Welcome to TPMvids Disney Beat where we talk about all things Disney!
If you’re new to the channel, hit that subscribe button and click the bell icon to be notified
when we upload a new video.
We also have Instagram and Twitter- you can find us @TPMvideos.
Well, its that time again where we explore the wonderful world of Animatronics.
Many Disney rides and attractions feature audio-animatronics and with these robotic
figures being so complex they’re bound to fail, malfunction and break down.
It just happens.
Thanks to submissions from all of you, today we have some really fun malfunctions to share.
Now if you’ve ever caught an animatronic malfunction on camera, send it to the email
the address on the screen for a chance to have it featured in a future video.
Now without further a due let’s count down the Top 10 Disney Fails & Animatronic Malfunctions
Pt 10!
Number 10 Taking a ride on the world famous Jungle Cruise
at Magic Kingdom brings a lot of excitement from puns to animatronics.
Many simple figures make up this cast of wild animals but there’s also a couple human
animatronics.
Trader Sam is one of them, and he’s the head salesman of the Jungle.
He’s very cordial, almost like he’s bowing to get you to buy into his 3 heads for the
price of one deal.
He’s a man of class, but sometimes he just can’t help but fight the demons inside.
{Jungle Cruise Skipper} The Return to civilization.
Please keep your hands arms feet and legs inside the boat until we make a complete stop
at the dock.
Thanks for riding the Jungle Cruise.
With that broken umbrella, which is a normal part of the show, he looks even more busted
almost like an animatronic at Universal Studios.
Whoops.
Just kidding.
He normally doesn’t have any side to side movement so its kinda strange seeing this
jerky movement in all directions.
Someone just buy a head to make him stop.
Please
Number 9 If you’ve watched this channel before, you’ll
probably remember some animatronic malfunctions with Mr. Potato Head and guess what, the spud
is back!
Most of the malfunctions happen while he’s trying to put his ear back into the socket
and then drops it but we’ve never seen him malfunction as he’s trying to take out his
ear.
Which is what happens here in Toy Story Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
{Mr. Potato Head} Hey nice ears you got there.
Wanna trade?
I’m just kidding, I wouldn’t wear the silly things.
I love such a loud thud is made even though he releases the ear ever so gently.
When this happens and it happens quite frequently, a cast member needs to manually put the ear
back into the socket and this is always done in plain view of the guests.
{Guests off camera} Its backwards
{Cast Member} Thank you!
And the crowd goes wild!!
{Mr. Potato Head} Thank you, thank you!
I'll be here all week and judging by how this line is moving, so will you!
Number 8 This next animatronic malfunction brings us
into the Little Mermaid ride at Disney California Adventure.
Now your journey begins and ends with Scuttle
{Scuttle} Now how does that go?
Wait, hold your seahorses!
Sometimes he just gets fed up telling the same story over and over and over again and
you know just needs to sit back and relax.
{Scuttle} But that Ursula!
Oooo she’s so mean.
I’ll make you human if you give me your voice, she says.
With him naturally being slouched, he just looks so sad yet so smug, doesn’t he?
I wanna say that his eye blinking is run through a separate electrical signal from the hydraulic
system that controls the other actuators in the animatronic.
That would explain why the figure stops moving completely and we get this.
{Scuttle} Voice she says.
Ariel gets all flustered
Number 7 It’s a Small World is a classic Disneyland
attraction with a lot of history.
I feel like with this ride there are two distinct groups of people: one group that loves the
ride and cherishes this beloved song and story, and another one that can’t stand it thinking
its annoying and creepy.
Well for a ride that a lot of people consider creepy when everything is in perfect working
order, it gets a little creepier when things start to malfunction.
In these clips sent into us by @SavanahMr3, it just wasn’t a good day for a lot of the
animatronics.
{Music}
{Off camera} none of them are moving
There’s something especially unsettling when some of the figures are moving while
others aren’t, don’t you think?
Give’s a whole new meaning to a world of fears…or if you love the ride then it's
just another cool animatronic malfunction.
Number 6 The three Cabelareos in the Gran Fiesta Tour
At Epcot have been the subject of many malfunctions in the past and guess what?
They’re at it again.
Well more so, Jose is at it again.
He’s fallen and he can’t get up.
{Music} to play as we go
{Off camera} Ummm Jose?
{Music} We sing and we Sumba we shout-
{Old Lady} I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
{Off camera} When Jose drops his contact.
What’s a bit strange about this malfunction is that aside from him heeled over, he’s
functioning perfectly normal which makes this even more amusing.
I’m guessing the actuator in his hip failed which is why he’s in the position he’s
in.
You know I’m starting to think he’s really becoming a bird-en to the group.
Get your act together Jose or just fly the coup already, okay?
{Off camera} Yikes on ice!
Number 5 Both It’s A Small World at Disneyland and
Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage in Tokyo DisneySea feature miniature animatronic figures.
Coincidentally malfunctioning heads that were caught on camera on both rides.
First up is Alice on It’s A Small World who’s dealing with that crick in her neck.
{Music}
Now when you look at the figures' normal animation on the ride, her head doesn’t move at all.
So it’s interesting once again that with a malfunction we see a head function that’s
built into the animatronic that never actually gets used.
On Sinbad’s Storybook Voyage, the animatronic animation in this ride is beautiful.
They all have full range of motion and I could just watch these animatronics for hours on
end.
