WEBVTT - TechStuff Classic: The Wonderful World of Audio Animatronics 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.520 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host job and Strickland. 0:00:15.680 --> 0:00:18.759 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:18.880 --> 0:00:19.479 tech are you? 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:20.960 It is Friday. 0:00:21.040 --> 0:00:23.759 It's time for a classic episode of tech Stuff. This 0:00:23.800 --> 0:00:28.920 one originally published back on June twenty third, twenty seventeen. 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.559 It is called the Wonderful world of Audio Animatronics, a 0:00:33.680 --> 0:00:35.800 topic that is near and dear to my heart. I've 0:00:35.800 --> 0:00:39.920 talked about it more than once on this show. Audio 0:00:39.920 --> 0:00:43.199 animatrics have popped up a few times in different episodes. 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:48.239 This one is dedicated to the technology enjoy I am 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:53.360 an enormous Disney fanatic. I consider myself a Disney fan 0:00:54.000 --> 0:00:59.120 of film, of television, of their theme parks. Probably not 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:02.440 necessarily in that or maybe film first then theme parks 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:05.399 than television, but I'm a huge fan of Disney stuff. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:08.880 And recently, when I was on a trip to Los 0:01:08.920 --> 0:01:13.120 Angeles to attend E three, I found myself with a 0:01:13.240 --> 0:01:17.120 day with nothing to do. I had hoped to book 0:01:17.160 --> 0:01:20.319 some meetings that did not happen, so instead of just 0:01:20.360 --> 0:01:22.840 sitting around my hotel room feeling sorry for myself, in 0:01:22.880 --> 0:01:25.759 a city where I really didn't know anybody. 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:27.679 I decided to hop on down to. 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:32.160 Orange County, California, that is the home of Disneyland, and 0:01:32.200 --> 0:01:33.880 to go to the happiest place on Earth. It was 0:01:33.920 --> 0:01:37.600 not my first time at Disneyland, but this was the 0:01:37.640 --> 0:01:40.839 first time I'd ever gone to Disneyland completely on my own, 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:43.319 and I was a little worried about that, like, how 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:45.880 am I going to have fun just by myself. Turns out, 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.120 Disneyland did most of the work for me. I didn't 0:01:48.160 --> 0:01:50.360 have to worry so much and had a great time. 0:01:50.720 --> 0:01:53.640 But it also reminded me of how much I love 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.840 the technology and innovation that goes behind Disneyland. And honestly, 0:01:58.160 --> 0:02:02.960 I could do maybe a dozen episodes about different technologies 0:02:03.000 --> 0:02:06.840 that were pioneered or perfected at the Disney theme parks, 0:02:06.920 --> 0:02:09.960 because there are a ton of them that Disney either 0:02:10.600 --> 0:02:15.320 directly had a hand in developing or tweaked it in 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:17.800 a way to elevate it beyond what it used to be. 0:02:18.840 --> 0:02:20.480 There are plenty of examples of that. 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:25.920 Today, we're specifically going to focus on audio animatronics. And 0:02:25.960 --> 0:02:28.480 for those who have not heard what this term is 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:31.639 or have any idea what it means this was a 0:02:31.680 --> 0:02:36.960 system that Walt Disney's company pioneered to create animated, physical, 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:41.040 three dimensional figures. So in a way, it's kind of 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:46.160 similar to puppetry, right with a puppet, typically you're manipulating 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:49.720 some sort of three dimensional figure. Beyond shadow puppets and 0:02:49.800 --> 0:02:52.040 that sort of puppet tree, which is amazing all on 0:02:52.120 --> 0:02:56.560 its own, I'm talking about your traditional hand puppets, rod puppets, 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:01.840 and marionettes. That involves manipulating and inanimate object in a 0:03:01.880 --> 0:03:04.519 way to make it seem like it has life, that 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:09.280 has anima, and that you are using some sort of system, 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.919 whether it's rods or the puppet is essentially a glove puppet, 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:17.360 or you're using strings with a marionette to create this 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:21.320 illusion of movement. Well, Disney wanted to create something similar, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:25.160 only these would run on a mechanical system that would 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.240 be painstakingly programmed rather than being under the direct control 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:34.520 of a human being. Those figures, when they're working properly, 0:03:35.120 --> 0:03:39.200 would replicate those same motions and have the same performance 0:03:39.560 --> 0:03:43.040 every single time. So the one hundredth time the character 0:03:43.120 --> 0:03:45.920 is doing a show, it's exactly the way it was 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:49.760 the first time. So once you perfect a show, and 0:03:49.880 --> 0:03:53.040 you program that into these these figures, you then have 0:03:53.160 --> 0:03:57.120 the perfect show every single time you run it, assuming 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:59.800 everything's working properly. Now, anyone who has been to Disney 0:03:59.840 --> 0:04:02.720 and times knows that's a big assumption to make. