In celebration of Disneyland Resort’s 70th anniversary, the ‘Happiest Place on Earth’ has unveiled a new attraction; “Walt Disney - A Magical Life.” Debuting at the Main Street Opera House, a cinematic presentation takes you through Walt Disney’s journey, featuring a pre-show tribute video, as well as a visit to a rendition of his office.
Among the displays and artifacts, showcasing Disneyland’s timeline through the years, the imagineers welcome visitors to an immersive experience with an animatronic rendition of Walt Disney himself.
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With the idea in the vault for decades, imagineers have spent more than 7 years on the project. Featuring what’s known as Disney’s first audio-animatronic figures, the Walt Disney figure dressed in suit, shoes and tie, tells the story of his life through historical recordings.
The animatronic figure is the most advanced model to be created at Disney. Imagineers studied mannerisms and movements, muscle structure, nuances, and even how the mouth fell while speaking. Design and development teams furthermore went as far as creating realistic skin and a “twinkle” in his eyes.
Underneath this realistic skin lies an electrically powered body. Older models were primarily hydraulic or pneumatic, emitting huffs and puffs to power character movement smoothly. With no need to move much further than a lean-to-stand motion however, electricity allows for a quieter, more fluid moving model.
Walt helped pioneer the audio-animatronic medium some 60 years ago with a team that created a figure of Abraham Lincoln. The first audio-animatronic version of Lincoln debuted at the New York World's Fair in 1964—it was so life-like, National Geographic called it "alarming." The show was installed at Disneyland in 1965.
Opening just yesterday on July 17th, the new Walt Disney attraction is available to the public, commemorating the park that’s been in operation since the same day in 1955. And, thus far, no one has called Walt’s robot “alarming.”
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