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one thing that's always set disney apart
from other theme parks has been its use
of audio animatronics it's that extra
bit of disney magic that really brings
your theme park experience to the next
level
audio animatronics have been used by the
walt disney company since 1961
and to this day are seen all over the
disney parks but since about 2005 the
disney parks have been looking for ways
to enhance the guest experience through
animatronics so in the mid-2000s they
started something called the disney
living character initiative this
initiative by disney was to bring new
levels of guest interactions while
bringing characters to life like never
before one early initiative was the
introduction of the articulated
characters but
not all initiatives were lucky enough to
stick around
very nice
a lot of the impressive animatronic
attractions created by walt disney
imagineering whether for the living
character initiative or not have quietly
disappeared from the disney parks and no
longer exist so today we're going to be
taking a look at the top five extinct
disney animatronic attractions
number five lucky the dinosaur 2003
marked the year that disney debuted its
very first free roving audio animatronic
lucky the dinosaur standing at eight
feet tall this segnosaurus animatronic
character was very lifelike and was the
first official character built in
response to disney's living character
initiative
he could walk on his own move his head
blink his eyes respond to guests
[Music]
and even sign autographs he made his
first appearance at the national history
museum of los angeles on august 28 2003
a few days later he made his way over to
disney california adventure but since he
was still in the prototype testing phase
he returned to walt disney imagineering
and didn't make his official disney park
debut until 2005. you know what uh we've
been trying all kinds of things in june
2005 lucky the dinosaur appeared at walt
disney world in dinoland usa at animal
kingdom along with his handler dr
woodson lucky this is cool
he says he's very pleased to meet you
cole now you might be wondering why he
was pushing a flower cart well i guess
you could say the flower cart was
pushing him see the figure needed to be
lightweight so he could walk but he also
needed power to run so the flower cart
was used to conceal the batteries and
computers that provided power to lucky
the dinosaur
after his brief summer stint at animal
kingdom he was then moved to celebrate
the opening of hong kong disneyland in
september of 2005. now since he was only
a prototype he wasn't very reliable
it was said that during his time in the
parks he was constantly missing multiple
appearances each day because he kept
breaking down so lucky the dinosaur goes
down in history and joins the other
dinosaurs that are now extinct but he
has made a few other appearances outside
of the disney parks he now has a new
permanent home at walt disney
imagineering in glendale california
number four
chef remy
in 2008 also was a part of disney's
living character initiative
bon appetit from chef remy premiered as
an addition to the dining experience at
restaurant de stars in the walt disney
studios park at the disneyland paris
resort later in 2009 it would also make
its premiere at the les chef de france
restaurant in the france pavilion at
epcot six days a week with four
appearances a day a maitre d would greet
diners of the restaurant with a rolling
gourmet food cart they'd lift the lid
like they normally do in france from a
silver dome cheese plotter when the
maitre d reveals a six inch tall
animatronic rat
chef remy from the animated film
ratatouille then comes to life
entertaining diners with animated
movements and quiet little
those aren't your chicken squeaks
those are for her it's probably the only
rat you'd be okay with seeing in a
restaurant to date chef remy is the
smallest audio animatronic created by
walt disney imagineering and is the only
living character initiative animatronic
to get two separate figures made it does
a very good job at entertaining diners
and bringing this small little animated
character to life
now you might be wondering exactly how
this figure works well if you look
closely at this video you can see that
the black handle of the silver dome has
a small joystick on top of it and what
looks to be a trigger at the bottom it's
likely that this gives the maitre d full
control of the figure even while this
cast member sings pay attention to her
hand gripping the handle in relation to
remy's movements
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
the animatronic figure was definitely a
success and lasted at epcot for four
years until it became extinct in october
2013 and for five years until june 2014
at disneyland paris with the addition of
the new ratatouille ride coming to the
france pavilion at epcot it would be a
great opportunity to bring this
animatronic back to epcot at some point
in the future wouldn't you say so
[Music]
number three push the talking trash can
although not part of the disney living
character initiative push the talking
trash can made its official debut in
1995 at the magic kingdom in walt disney
world created and designed by daniel