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.160 Sometimes things just don't do not work really well. 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:08.440 I'll tell you about one of those times that I 0:04:08.520 --> 0:04:14.240 experienced firsthand later on in this show. But the technology 0:04:14.280 --> 0:04:17.880 itself is phenomenal, and even when it isn't working properly, 0:04:18.040 --> 0:04:22.119 that does not take away from how amazing this tech 0:04:22.360 --> 0:04:25.640 really is, especially when you consider what people had to 0:04:25.680 --> 0:04:29.039 work with back in the fifties and early sixties when 0:04:29.040 --> 0:04:34.960 they were first developing these systems. It is pretty amazing stuff. Now, 0:04:35.040 --> 0:04:37.680 the reason why Disney wanted this in the first place 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.560 is he really loved the idea of creating a real, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:45.200 three dimensional experience, similar to what you would get with 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:49.640 an animated film. Animated films can be perfected right, you 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:52.160 can sit there and sketch it out and get it 0:04:52.400 --> 0:04:55.000 just right before you release it as a movie. He 0:04:55.040 --> 0:04:57.279 wanted to have that same sort of experience, but in 0:04:57.320 --> 0:05:01.320 the real physical world. He was a stickler for perfection, 0:05:01.839 --> 0:05:05.840 had very, very very high standards and the people who 0:05:05.920 --> 0:05:09.360 worked for him. They also would end up having very 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:12.400 high standards. Everyone wanted to make sure that they met 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:18.440 Disney's expectations. Now you can find animatronic figures in lots 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:22.640 of Disney attractions, including the Enchanted Tiki Room, Pirates of 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:26.240 the Caribbean, the Haunted Mansion, Great Moments with Mister Lincoln, 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:28.320 the Hall of Presidents which would be over at the 0:05:28.320 --> 0:05:31.720 Magic Kingdom, and Disney World, and tons more. There are 0:05:31.839 --> 0:05:34.920 lots of examples. There are also some attractions that had 0:05:35.000 --> 0:05:40.039 moving figures that didn't use the audio animatronic system. So, 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:44.640 for example, the Jungle Cruise ride has animated animal figures. 0:05:45.279 --> 0:05:50.279 As you ride through, you see hippopotamuses and crocodiles and elephants, 0:05:50.560 --> 0:05:55.159 but these were running on a very simple mechanical loop system. 0:05:55.279 --> 0:05:58.240 They were not specifically audio animatronic. 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.000 They worked on something that was a little. 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:05.720 Less sophisticated than what would follow. So you have both 0:06:05.920 --> 0:06:10.640 at Disney Parks. And I'm also sad that I can't 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.800 have Holly on this episode. Holly, who's one of the 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.800 co hosts of Stuff You Missed in History Class. Apart 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:21.760 from being a brilliant podcaster and an avid historian. She 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:29.360 is an enormous fan of all things Disney, and she 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.200 doesn't just give me a run for my money, she 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:34.000 leaves me in the dust. I love Disney, I have 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:38.720 been to the Disney parks dozens of times, but Holly 0:06:39.200 --> 0:06:43.080 is a step beyond even my own obsession. So I 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.280 am sad that I can't have her here because I 0:06:45.320 --> 0:06:49.880 am absolutely certain that she would be here dropping nuggets 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:53.359 of knowledge and trivia about these various Disney attractions that 0:06:53.560 --> 0:06:55.279 I have yet to uncover. 0:06:55.839 --> 0:06:57.719 So maybe someday I will be. 0:06:57.720 --> 0:06:59.800 Able to have Holly on this show, and we'll do 0:06:59.880 --> 0:07:04.120 it Disney oriented episode about some other type of tech. 0:07:04.839 --> 0:07:07.800 In the meantime, there are some other podcasts we've done 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:11.720 that relate to Disney. I did one about the Pepper's 0:07:11.840 --> 0:07:16.360 Ghost effect, which is used extensively. 