 --> 00:43:24,520 Speaker 2: Or whatever the action needed to be. 688 00:43:26,080 --> 00:43:27,920 Speaker 1: And the reason the way they would make it vibrate 689 00:43:28,000 --> 00:43:32,200 Speaker 1: is they would use a resonant frequency. So resonant frequencies 690 00:43:32,320 --> 00:43:37,080 Speaker 1: are the natural vibrating frequency of any given material. If 691 00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,400 Speaker 1: you have a glass and you tap the glass and 692 00:43:39,480 --> 00:43:42,799 Speaker 1: it makes a little ringing noise, that is its resonant frequency, 693 00:43:42,840 --> 00:43:45,680 Speaker 1: And if you are able to replicate that resonant frequency, 694 00:43:46,239 --> 00:43:49,719 Speaker 1: then you will make the glass vibrate just by exposing 695 00:43:49,760 --> 00:43:53,680 Speaker 1: it to that frequency. So if you create a sound 696 00:43:54,000 --> 00:43:58,080 Speaker 1: that is of the same pitch as an object's resonant frequency, 697 00:43:58,160 --> 00:44:00,560 Speaker 1: it will naturally begin to vibrate, and if you then 698 00:44:00,719 --> 00:44:03,960 Speaker 1: amplify that signal, In other words, if you increase the volume, 699 00:44:04,520 --> 00:44:09,240 Speaker 1: you will increase the amount of vibration that you're creating 700 00:44:09,320 --> 00:44:13,840 Speaker 1: in that material. So again with the example of a glass, 701 00:44:13,920 --> 00:44:16,520 Speaker 1: if you have a crystal glass, then it generates a 702 00:44:16,520 --> 00:44:19,640 Speaker 1: particular tone when you strike it. If you replicate that 703 00:44:19,760 --> 00:44:22,680 Speaker 1: tone and you amplify the signal enough, you can make 704 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:25,400 Speaker 1: the glass vibrate enough so that it shatters. 705 00:44:25,880 --> 00:44:26,880 Speaker 2: This is what we see. 706 00:44:26,680 --> 00:44:29,839 Speaker 1: When opera singers replicate a particular note and they try 707 00:44:29,840 --> 00:44:32,040 Speaker 1: and shatter a glass. Some people can do it, but 708 00:44:32,160 --> 00:44:34,160 Speaker 1: it all depends on the glass. It all depends on 709 00:44:34,200 --> 00:44:37,279 Speaker 1: the person's range and how pitch perfect they are in 710 00:44:37,360 --> 00:44:39,400 Speaker 1: creating that particular frequency. 711 00:44:39,440 --> 00:44:42,680 Speaker 2: It has to be close enough. There's actually a small. 712 00:44:42,440 --> 00:44:44,680 Speaker 1: Range where it'll work, but you need to be as 713 00:44:44,680 --> 00:44:47,600 Speaker 1: close as possible to really get the maximum effect. It's 714 00:44:47,680 --> 00:44:50,880 Speaker 1: much easier to do with amplification than it is unamplified. 715 00:44:51,920 --> 00:44:54,600 Speaker 1: But that's the basis for audio animatronics. They had these 716 00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,960 Speaker 1: little metallic reads that would be connected to the various circuitry, 717 00:44:59,120 --> 00:45:02,480 Speaker 1: and each one would have its own specific resonant frequency. 718 00:45:03,000 --> 00:45:05,840 Speaker 1: When you played the magnetic tape back, it would play 719 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:11,520 Speaker 1: tones at that resonant frequency for whichever particular action it needed. 720 00:45:12,440 --> 00:45:16,759 Speaker 1: That specific metallic read would start to vibrate. Close that 721 00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:19,839 Speaker 1: specific circuit, and then you get the motion. So if 722 00:45:19,880 --> 00:45:23,640 Speaker 1: it's a figure that has several motions associated with it, 723 00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:26,400 Speaker 1: let's say it's a bird that can turn its head, 724 00:45:26,680 --> 00:45:30,240 Speaker 1: flap its wings, or open its mouth. That's three different motions. 725 00:45:30,560 --> 00:45:32,919 Speaker 1: That means you would have three different circuits, with three 726 00:45:32,960 --> 00:45:37,000 Speaker 1: different metallic reads, with three different resonant frequencies. So that 727 00:45:37,080 --> 00:45:40,279 Speaker 1: way you could produce different tones and make the specific 728 00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:44,600 Speaker 1: outcome that you wanted. Otherwise, every time you generated a tone, 729 00:45:44,880 --> 00:45:48,560 Speaker 1: everything would go off and you would have chaos. More 730 00:45:48,600 --> 00:45:51,600 Speaker 1: on that in a little bit. Again, this is a 731 00:45:51,640 --> 00:45:55,080 Speaker 1: digital system, so there's no variation here. You could not 732 00:45:55,280 --> 00:45:57,960 Speaker 1: have the bird turn its head halfway. It's always going 733 00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:01,720 Speaker 1: to turn it as far as the animatronic is allowed. 734 00:46:02,080 --> 00:46:04,200 Speaker 1: Whatever its freedom of movement is, that's where it's going 735 00:46:04,280 --> 00:46:08,880 Speaker 1: to go to. So it still had limitations. However, by 736 00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:13,000 Speaker 1: creating a specific circuit for every single motion, you could make. 737 00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:14,440 Speaker 2: A pretty sophisticated figure. 738 00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:20,200 Speaker 1: The individual motions were pretty primitive, but collectively it could 739 00:46:20,239 --> 00:46:23,680 Speaker 1: be very sophisticated. It did require a lot of work, 740 00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:25,920 Speaker 1: and it required a lot of. 741 00:46:28,280 --> 00:46:30,239 Speaker 2: Cheating, I guess is the right way of putting it. 742 00:46:30,560 --> 00:46:34,400 Speaker 1: So, for example, one of the figures that Disney was 743 00:46:34,440 --> 00:46:38,800 Speaker 1: working on for the New York World's Fair was Abraham Lincoln, 744 00:46:40,280 --> 00:46:43,279 Speaker 1: and in order to make all the different motions of 745 00:46:43,320 --> 00:46:47,040 Speaker 1: the face the way they wanted to, they had to 746 00:46:47,080 --> 00:46:51,160 Speaker 1: put in more components than could fit within the constraint 747 00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:54,000 Speaker 1: of a human head, and they weren't. They didn't really 748 00:46:54,040 --> 00:46:56,720 Speaker 1: have the option of scaling it up. They couldn't build 749 00:46:56,760 --> 00:46:59,960 Speaker 1: Lincoln larger than human size and get the effect they wanted. 