I’m honestly not sure who this guy is but he’s our subject of interest who’s, ummm
either trying to tell us something secret or he just has a really bad itch.
Imagine an entire ride with animatronic heads like this.
I mean I’d gladly go on it, wouldn’t you?
Number 4 Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, a very
impressive Lightning McQueen Audio-Animatronic is the star of Lightning McQueen’s Racing
Academy.
Without the animatronic, there is no show so when the figure malfunctions cast members
are usually quick to shut it down.
In this show captured by DIS our Dream there were issues as soon as Lightning McQueen came
onstage.
Pay attention to his front wheels and you’ll see they aren’t spinning.
Other than then that though, he was moving perfectly fine until this point right here.
Then it was all downhill.
{Lightning McQueen} You know I only figured out how to be a great racer because I had
a great teacher Doc Hudson.
That’s why I started this racing academy so I could pay it forward to all of you.
{Cast member} Lady and gentlemen at this time Lightning McQueen’s racing academy is experiencing
technical difficulties.
I love how they coincidentally stopped the show right as he was blinking giving us this.
A less than flattering look.
Almost like when you take photos of the articulated heads on the castle stage.
The one cool thing with this is that you can clearly see the constraints of the mouth projection
on the animatronic.
Number 3 When Rise of the Resistance first opened at
Disney’s Hollywood Studios back in December of 2019 it was constantly going down.
That’s usually somewhat typical of new years and it included the Kylo Ren Animatronic malfunctioning.
Just for reference, this is what the scene is supposed to look like.
{Kylo Ren} You underestimate their conviction.
Raise the shields
{Hux} Shields?
I see no evidence
{Kylo Ren} Now!
{Hux} Sound the alarm!
All personnel to their stations.
{Female Voice} Sir the prisoners have escaped!
{Kylo Ren} How brave, but ultimately hopeless.
Over the course of the first few weeks, there were many times when riders got to the bridge
of the Star Destroyer only to be faced with a lifeless Kylo Ren in a variety of poses.
{Female Voice} Sir the prisoners have escaped
{Kylo Ren} How brave, but ultimately hopeless.
Then in this clip from Parallel Disney, both Hux and Kylo are doing the mannequin challenge
that hasn’t been relevant in 4 years.
{Hux} All personnel to their stations.
{Female Voice} Sir the prisoners have escaped!
{Kylo Ren} How brave, but ultimately hopeless.
Now there were also times when the second Kylo Ren animatronic would also malfunction
but Disney actually built a plan B into this scene.
So normally this is what happens-
{Kylo Ren} There’s no escape!
You will tell me the location of your secret base.
Then I will destroy you and the resistance.
And this is the plan b with Kylo Ren appearing in his ship with different dialogue as well.
{Kylo Ren} Your efforts are wasted.
You cannot escape me.
Your precious resistance is about to be destroyed.
The beauty of this ride being trackless is that
they can easily shift your attention to different areas of the scene.
SO when the computer detects a problem with the Kylo Ren animatronic, it can switch into
B-mode seamlessly.
The fact that Disney has been creating more and more B-Mode show scenes is great since
it limits downtimes and still allows you to have a complete but modified ride experience.
Number 2 Hall of Presidents at Magic Kingdom gives
you the chance to see the most animatronics all at once.
Some of the figures' movements are more subtle than others but during this performance, it’s
hard to keep your eyes off Theodore Rosevelt as he a little jittery.
{Attraction} Herbert Hoover.
Franklin D Roosevelt.
{Off camera} Oh my gosh.
Oh oh my gosh.
{Attraction} Harry S Truman.
Dwight D Eisenhower.
You can see at the start of the video his arm was slightly shaking then he was just
possessed, knocked something off the table and went crazy.
{Attraction} Franklin D Roosevelt.
{Off camera} Oh my gosh.
Oh oh my gosh.
{Attraction} Harry S Truman.
I can keep watching this one over and over and over again, it never gets old.
It’s like his morning coffee really started to kick in, right there.
Now it’s said that when animatronics begin to shake, it caused by a glitch in the computer
software that keeps looping 2 frames.
It’s an attempt to create fluid motion, then as it rapidly repeats, and we get this.
Number 1 The final segment is called lend them a hand
and features the cast of Carousel of Progress.
So back on January 20th of 2020, the younger daughter that shows up in Act 1 then mysteriously
disappears for the rest of the show has her arm disconnected from her hand while it’s
still stuck to the handle.
{John} That’s right folks now Sarah has more time for other things like—
{Sarah} Like canning and cleaning the oven.
{John} yes dear.
{Sarah} Ovens don’t just clean themselves you know.
{John} I know dear and they probably never will.
I mean this is quite the sight but that’s not all.
Later on February 5th John in the first act was caught with his hand detached from his
arm as it laid on the floor with his pipe still in hand.
There is no video footage known of the malfunction but this picture was posted on Reddit by user
ColtsMcGee.
I mean I gotta hand it to Disney, they dealt with both of these malfunctions quickly and
fixed the issues, but these animatronics do need some love and care.
If you look at old footage from the attraction, the animatronics move with much more fluidity
and ease than what’s seen now.
Hopefully, one day in the future Carousel of Progress will get the refurbishment it
deserves.
So have you ever seen a malfunction or breakdown in person?
Which malfunction on this list was your favorite?
I’d love to know!
Leave a comment down below to start a conversation and don’t forget to hit that like button
if you enjoyed the video.