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When you visit the Disney Parks its guaranteed that you’ll get a chance to see some of
your favourite Disney Pals, wether its during a meet and greet, a parade or a stage show.
And it doesn’t matter if you’re a kid or a kid at heart, theres always something
magical about getting the chance to see and meet the Disney characters. Now Disney has
always tried to bring the characters to life as much as possible like Mickey Mouse being
able to wiggle his nose or in an earlier version of Goofy, his eyelids being able to bounce
up and down. In our past video talking about extinct Disney animatronics, we mentioned
Disney’s Living character initiative which began in the mid 2000’s
This initiative by Disney was to allow new levels of guest interaction while bringing
characters to life like never before. One of the early initiatives was in 2007 when
they introduced the articulated characters to Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. When
the articulated characters first debuted in the parks they were more or else better classified
as puppets, but the current radio frequency transmitter technology used in shows today
makes these characters fall more under an audio animatronic.
But before 2007 when the articulated characters debuted at Magic Kingdom, it wasn't really
the first time you were able to see Disney characters move their mouth and blink their
eyes. Variations of this technology actually already existed in the Disney Theme parks.
So today, we’re gonna break things down into a top 5 countdown and take a look at
the Evolution of the Articulated Talking Disney Characters.
Number 5- Before the Theme Parks One of the very first appearances of a Disney
character blinking their eyes and moving their mouth was actually not even in the theme parks.
Back in 1983, there was a series on the Disney Channel called Welcome to Pooh Corner.
{Singing} Everybody’s waiting here at Pooh corner.
Former Disney Imagineer Ken Forsse, is the person to thank for bringing this technology
to Disney’s attention. Back in the early 80’s, Forsse had just begun his own company
called Alchemy II Incorporated, where he was developing the articulated technology for
a walk around bear character. This was to be used for his future project of Teddy Ruxpin.
Disney really liked Forsse’s bear prototype and they offered him the contract to produce
the characters for Welcome to Pooh Corner. They did a really good job of making the characters
closer resemble the animated characters, especially compared to what the current theme park look
of Winnie the Pooh was in the 80s. This was an upgraded look to say the least since he
was now able to move his mouth as well as blink and move his eyes. But there’s something
just not right about Pooh’s eyes; they seem a little too dilated.
But, Winnie the Pooh wasn’t the only member of the hundred acre woods to become an articulated
character. Eyyore, Tigger, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga & Owl were also all articulated but
technology wasn’t perfect.
{Tigger} Cause I put the spoon down into the bowl of pudding
As you can see, they seemed a bit limited in speed and the mouth movements weren’t
as fluid as they could have be.
{Winnie the Pooh} I don’t believe it’s very difficult.
Later in 1985, The Disney Channel once again in collaboration with Alchemy II, Inc produced
the series Dumbo’s Circus that also used the articulated character technology.
{Singing} Dumbo’s circus flying from Town to town.
The movements of these characters appeared to be a lot more fluid than in Winnie the
Pooh. Dumbo was able to move and blink his eyes, move his mouth and also his trunk. He
also appeared with a bunch of his animal friends and if you look closely at Lionel the Lion’s
hands in conjunction with his eyes and mouth, its seems as though this in some way controls
the face’s movements.
Little fun fact: Dumbo’s Circus was legendary Disney voice actor Jim Cummings’ very first
job. Now none of the articulated characters from the Winnie the Pooh or Dumbo series ever
made it into the theme parks and remained strictly on television.
Number 4- The Early days of Walt Disney World With the opening of Disney MGM Studios in
1989, it would become the first theme park at the Walt Disney Resort to feature a variation
of the articulated characters. In 1990, a show called Here Come the Muppets opened in
the building where Voyage of the Little Mermaid is today. It’s definitely an interesting
choice for the Muppets to be represented as walk around characters and not puppets, but
it was something that Jim Hensen himself oversaw and gave the green light on.
Now unlike Winnie the Pooh and Dumbo characters that moved their eyes and mouths, the muppet
characters were only able to move their mouth.
{Kermit the Frog} Oh Mr. Bear
{Fozzie Bear} Yes Mr. Frog
{Kermit the Frog} You know your jokes are like whine
Now since these characters didn’t blink their eyes it probably safe to say that it
wasn't the same technology by Alchemy Incorporated used for the Disney channel series. These
were definitely more along the lines of puppets because if you take a look at the characters
hand, you can see it’s in sync with the mouth movements.
Once MuppetVision 3-D opened in May of 1991, Sweetems made his theme park appearance and
was able to move his mouth. But you’ll notice that only one of his arms moves.
{Sweetems} Where?! Where?
The other hand is most likely puppeting the mouth.