750 00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:04,359 Speaker 1: They wanted to keep Lincoln at the dimensions that they 751 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:09,000 Speaker 1: felt were important for him to get the feeling across 752 00:47:09,000 --> 00:47:11,960 Speaker 1: that they wanted to make. So they had to figure out, well, 753 00:47:11,960 --> 00:47:14,040 Speaker 1: how can we fit all these components inside a human 754 00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:17,600 Speaker 1: head when they're larger than what the space can contain. 755 00:47:17,640 --> 00:47:20,279 Speaker 1: And eventually they were able to make a head that 756 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,080 Speaker 1: had kind of a bulge in the back of it, 757 00:47:22,120 --> 00:47:25,000 Speaker 1: and they were able to fake it with the wig 758 00:47:25,320 --> 00:47:28,560 Speaker 1: that they put on mister Lincoln. Although apparently, and at 759 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:31,240 Speaker 1: least some of the wigs that they designed. 760 00:47:30,840 --> 00:47:31,920 Speaker 2: For the character. 761 00:47:33,120 --> 00:47:35,960 Speaker 1: The bulge in the back of the head was noticeable, So, 762 00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:41,160 Speaker 1: considering Lincoln's fate, that might have been viewed as being tasteless, 763 00:47:41,840 --> 00:47:44,080 Speaker 1: but they were working within the constraints of a very 764 00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:49,160 Speaker 1: new technology. Now, I mentioned that this approach had its 765 00:47:49,160 --> 00:47:53,399 Speaker 1: limitations that you could only be on or off, and 766 00:47:53,440 --> 00:47:55,759 Speaker 1: that they needed to have something with a little bit 767 00:47:55,800 --> 00:48:01,120 Speaker 1: more of a spectrum of outcomes in order to get 768 00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:05,520 Speaker 1: the effect that they really wanted. That approach required them 769 00:48:05,560 --> 00:48:09,880 Speaker 1: to switch from pneumatic and solenoid systems to hydraulic systems. 770 00:48:10,360 --> 00:48:14,200 Speaker 1: A hydraulic system uses liquid. Typically it's just water as 771 00:48:14,400 --> 00:48:17,480 Speaker 1: its means of creating that same sort of mechanical force. 772 00:48:18,200 --> 00:48:21,440 Speaker 1: You can't really compress water, as it turns out, so 773 00:48:21,680 --> 00:48:23,960 Speaker 1: if you just put force behind water, it will push 774 00:48:24,000 --> 00:48:27,279 Speaker 1: against whatever constraints you have it in. So if you 775 00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:29,600 Speaker 1: put a good amount of water pressure in and you 776 00:48:29,719 --> 00:48:33,600 Speaker 1: use valves to control where that water can go by 777 00:48:33,680 --> 00:48:37,799 Speaker 1: opening and closing those valves, you can allow for some 778 00:48:37,920 --> 00:48:41,080 Speaker 1: pretty powerful movements, including stuff that's strong enough to do 779 00:48:41,120 --> 00:48:45,440 Speaker 1: something like lift and arm. Because the various pieces of 780 00:48:45,520 --> 00:48:49,920 Speaker 1: machinery that Disney engineers were creating they weighed a good 781 00:48:49,920 --> 00:48:52,080 Speaker 1: amount of they had a good amount of weight to them, 782 00:48:52,080 --> 00:48:55,759 Speaker 1: a good amount of mass to them, and numatic ability 783 00:48:55,760 --> 00:48:59,400 Speaker 1: on numatic systems weren't strong enough to move them, especially 784 00:48:59,440 --> 00:49:01,719 Speaker 1: not smoothly. If you want to build a compressed air 785 00:49:01,760 --> 00:49:05,520 Speaker 1: system that can move a significant amount of weight, chances 786 00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:07,480 Speaker 1: are you're going to end up with an air catapult, 787 00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:10,719 Speaker 1: which was not exactly what Disney was hoping for when 788 00:49:10,800 --> 00:49:15,240 Speaker 1: he was thinking of these different designs. So imagineers switched 789 00:49:15,239 --> 00:49:18,440 Speaker 1: to these hydraulic systems, and it also meant that they 790 00:49:18,480 --> 00:49:22,160 Speaker 1: wanted to create more gradations of movement. They didn't want 791 00:49:22,200 --> 00:49:24,680 Speaker 1: to just be on and off. They didn't just want 792 00:49:24,680 --> 00:49:27,560 Speaker 1: to be open and closed, or left or right. They 793 00:49:27,600 --> 00:49:31,200 Speaker 1: wanted to have some different abilities. They wanted to create 794 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:36,799 Speaker 1: a lot of different potential movements within the limbs of characters. 795 00:49:36,840 --> 00:49:40,239 Speaker 1: One of the exhibits that they were working on for 796 00:49:40,320 --> 00:49:43,600 Speaker 1: the New York World's Fair was the Carousel of Progress, 797 00:49:44,560 --> 00:49:47,360 Speaker 1: which you can still see in certain Disney parks. The 798 00:49:47,440 --> 00:49:52,400 Speaker 1: Carousel Progress features multiple scenes of a family through different 799 00:49:53,600 --> 00:49:58,440 Speaker 1: eras of human history, including near future, where you get 800 00:49:58,480 --> 00:50:03,560 Speaker 1: to see the innovation of progress, how systems have improved 801 00:50:03,600 --> 00:50:09,120 Speaker 1: over time, to make our lives more convenient and enjoyable. 802 00:50:09,520 --> 00:50:13,120 Speaker 1: And all of these various exhibits at New York had 803 00:50:13,680 --> 00:50:17,759 Speaker 1: different sponsors, so Disney was partnering with other companies that 804 00:50:17,800 --> 00:50:22,120 Speaker 1: had a vested interest in the public seeing this stuff. 