Talking Mickey leaving Town Square theater

[chartle]

Disney has a patent on a "heads up" display actuated by a mouth controlled mouse. The patent says it can be used in character outfits. So it is the general consensus that that is how it is done. However, if you look on youtube, you can find videos of Talking Mickey at Disneyland, and it seems he is actually responding, without canned phrases.

There have been different versions of Talking Mickey through the years besides Lip Sync Mickey in the Shows.

At first It was "Very Special Occasion" Mickey where there was a very special singular person backstage "Helping" the Mickey on stage and Mickey was 100% ad lib conversational. There have been only a few people over the years that can fill this backstage role. There is only one or 2 of these special people at one time in the world.

Then they tried "Uncanny Valley" Mickey where the backstage helper didn't have to be that very special person and anyone with good computer skills and fast reflexes could provide the various canned phases to Mickey. Some time if the guess asked something out of the ordinary that fell out of the "How are you?" "Lets take a picture" interaction the conversation flow just stopped and Mickey sort of looked liked he froze with an expressionless face with the freind inside doing his or her best to not look weird.

then came came "Skit" Mickey. Last I heard he did a magic trick for groups of guests where the he looks interactive and there is still a helper backstage.

As for cost savings i can see 2 reasons. One it eliminates the backstage helper, but more importantly is the current interaction longer than it was before he talked?

If they can shorten the interaction they can move more people through and use less Friends of Mickey at one time if you know what I mean.

 

[chartle]

When I went, I counted 5-6 including Mickey. That leaves 3-4 presumably behind the scenes.

You know that there are also more than one "Friend of Mickey" working at one time and for each one of them has a backstage helper.

 

[carlbarry]

Here is the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130226588
Also see this for the "mouth mouse":
http://www.disneyresearch.com/proje...creating-conversations/?v=y&rnd=1317086862533

 

[chartle]

1. Here is the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130226588
2. Also see this for the "mouth mouse": http://www.disneyresearch.com/proje...creating-conversations/?v=y&rnd=1317086862533

1. This looks like whats done now aka Skit Mickey. With this, Mickey and his backstage helper control the flow of the interaction and its harder for it to go off the rails. The mouth movements are controlled by the recording.

2. This looks like an updated version of the older physical Waldo rig that performers use for Monsters Inc Laugh floor and turtle Talk. Where the voice is semi ad libed.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

Is the current setup such that the person backstage can type a response into their computer, and have that "vocalized" by talking Mickey, complete with computer-controlled mouth movements? Or is it just a bunch of canned phrases that the backstage person has to select from?

 

[rteetz]

Is the current setup such that the person backstage can type a response into their computer, and have that "vocalized" by talking Mickey, complete with computer-controlled mouth movements? Or is it just a bunch of canned phrases that the backstage person has to select from?

It is a bunch of canned phrases that a CM selects from.

 

[chartle]

Is the current setup such that the person backstage can type a response into their computer, and have that "vocalized" by talking Mickey, complete with computer-controlled mouth movements? Or is it just a bunch of canned phrases that the backstage person has to select from?

Its MP3 Mickey. They are very protective about the voice of Mickey Mouse and only one or two people do the voice. If you follow the mouth mouse patent above its sort of a flow chart with a selection of files to play at certain points in the interaction. At any point that may also have escape hatches to get them out of odd situations.

But ............................... who knows whats in the future with computer manipulated sound.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

But ............................... who knows whats in the future with computer manipulated sound.

What I described above isn't in the future, it's in the past. Well in the past. At least in the non-Disney world, things like that have been done for a while now.

 

[CyKosis]

*Frowny Face*

Dumb question...

Does this mean, May 12th is the last day to experience talking Mickey or is he done on the 11th and the 12th is the start of non talking Mickey?

 

[chartle]

What I described above isn't in the future, it's in the past. Well in the past. At least in the non-Disney world, things like that have been done for a while now.

I'm not sure what you are referring to but what I'm talking about is taking a sample of someone's voice, cutting it up into the basic parts and then being able to use that to make any conversation. So then in real time someone could maybe type in a phrase and have Mickey say anything in perfect Mickey voice.

Currently they use caned recordings that are done by the one and only voice of Mickey.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

May 12th

https://wdwnt.com/2018/02/update-ta...t-magic-kingdom-will-go-silent-may-12th-2018/

Thanks for the date, Rteetz. Sad it’s closing but at least I can put it back later in my early May trip. It was causing some scheduling issues.

 

[LeeAndRobin]

I'm not sure what you are referring to but what I'm talking about is taking a sample of someone's voice, cutting it up into the basic parts and then being able to use that to make any conversation. So then in real time someone could maybe type in a phrase and have Mickey say anything in perfect Mickey voice.

That's what I'm referring to also. This technology has been around for a while now. It's nothing new. If you have a Garmin GPS, you've experienced it. No reason Disney couldn't adopt it to a talking Mickey.

 

[chartle]

That's what I'm referring to also. This technology has been around for a while now. It's nothing new. If you have a Garmin GPS, you've experienced it. No reason Disney couldn't adopt it to a talking Mickey.

Disney is very protective about the voice of Mickey and expect it to be perfect.

The tech you are talking about still sounds like a generic computer voice and something like a GPS has a limited vocabulary and mispronounces many of the streets in my area, even streets like California Ave. On my GPS if I download a different custom voice like Yoda its all canned with no street names, just like the current talking Mickey.

What I'm referring to is tech that sounds exactly like the person in their natural speaking voice, enough to fool someone thats knows that person.