Originally Posted By leemac <<LeeMac said Wall-E was very unreliable.>> Wall-E was an odd project. It was supposed to be a project-for-hire for R&D for the Studios. It was never supposed to have a theme park life. He wasn't cheap but the Studios couldn't find a decent way to use him except for a few select performances (and often just to cast members). He wasn't as reliable as most expected but he was monumentally complex - just too much to fail ultimately. He always blew me away when he was fully functioning - he literally looked like he had popped off the screen. The movements were frighteningly accurate. He just couldn't take extended use or extensive interaction.
Originally Posted By mousermerf And your "real time" Crush was just cited by reporters who did the den of solitude cruiseline technology preview as having lag issues. None of them work. At what point do you admit that?
Originally Posted By mousermerf And for the record, I don't give a crap about meeting Kevin from UP. I think I'm safe in saying the vast majority of park guests don't either, and they'd much rather you fix Imagination or build a new World Showcase pavilion first, thank you very much.
Originally Posted By leemac <<And for the record, I don't give a crap about meeting Kevin from UP. I think I'm safe in saying the vast majority of park guests don't either, and they'd much rather you fix Imagination or build a new World Showcase pavilion first, thank you very much. >> Do you honestly believe that the vast majority of guests do not see character experiences as an integral part of their visit to a Disney theme park? Those long lines to meet Mickey must be a figment of my imagination.
Originally Posted By mousermerf I'm sorry - I paid to goto a theme park with attractions, not meet and greet land.
Originally Posted By mousermerf The parks have existed for how many years without these sort of characters and now you're insisting they're integral to their existence? Yes, people want to meet Mickey. Mickey is NOT Kevin from UP. They are not the same. And Kevin from UP is not an attraction but ends up costing the same.
Originally Posted By mousermerf And btw lee, thanks for explaining why we got meet and greet land in MK. It's obvious what the mentality behind it was, despite the subsequent obvious lack of enthusiasm from guests you're getting in response. No, never alter course from your predetermined solution.
Originally Posted By mousermerf And how many guest feedback surveys have been taken to see if people want rides in World Showcase?
Originally Posted By leobloom >> Since then we have seen Muppet Mobile Lab, Roz, Mister Potato Head and Luxo Jr. The point of this half of LCI is to create characters in a form other than rubberheads and to ensure that they can move and operate in a realistic way. Imagine being able to come across Kevin from Up in the wilds of Animal Kingdom - just hiding in the trees waiting to be found outside the normal conventions of a theme park such as scheduled Meet n Greets. It takes characters out of their usual surrounds (typically highly-controlled environments either in show buildings or Meet n Greets) and allows guests to experience them first-hand and up close and personal. There are just so many characters that you can't recreate properly in a walk-around form. LCI was only ever supposed to be a value-added experience to the parks that allowed for pixie-dusting - personal and tailored experiences for guests. The next generation of Push if you like. << Thanks for the info, Lee. I guess I find this part of what you said unfortunate, because it sounds to me like a significant chunk of LCI is Foamheads 2.0. I don't find myself going to WDW to see characters (I'm sure there are people who do), so this part of the program doesn't sound very exciting to me. I think the example of Kevin from UP is interesting, though. Because it sounds utopian. How often would your group be the first of the thousands of people around you to discover these kinds of hidden characters. When one group spots Kevin, a crowd will form, and it seems like we're back to this being an unsupervised and chaotic Meet-and-Greet.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>>Wall-E was an odd project. It was supposed to be a project-for-hire for R&D for the Studios. It was never supposed to have a theme park life. He wasn't cheap but the Studios couldn't find a decent way to use him except for a few select performances (and often just to cast members). He wasn't as reliable as most expected but he was monumentally complex - just too much to fail ultimately. He always blew me away when he was fully functioning - he literally looked like he had popped off the screen. The movements were frighteningly accurate. He just couldn't take extended use or extensive interaction.<<< Leemac, thanks for posting, and especially about WALL-E. I feel VERY lucky to have seen him, now...it was quite amazing. Shame that they won't me using him regularly. Are there plans to at least try to move him to one of the parks? I was told a veeeeeerry long time ago that he would at least make it to the DHS Animation Meet and Greets.
Originally Posted By danyoung >Turtle Talk with Crush and Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor...It seems most of the park enthusiasts don't like these shows but they score highly on guest satisfaction surveys...< For the record, I love these type of shows, and can see some great possibilities for the future. I just don't like the placement of MILF in the MK's Tomorrowland. It doesn't belong there.
Originally Posted By Krankenstein It's a shame. It was one of those little Disney differences that really impacted your in park experience. Disney shouldn't be allowed to get away with this or the Yeti.