805 00:50:22,200 --> 00:50:27,880 Speaker 1: So there were branded materials inside Carousel Progress so that 806 00:50:27,920 --> 00:50:29,640 Speaker 1: people would say, oh, you know what, I need to 807 00:50:29,680 --> 00:50:33,839 Speaker 1: buy X kind of refrigerator because I want my life 808 00:50:33,880 --> 00:50:35,600 Speaker 1: to be as convenient as it was for those robots 809 00:50:35,680 --> 00:50:41,080 Speaker 1: we just saw. So in order to make this look convincing, 810 00:50:41,160 --> 00:50:47,160 Speaker 1: they wanted the human characters to have very lifelike motions. Well, 811 00:50:47,200 --> 00:50:49,600 Speaker 1: you can't do that with just the digital system, so 812 00:50:49,640 --> 00:50:54,160 Speaker 1: they needed to go with an analog system. Analog means 813 00:50:54,200 --> 00:50:58,319 Speaker 1: that you can have a variable element. It's not just 814 00:50:58,440 --> 00:51:01,680 Speaker 1: on or off. That's what digital is. Either the signals 815 00:51:01,719 --> 00:51:05,720 Speaker 1: going or it's not. Variable means you can actually create variations, 816 00:51:06,040 --> 00:51:09,640 Speaker 1: and you do this through voltage. By changing the amount 817 00:51:09,719 --> 00:51:13,000 Speaker 1: of voltage in a system and by increasing it or 818 00:51:13,120 --> 00:51:18,640 Speaker 1: decreasing it, you could create different ranges of motion within 819 00:51:18,680 --> 00:51:22,640 Speaker 1: a properly designed system. So that's what the imagineers started 820 00:51:22,640 --> 00:51:26,239 Speaker 1: working on with both Lincoln and the Caresel Progress. They 821 00:51:26,239 --> 00:51:30,040 Speaker 1: wanted to create more sophisticated systems that would allow for 822 00:51:30,080 --> 00:51:35,000 Speaker 1: this sort of realistic motion, and by pairing the hydraulic 823 00:51:35,080 --> 00:51:41,920 Speaker 1: systems with this analog voltage system, they could then create 824 00:51:42,000 --> 00:51:42,719 Speaker 1: a more. 825 00:51:44,320 --> 00:51:45,200 Speaker 2: Natural movement. 826 00:51:45,520 --> 00:51:50,359 Speaker 1: Now, in order to encode that, they had to use 827 00:51:50,520 --> 00:51:54,920 Speaker 1: varying tones on this magnetic tape, and to do that, 828 00:51:54,960 --> 00:51:57,680 Speaker 1: they ended up having to use multiple tracks on a 829 00:51:57,719 --> 00:52:01,240 Speaker 1: single piece of magnetic tape in order to conserve space, 830 00:52:01,280 --> 00:52:04,480 Speaker 1: because otherwise you would have to have a reel for 831 00:52:04,640 --> 00:52:10,560 Speaker 1: every single component that is controlled by some sort of 832 00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:17,040 Speaker 1: hydraulic system, and that's just not feasible. So they ended 833 00:52:17,120 --> 00:52:22,440 Speaker 1: up creating multi track systems where they could record I 834 00:52:22,520 --> 00:52:26,120 Speaker 1: think up to twenty four eventually different tracks. But not 835 00:52:26,160 --> 00:52:28,720 Speaker 1: all of those tracks were for the actual animatronic figure. 836 00:52:28,840 --> 00:52:32,720 Speaker 1: Some of them were for theatrical elements like lighting cues, 837 00:52:33,120 --> 00:52:38,360 Speaker 1: or whether or not certain products would open, like the 838 00:52:38,400 --> 00:52:42,839 Speaker 1: refrigerator door might open, a drawer might slide out, an 839 00:52:42,840 --> 00:52:45,719 Speaker 1: element in the fridge might tilt so people can get 840 00:52:45,719 --> 00:52:48,279 Speaker 1: a better look at it. All of those were their 841 00:52:48,320 --> 00:52:51,279 Speaker 1: own separate little circuits, and they all needed to be 842 00:52:51,360 --> 00:52:57,320 Speaker 1: programmed into the audio animatronic reels, which again we're still 843 00:52:57,440 --> 00:52:59,920 Speaker 1: using tones, So the sound department was still heavily involved 844 00:52:59,960 --> 00:53:05,400 Speaker 1: in this. As you can imagine this complicated thing significantly 845 00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:08,080 Speaker 1: once they got to the part where it was time 846 00:53:08,120 --> 00:53:12,440 Speaker 1: to program the Carousel of Progress and the Great Moments 847 00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:15,080 Speaker 1: with mister Lincoln, and I'll explain how some of that 848 00:53:15,440 --> 00:53:18,719 Speaker 1: turned out in just a minute, but first let's take 849 00:53:18,760 --> 00:53:31,080 Speaker 1: another quick break and thank our sponsor. So when we 850 00:53:31,120 --> 00:53:34,600 Speaker 1: talk about programming this system where you've got all these 851 00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:42,520 Speaker 1: different tracks that control these different elements within an animatronic system, 852 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:45,239 Speaker 1: keep in mind that depending on how many figures you have, 853 00:53:45,320 --> 00:53:47,960 Speaker 1: and how many points of articulation they have and what 854 00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:51,960 Speaker 1: they need to do, these could be incredibly complicated. From 855 00:53:52,040 --> 00:53:56,880 Speaker 1: a macro standpoint, each individual figure might be fairly simple, 856 00:53:57,239 --> 00:54:01,640 Speaker 1: but taken as a whole, it gets to be enormously complex. 857 00:54:02,480 --> 00:54:06,239 Speaker 1: One of the earliest ways that they experimented with programming 858 00:54:07,120 --> 00:54:10,800 Speaker 1: was using silver paint. They used these old movieola movie 859 00:54:10,880 --> 00:54:14,800 Speaker 1: editors that were designed to edit film, but instead of that, 860 00:54:14,840 --> 00:54:19,279 Speaker 1: what they did was they took this tape and they 861 00:54:19,320 --> 00:54:23,960 Speaker 1: would paint silver lines on it to create a circuit, 862 00:54:24,880 --> 00:54:29,400 Speaker 1: and whenever the reading head would pass over the silver 863 00:54:29,640 --> 00:54:34,359 Speaker 1: it would create an electrical circuit that then would send 864 00:54:34,440 --> 00:54:38,760 Speaker 1: out as a command for the various action to happen. 865 00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:42,080 Speaker 1: So let's say again that it's a parrot opening its beak, 866 00:54:43,480 --> 00:54:45,760 Speaker 1: and you would use a little line of silver paint 867 00:54:45,880 --> 00:54:50,160 Speaker 1: along the length of this tape to indicate this is 868 00:54:50,200 --> 00:54:53,799 Speaker 1: where the beak needs to be opened. Because they were 869 00:54:53,880 --> 00:54:58,520 Speaker 1: using animators to design the system, in part, the animators 870 00:54:58,600 --> 00:55:00,880 Speaker 1: loved it. They were using it very similar to the 871 00:55:00,880 --> 00:55:05,280 Speaker 1: way they would edit animation reels. With animation, you think 872 00:55:05,440 --> 00:55:10,560 Speaker 1: of the work in terms of feet, not necessarily in seconds. 873 00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:12,600 Speaker 2: So instead of saying. 