Meet Lucky the Dinosaur
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Vice President of Research and Development for Walt Disney Imagineering, Bruce Vaughn
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Video: Bruce Vaughn (Real Video: 3
minutes, 46 seconds)
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Bruce Vaughn: Thank you Dr. Harris. Its a
great honor for me to be here this morning to make this announcement and its a
wonderful gift to all of us that we have such a marvelous institution in the
Natural History Museum here in LA.
Everybody loves dinosaurs. They never fail to join us together in the spirit of
wonder and the sense of adventure. Creating wondering and inspiring the
imaginations of children and families was a lifelong for Walt Disney. Walt was a
genius at creating new ways to present history and he loved to tell us stories
of great fascination, fairy tales, etc. As well as being a classic story teller
though Walt was enamored by technology and innovation and he was always looking
for new ways to take the art of animation to new heights and bring our
characters to life. That's why it is so exciting for us to be here today to
celebrate 40 years of audio-animatronics figures. these figures are the ones
that inhabit our parks and have wowed our guests throughout the world. Figures
like Mr. Lincoln, the Pirates of the Caribbean and Hopper in It's Tough To Be A
Bug. It all began in 1963 with the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland, that was
the first time that the world ever saw audio-animatronics figures and they were
singing birds and flowers. The next great leap was in New York at the World's
Fair in 1964 with the now legendary figure known as Mr. Lincoln. Animation and
technology at that moment was forever changed and raised to a new level and
honestly, a new art form was born. Today we've got something very, very amazing
for you. We are going to introduce you to the first free walking independent
audio-animatronics figure.
This figure walks and can interact with our guests in a personal and up-close
way unlike any other figure before. His name is Lucky. Lucky is truly a
milestone in creativity and technology. In bringing Disney characters to life in
a new way. He represents a leap in our ability to deliver stories, classic
Disney stories to our guests in our parks throughout the world. While today's
announcement is about what we are able to create with 21st century technology,
computers, animation, its also very much about the power of storytelling. At
Disney our goal is to continue to amaze, enchant and inspire our guests and I
think you'll agree with me that Lucky is truly next big step in entertainment
technology.
At this moment I'm supposed to present to you the first free walking audio
animatronics in the history of Disney but I want to take a moment to tell you
that those of us in Imagineering who have worked on this project over the past
few years no longer see Lucky as an audio animatronics figure. Like Pinocchio
who by the end of the story was a real boy, when we see Lucky now he's a real
dinosaur, a very friendly dinosaur who loves children and loves to meet families
and he's just experiencing the world for the very first time. So I need a little
help bringing him out here and I'm going to call upon his best friend, Chandler
the Dinosaur Handler to get Lucky out here for us. Chandler....
Lucky makes his appearance with Chandler the Dinosaur Handler
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Video: Lucky comes out and meets a guest
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Lucky steps out from behind the burgundy and navy curtains. As he walks each step is accompanied with a thud as well as the gentle jingle of bells that he wears around his ankles.
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Lucky and Chandler pose beneath the museum's bronze dinosaur sculpture
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