IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2008 - 21

PHOTO COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY

Resorts, which had patented the AudioAnimatronics term and the technique,
got to work, and today, Audio-Animatronics are light-years more sophisticated and much more slick than they
were 40 years ago. While the birds in
the Enchanted Tiki Room could sing
and dance, their sounds and moves
were limited to short, preprogrammed
sequences. New Audio-Animatronics, by
contrast, seem almost alive. They have
flexible joints and skin. They can speak
hundreds of phrases and sentences.
Two Mr. Potato Head figures, one
installed at the Toy Story Mania! attraction at Disneyland in California and the
other at Walt Disney World in Florida,
can react endlessly and in real time to
the specific things and people around
them, as if they can see the color of a
baseball hat or the person eating a hot
dog. In reality, a remote operator-
whose location few know and no one will
tell-uses cameras and computers to
create what Disney calls the "magic."

also got an update. It's a Small
World, perhaps the best-known and
most popular Disneyland attraction,
is filled with nearly 300 Audio-Animatronics dolls. The animated characters in the Pirates of the
Caribbean boat ride, first built at
Disneyland in 1967 and then at three
other Disney parks over the next 25
years, inspired a movie series, and in
2006, to coincide with the release of
the second film, Pirates of the
Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,
Audio-Animatronics figures of Captain Jack Sparrow and Barbossa were
added to the attractions at DisneyKevin Rafferty, senior concept writer, hangs
land and Walt Disney World. Disney
with Mr. Potato Head. The iconic spud can
remove his own ear and snap it back into
Imagineers have created Audioplace.
Animatronics versions of Stitch from
Lilo & Stitch, Hopper from A Bug's
Many Disney rides and attractions
Life, and The Wicked Witch of the West
now have Audio-Animatronics figures
from The Wizard of Oz.
that entertain and interact with park
visitors. When the Enchanted Tiki
Room was refurbished in 2005, the
A Chase across the Galaxy
computers and electronics technology
And then there's WALL*E. Kept topthat run the Audio-Animatronics birds
secret while he was being built by

In an internal publication, Kevin Rafferty, a senior concept writer for Walt Disney Imagineering in Glendale, California,
says the figure took longer to animate
than any other figure Imagineers have
produced. "Mr. Potato Head performs
continuously. His show is not linear in
its structure because it is designed to
play off any given real-time moment with
the guests, so anything goes," says Rafferty, who played a key role in the character's creative development. "Mr. Potato
Head is stuffed with all kinds of new and
amazing technology that makes him
look as though he popped out of the
world of Toy Story right onto the stage."
Thanks to what's called a "guest location grid" monitor, Mr. Potato Head's
eyes can focus directly on whomever he's
talking to, Rafferty says. And Mr. Potato
Head is the first Audio-Animatronics figure ever to be able to take off a body part;
he can grab his ear with his hand, snap it
off, and then put it back on.

PHOTO COURTESY OF WALT DISNEY

Technology-Stuffed Potato

Shelley Short, vice president of research and development, gives Lucky a touch-up.

SUMMER 2008

IEEE WOMEN IN ENGINEERING MAGAZINE

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