874 00:55:12,320 --> 00:55:15,480 Speaker 1: Oh, I need this mouth to be open for two seconds, 875 00:55:15,520 --> 00:55:18,319 Speaker 1: you might say, oh, I need this to happen for 876 00:55:18,400 --> 00:55:22,359 Speaker 1: two feet of film. So you would literally mark out 877 00:55:22,360 --> 00:55:25,160 Speaker 1: the spot on the tape where the action needed to start, 878 00:55:25,680 --> 00:55:27,279 Speaker 1: and you would mark out the spot on the tape 879 00:55:27,280 --> 00:55:30,000 Speaker 1: where the action needed to stop, and you would just 880 00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,399 Speaker 1: connect those two points with some silver paint, and then 881 00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:35,880 Speaker 1: when it would read through the system, it would play 882 00:55:35,880 --> 00:55:38,319 Speaker 1: back that way. When it would hit that point in 883 00:55:38,360 --> 00:55:40,480 Speaker 1: the tape, the action would happen. 884 00:55:41,239 --> 00:55:43,040 Speaker 2: So as long as you either. 885 00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:47,120 Speaker 1: Had all of your tracks on one tape, and they 886 00:55:47,160 --> 00:55:50,160 Speaker 1: could do up to six tracks on this method. 887 00:55:50,360 --> 00:55:52,200 Speaker 2: This was just the prototype method. 888 00:55:52,920 --> 00:55:56,680 Speaker 1: If you had six different sets of actions all on 889 00:55:56,719 --> 00:55:59,759 Speaker 1: their each individual lines, you had six contacts that could 890 00:55:59,800 --> 00:56:02,880 Speaker 1: create the different circuits, then you could program up to 891 00:56:02,920 --> 00:56:08,160 Speaker 1: six different components of your audio animatronic scene using one 892 00:56:08,680 --> 00:56:11,400 Speaker 1: reel of tape, and they'd all be synchronized because you 893 00:56:11,440 --> 00:56:13,400 Speaker 1: would just measure it out on the physical tape and 894 00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:17,719 Speaker 1: draw where you needed the elements to happen. So maybe 895 00:56:17,760 --> 00:56:20,600 Speaker 1: you'd say, all right, well, in three seconds in I 896 00:56:20,680 --> 00:56:23,200 Speaker 1: need the bird to flap its wings, and at second 897 00:56:23,280 --> 00:56:26,239 Speaker 1: number four I needed to start talking. But by second 898 00:56:26,280 --> 00:56:28,400 Speaker 1: number five I needed to stop flapping its wings. But 899 00:56:28,440 --> 00:56:33,000 Speaker 1: it keeps talking on and off until second number ten. Well, 900 00:56:33,120 --> 00:56:36,000 Speaker 1: that's how you would mark it out on your magnetic tape, 901 00:56:36,040 --> 00:56:38,279 Speaker 1: and you would just draw one line to be the 902 00:56:38,320 --> 00:56:40,759 Speaker 1: control for the beak and another line to be the 903 00:56:40,800 --> 00:56:43,839 Speaker 1: control for the wings, and as it would move through 904 00:56:43,880 --> 00:56:47,880 Speaker 1: the Moviola editor and the contacts that the engineers that 905 00:56:48,040 --> 00:56:51,799 Speaker 1: essentially added into this Moviola editor, it would play it 906 00:56:51,880 --> 00:56:54,799 Speaker 1: back the same way every time. Now, this was not 907 00:56:54,920 --> 00:56:58,560 Speaker 1: the system that Disney decided to use for everything. They 908 00:56:58,960 --> 00:57:03,040 Speaker 1: again switched to an audio tone format instead of using 909 00:57:03,120 --> 00:57:06,200 Speaker 1: lines of silver paint, the reason being that you could 910 00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:08,800 Speaker 1: only play the tape so many times before the silver 911 00:57:08,840 --> 00:57:11,040 Speaker 1: paint started to flake off, and once it started to 912 00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:13,320 Speaker 1: flake off, then you no longer had a strong signal. 913 00:57:13,360 --> 00:57:17,440 Speaker 1: You never didn't necessarily have the circuit completing anymore, and 914 00:57:17,520 --> 00:57:22,280 Speaker 1: so you would get jitter emotions or sometimes enough paint 915 00:57:22,320 --> 00:57:25,200 Speaker 1: would peel off where you wouldn't even get the result 916 00:57:25,240 --> 00:57:28,200 Speaker 1: you wanted at all. So it wasn't a permanent solution, 917 00:57:28,560 --> 00:57:31,600 Speaker 1: but it was an interesting step toward what they needed. 918 00:57:32,360 --> 00:57:35,160 Speaker 1: When they went with the tones, they found that that 919 00:57:36,040 --> 00:57:39,160 Speaker 1: was a better approach. But as they started programming the 920 00:57:39,200 --> 00:57:41,800 Speaker 1: Great Moments with mister Lincoln, they started to run into 921 00:57:41,800 --> 00:57:46,280 Speaker 1: some serious issues. The way they did this is they 922 00:57:46,320 --> 00:57:50,040 Speaker 1: had editing machines and they had playback machines. The playback 923 00:57:50,080 --> 00:57:53,880 Speaker 1: machines all they could do was play the magnetic tape 924 00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:59,120 Speaker 1: back again. And this was they would call these machines dummies, 925 00:57:59,400 --> 00:58:01,959 Speaker 1: because that's all they could do is just play something back. 926 00:58:02,600 --> 00:58:05,680 Speaker 1: So they had more dummies than they had editing machines. 927 00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:09,920 Speaker 1: Where they could write to magnetic tape, they would record 928 00:58:09,960 --> 00:58:13,320 Speaker 1: to magnetic tape, both the tones that would control the 929 00:58:13,360 --> 00:58:18,000 Speaker 1: various animatronic actions, the lighting of the theater, any other 930 00:58:18,080 --> 00:58:20,479 Speaker 1: elements that needed to happen within the theater, they would 931 00:58:20,480 --> 00:58:23,600 Speaker 1: all be encoded on this magnetic tape as well, and 932 00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:28,360 Speaker 1: they would also have the audio for the actual presentation. 933 00:58:28,680 --> 00:58:32,160 Speaker 1: So in the case of Great Moments with mister Lincoln, 934 00:58:32,480 --> 00:58:36,320 Speaker 1: the various speeches that mister Lincoln delivers had to be 935 00:58:36,360 --> 00:58:40,080 Speaker 1: on that magnetic tape as well. You would first produce 936 00:58:40,280 --> 00:58:43,720 Speaker 1: an individual tape for every single one of those, and 937 00:58:43,760 --> 00:58:49,400 Speaker 1: then you would end up combining those onto a master tape. Eventually, 938 00:58:49,800 --> 00:58:52,280 Speaker 1: there's actually a step in between, called a submaster, but 939 00:58:52,360 --> 00:58:54,880 Speaker 1: we're going to simplify for the purposes of this podcast, 940 00:58:55,560 --> 00:58:57,840 Speaker 1: so that ultimately you would end up with a master 941 00:58:57,960 --> 00:59:01,080 Speaker 1: tape that would have everything you needed on it. You 942 00:59:01,200 --> 00:59:05,080 Speaker 1: might imagine that having one master tape that has multiple 943 00:59:05,160 --> 00:59:08,400 Speaker 1: tracks numbering in more than two dozen in some cases, 944 00:59:09,360 --> 00:59:11,680 Speaker 1: that you could run into some interference, and you would 945 00:59:11,680 --> 00:59:15,560 Speaker 1: be right. It turned out that some of these, because 946 00:59:15,600 --> 00:59:18,760 Speaker 1: of the different volumes that they recorded at, the tones 947 00:59:18,800 --> 00:59:23,040 Speaker 1: would sometimes mask one another, and or other times they 948 00:59:23,080 --> 00:59:26,760 Speaker 1: would activate more than one element and you'd end up 949 00:59:26,760 --> 00:59:27,400 Speaker 1: with chaos. 