Designer Times
Page 1 of 2

41. RiverTowne Animated Restaurant Show - Cheap Animation

Themed merchandising was the big passing fad in the early 1980's. The Disney Store would succesfully launch, and a number of themed restaurants popped up. Chuck E. Cheese was probably the great prototype of how to blend food with animated entertainment to attract new patrons, especially those with kids.

One of these startup animated food deals was the RiverTowne Restaurant developed in by Animated Playhouses Corporation, based in Maryland. Their in-house animation shop, Animated Show Productions, began operations 1981 in Arleta, California, just a few miles from WED Enterprises. Tom Reidenbach, architect and former Disney artist joined former WED/MAPO production manager, Dave Schweninger as Animated's show creators.

Animated (ASP) asked me to help with documentation of the RiverTowne show action equipment as their shop fabricated the first prototype show. So GurrDesign, Inc. actually had it's first client starting in August 1981, shortly after I "retired" from Disney. Maybe it helped that Dave and I were long time glider pilot friends.

The whole RiverTowne idea was that, unlike other simple restaurant animations with just a few characters, RiverTowne would have a full stage show with a cast of (13) animated figures. The gag was that this little town had a firehouse, saloon, and frog shack populated with a charming bunch of singing talent. Captain Andy (dog), fire chief, Honeysuckle Ambrosia Hippotomae (hippopotomus), saloon diva, led a pack of hillbilly singing hounds. A seagull, two frogs, and three cats rounded out the rest of the cast.

The whole set was quite thorough, complete with a saloon facade, firehouse, frog shack, and an animated fire engine, as well as a stage with house curtains. RiverTowne required a full (13) character animation control system with lighting and audio equipment plus a lot of animated set pieces. Doggone near complicated as Disneyland's Country Bear Jamboree.

Serving food has always been a chancy deal....most new restaurants hardly live out their first year. A restaurant that could draw in enough familys who would buy enough food so that the dog band could be paid seemed a mighty question at the moment. But Animated Playhouses had a lot of executives that claimed qualified food experience. They pointed to Chuck E. Cheese and said RiverTowne was the way to go. Tom and Dave were enthusiastic.....the investor's limited partnership money was pouring in.....who am I to question the business folks. Everything I designed at Disney worked, why wouldn't this work?