Originally Posted By danyoung I don't know what you mean by "get away with". They did something that they'd never done before, that no one anywhere had ever done before. And when unforseen problems came up and it was discovered that the systems didn't work, they were forced to discontinue them. Do you really want Disney to tear half of Everest apart in order to fix the yeti? I'm not wild about these failures, but to say that Disney should not be allowed to fail would simply mean that they'll stop trying at all.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Leemac, thanks for posting, and especially about WALL-E. I feel VERY lucky to have seen him, now...it was quite amazing. Shame that they won't me using him regularly. Are there plans to at least try to move him to one of the parks? I was told a veeeeeerry long time ago that he would at least make it to the DHS Animation Meet and Greets.>> No problem. I don't believe that there are any plans to put him in a park environment at present. I just don't think that he is robust enough to handle the constant interactions and long operating cycles.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Thanks for the info, Lee. I guess I find this part of what you said unfortunate, because it sounds to me like a significant chunk of LCI is Foamheads 2.0. I don't find myself going to WDW to see characters (I'm sure there are people who do), so this part of the program doesn't sound very exciting to me.>> Again, no problem at all leobloom. LCI has some lofty aspirations about plussing the parks. I don't think I would describe the program as Rubberheads 2.0. It is all about the story-telling. If it was simply about Meet n Greets I'm certain the program would fail. It is about finding new ways to tell stories inside the park. If you happen across a rubberhead in the park then you don't get any real interaction except for some play acting or hand gestures. These LCI AAs have the ability to immerse guests in the experience whether it is playing with Doctor Bunsen and Honeydew on Muppet Mobile Lab or petting Lucky. Some of the show scripts need work (I never liked any of the version that they tried out with Lucky) but it was about apply show elements to the character. I'll always remember when I saw an imagineer pitching the Lucky Musical (yup, he was due to be part of a Disneyland Frontierland show) - I understood what Lucky could bring to the show (a true "wow" factor - in much the same that I always thought that the ickle Meeko-in-a-basket should have been used more at DCA) but the possibilities are intriguing. Imagine a AA attraction where every single ride-thru is entirely different thanks to free-roaming personalized AAs.
Originally Posted By leemac <<I think the example of Kevin from UP is interesting, though. Because it sounds utopian. How often would your group be the first of the thousands of people around you to discover these kinds of hidden characters. When one group spots Kevin, a crowd will form, and it seems like we're back to this being an unsupervised and chaotic Meet-and-Greet.>> The point is that it isn't just about life-sized AAs. Kevin hidden on a trail at DAK would be thrilling if it was off-schedule and remote enough. It wouldn't work in the other parks. However you could have smaller experiences like Remy at Epcot that enhance your overall experience.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 I have a very mixed opinion on LCI. When they're done right, they can be amazing. Watching Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker at HKDL was amazing, even in 95 degree heat and not understanding what they were saying. I also really enjoy the Stitch show at DSP a lot. Turtle Talk (which just got added to TDS and will actually become a dinner experience on the new Disney Dream) can be fun, but gets tiring quickly. Lucky never did much for me. Seemed like tech for tech's sake. I haven't seen Remy at either EPCOT or DSP. And there's very little funny about Monsters Laugh Floor. And while the virtual portholes and the virtual mirrors that will follow at Disney resort hotels and the 'art that comes alive' are all kewl things, I do worry that WDI with a new tech is like a pitbull with a bone (or a leg). They tend to focus on it while forgetting/ignoring all else. Technology doesn't do it for me by itself. So, no, I didn't spend the morning in line to buy an iPad (come to find out, it's not a feminine hygiene product!) Disney/WDI seems more interested in tech these days than immersive attractions with story that makes sense for the themed enviornment they are placed in. Contrast that with UNI's WWoHP where it 'appears' they've thought the whole package through. While Lee's comments about an attraction with free roaming AAs sounds uber-kewl, the reality is the tech doesn't exist for that to work now and I worry that too much money is being spent on things like that ... Iger is a techie, Jobs is the largest stockholder (and making an episode of Modern Family around a commercial for the iPad this week really was in awful taste) and Imagineers love 'what ifs?' My what if is what if they just focused on putting some great attractions and entertainment in the parks instead of thinking about the 'platform' to deliver the experience and how to create an app for it too!
Originally Posted By mousermerf Seriously. It's like Imagineers got bored with rides and they don't want to make them anymore so they're going to torture us with constantly broken gizmos. Really, what does WDI have against good old fashion themed rides?
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >Do you really want Disney to tear half of Everest apart in order to fix the yeti? < Show> Efficiency Yes.
Originally Posted By EPCOT Explorer >>No problem. I don't believe that there are any plans to put him in a park environment at present. I just don't think that he is robust enough to handle the constant interactions and long operating cycles.<< Again, shame. ...And why not build a bunch of them, and put them in rotation? Heh. That would alleviate some of the stress.
