A world in motion
BB: Unfortunately, costs have not significantly decreased for animatronics as a result of their proliferation; innovation has in fact increased prices. This has less
to do with costs of materials than with
the fact that animatronics are extremely labour-intensive. Every animatronic figure is prototypical to a degree, unless an attraction calls for multiple iterations of the same figure. In this sense, their average cost has neither increased nor decreased dramatically over time, with the exception of truly extraordinary figures, which are few and far between. Certainly, there are less expensive figures available - the massive Halloween market has introduced vast numbers of
IP: How important are issues of theming and brand licensing when it comes to animatronic installations? BB: Theming, more important, contextualisation, for animatronics is intrinsic to the design process. Because of their expense, there are almost never superfluous animatronics in an attraction venue. That said, theming concepts must be carefully planned in order to give proper context to animatronics within environments and the stories they represent or help to tell. Branded characters bring expectations with them - the more well-known the character, the greater the audience expectation for how they look and move. Staying ‘on character’ is key. Our own clients like Dreamworks, Pixar, Disney and Universal, among others, are very protective of their intellectual properties. It is important to match characters exactly in order to prevent the suspension of disbelief in encountering an animatronic version of a branded character from being lost. Like all pieces of entertainment - film, theatre and theme park attractions - animatronics cannot carry a story or an experience by themselves. They must be coupled with story, sets and scenery and have a purpose for existing.
cheap animatronics to the marketplace - but they are not of the quality required for theme park use. Many smaller operators utilise the cheaper figures, but their build-quality, materials and lack of longevity put them squarely into the poorly maintained animatronics actually having negative impact on guest experience category.
Garner Holt Productions
As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of animatronics and animatronic figures, Garner Holt Productions is active in a wide spectrum of markets, including theme parks, themed retail and dining, museums, touring exhibits and military simulators. The San Bernardino, California-based
company has been in the business of animatronic entertainment for 33 years. Group founder, Garner Holt, created his first animatronic figure - an animated Uncle Sam to celebrate America’s bicentennial - while still in high school
50 Since that time, the company has
created more than 2,000 individual animatronics, in addition to hundreds of animated props, set work, show action systems, special effects and other speciality products. Garner Holt has built more than 400
Chuck E. Cheese animatronic shows for locations throughout North and South America, Dubai and Guam. In 2001, the company became the first outside vendor to create an animatronic for a classic Disney attraction and subsequently created hundreds of animated figures for Disney theme parks all over the world.
IP: What do you feel will happen to the shape of the animatronics sector in the short- to medium- term future? BB: The animatronics sector is without doubt growing. Garner Holt is hard at work on three e-ticket level, animatronics-intensive attractions for Disney. In the past 18 months we’ve delivered a large number of figures for theme park attractions, museums and themed restaurants and retail venues. Plans for the next five years reveal a tremendous reliance on animatronics for many environments, chiefly in big-budget theme park attractions. I expect that the trend toward more interactive characters to supplement traditional animatronics experiences will continue not only in number but in technical sophistication. Our own Yeti figure will be at the forefront of this technology when he tours sometime in the coming year. Audiences are becoming more sophisticated. Computer-generated films have increased in detail and scope and theme park operators are - or should be - sensitive to this fact. In this sense, animatronics must be taken to previously unseen levels of sophistication. For our part, many of our projects are on the cutting edge.
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