950 00:59:27,840 --> 00:59:29,800 Speaker 2: So mister Lincoln might end up. 951 00:59:29,760 --> 00:59:32,760 Speaker 1: Having a bit of a freak out on stage while 952 00:59:32,760 --> 00:59:36,760 Speaker 1: delivering the Gettysburg address, and that just doesn't convey the 953 00:59:36,800 --> 00:59:42,520 Speaker 1: stately nature that you want when you're trying to reenact 954 00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:45,800 Speaker 1: one of the most iconic moments in American history that 955 00:59:45,880 --> 00:59:50,520 Speaker 1: there is. Having Abraham Lincoln's eyebrows go crazy all over 956 00:59:50,560 --> 00:59:53,560 Speaker 1: his face while he's talking might be a little distracting, 957 00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:59,080 Speaker 1: so it required a painstaking process of editing. They would 958 00:59:59,160 --> 01:00:01,400 Speaker 1: get the magnetic TI, they would run it through the 959 01:00:01,400 --> 01:00:05,600 Speaker 1: system using one of these dummies. They would take notes, 960 01:00:05,800 --> 01:00:10,200 Speaker 1: copious notes about everything that was going on with the 961 01:00:10,240 --> 01:00:15,360 Speaker 1: performance of the audio animatronic show, in this case Great 962 01:00:15,360 --> 01:00:18,600 Speaker 1: Moments with mister Lincoln, and anything that went wrong. They 963 01:00:18,600 --> 01:00:21,760 Speaker 1: had to make note of whether it was a hand 964 01:00:21,880 --> 01:00:25,520 Speaker 1: motion or an eyebrow, or the mouth wasn't moving in 965 01:00:25,600 --> 01:00:28,160 Speaker 1: sync with the sound, or maybe the sound itself was 966 01:00:28,200 --> 01:00:30,280 Speaker 1: at the wrong volume. Whatever the problem was, they had 967 01:00:30,280 --> 01:00:32,320 Speaker 1: to make note of it, and then they had to 968 01:00:32,680 --> 01:00:36,320 Speaker 1: take that same magnetic tape back and figure out how 969 01:00:36,320 --> 01:00:38,960 Speaker 1: they could fix it. Sometimes they could fix it by 970 01:00:39,000 --> 01:00:42,120 Speaker 1: making a couple of tweaks. Sometimes it required re recording 971 01:00:42,160 --> 01:00:45,440 Speaker 1: an entire section, so it might be that you're recording 972 01:00:45,960 --> 01:00:48,640 Speaker 1: a brand new section just to control the fingers on 973 01:00:48,760 --> 01:00:52,240 Speaker 1: the left hand. That's how exacting this had to be. 974 01:00:53,200 --> 01:00:54,680 Speaker 1: And again you had to make sure that you were 975 01:00:54,680 --> 01:00:58,040 Speaker 1: synchronizing it with everything else, and it may be that 976 01:00:58,120 --> 01:01:01,000 Speaker 1: you would find that one element slightly out of sync 977 01:01:01,040 --> 01:01:03,680 Speaker 1: of everything else. You had planned it out, you plotted it, 978 01:01:03,840 --> 01:01:06,000 Speaker 1: you recorded it. When you laid down the tracks, you 979 01:01:06,040 --> 01:01:08,680 Speaker 1: didn't realize that they didn't quite line up the way 980 01:01:08,680 --> 01:01:11,160 Speaker 1: you wanted them to, and that might require you to 981 01:01:11,840 --> 01:01:14,320 Speaker 1: cut out one of the tracks and then splice it 982 01:01:14,360 --> 01:01:18,080 Speaker 1: back in by hand cranking the system to the right 983 01:01:18,160 --> 01:01:22,280 Speaker 1: starting point and adjusting it that way. So maybe you'd say, 984 01:01:22,320 --> 01:01:24,280 Speaker 1: all right, well, the track for the left hand needs 985 01:01:24,320 --> 01:01:28,320 Speaker 1: to start at second number two point four, and unfortunately 986 01:01:28,320 --> 01:01:31,400 Speaker 1: it's starting at two point eight, and because of that, 987 01:01:31,440 --> 01:01:34,680 Speaker 1: the left hand is making gestures zero point four seconds 988 01:01:34,720 --> 01:01:38,040 Speaker 1: after it's supposed to, and it looks ridiculous. You would 989 01:01:38,080 --> 01:01:40,360 Speaker 1: have to go back and try and hand crank it 990 01:01:40,400 --> 01:01:42,480 Speaker 1: to the spot where it needs to start and splice 991 01:01:42,520 --> 01:01:45,960 Speaker 1: it back in that section that track back into the master. 992 01:01:46,800 --> 01:01:49,520 Speaker 1: Worst case scenario scenario, you'd have to re record the 993 01:01:49,520 --> 01:01:52,400 Speaker 1: master and just make sure everything is lined up in 994 01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:56,960 Speaker 1: its new orientation based upon the notes you made To 995 01:01:56,960 --> 01:01:59,320 Speaker 1: make matters even more complicated, they were using a sound 996 01:01:59,360 --> 01:02:02,720 Speaker 1: studio that was busy during the day, so the only 997 01:02:02,800 --> 01:02:06,479 Speaker 1: time the engineers could actually work on this project, which 998 01:02:06,600 --> 01:02:10,000 Speaker 1: had to be done before the World's Fair opened, was 999 01:02:10,000 --> 01:02:13,160 Speaker 1: at night. They would go to this recording studio at 1000 01:02:13,280 --> 01:02:16,080 Speaker 1: night that had its equipment on different floors, so they 1001 01:02:16,080 --> 01:02:18,960 Speaker 1: actually had to run cabling systems to go up and 1002 01:02:19,000 --> 01:02:21,760 Speaker 1: down floors so that they could connect the various parts 1003 01:02:21,800 --> 01:02:25,280 Speaker 1: that they were using in order to make these minute changes. 1004 01:02:26,000 --> 01:02:30,600 Speaker 1: It was an incredibly painstaking process to get the performance 1005 01:02:30,640 --> 01:02:34,920 Speaker 1: that they wanted, all using this combination of pneumatics, hydraulics, 1006 01:02:34,920 --> 01:02:39,320 Speaker 1: and solenoids to see if they can get the right 1007 01:02:39,640 --> 01:02:44,440 Speaker 1: sequence of movements to match the pre recorded audio and 1008 01:02:44,560 --> 01:02:49,240 Speaker 1: give the experience that they intended to their audience. 