animatronic

The Lincoln animatronic wasn’t moving with the realism that Disney was demanding, and Gurr was told he had about three months to figure it out.

“A Magical Life” is set to debut July 17, Disneyland’s official anniversary, and will feature an animatronic of Disney, which the company has teased is its most lifelike robotic figure to date.

He would architect a 30-foot animatronic King Kong that once stood at Universal Studios Hollywood, work with Steven Spielberg on the dinosaur figures for “Jurassic Park,” construct a constantly sinking ship at Las Vegas’ Treasure Island and build a flying UFO for the closing ceremonies of the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics.

As for his key inspiration for the practical creature in “Ochi,” Saxon recalls being moved by the animatronic mouse in Nicolas Roeg’s gleefully macabre 1990 “The Witches,” which he watched as a kid and describes as a “correct adaptation of Roald Dahl.”

It wasn’t until 2021, when Saxon finally got the green-light to go ahead with “Ochi,” that more detailed animatronic puppets were created.