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:17.840 In the Haunted Mansion ride. 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.600 Pepper's Ghost involves reflective surfaces and using lighting in a 0:07:22.640 --> 0:07:25.160 way so that you can create the illusion of a 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:29.200 ghostly figure appearing before you, but what you're actually looking 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.680 at is a reflection of a physical figure that's just 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.280 lit in a very bright space, whereas you're in a 0:07:36.360 --> 0:07:41.680 very dark space. The famous ballroom sequence in The Haunted 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:45.200 Mansion ride is a big example of Pepper's Ghost. So 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:47.600 you can go and check out those episodes of tech stuff. 0:07:47.640 --> 0:07:50.000 If this is not enough Disney for you, all right, 0:07:50.120 --> 0:07:54.560 let's talk specifically about what I wanted to concentrate on today. 0:07:55.320 --> 0:07:58.960 To do that, we have to mention Walt Disney because 0:07:58.960 --> 0:08:01.600 he's central to our story. He's kind of our main 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.960 character if this were a narrative. His full name was 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:09.440 Walter Elias Disney. He was born in nineteen oh one 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:13.360 in Illinois. He grew up in Missouri and attended high 0:08:13.360 --> 0:08:17.920 school in Chicago. He was studying art primarily. When he 0:08:18.000 --> 0:08:20.920 was sixteen, he dropped out to join the army, but 0:08:21.040 --> 0:08:24.200 they rejected him because he was too young. He then 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:27.960 joined the Red Cross and was shipped over to Europe 0:08:28.200 --> 0:08:33.160 and drove ambulances during World War One in France. Once 0:08:33.640 --> 0:08:36.920 is his work with the Red Cross was done over there, 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:39.880 he moved back to the United States and he began 0:08:39.960 --> 0:08:42.960 to work for an ad company. He was making film 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.480 and animations. Then he would go on to create his 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:51.480 own studio, which saw some modest success, but then it 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.679 ran into some hard times. Eventually he had to declare bankruptcy. 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:01.240 Under his first studio, but that he didn't give up. 0:09:01.480 --> 0:09:04.000 He decided to make a go at it again, and 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.160 he and his brother Roy were able to co found 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.520 the Walt Disney Company, and from that moment forward, his 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.839 influence on tech has been considerable, from actual innovations and 0:09:14.920 --> 0:09:19.760 technology to how creators can protect their intellectual property. Now, 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.760 not all of those influences have been met with enthusiasm. 0:09:23.200 --> 0:09:26.040 Disney is one of the reasons why the United States 0:09:26.080 --> 0:09:33.320 has such incredibly extensive intellectual property protection laws, stuff like 0:09:33.400 --> 0:09:37.680 copyright and trademark laws that protect well beyond the lifetime 0:09:38.080 --> 0:09:41.880 of the creator. A lot of that has to do 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:48.439 with Disney, as a corporate entity, lobbying to extend those parameters. 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:53.800 So Disney's impact on technology has been enormous in both 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:59.360 very specific ways that relate to particular technologies to the 0:09:59.400 --> 0:10:03.080 way that the those technologies are protected under intellectual property law. 0:10:04.960 --> 0:10:08.200 So Disney's use of sound with animation was a huge 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.920 leap forward in the nineteen twenties, Steamboat Willie being the 0:10:11.960 --> 0:10:16.200 first cartoon with sound, and Disney himself voiced the iconic 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:20.000 character of Mickey Mouse, who struck a chord with viewers 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:25.920 and propelled Disney into enormous success. Over the following decades, 0:10:25.960 --> 0:10:28.920 he would see a lot more success, including going into 0:10:28.920 --> 0:10:31.800 feature link animation, which had not been done before, and 0:10:32.040 --> 0:10:35.760 he was able to succeed with Snow White and the 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.200 Seven Dwarfs, and he also continued to see success with 0:10:39.600 --> 0:10:43.280 short form stuff. Now, depending upon the account you read, 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:45.880 because there are a couple different versions of the story, 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:52.480 we actually begin either in France or the French Quarter 0:10:52.640 --> 0:10:56.160 in New