1009 01:02:50,160 --> 01:02:53,360 Speaker 2: Programming this way took a lot of work. 1010 01:02:53,680 --> 01:02:58,080 Speaker 1: If you watch there's a Wonderful World of Color episode 1011 01:02:58,200 --> 01:03:02,680 Speaker 1: where they talk about the Disneyland presence at the World's 1012 01:03:02,680 --> 01:03:06,200 Speaker 1: Fair and the way the audio animatronics work. There's a 1013 01:03:06,200 --> 01:03:08,920 Speaker 1: point where Walt Disney walks up to one of his 1014 01:03:08,960 --> 01:03:14,200 Speaker 1: imagineers who's wearing this weird harness that is a control system. 1015 01:03:14,720 --> 01:03:18,760 Speaker 1: It's directly connected to the father character of Carousel of Progress. 1016 01:03:19,280 --> 01:03:22,680 Speaker 1: So when the guy makes a big motion with his arm, 1017 01:03:23,000 --> 01:03:26,280 Speaker 1: you see the Carousel of Progress character make that same motion, 1018 01:03:26,960 --> 01:03:29,800 Speaker 1: and Disney refers to that as programming, but that's not 1019 01:03:29,920 --> 01:03:35,640 Speaker 1: actually how they programmed it. They programmed it more granularly 1020 01:03:35,760 --> 01:03:41,160 Speaker 1: than that. They could control a character directly using this method, 1021 01:03:41,520 --> 01:03:44,040 Speaker 1: but that was only really good for one on one 1022 01:03:44,080 --> 01:03:47,520 Speaker 1: digital puppetry, as in, you have a human controller actually 1023 01:03:47,600 --> 01:03:50,400 Speaker 1: manipulating the character at that very moment. If you wanted 1024 01:03:50,440 --> 01:03:53,120 Speaker 1: it automated, you had to go through this other, very 1025 01:03:53,160 --> 01:03:57,360 Speaker 1: painstaking process. And this is pretty much how they used 1026 01:03:58,400 --> 01:04:01,840 Speaker 1: audio animatronics. For the next several years, they would develop 1027 01:04:01,960 --> 01:04:06,280 Speaker 1: lots of different rides that used audio animatronic figures. Pirates 1028 01:04:06,280 --> 01:04:10,120 Speaker 1: of the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, rides like that, where 1029 01:04:10,240 --> 01:04:13,840 Speaker 1: you had some sophisticated movement, something a little more advanced 1030 01:04:13,840 --> 01:04:16,880 Speaker 1: than just a static character turning. A lot of the 1031 01:04:16,960 --> 01:04:20,959 Speaker 1: dark rides in Fantasy Land are more primitive and don't 1032 01:04:21,000 --> 01:04:24,240 Speaker 1: need to be audio animatronic because there's no real articulation 1033 01:04:24,400 --> 01:04:25,160 Speaker 1: with the characters. 1034 01:04:25,200 --> 01:04:26,320 Speaker 2: They're kind of. 1035 01:04:26,440 --> 01:04:29,360 Speaker 1: Static and they can move up and down or turn 1036 01:04:29,480 --> 01:04:32,640 Speaker 1: left and right, but they don't have any facial motion, 1037 01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:36,880 Speaker 1: or their limbs don't really move in any meaningful way, 1038 01:04:37,760 --> 01:04:41,040 Speaker 1: as opposed to characters that say Pirates or Haunted Mansion, 1039 01:04:41,280 --> 01:04:44,520 Speaker 1: some of those have much more sophisticated movements and needed 1040 01:04:44,520 --> 01:04:47,360 Speaker 1: the audio animatronic system in order to do it. To me, 1041 01:04:47,400 --> 01:04:49,960 Speaker 1: it's fascinating that they were able to do all of 1042 01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:53,800 Speaker 1: this using tones, whether it was to just create that 1043 01:04:53,960 --> 01:04:58,320 Speaker 1: binary system or the analog system where you had the 1044 01:04:58,560 --> 01:05:04,080 Speaker 1: variable voltage that could create different types of movement. And 1045 01:05:04,120 --> 01:05:06,959 Speaker 1: I'm also fascinated by all the different people who worked 1046 01:05:06,960 --> 01:05:10,120 Speaker 1: on these systems. There were a ton of them who 1047 01:05:10,360 --> 01:05:14,800 Speaker 1: all contributed, and without them, these just wouldn't even be 1048 01:05:15,720 --> 01:05:19,720 Speaker 1: a reality today. They were able to make a huge 1049 01:05:19,760 --> 01:05:22,160 Speaker 1: impact at the New York World's Fair, and this really 1050 01:05:22,200 --> 01:05:25,800 Speaker 1: did cement Disney as being an innovative company, not just 1051 01:05:25,960 --> 01:05:31,960 Speaker 1: in movies and animation, but also in theme parks and experiences. 1052 01:05:33,040 --> 01:05:37,560 Speaker 1: It set them apart from their competitors. And it wasn't 1053 01:05:37,720 --> 01:05:40,320 Speaker 1: just the theming, which has always been one of Disney's 1054 01:05:40,320 --> 01:05:43,520 Speaker 1: strong suits, but the technology itself, the fact that the 1055 01:05:43,560 --> 01:05:47,840 Speaker 1: company was willing to be a pioneer in those spaces. 1056 01:05:48,120 --> 01:05:50,760 Speaker 1: So I find it one of the most interesting stories. 1057 01:05:50,800 --> 01:05:52,760 Speaker 1: And I love the fact that it also gives me 1058 01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:56,480 Speaker 1: the opportunity to touch on other elements of the mechanical 1059 01:05:56,520 --> 01:06:00,840 Speaker 1: and technological worlds, stuff like pneumatic systems, hydraulic system the 1060 01:06:01,080 --> 01:06:04,720 Speaker 1: concept of cams, the concept of solenoids. All of these 1061 01:06:04,760 --> 01:06:09,360 Speaker 1: elements are obviously components of the audio animatronic systems, but 1062 01:06:09,480 --> 01:06:12,439 Speaker 1: also it's fun to have that opportunity to just touch 1063 01:06:12,480 --> 01:06:15,240 Speaker 1: on those in this episode and to tell you, guys, 1064 01:06:15,600 --> 01:06:18,840 Speaker 1: you know what those were and how they were incorporated 1065 01:06:18,920 --> 01:06:23,160 Speaker 1: into this audio animatronic system. So the next time you 1066 01:06:23,280 --> 01:06:27,200 Speaker 1: ride one of these rides, think about all the technology 1067 01:06:27,240 --> 01:06:28,960 Speaker 1: that went into it and the fact that it's just 1068 01:06:29,080 --> 01:06:32,520 Speaker 1: magnetic tape that's giving all the instructions and not through 1069 01:06:32,640 --> 01:06:36,280 Speaker 1: any sort of computer program, but literally through sound. 1070 01:06:36,920 --> 01:06:37,800 Speaker 2: That the sound. 