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The theme park wars

King Kong

When Universal caught wind of Disney’s plans for its own movie park, rather than shrinking into the shadows, the company threw down the gauntlet, announcing its intention to divide up its signature tram tour into separate standalone attractions for its Orlando park, which opened in June 1990. Two of Universal Orlando’s opening day attractions, Kongfrontation and Jaws, proved that while Disney might own the trademark on the audio animatronics name, it did not have the lock on the technology.

Kongfrontation featured two 39-foot tall animatronic gorillas, weighing in at 8,000 pounds and 13,000 pounds respectively, each capable of performing an incredible 62 separate functions. But even more impressively, in order to make the storyline believable, Kong had to function “inside the envelope.” The envelope is the safety zone around every ride vehicle, and intrusions into that zone typically cause safety faults. But precision programming allowed the animatronics and trams to work together to bypass the intrusion system at just the right moments. Even today, 13 years after its closure, Kong remains one of the most technologically impressive examples of animatronics ever created.

Jaws

Jaws was no less impressive, especially when you consider that the animatronic sharks had to perform underwater—kind of like giving the Jungle Cruise hippos a lifelike realism and dispatching them to attack the boats. At 24 feet long and weighing three tons apiece, the sharks also took off with the force of a Boeing 747. Clearly this was not your father’s theme park boat ride! The original version of the attraction, which had Jaws taking a bite out of the boat before exploding in a 10 foot fountain of blood and shark chunks, never worked reliably, and the ride was shuttered for three years for a complete overhaul. The final version was not *quite* as ambitious, but nonetheless went on to become a beloved favorite for many Universal visitors (you can read all about it in this article).

Over the years, other theme parks threw their hats in the animatronic ring, as did feature film companies, pizza chains, and toy manufacturers. All were impressive in their own ways, and all contributed to the concept of the modern animatronic. But it was Disney that fired the next major volley in the battle of the animatronics.

The turn of the millennium

Hopper

Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened in 1998, bringing its own impressive new technological advancements. One of the least heralded but most intriguing is Hopper, the nine foot tall audio animatronic star of It’s Tough to Be a Bug. With 74 independent motion functions, he was the most sophisticated audio animatronic ever developed up to that time.

Universal fought back in 1999, when Triceratops Encounter opened with its second park, Islands of Adventure. Located in the Jurassic Park area, Triceratops Encounter gave guests the opportunity for up close and personal individual interactions with a freestanding Triceratops animatronic. Each of the three animatronics was 24 feet long and 10 feet tall, and was capable of interacting in revolutionary new ways including breathing, blinking, and even twitching its muscles.

As the new millennium opened, the theme park wars showed no signs of slowing down. Arguably one of the most impressive achievements was Disney’s Lucky the Dinosaur, a free-ranging audio animatronic introduced in 2004 as part of the company’s Living Character Initiative. The stated goal was to allow guests more freedom of interaction with the characters.

Image - Loren Javier, Flickr

Lucky carried his power source and control system with him, carefully concealed in the cart he towed. Rather than relying on hydraulics, his body was controlled electrically. A hidden operator programmed most of his movements on the fly in response to guest interactions. It was a real step forward in audio animatronic technology.

Although Lucky seems to have been retired, he set a new standard in what was possible in audio animatronics. The Expedition Everest Yeti, Toy Story Midway Mania’s Mr. Potato Head, and similar next-generation audio animatronics owe a huge debt to what Lucky accomplished.

Animatronics of the future

Image (c) Disney

At the D23 Expo in 2009, Disney coined a new term, “autonomatronics,” to describe an entirely new breakthrough in audio animatronic technology. The first autonomatronic, debuted at the Expo, is a revolutionary new figure named Otto. Driven by sensors, cameras, and other input devices, Otto has the capacity to sense how many guests are in a room and even determine whether a particular person is smiling, as well as reacting on the fly to guest interactions. While Otto has yet to make an appearance in the parks, the technology was incorporated into the 2009 remake of Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln at Disneyland.

Image (c) Disney

In addition, projection-enhanced audio animatronics are on track to become the gold standard. Debuted on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and set to be an important part of Frozen Ever After, these figures blend the latest generation of realistic audio animatronics with computer rendered 3-D animation. This allows the figures to make previously unprecedented facial movements, singing and speaking in a whole new way.

Meanwhile, Universal Orlando will make another bid for the animatronics crown in 2016, when Skull Island: Reign of Kong opens at Islands of Adventure. Although little has been confirmed, the persistent rumor mill claims that not only will the ride feature a bigger and badder King Kong animatronic than ever before, but that the animatronic will actually have the ability to run! If this is true, it will take animatronic technology to a whole new level and leave its competitors scrambling to catch up.

Animatronics have come a long way since the early days of the automaton, but with the lightning speed at which technology changes today, it is entirely possible that our current marvels will be obsolete in 10 years. Where do you see animatronic technology going next? Share your thoughts with us in the comments!

 
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