Orleans. The story goes that Disney was on 0:10:56.440 --> 0:10:59.960 vacation with his family, and as he was on vacation, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:05.160 and he decided to look into some antique shops and 0:11:05.200 --> 0:11:10.920 he came across some various clockwork toys, wind up birds, 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:14.319 and that sort of thing. One specific toy he came 0:11:14.360 --> 0:11:17.960 across in an antique shop was a bird cage that 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:20.480 had a mechanical bird inside of it that would chirp 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:24.960 and sing, and it would make little motions that you 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.920 could describe as being somewhat robotic. They were pretty primitive motions, 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:31.480 but you know, close enough to being an actual bird 0:11:31.520 --> 0:11:34.439 that you knew what it was. It wasn't like it 0:11:34.480 --> 0:11:39.120 looked like a monstrosity or anything like that. He thought 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.920 it was absolutely charming, and he felt that there was 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.560 a lot of potential there that he could use to 0:11:44.640 --> 0:11:50.880 create three dimensional, physical animated figurines, potentially in a theme park. 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:53.000 That was one of the things he had been considering 0:11:53.120 --> 0:11:57.600 around this time, although Disneyland had not yet become a reality. 0:11:58.920 --> 0:12:02.720 So he brought the antique bird cage with the mechanical 0:12:02.760 --> 0:12:06.360 bird inside of it back to his company, and he 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.839 went to some of his top thinkers over at the 0:12:10.880 --> 0:12:14.280 Walt Disney Company and said, figure out how this thing works. 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:17.600 So they took it apart, and they took a look 0:12:17.600 --> 0:12:20.760 at it, and they began to formulate ideas of how 0:12:20.800 --> 0:12:24.280 they could create their own technology that would also allow 0:12:24.400 --> 0:12:28.920 for animation of this type sort of this automated puppetry 0:12:29.040 --> 0:12:32.560 that I was talking about now. Disney was really excited 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:35.840 about this prospect of having fully realized, three dimensional characters 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:40.800 capable of delivering a performance consistently. And Jack Gladish, who 0:12:40.880 --> 0:12:43.200 was one of the engineers who would work on developing 0:12:43.320 --> 0:12:46.720 audio animatronic technology, one of many, as it turns out, 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:50.240 would say that Disney once joked to him, I'm tired 0:12:50.240 --> 0:12:53.199 of finicky actors. I want to develop a fully animated, 0:12:53.520 --> 0:12:57.560 articulated human being to use in place of motion picture 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:02.520 actors and actresses. So this was Disney having a bit 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.880 of fun saying that, Hey, the real reason why I 0:13:04.880 --> 0:13:06.800 want to develop this technology is because then I can 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.680 get rid of all these pesky humans that keep on 0:13:09.880 --> 0:13:14.680 asking questions or having issues, whereas the animatronic ones will 0:13:14.720 --> 0:13:17.320 just do what we tell them to do. And it's 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.880 kind of funny because there's another famous director who said 0:13:20.920 --> 0:13:27.240 something very similar about Disney's cast. That famous director was 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:33.200 Alfred Hitchcock, who of course made incredible films of thriller 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:38.400 and psychological horror genres, things like The Birds and Psycho, 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:43.600 that sort of stuff. Alfred Hitchcock reportedly once said Disney 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:46.160 has the best casting. If he doesn't like an actor, 0:13:46.400 --> 0:13:51.480 he just tears him up. So Hitchcock's joke and Disney's 0:13:51.520 --> 0:13:54.760 joke were very similar in that respect, this idea of 0:13:54.800 --> 0:13:58.240 the frustrated director who has to contend with the delicate 0:13:58.280 --> 0:14:02.319 sensibilities of actors and actress. But in truth, Disney just 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:04.520 thought this was a really cool technology and he saw 0:14:04.520 --> 0:14:07.400 a lot of potential in it, and he was always 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.600 looking at new ways to make use of the immense 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:14.920 talent he had attracted to the Walt Disney Company. Whereas 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:17.000 a lot of these people started off in the animation 0:14:17.080 --> 0:14:20.720 department where they were working on various films and shorts 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:24.600 for Disney, they would eventually move into very different departments 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:29.400 and develop stuff like the actual Disneyland theme park disney 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:34.359 World later on, as well as visual effects and props 0:14:34.360 --> 0:14:37.680 and sets and things of that nature for the various 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:40.440 live action films that Disney was getting into as well. 