1071 01:06:37,640 --> 01:06:41,240 Speaker 1: Itself is what allows the circuits to complete, and it 1072 01:06:41,440 --> 01:06:44,880 Speaker 1: varies that voltage, and it allows mister Lincoln to stand 1073 01:06:45,000 --> 01:06:48,280 Speaker 1: up as he addresses you. And here's where we get 1074 01:06:48,520 --> 01:06:52,960 Speaker 1: to my story of a funny little Disney World fail. 1075 01:06:53,120 --> 01:06:57,160 Speaker 1: This was at disney World, not at Disneyland, and it 1076 01:06:57,200 --> 01:07:01,200 Speaker 1: was the first time my wife had ever been to 1077 01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:05,760 Speaker 1: disney World, and I was so excited because if you've 1078 01:07:05,800 --> 01:07:10,160 Speaker 1: been to Disney World several times, after a while, you 1079 01:07:10,240 --> 01:07:13,440 Speaker 1: know what to expect. And while it is still an 1080 01:07:13,520 --> 01:07:19,640 Speaker 1: amazing achievement to have built an amusement park so immersive 1081 01:07:20,240 --> 01:07:23,920 Speaker 1: and with such detail, and to then staff it with 1082 01:07:24,120 --> 01:07:27,400 Speaker 1: people who have some of the best customer service points 1083 01:07:27,520 --> 01:07:31,600 Speaker 1: in the world, that alone is amazing. But if you 1084 01:07:31,680 --> 01:07:34,320 Speaker 1: go with someone who has never been before, and you've 1085 01:07:34,320 --> 01:07:37,080 Speaker 1: been several times, there's a special kind of joy there 1086 01:07:37,200 --> 01:07:40,200 Speaker 1: because you can almost experience Disney World for the first 1087 01:07:40,200 --> 01:07:44,880 Speaker 1: time by vicariously experiencing it through your friend who had 1088 01:07:44,880 --> 01:07:45,800 Speaker 1: not been there before. 1089 01:07:46,000 --> 01:07:47,320 Speaker 2: In this case, it was my wife. 1090 01:07:47,440 --> 01:07:49,800 Speaker 1: She had never been to Disney World, so I was 1091 01:07:49,840 --> 01:07:52,840 Speaker 1: having this wonderful experience of taking her to different rides 1092 01:07:52,880 --> 01:07:54,800 Speaker 1: and she gets to see them for the first time, 1093 01:07:55,200 --> 01:07:58,200 Speaker 1: and she's blown away, and I remember how special it is, 1094 01:07:58,520 --> 01:08:01,760 Speaker 1: because again I've written most of these rides dozens of times, 1095 01:08:02,200 --> 01:08:04,800 Speaker 1: so for me, while I enjoy them, the special part 1096 01:08:04,800 --> 01:08:07,880 Speaker 1: had kind of worn off. Seeing it through her eyes 1097 01:08:08,120 --> 01:08:11,640 Speaker 1: brought it all back, and it was amazing. Then we 1098 01:08:11,680 --> 01:08:15,120 Speaker 1: go to the Hall of Presidents, and at the Hall 1099 01:08:15,160 --> 01:08:18,920 Speaker 1: of President's the curtains open, and if you've never been 1100 01:08:18,920 --> 01:08:21,360 Speaker 1: to the Hall of President's at Disney World. There's a 1101 01:08:21,400 --> 01:08:26,599 Speaker 1: point where curtains open up and you see all of 1102 01:08:26,640 --> 01:08:29,519 Speaker 1: the presidents of the United States. They're all there, Every 1103 01:08:29,560 --> 01:08:34,120 Speaker 1: single one who's ever sat as president is there, animated 1104 01:08:34,360 --> 01:08:36,960 Speaker 1: this audio animatronic and they all do little weird things, 1105 01:08:37,000 --> 01:08:40,439 Speaker 1: like they fidget, they look around. Some of them appear 1106 01:08:40,479 --> 01:08:42,800 Speaker 1: to be a little bored with what's going on. Some 1107 01:08:42,840 --> 01:08:45,519 Speaker 1: of them seem really engaged. It's kind of it's kind 1108 01:08:45,520 --> 01:08:49,800 Speaker 1: of charming. They introduce them one at a time. Well, 1109 01:08:49,880 --> 01:08:53,920 Speaker 1: mister Lincoln sits in a chair and then when it's 1110 01:08:53,960 --> 01:08:58,519 Speaker 1: his turn to actually address the audience, because he first, 1111 01:08:58,520 --> 01:09:01,080 Speaker 1: they introduce everybody, and everyone does a little gesture. They 1112 01:09:01,160 --> 01:09:05,679 Speaker 1: might nod or wave a hand, but ultimately Lincoln stands 1113 01:09:05,760 --> 01:09:08,960 Speaker 1: up and then delivers a speech to the audience. When 1114 01:09:08,960 --> 01:09:11,920 Speaker 1: the curtains open, Lincoln was already standing. He was not 1115 01:09:12,080 --> 01:09:14,559 Speaker 1: seated as he normally would be, which tells me that 1116 01:09:14,640 --> 01:09:19,000 Speaker 1: the hydraulic system for his legs had already activated. However, 1117 01:09:19,040 --> 01:09:23,519 Speaker 1: he was not standing tall. He was bent at the waist. 1118 01:09:24,600 --> 01:09:27,519 Speaker 1: So he's standing up bent down as if he's tying 1119 01:09:27,520 --> 01:09:31,759 Speaker 1: his shoes, and his two arms are dangling at his sides, 1120 01:09:32,040 --> 01:09:34,879 Speaker 1: but they're still animated, so you still see them fidget 1121 01:09:35,000 --> 01:09:39,200 Speaker 1: and gesture. When he's announced and the spotlight hits his chair, 1122 01:09:39,520 --> 01:09:41,679 Speaker 1: which he was not sitting in, so the spotlight's actually 1123 01:09:41,760 --> 01:09:45,200 Speaker 1: hitting behind where he was, his hand made a little motion. 1124 01:09:46,320 --> 01:09:48,920 Speaker 1: It was at that point that I expected someone from Disney, 1125 01:09:48,960 --> 01:09:51,200 Speaker 1: one of the cast members to come down and hit 1126 01:09:51,240 --> 01:09:55,280 Speaker 1: the stop on the show, but they had not yet 1127 01:09:55,320 --> 01:09:59,639 Speaker 1: noticed the problem, and so I was starting to get 1128 01:09:59,640 --> 01:10:03,120 Speaker 1: the giggle a little bit. My wife was definitely getting 1129 01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:06,200 Speaker 1: the giggles, and my dad was encouraging it. My dad 1130 01:10:06,360 --> 01:10:10,160 Speaker 1: is the ultimate dad joke dad, and I love him dearly. 1131 01:10:11,120 --> 01:10:13,720 Speaker 1: But I hear my dad just say I beg them 1132 01:10:13,760 --> 01:10:18,240 Speaker 1: not to make an animatronic John Wilkes booth completely inappropriate 1133 01:10:18,640 --> 01:10:24,439 Speaker 1: and hilarious and tragic and hilarious. So we're watching as 1134 01:10:24,479 --> 01:10:28,880 Speaker 1: Lincoln continues to gesticulate while bent over, staring at the floor, 1135 01:10:30,680 --> 01:10:33,880 Speaker 1: and then it gets to his speech and the music 1136 01:10:34,000 --> 01:10:36,519 Speaker 1: swells and he starts to speak and move his arms 1137 01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:39,080 Speaker 1: more expressively, still bent at the waist, he does not 1138 01:10:39,240 --> 01:10:41,960 Speaker 1: stand up. It's at that point that a Disney cast 1139 01:10:42,040 --> 01:10:44,479 Speaker 1: member takes notice and rushes down and hits the stop 1140 01:10:44,520 --> 01:10:47,240 Speaker 1: button which closes the curtains, and says, mister Lincoln is 1141 01:10:47,240 --> 01:10:50,320 Speaker 1: not feeling very well, please check back again later today. 