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Disney Animatronics are a subject that gets covered a lot on this channel; I’m a huge
fan of audio animatronics.
So I thought it was about time to follow up our recycled animatronic episode from earlier
this year, and focus on a different type of animatronic recycling.
One of the most expensive and time consuming aspects of producing animatronics is sculpting
the molds, wether its a human face or an animal.
So to cut time and costs, Disney has reused and recycled many animatronic molds from one
attraction and put them in another.
By changing a characters complexion, makeup, facial hair, and clothing or changing an animal’s
fur, suddenly you’ve created a brand new character.
Many rides & attractions have quite a few familiar faces that you’ve probably never
even noticed.
So today, while looking at animatronic history in Florida, California and Paris, we’re
gonna be counting the Top 10 Recycled Disney Animatronics Pt 2.
Number 10- Wide Eye and Terrified One particular human animatronic in the Jungle
Cruise at Magic Kingdom, was originally designed for the Haunted Mansion.
Marc Davis and Blaine Gibson are two well known Disney Imagineers who both worked on
the Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion.
Davis designed the characters and Gibson would sculpt the animatronic molds.
Well as your doom buggy descends backwards into the graveyard, you’ll find the Graveyard
caretaker holding a lantern.
He’s wide eyed and terrified, right?
Well as we take a look at the Trapped Safari Scene on the Jungle Cruise, there’s one
particular animatronic that’s also wide eyed and terrified.
Looking at the low man on the totem poll getting poked by that rhino, the animatronic’s face
is no one other than the graveyard caretaker from Haunted Mansion.
Now he does not appear in Disneyland’s Trapped Safari scene since it was added in 1964, 5
years before Haunted Mansion opened at Disneyland.
With the bucket hat slightly covering his eyes and the safari wardrobe, its easy to
not recognize him but this animatronic’s face was definitely recycled.
Number 9- Birds of a Feather The Disney parks are home to a variety of
Parrot animatronics, but there’s one parrot that’s been recycled a few times over the
last decade at Walt Disney World.
During the 2006 refurb of Pirates of the Caribbean, a Blue and Yellow macaw parrot was added to
the scene with Captain Jack Sparrow at Magic Kingdom and in the loading area at Disneyland.
Well if we head to the Mexico Pavillon at Epcot and enter Plaza de Los Amigos, on the
left hand side at the bottom of the ramp you’ll find this same parrot audio-animatronic.
It’s used for the Agent P’s World Showcase Adventures game.
It appears to have been added around 2009 when the interactive game made its debut themed
to Kim Possible.
Well most recently, this same animatronic has shown up once again in Adventureland right
near the entrance of Pirates of the Caribbean.
{Parrot} Don’t shoot, don’t shoot.
I’m just the messenger.
Coincidentally its also used for another interactive game called A Pirates Adventure- Treasure
of the Seven Seas which debuted in 2013.
And sure this is just a simple animatronic parrot, but since the mold, frame and design
was already created once, recycling and duplicating this relatively common parrot with the same
articulate functions just makes sense.
Number 8- Pirate Ghosts Once the ghosts on the Haunted Mansion materialize,
some familiar faces make up the 999 happy haunts.
Characters that made their debut on Pirates of the Caribbean in 1967, found their way
into the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland in 1969 then at Magic Kingdom in 1971.
The ride’s usually really dark, but this low light footage from our friends at LMG
vids makes the ghosts much easier to see.
So the auctioneer from Pirates of the Caribbean is actually the Ship Captain spinning in a
circle right here.
Now that whistling pirate in the jail scene, well he can be found a few times on the Haunted
Mansion.
He was recycled as the ghost blowing out her candles on the table, and as you make your
way into the graveyard scene, a few of the instrument playing ghosts on the left hand
side were also recycled from the same mold as well.
The bagpipe and flute players seem to have the same face and now that you’re aware,
it’s pretty easy to make out that it’s the whistling pirate from the jail scene.
It’s a perfect piece of animatronic recycling since whistling and blowing require the same
facial structure; you make a few of them look like ghosts and you wont even notice..until
now.
Number 7- The Dog Days So there’s a little misconception around
a couple dogs at Walt Disney World.
The way the tale goes is that Rover from Carousel of Progress and the dog with the key in Pirates
of the Caribbean are said to be the same dog.
There’s many sources online saying this is the case, but if you take a look at both
of them, they don’t look identical at all.
Rover is much shaggier than the dog in pirates, not to mention that the dogs in both attractions
have changed many times over the years.
So maybe what’s actually being implied is that this is a case of recycling the same
mold and not using the exact same animatronic- that would make sense.
They’re both in the sitting position and look to be about the same size, but what do
you think the story is with these two Disney dogs?
Comment below.
Number 6- Elderly Haunts So we previously talked about a few of the
999 happy haunts at the Haunted Mansion and at the time when the ride was being built
at Disneyland in 1969, Carousel of Progress had its home in Tomorrowland.
Well the grandma thats sitting in the rocking chair from carousel of Progress can be found
in the ballroom scene of the Haunted Mansion.
Imagineer Blaine Gibson sculpted the figures on both of these attractions.
He just recycled the animatronic’s face and body mold for the Haunted Mansion.