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:44.160 So you had people who started off as animators kind 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:48.960 of specializing in different areas. This was the dawn of 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.640 the imagineering age. There was no such thing as an 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.920 imagineer yet, no one had called it that, but eventually 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:00.920 Disney would end up referring to people who worked in 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:05.200 this sort of field as imagineers. They were thinking outside 0:15:05.240 --> 0:15:10.680 the box, using engineering and creativity married together to create 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:14.800 really interesting experiences that you could not find anywhere else. 0:15:14.920 --> 0:15:18.320 That was the value that Disney wanted to create to 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:21.560 justify charging people admission to come and. 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:22.200 Check it out. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:29.200 So he was really excited about this potential opportunity, and 0:15:29.320 --> 0:15:32.200 he had a lot of potential ways of using this 0:15:32.320 --> 0:15:34.560 technology already at this time. 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:36.040 He was thinking ahead. 0:15:36.480 --> 0:15:38.760 One of those was the fact that he wanted to 0:15:38.760 --> 0:15:42.320 open up an amusement park that would eventually become Disneyland. 0:15:42.680 --> 0:15:45.080 He thought, well, I need to have attractions for people 0:15:45.080 --> 0:15:48.400 to come and experience at this park, and he thought 0:15:48.440 --> 0:15:52.359 this technology could potentially provide some of those experiences. 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:54.720 He also had. 0:15:54.800 --> 0:15:59.920 An ability to contribute to a massive event that would 0:16:00.040 --> 0:16:02.960 happened in the mid nineteen sixties, That is, the nineteen 0:16:03.080 --> 0:16:06.920 sixty four World's Fair in New York that was going 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:10.480 to end up requiring a lot of work on Disney's part. 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.680 Years in advance, he knew that he was going to 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:19.440 be providing four attractions for this World's Fair, and he 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.200 knew that the entire attention of the world was going 0:16:22.240 --> 0:16:25.520 to be on New York for this event. So he 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:29.000 wanted to make absolutely certain that the attractions that his 0:16:29.080 --> 0:16:34.280 company designed were phenomenal and unlike anything anyone had ever experienced, 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.960 and for that he needed to pioneer a new technology. 0:16:38.920 --> 0:16:42.120 So all he had to do from that point forward 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:51.160 was just invent it. No big shakes, right, So to start. 0:16:51.480 --> 0:16:55.720 One of the earliest experiments with this idea of animating 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:59.680 a three dimensional figure was what would eventually be called 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:05.000 the Day Dancing Man or the Little Man project. This 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.119 would be of a figure that measured about nine inches 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:13.280 tall and was meant to dance based upon this automated 0:17:13.320 --> 0:17:17.359 system or mechanical system at least if not fully automated. 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:21.879 The story goes that Walt Disney approached the artist Ken Anderson, 0:17:21.920 --> 0:17:25.840 who was working for Disney. Anderson would become instrumental for 0:17:25.880 --> 0:17:32.400 the design and implementation of various elements in Disneyland, and 0:17:33.080 --> 0:17:35.359 he said, you know what, You're working on a lot 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.320 of stuff, but I want to pay you out of 0:17:37.320 --> 0:17:40.080 my own pocket for a project that I really believe 0:17:40.119 --> 0:17:43.480 in that's not really a company project yet. I want 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:47.480 to create scenes that evoke the American way of life, 0:17:48.160 --> 0:17:52.520 and Disney had a very idyllic sense of what that meant. 