Ultimate Puppet?

[Phantom]

Has anyone visted "Turtle Talk with Crush" at Epcot yet? It is the only thing at The Living Seas that doesn't suck. It is described as a "live animated interactive show" and basically it goes like this:

Crush, the sea turtle from Finding Nemo, swims up on a large screen (like a movie). From that point, he asks questions to the audience calling people by name (once told) and identifying them by what they are wearing, answers question from the audience and reacts to the audience response.

I may completely miss the magic here, but I assume that a "puppeteer" is stationed where he can see and hear the audience (of course one cast member is there with a wireless mic so that everyone can hear the questions). Each of Crush's movements consists of preprogrammed CGI sequences which the "puppeteer" choses an appropriate seqence while voicing an appropriate response.

Anyway, I was blown away by the show and could only think "PUPPET".


Okay...who left the lid off of the contact cement again?...

 

[Iokitek]

Here it is:
http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wd...etail?id=TurtleTalkwithCrushEntertainmentPage

Man I would love to see that sometime

 

[gfarkwort]

I bet its probably controlled like waldo from Muppets 3-D except performed live

 

[That Announcer]

I bet its probably controlled like waldo from Muppets 3-D except performed live

That's my best guess. I can give you a quote from the (now-defunct) Disney Magazine. This is from Joe Garlington, VP of "interactive projects for WDI". It may not clarify the issue, but it's there:

"He's a digital character, voiced live, that uses the latest in computer graphic technology."

 

[FISH'N'WOLFE]

Very neat. I wonder if they use the HPCS or some form of it for the performance.

 

[That Announcer]

Very neat. I wonder if they use the HPCS or some form of it for the performance.

It's more than likely. The real-time capture has certainly been updated for that system, and so it could be put to use for a project like that.

 

[Show and Tell]

Sorry, no.

I refrained from eating, drinking, smoking and flash photography. I also kept my arms and legs inside the theater until it came to a complete stop. In the event of a water landing my seat cushion could have been used as a flotation device.

Whoa! Somebody had a memorable Disney experience.

 

[That Announcer]

Whoa! Somebody had a memorable Disney experience.

Yep, it's really like that. Myself, my father and my mother were all overly perky for a couple of weeks after we went there.