Once Haunted mansion opened with Magic Kingdom in 1971, the grandma was reused again in this
version of the attraction- but this also means that the grandmother from carousel of progress
was in Magic Kingdom before Carousel of Progress moved to Walt Disney World in 1975.
Number 5- Monkey Business The Tropical rainforest scene in Epcot’s
Living with the Land features lush landscapes and some animatronic animals which include
these cute monkeys.
Well when the attraction opened in 1982, the monkeys were recycled from another tropical
attraction at Magic Kingdom.
In the Cambodian temple scene on the Jungle Cruise, you’ll find a group of monkeys playing
around with some treasure and two of these animatronics made their way into living with
the land.
The most obvious is this monkey with the baby on its back.
It was seen in Marc Davis’ designs for the Jungle Cruise and on the ride you can find
this pair on the right hand side.
The other solo monkey in Living with the Land was recycled from this monkey here.
Instead of holding onto an urn, its holding onto a vine in the rainforest.
Number 4- Phantom Dreamfinder At Disneyland Paris their version of Haunted
Mansion is called Phantom Manor and it’s actually placed in Frontierland.
Well in the Phantom Canyon scene on the ride, you’re able to find a familiar yet extinct
face from Epcot.
The original version of Journey into Imagination at Epcot featured the Dreamfinder as one of
the main characters.
Well in October of 1998 we lost Dreamfinder during the ride’s refurb, but he’s actually
been hiding in Phantom Manor since it opened in 1992.
The animatronics for Paris were all produced at Central Shops in Florida, so a face mold
like Dreamfinder was readily available and that’s why it was recycled and re used as
the Mayor on the ride.
If you take a look at his facial features like his cheeks and nose, there’s no doubt
its him; he’s just missing that full bushy brown beard.
And who knows, maybe one day Disney will recycle the Dreamfinder mold back into Journey Into
Imagination with Figment.
We can dream, right?
Number 3- Triplets This next type of recycling is a little different.
When you get to the elephant bathing pool on the Jungle Cruise at Magic Kingdom, the
star of the scene is Bertha.
She’s placed right in the centre taking a bath in the waterfall- it’s an iconic
part of the scene.
So what imagineers did when designing the animatronics was they duplicated and recycled
this same animatronic mold two other times in the scene.
There’s one is on the left hand side before the waterfall, and there’s also another
one on the right hand side directly across from Bertha.
This animatronic recycling can also be seen at Disneyland right there and there.
Well this was done so if the Bertha animatronic needed to be removed and repaired, they could
swap in one of the other elephants in her place.
Losing one of the two animatronics in the pool is much less noticeable than having Bertha’s
spot left empty.
It’s a really clever bit of recycling and it helps keep the Disney magic alive every
day!
Number 2- Presidential Space The Hall of Presidents at Magic Kingdom features
dozens of unique animatronic characters.
Many different face molds have been sculpted to represent the various presidents, and a
lot of these presidents are actually disguised and recycled in Spaceship Earth at Epcot.
The Egyptian Priest on the left is William Taft, in Ancient Rome the Senator is actually
Teddy Roosevelt and the guard is Zachary Taylor.
A little further up, the scholar on the left sitting on the ground is Franklin Pierce,
the writing Monk is John Adams, Gutenberg standing with the magnifying glass is James
Buchanan and his assistant in the back is Andrew Jackson.
Now presidents aren’t the only recycled characters in SpaceShip Earth.
In the list that Walt Disney Imagineering released in 1982 it said the lute player was
Dwight Eisnhower, but over the last while many have come to think that its actually
John from Carousel of Progress.
I mean it really looks like John and it would make sense since the violin player is actually
the daughter Patricia.
Number 1- Recycling of the Caribbean Are you ready to have your mind blown?
Well, Pirates of the Caribbean features dozens of different audio animatronic pirates, but
when they creating the ride there were only a handful of faces sculpted.
So they actually reused the same faces multiple times in the ride; they just disguised them
really well.
Using Magic Kingdom as the example we’ll show ya starting with the whistling pirate
in the jail scene; he’s known for his round face and cheeks- well this same mold was actually
recycled on Carlos the Mayor who’s in the well and the 2nd guy tied up in that same
scene.
Next, lets look at this drunken pirate in the burning town scene; take note of his hooked
nose and wide face.
Well he’s found in the exact same scene as the mandolin player, and this pirate on
the steps across the from auction.
Another example is with the pooped pirate holding the treasure map- take note of the
large crease between his cheeks and jaw and his a rounded nose cause he has a dopleganger
in the auction scene.
With some dirt on his face, a different wig and a couple of missing teeth, the pooped
pirate got a new life behind Redd.
There’s many many more examples on the ride, like this drunken pirate on the bridge with
the eye patch- he looks an awful lot like Captain Barborsa in the first scene, doesn’t
he?
Next time you sail the seven seas on Pirates of the Caribbean keep your eyes peeled and
see how many different faces you can actually spot.
So have you ever noticed any of these recycled animatronics at the Disney parks?
Which is your favorite?
I’d love to know!
Leave a comment down below to start a conversion and don’t forget to hit that like button
if you enjoyed the video.
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