0:17:52.760 --> 0:17:56.560 That small town feel that you get when you walk 0:17:56.640 --> 0:18:00.320 down Main Street, USA, if you're ever at Disneyland or 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.400 disney World and you're walking down Main Street, especially if 0:18:03.400 --> 0:18:05.320 you're doing it at a time when there's not a 0:18:05.400 --> 0:18:09.280 huge crowd there, it evokes the sense of a small 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:13.600 town maybe early nineteen hundreds, around the time when Walt 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:16.280 Disney himself would have been growing up, where if things 0:18:16.359 --> 0:18:22.520 appeared to be simple and elegant. That's what Disney wanted 0:18:22.560 --> 0:18:24.840 to create, and so he talked to Anderson, said, I 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:27.679 want to have this idea of building this kind of 0:18:27.720 --> 0:18:30.760 experience in miniature where people can look at the different 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:34.720 miniatures we design and different elements of it actually come 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:38.920 to life. So at first he wanted to get some paintings, 0:18:38.960 --> 0:18:41.760 some sketches of this. So Anderson got to work and 0:18:41.760 --> 0:18:44.680 one of the first things he created was a Norman 0:18:44.880 --> 0:18:50.560 Rockwell esque scene of a soft shoe dancer performing on. 0:18:50.600 --> 0:18:52.960 A stage, a small stage. 0:18:53.600 --> 0:18:56.560 So something that you might see in an old Vaudevillian theater, 0:18:57.480 --> 0:19:01.399 and Disney immediately connected to it. He thought, that's exactly 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.800 what I wanted to see. And he felt that this 0:19:05.040 --> 0:19:07.880 was a figure that if they could create a three 0:19:07.920 --> 0:19:11.119 dimensional version of it and build it in a miniature 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.080 set and it could move around and do its little 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:17.720 dance routine for people, that would be phenomenal. So he 0:19:17.840 --> 0:19:23.639 took Anderson's design and he then decided to work with 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:28.960 a couple of other folks over at Disney. He went 0:19:29.000 --> 0:19:31.639 to a sculptor who was working for the company at 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:36.960 the time. The sculptor's name was Charles Clarence Cristadoro, and 0:19:37.240 --> 0:19:43.440 Cristadoro's dad was a famous agricultural scientist and farmer who 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:48.040 had written extensively about agriculture. Cristadora himself had become a 0:19:48.119 --> 0:19:53.760 notable sculptor, working both in the public spaces, designing statues 0:19:53.800 --> 0:19:57.960 that were shown in San Diego and other areas of California, 0:19:58.040 --> 0:20:00.400 and also working in the movie industry. He had worked 0:20:00.400 --> 0:20:04.240 for Disney once during the nineteen thirties, left the company, 0:20:04.240 --> 0:20:07.600 and then came back in the early nineteen fifties. He 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:10.400 was given the sketch and told to make a physical 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.640 model of the dancer, which he did. He sculpted a 0:20:14.680 --> 0:20:20.680 physical model based upon the Ken Anderson painting and gave 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:23.560 that to Disney. Disney then took the model over to 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:27.280 the machine shop, and he also brought in the animation department. Now, 0:20:27.359 --> 0:20:28.920 right now seems like it would be a good time 0:20:28.920 --> 0:20:32.240 to summarize all the areas that came together to make 0:20:32.760 --> 0:20:36.240 audio animatronics even possible. And I realized I haven't even 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:38.680 gotten to what audio animatronics can do and how they 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:41.600 do it. But it's important to understand the different departments 0:20:41.640 --> 0:20:44.600 to kind of get a grip on why it was 0:20:44.640 --> 0:20:48.360 so complicated and why it called for a multidisciplinary approach 0:20:48.400 --> 0:20:53.320 because that's exactly what audio animatronics were. It required people 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:56.639 of vastly different disciplines and knowledge base in order to 0:20:56.680 --> 0:20:57.520 make this happen. 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:00.320 So, in no. 0:21:00.280 --> 0:21:03.440 Particular order, here are some of the departments at Disney 0:21:03.560 --> 0:21:08.679 that worked on pioneering audio animatronics. First, there was the 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:12.000 Sound Department. Now it might seem weird that I'm starting 0:21:12.119 --> 0:21:17.600 with the Sound department instead of the Mechanical Shop or animation, 0:21:17.760 --> 0:21:21.399 but the reason for that is the Sound department was 0:21:21.480 --> 0:21:27.160 in charge of the audio animatronic projects because those depended 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:31.240 so heavily on that audio component. I'll explain more about 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:35.639 how and a little bit. The sound department was ultimately 0:21:36.920 --> 0:21:39.919 the one that was holding onto the project, the project 0:21:40.040 --> 0:21:44.760 leader that was the head of development. This would end 0:21:44.840 --> 0:21:48.720 up actually causing some issues later on. There'd be some 0:21:48.840 --> 0:21:52.560 disagreements between the