Then in 1994 an attraction called The Legend of the Lion King opened at The Magic Kingdom
in the building where Mickey’s Phillarmagic is today. Rafiki appeared as an articulated
character that could move his mouth but didn’t blink his eyes.
{Rafiki} Hahaha no mater
Comparing this to the movements of the muppet characters it was much more fluid and life
like, so Disney seemed to be advancing this technology.
Now fast forward to 2001 when the castle show Cinderella’s Surprise Celebration opened.
It featured the Evil witch from Snow White who also was able to move her mouth.
{Evil Witch} You wouldn't want to spoil my little surprise, would you?
The Evil witch also appeared in Fantasmic which opened at MGM Studios in 1998, and she
was also capable of moving her mouth but as you can see here its a much different design.
{Evil Witch} Magic Mirror on the wall. All the forces..
Number 3- The early days at Disneyland Now although Disneyland was the original Disney
theme park, it didn’t see the introduction of articulated characters until 1991. In the
early 90s, the Disney Afternoon programming on the Disney Channel was a hit and Disneyland
hosted Disney Afternoon-Live! One of the offerings was a stage show called Plane Crazy that held
performances in the Fantasyland theatre which was then known as Videopolis. The show featured
characters from Tale Spin, Rescue Rangers and Duck Tales but the only two characters
to receive the articulated treatment were Ballo
{Ballo} Ahaha Yes Sir! Hey there little buddy. All the trouble I get in
and Fat Cat.
{Fat Cat} Two of Louie’s specials my boy!
Now like the characters at Disney World at this time, both were able to move their mouths
but did not blink their eyes.
It’s kinda strange to only have 2 of the characters articulated in the show since the
technology was already fully in use at Disney MGM Studios by a full cast of characters.
The only reason I can really think of is that since Disney Afternoon- Live! was a limited
8 month event, Disney didn’t want to fully invest in the technology for the short run.
But then in 1994 Rafiki debuted as Disneyland’s next use of the articulated character in the
Lion King Celebration parade. He actually debuted at the park one month earlier than
Magic Kingdom, but had the same range of movement only being able to move his mouth. Rafiki
was the last articulated character to appear at the Disneyland until Mickey Mouse made
his debut in Mickey’s Soundsational Parade.
Number 2- Disney Live! Feld entertainment, the company that produces
Disney on Ice, began a new venture in 2004 and launched Disney Live! which would produce
live theatrical Disney touring shows. Feld entertainment then went on to work with Disney
to further develop the articulated character technology. Funny enough the first production
of Disney Live! that utilized and tested the articulated characters was a Winnie the Pooh
touring show that launched in New Zealand on June 16th 2004. The Winnie the Pooh characters
were now able to blink their eyes as well as move their mouths. Now that Disney had
this technology in their repertoire, the articulated character of Timon appeared in The Legend
of the Lion King at Disneyland Paris also in June of 2004. So it appears that Timon
in Disneyland Paris was actually the first official articulated character who blinked
his eyes AND moved his mouth at the Disney parks.
{Timon} All my buddies are getting ready to give you
Timon would later be introduced into Festival of the Lion King at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
in 2009.
But in 2006 Disney & Feld Entertainment would develop articulated characters for Mickey
Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, Donald and Goofy who’d appear in Disney Live! newest
touring production, Mickey’s Magic Show. It debuted on April 21st, 2006. This was the
very first time in Disney history that Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy were articulated
characters. In January 2007, Disney introduced these articulated characters into Dream Along
With Mickey at the Magic Kingdom which had already been open at the park since Sept 2006.
It’s kinda odd that Disney didn’t open Dream Along With Mickey using the articulated
characters since they already made their debut 5 months earlier in Disney Live! But none
the less, January 2007 marked the introduction of the articulated characters as we know them
today.
Number 1- The Present Day Since the introduction of Mickey, Minnie,
Donald and Goofy in 2007, many more characters have joined the articulated character lineup
at the Disney Parks. Characters now include Chip N’ Dale who debuted in the Celebrate
the Season at the Magic Kingdom
Baloo in Disney Cruise Line’s Believe
King Louie in Mickey and the Magical Map at Disneyland
Daisy Duck, Olaf & Louis in Mickey’s Royal Friendship Fare at the Magic Kingdom
Pluto, Clarabelle Cow, Jose, & Panchito in Mickey's Most Merriest Celebration
And Oogie Boogie in Hocus Pocus Villain Spelltacular also at Magic kIngdom
Now with the development of these articulated stage show characters, it’s allowed disney
to develop and test an interactive meet and greet for Mickey Mouse. It’s been used at
the Magic Kingdom for the past few years and has been a huge success.
So whats your favourite articulated character in a Disney park show so far? And whats the
next character you wanna see become articulated? Leave a comment below and start a conversation!
If you have any videos from the Disney Parks that you'd like to share to be used in future
videos, follow the link in the description below.
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