Originally Posted By AutoPost This topic is for Discussion of <a href="http://www.LaughingPlace.com/Latest-ID-77124.asp" target="_blank"><b>Latest: Video: First Look at Ariel Animatronic for The Little Mermaid Ride</b></a> <p>From the Official Disney Parks Blog...</p> <p><i>We are just a couple of months away from the official opening of The Little Mermaid ~ Ariel’s Undersea Adventure at Disney California Adventure park. Walt Disney Imagineers are working hard to make sure you feel transported into Ariel’s world through every detail – the water, the fish, the hair….yes, the hair! Ariel’s hair posed a particular challenge for Imagineers, one they hadn’t encountered before – how do you make hair that’s technically out of the water look like it’s floating underwater? Take a look at their progress.</i></p> <p style="text-align: center;"><iframe title="YouTube video player" width="450" height="300" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Tx2NBncpdiE?rel=0&hd=1" frameborder="0"></iframe></p> <p> </p> <p> </p>
Originally Posted By Dr Hans Reinhardt I'm sure that these figures will look impressive when placed in their sets along with the appropriate lighting and sound, but when you see them this close up they look a little creepy.
Originally Posted By calgrl2490 I agree they look wierd in a different setting. But the hair does look really cool; how it keeps its shape but still moves.
Originally Posted By dennis-in-ct They say in the video "getting ready for the next iteration of her hair" so that hair shown in the video is a placeholder for the real piece to come
Originally Posted By CuriouserConstance I have to say, I'm disappointed. I was thinking more along the lines of mall mannequin in red wig and mermaid costume.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros Haha, Constance! You never fail to make me smile! : ) It is interesting to see how they are doing the hair. I had heard long ago (from Al, I think) that they were going to make it move, and I was really baffled at how they would physically be able to do it, since there are so many points of motion in underwater hair. It looks like the final effect is much more subtle than I was expecting, but probably far more realistic for how much the rest of her is moving around. It's also neat to see how there are different surfaces to her hair, depending on how fully 'dressed' the AA is. I do hope that the final layer looks a little less velvet-ey than what's shown, but the lighting may help with that. (And once they get Ariel down, they can finally make a Pocahontas AA! : ) I must say, though, the shot of her with her hair all twirled up, with her moving up against the coral, I can definitely see the resemblance to the motion of the mermaids on it's a small world. They just sort of float there, trying to scratch their butts against the rocks, while sort of shimmying up and down; Ariel just looks like the newest version of that same little motion.
Originally Posted By A Happy Haunt Don't get me wrong, Ariel is very cute but, after Ursula, it's a let down...
Originally Posted By danyoung >I was thinking more along the lines of mall mannequin in red wig and mermaid costume.< There's just no way that anyone can look at this figure in bright worklights and see how she's going to look in her natural environment, with lights, music and final animation. I'm impressed, and am looking to be even more impressed when I see the final version this June!
Originally Posted By Dole_Whip_Adventure I'm looking forward to more updates on the progress. The hair is definitely more subtle than I imagined, but this is only a brief clip and probably not completely accurate to what the final product will be. I also hope they paint her lips a little more pink. She looks a bit sickly at the moment hahaha
Originally Posted By DlandDug I don't know if they did themselves a favor releasing this particular video. Ursula was so impressive. These figures of Ariel... not so much.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo Agreed. Ursula was awesome. ariel, creepy, the dimensions seem wrong in the video.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 It's probably easier to make a grotesque character (Ursula) "work" as an AA than a beautiful one.
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo True, though the AA Presidents, Pirates, and Ghosts are very cool in the Disney universe. For me, I think it is the fact the eyes are very much out of proportion, and the hair looks like playdough or something similar. I know it does not help that I don't really like the Little Mermaid, but this seems wierd.
Originally Posted By danyoung Google some pictures of her, dave. Her eyes really were that large. Maybe it looks odd to you as a 3D figure, but as an animation them eyes was HUGE!
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo True, they were big. But in 3 dimension, not to my taste. She looks more like Astroboy with Red Hair to me.
Originally Posted By TP2000 Anyone seen what human animatronics look like without the show lighting on? I got walked off of a broken Haunted Mansion at Christmastime, and I was parked right in front of the "Caretaker" guy near the start of the graveyard. With all the bright warehouse lights on and all the moody show lights off, he looked like a freaky, ridiculously out of scale manequin from a Junior High spook house. I was amazed at how bad he looks; the skin tone, the clothes, the facial features. They all just looked "off". They exaggerate these figures and robots to play to the lighting and speed of the vehicles passing by. But when you take them out of that envirorment and just look at them in bright lights, they look grotesque and silly. I have a strong hunch when these Ariel animatronics go in to the custom designed set pieces with the state of the art 21st century theatrical lighting, they will look fantastic and be every girls dream come true. I do have to wonder why they seem so intent on releasing all these videos on the Disney blog. It seems to go beyond the fun sneak peeks Walt did on World of Color, and now just go into a thing where they try and build hype. Do they not realize it's just the same group of a couple thousand diehard Disney fans around the country looking at this blog every day?