deutsch push was a radio-controlled
robot that made daily appearances in
tomorrowland now he was an actual trash
can if you pushed the flap you could
look inside to see a trash bag but he
also moved around freely and interacted
with guests he was actually quite the
character
when interacting with push it was really
easy to forget that it was being
operated by an actual person and the
technology of this figure is actually
quite simple so the figure was
controlled by a cast member on stage
with push who appeared in disguise and
by disguise we mean wearing normal
clothes to blend in as a guest the cast
member had a transmitter hidden in their
bag and had a microphone in their hand
when they spoke into the microphone it
changed their voice and allowed them to
interact with guests nearby
push became a staple of tomorrowland at
magic kingdom and was loved by fans so
much so that when disney announced they
would be saying goodbye to push fans
reacted on social media with facebook
groups and hashtags trying to keep this
character in the park according to
daniel deutsch in a new york daily news
article there was some ambiguity to the
verbiage as to what they owned and what
i owned that being between disney and
real simple ideas the company that owned
push when push comes to shove
ultimately he was canned from magic
kingdom in february of 2014
making him extinct
number two the luxo junior dancing lamp
the pixar place area at disney's
hollywood studios opened in 2008. a
small addition was made to the area in
june of 2009 when disney debuted their
newest animatronic which was a six foot
tall pixar luxo junior animatronic lamp
you were able to see this animatronic up
close on the wall across from toy story
midway mania approximately every 15
minutes for a mini show
[Music]
luxo was a very impressive figure but it
did face many mechanical issues that
caused it to constantly go down now at
the time most disney audio animatronics
ran on pneumatics or hydraulics but luxo
jr was a bit different and was a
prototype of a fully electric figure
around the time luxo jr appeared at the
park in 2009 the norwegian company luxo
lamps accused disney and pixar of
infringing their copyright by using the
luxo name on the limited edition a
blu-ray that came with a mini luxo
figure up until this point pixar and
disney had never used the luxo name on
their products the name issue was
brought before a judge where documents
also mention the luxo jr animatronic at
walt disney world luxo jr was removed
from the park in april of 2010 with
disney saying that it will no longer
perform since it was a test figure with
a limited run seeing where this figure
was built and placed doesn't seem like a
location for a limited run type figure
so its removal was probably more of a
case of mechanical and legal issues but
we'll never know for sure when you visit
pixar place today the lighting sign over
the door and luxo's platform are
reminders of the impressive audio
animatronic that once performed at
hollywood studios also the pixar place
pathway is going to become a backstage
area once toy story land at disney's
hollywood studios opens in summer of
2018 so it probably would have been
lights out anyway even if he was still
around
[Music]
number one
wally if you were lucky enough to be in
the right place in 2008 you would have
experienced a very impressive wall-e
animatronic based on the title character
of the 2008 disney pixar film wall-e was
created by walt disney imagineering and
was used for promotional events for the
film's release with the plan to
eventually transfer to walt disney world
and disneyland like the other figures
created for the living character
initiative wally is fully interactive
and can roll on his tread feet tilt his
head move his arms and hands all while
it responded to guests through
electronic sounds made vaguely to
resemble speech
it really brought the character from the
animated film to life the magic of
disney animation meet and greet at
hollywood studios and an area at disney
california adventure were actually set
up to house the planned wall-e
experience in the summer of 2008 but it
was never carried out aside from a
cardboard cutout that was used as a
placeholder for the wally figure it was
an extinct animatronic in the parks
right from the start so the figure
stands about three and a half to four
feet tall and is set to weigh
approximately 700 pounds word on the
street is that disney was concerned
about the figure's weight and size and
became worried that it could easily run
over guests feet causing harm so yeah
the animatronic never made it into the
park but it has made brief appearances
at the d23 expo in the past there's also
accounts saying that the wally
animatronic figure was actually testing
backstage at walt disney world in 2008
but surprise surprise kept breaking down
probably a similar situation of when
wally broke down at a d23 meet and greet
so along with the character's size the
unreliability was probably another major
factor of why it was never seen in the
park
so have you ever had a chance to
experience any of these figures first
hand and if you could bring back one of
these characters which one would it be
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