Disney attractions temporarily shut down for routine maintenance all the time. Few of them ever reopen with an entirely new type of technology. That’s exactly what guests will find on Disneyland’s iconic Pirates of the Caribbean after its recent refurbishment. The ride now features a brand new type of audio-animatronic that will change how Imagineers can tell stories. It seamlessly combines real-time front projection with a traditional moving mechanical head.
After months of being shuttered, Disney has reopened its famous pirate ride. It was worth the wait. When guests head out on their boats they’re going to find a new mini-story within the grand tale of piracy. An old figure has returned with a very modern upgrade. The skeleton pirate in the grotto room, forever sitting atop a treasure he’ll never spend, looks (and sounds) very different.
Rather than just seeing bones in pirate clothes, visitors will see a first-of-its-kind audio-animatronic. Imagineers have transformed a static skeleton into a dynamic lively pirate. He’s holding a cursed coin that abruptly turns him into a frozen skeleton. That ghastly figure, once full of life, then drops the coin, bringing him back to human form. That cycle that will repeat forever, as the greedy pirate never realizes what’s happening to him.
To create this effect Disney patented a whole new tech. Imagineers use a physical animatronic, just as it has since the park opened, along with Epic Games’ Unreal engine to front project a face onto a sculpted animatronic head. The system also simultaneously controls the animatronics movements, a hybrid of old and new.
This is a much needed upgrade. Front projection is found throughout the parks. In recent years Disney has used facial projections onto flat surfaces with both new and updated rides. It’s led to mixed results. EPCOT’s Frozen Ever After recently switched to more traditional audio-animatronics, whereas Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom still employs it. But this new format adds much more depth, nuanced, and expressive capabilities because rather than a flat face it projects onto a sculpted mechanical face.
It maintains its real-time match thanks to markers invisible to guest but that the computer can see. (We also love they installed a backup system to make sure it’s always running.)
As this happy cursed pirate shows, this provides a new way for Imagineers to tell stories within stories. That’s why this first-of-its-kind audio-animatronic will soon just be the first of many.