Sound department and some other departments, and 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:56.040 they were run by different unions, which also meant that 0:21:56.640 --> 0:21:58.959 they would run into these weird problems. There was a 0:21:59.000 --> 0:22:02.600 story in one of the articles I read about how 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:08.080 the mechanical department, the Mechanical Shop, they might be working 0:22:08.160 --> 0:22:11.040 on an audio animatronic figure, and they would need to 0:22:11.119 --> 0:22:13.840 disconnect it so that they can make an adjustment before 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.679 reconnecting it. But they weren't allowed to actually disconnect the 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:21.320 figure because that was a union job that one of 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:24.200 the sound department guys would have to do. So they'd 0:22:24.200 --> 0:22:26.000 have to go and get someone from the sound department 0:22:26.000 --> 0:22:30.520 to come over to the machine shop, disconnect a tube, 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.240 wait until the mechanical shop people had made their adjustments, 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:38.840 reconnect the tube, and then they could proceed. By union rules, 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:41.359 the machine shop folks were not allowed to do that 0:22:41.440 --> 0:22:44.520 on their own, so it got very frustrating at times. 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:50.400 Then you've got the animation Department Disney, of course, famous 0:22:50.400 --> 0:22:52.679 for animation. This was the group of artists who had 0:22:52.720 --> 0:22:56.199 studied movement extensively. If you're going to animate movement, you 0:22:56.280 --> 0:22:59.359 have to understand how movement works, or else you can't 0:22:59.359 --> 0:23:01.640 replicate it properly and it's not going to look right 0:23:01.680 --> 0:23:05.560 when you watch an animated film. And more importantly, they 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:09.320 had been studying animated movement in film itself. As it 0:23:09.359 --> 0:23:12.879 turns out, film or at least magnetic tape, would become 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:17.040 incredibly important with audio animatronics. They leveraged their expertise to 0:23:17.080 --> 0:23:19.520 help design not just the physical objects that would be 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:24.199 animated and the actual motions those objects would make, but 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:30.080 also the very technique for programming the objects, and i'll 0:23:30.080 --> 0:23:31.840 explain more about that in a little bit. 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:34.360 Then you had the modeling department. 0:23:34.520 --> 0:23:37.360 These were the people who would make three dimensional models 0:23:37.359 --> 0:23:41.040 and sculptures of the various components that you wanted so 0:23:41.080 --> 0:23:44.040 that other departments could use that as a reference. And 0:23:44.080 --> 0:23:47.040 then you had the machine shop. The machine department had 0:23:47.080 --> 0:23:50.920 to fabricate all the physical pieces that would be used 0:23:51.000 --> 0:23:54.240 in these various figures, and then you also had props 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:58.400 and costumes that would end up outfitting these different figures. 0:23:58.800 --> 0:24:02.560 So there were a lot of different moving parts, both 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:06.880 metaphorically and literally, as it turns out when you get 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.520 to audio animatronics, in order to make it possible, and 0:24:10.640 --> 0:24:12.959 all of those groups had their own leaders and their 0:24:13.000 --> 0:24:15.720 own priorities, but the fact that they were able to 0:24:15.720 --> 0:24:19.200 collaborate and create a system as intricate as audio animatronics 0:24:19.280 --> 0:24:22.000 is pretty amazing all on its own. And we haven't 0:24:22.000 --> 0:24:25.840 even gotten to the technology yet. So I want to 0:24:25.880 --> 0:24:28.800 get to that technology, and I will in just a moment. 0:24:29.560 --> 0:24:33.520 But first let's take a quick break and thank our sponsor. 0:24:41.440 --> 0:24:41.840 All right. 0:24:41.920 --> 0:24:44.720 So you've got the machine shop and they were creating 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:49.760 the Dancing Man or the Little Man, and Disney decided 0:24:49.800 --> 0:24:52.760 that he needed to have someone in charge of figuring 0:24:52.760 --> 0:24:55.600 out the animation for this, like figuring out what moves 0:24:55.600 --> 0:24:57.960 would need to be animated, so he tapped a guy 0:24:58.000 --> 0:25:01.359 named Wathel Rogers to work on the animation for it Now. 0:25:01.440 --> 0:25:05.040 Rogers was born in Stratton, Colorado, in nineteen nineteen, and 0:25:05.080 --> 0:25:08.560 he was a sculptor and engineer. He attended an art 0:25:08.560 --> 0:25:11.320 institute in Los Angeles and was recruited directly out of 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:14.280 school to the Walt Disney Studios in nineteen thirty nine. 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.160 He worked as an animator on films like Pinocchio and Bambi. 0:25:19.280 --> 0:25:22.440