1142 01:10:51,120 --> 01:10:53,760 Speaker 1: And as we walk out, I know, we start making 1143 01:10:53,800 --> 01:10:56,400 Speaker 1: other jokes like is that my face on that penny, 1144 01:10:57,040 --> 01:11:00,840 Speaker 1: little jokes about Lincoln bent over for some reason. And 1145 01:11:01,400 --> 01:11:06,240 Speaker 1: it's unfortunate because that's my wife's first and first impression 1146 01:11:06,360 --> 01:11:08,960 Speaker 1: of the Hall of Presidents. That's her, that's the memory 1147 01:11:09,000 --> 01:11:12,320 Speaker 1: she associates with it. And I know for a fact 1148 01:11:12,560 --> 01:11:14,760 Speaker 1: that I can never take her to the Hall of 1149 01:11:14,800 --> 01:11:19,200 Speaker 1: Presidents ever again and have her take it seriously at all. 1150 01:11:19,479 --> 01:11:20,679 Speaker 2: Whenever it gets. 1151 01:11:20,479 --> 01:11:23,559 Speaker 1: The Lincoln, she's gonna get the giggles, and she's going 1152 01:11:23,600 --> 01:11:25,680 Speaker 1: to expect him to stand up and bend over at 1153 01:11:25,720 --> 01:11:27,640 Speaker 1: the waist and just stare at the floor for the 1154 01:11:27,640 --> 01:11:34,040 Speaker 1: rest of the day. So these animatronics didn't always work perfectly. 1155 01:11:34,439 --> 01:11:37,960 Speaker 1: Sometimes some part of the system or other would fail, 1156 01:11:39,040 --> 01:11:42,720 Speaker 1: and once that happens, then you get these sort of 1157 01:11:42,760 --> 01:11:46,160 Speaker 1: experiences where maybe part of the animation just isn't working. 1158 01:11:46,320 --> 01:11:48,720 Speaker 1: It could be something as simple as an arm is 1159 01:11:48,760 --> 01:11:51,479 Speaker 1: not animating the way it's supposed to, or it could 1160 01:11:51,479 --> 01:11:54,280 Speaker 1: be something a little more noticeable like a character is 1161 01:11:54,360 --> 01:11:57,080 Speaker 1: bent over and slumped down because they don't have the 1162 01:11:57,439 --> 01:11:59,599 Speaker 1: proper pressure to stand up. 1163 01:12:01,280 --> 01:12:02,200 Speaker 2: It probably was. 1164 01:12:02,200 --> 01:12:05,599 Speaker 1: Just a valve that had failed to open, so there 1165 01:12:05,640 --> 01:12:09,400 Speaker 1: was probably some circuit where it no longer was completing, 1166 01:12:10,479 --> 01:12:14,479 Speaker 1: and therefore the hydraulic system could not actually activate through 1167 01:12:14,520 --> 01:12:17,840 Speaker 1: the upper half of mister Lincoln, so he couldn't stand 1168 01:12:17,920 --> 01:12:25,160 Speaker 1: up tall. That's my guess as a armchair technologist taking 1169 01:12:25,160 --> 01:12:26,400 Speaker 1: a look at what happened. 1170 01:12:28,040 --> 01:12:29,080 Speaker 2: So that's it. 1171 01:12:29,160 --> 01:12:33,919 Speaker 1: That's how audio animatronics work. It is a really interesting system. 1172 01:12:34,439 --> 01:12:37,840 Speaker 1: I love the fact that it predates computer systems for 1173 01:12:38,080 --> 01:12:40,679 Speaker 1: theme parks. These days, you're going to find much more 1174 01:12:40,800 --> 01:12:42,360 Speaker 1: complicated programming. 1175 01:12:42,600 --> 01:12:44,879 Speaker 2: There's going to be microprocessors and characters. 1176 01:12:45,800 --> 01:12:48,200 Speaker 1: I don't know for a fact that the characters they 1177 01:12:48,280 --> 01:12:50,960 Speaker 1: added to the parts of the Caribbean Ride, for example, 1178 01:12:51,120 --> 01:12:55,400 Speaker 1: are more advanced versions. Like there's a Johnny Depp character 1179 01:12:55,439 --> 01:12:58,280 Speaker 1: that shows up three times in the new parts of 1180 01:12:58,280 --> 01:13:03,160 Speaker 1: the Caribbean Ride. There's a Barbosa character. Jeffrey Rush's character 1181 01:13:03,160 --> 01:13:06,479 Speaker 1: from the movies is also in that. I suspect that 1182 01:13:06,560 --> 01:13:09,639 Speaker 1: those are updated systems that are not running on the 1183 01:13:09,680 --> 01:13:11,919 Speaker 1: old audio animatronic system. 1184 01:13:12,240 --> 01:13:14,640 Speaker 2: But that's just a guess. I do not know that 1185 01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:15,280 Speaker 2: for a fact. 1186 01:13:15,560 --> 01:13:19,320 Speaker 1: They are certainly much more sophisticated than the original Pirates 1187 01:13:19,320 --> 01:13:22,960 Speaker 1: of the Caribbean characters were. I hope you enjoyed that 1188 01:13:23,080 --> 01:13:27,920 Speaker 1: classic episode The Wonderful World of Audio Animatronics. When I'm 1189 01:13:27,960 --> 01:13:32,759 Speaker 1: recording these intros, I'm actually getting ready to head down 1190 01:13:32,880 --> 01:13:36,040 Speaker 1: to Disney World in about a month. By the time 1191 01:13:36,120 --> 01:13:39,000 Speaker 1: you hear this, that will have already happened. But I 1192 01:13:39,120 --> 01:13:44,920 Speaker 1: always love experiencing the attractions that have audio animatronics or 1193 01:13:45,560 --> 01:13:49,400 Speaker 1: the variations of animatronics on them. I think it's an 1194 01:13:49,479 --> 01:13:54,240 Speaker 1: amazing combination of art and technology, and I just find 1195 01:13:54,280 --> 01:13:58,680 Speaker 1: it endlessly entertaining and fascinating and just I'm always so 1196 01:13:58,720 --> 01:14:03,680 Speaker 1: impressed with the technological innovations that made it possible to 1197 01:14:03,760 --> 01:14:08,320 Speaker 1: have sort of automated real world puppetry that can repeat itself, 1198 01:14:09,200 --> 01:14:12,920 Speaker 1: you know, indefinitely, although you do have to do repairs 1199 01:14:12,920 --> 01:14:16,320 Speaker 1: and maintenance obviously. It's just really one of those things 1200 01:14:16,360 --> 01:14:19,080 Speaker 1: that when you stop and really think about what's happening 1201 01:14:19,160 --> 01:14:22,439 Speaker 1: and what's going on, it gets really impressive, at least 1202 01:14:22,439 --> 01:14:22,600 Speaker 1: to me. 1203 01:14:23,200 --> 01:14:23,720 Speaker 2: I hope you. 1204 01:14:23,800 --> 01:14:26,160 Speaker 1: Enjoyed this classic episode of tech stuff. I hope you 1205 01:14:26,160 --> 01:14:28,360 Speaker 1: are all well, and I will talk to you again 1206 01:14:29,000 --> 01:14:38,760 Speaker 1: really soon. Tech Stuff is an iHeartRadio production. For more 1207 01:14:38,800 --> 01:14:43,560 Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or 1208 01:14:43,560 --> 01:14:49,280 Speaker 1: wherever you listen to your favorite shows.