Polaroid Photo

Fri
3
Jul '09

You can tell I’m a puppeteer because…

So, I was watching this video about Disney’s Imagineers making an animatronic figure of Obama for the Disney Hall of Presidents.  When Obama is recording his speech to the microphone, I couldn’t help but watch his hands and think that it was terrible puppetry technique.

And this is the real man.

If it were a puppet, I’d smack the puppeteer and tell them that the gestures were meaningless and to stop them.

via The White House.

7 Comments »

  • Julia

    I am a Disney Annual Passholder and so I was privileged to see animatronic Obama last weekend, before the show opens to the public on Saturday. Bad puppetry technique, sure, but man does it ever look cool in the final product!!!! (Even if, IMO, Disneyfied Obama is a little too white-toned.) Thank you so much for sharing this video, I’m a Disney child and can never get enough of it…the magic, the magic BEHIND the magic, all of it.

    I haven’t got any video of the show as they asked us very politely not to tape as the show wasn’t actually open yet, but soon I will put up the photos on my LJ. :)

    • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

      Cool! I’m very curious to see the final. Animatronics continue to get better but so many of them stay firmly in the uncanny valley.

      • Julia

        I went ahead and threw them up, since the ride IS about to open. :) The pix are not the greatest, because the theatre is simply massive and I was a good 100 yards from Obama, even being in the front row, but you can see. They also made his ears smaller, or so I think.

        • http://www.maryrobinettekowal.com Mary Robinette Kowal

          Cool! Heading over to look.

  • http://www.bovil.com/ Andrew Trembley

    That’s reality for you.

    There are lots of banes in posing people for photographs. One is “what to do with their hands.” People get self-conscious, and their hands do stupid, ugly, nonsensical things.

  • http://www.puppetkaos.com Kelvin Kao

    It’s so rhythmic that it’s almost like he’s using hand movements to pace himself. Yeah, you are right, those gestures are totally meaningless… a clutch, maybe, for not knowing what to do with the hands?

  • -d-

    The only hand gestures that have any meaning are for describing how big the fish was, and those are meaningless too.
    Seriously though, I did not think the gestures took anything away from the speech and if Disney doesn’t put them in, then they won’t be as accurate as possible.

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