Defunctland

…a chance that the cabs reopened as is, maybe with a new preshow themed to Nemo and the Nemo characters only seen in the aquarium.

Before or just as Nemo came out, I believe there were rumors that the cabs would be opened and that the projection glass was being installed for a Nemo effect. After the film’s success, they did away with one pre show theater and the other became Turtle Talk, it seems as if there was…

I read, and I can’t remember where, that there was a sensor issue with the cabs and if anyone was swinging their foot over the side, it caused e-stops. No idea if this was true, but the reasoning was it was too much trouble for an unpopular ride.

I have a few announcements in the coming days, including the details for this year's charity stream. I don’t have all of the details yet, but I think this year, we’ll be playing Thrillville. Thank you all and have a great end to your holiday weekend.

I also want to give a huge thanks to my team for this project, John, Carrie, Ryan, Tony, Jamie, Evan, and Ellie, who helped pull off this very complicated project. They all did incredible work and contributed so much.

A sincere thank you to everyone who has already watched our new video. I am so grateful to be able to do anything creatively, especially weird, niche, long things like this. This project in total took a year and a half to complete, and I am thrilled that many of you enjoyed it.

Cardboard box with tin foil and a Behringer synth to simulate inside of Nemo

And for additional fun, here’s my Nemo that I built for the shot

Thank you to a viewer, Caitlin, who was kind enough to send this in.

My friends, I present to you, my boy Nemo.

However, in all of my research, these are not built by Imagineering. The Wall-E that was built for the premiere of the film and integrated into the Living Character Initiative was Imagineering, and that larger model has not been seen recently (to my current knowledge).

It is likely McMaster Robots. They are very talented and appear to have been contracted as consultants/operators for collaborations with Imagineering, and they have been contracted to bring and operate their own R2D2, BB8, and Wall-E for events and films. www.instagram.com/mcmaster_rob...

This is not the same Wall-E built by Imagineering R&D. I believe this Wall-E was built by someone at the wallebuilders.club and contracted for special events.

The size difference between these two is significant, and you can tell the difference by where the arms are mounted.

Narratively, it is not presented as “current” as in 2025, it is current as in this is what the space has looked like for the past 20 years. If we wanted to represent what it looked like today, we would break visual format to bring the viewer to today.

If you haven’t gotten there yet, you’re going to (hopefully) enjoy Chapter Eight

I am not sure I came across this talk in my research, although I would have liked to. I’m not sure how I would have found it, given how it is tagged, but it seems as though there is also discussion about Destini, which I discuss later as well. Thanks for sending it.

I do mention Jessica Hodgins in the video. The omission of Jill Fain Lehman was not done with any sort of intent, as you have implied here. The section on Turtle Talk was not an attempt to create a comprehensive history of that attraction.

This was us shooting with an old camcorder to not have it be stylistically jarring. We’re discussing “what’s there today” so the visual information in this picture is accurate, but I felt it would be weird seeing iPhone footage so early on. No processing effects were added on this. Great catch!

And for posterity, some of you might get this thumbnail during the AB test. We'll see if the Partners Statue or The Creation of Adam is more gripping.

Mickey hand and animatronic hand reaching toward one another

So you made a robot stand up and talk... now what? In this over 4-hour journey, Kevin follows the promise of Disney's Living Character Initiative, an effort to populate Disney theme parks with free-roaming, interactive beings. It was touted as the future. How's it going? Watch here: bit.ly/49C6vng

If you could set aside 4 hours and 18 minutes today for my new video, that would be much appreciated.

New video tomorrow!

several robots

10 days until new video

This is paid work, but this is for a charity event that I am exploring, so this is not something I will be profiting off of.

Very specific, but are there any graphic designers/illustrators with open commissions that have experience in designing custom LEGO minifigures or LEGO MOCs?

Two children playing video games, but they have two different controllers, only one of which is plugged in, and the back of the console clearly reveals it has no power and is not connected to the television.

This is possibly the worst stock photo ever taken.

It’s about Living Characters, there is just a paragraph about it

Word count of new Defunctland video, 46,803 words

Today, I finished writing and recording the next video. Here is the final word count.

Years ago, I wrote Tom Lehrer a letter asking if he would be open to an interview, knowing full well that he would likely reject me. I assumed I would never hear from him, but to my surprise, he responded and rejected me. I am honored to have been rejected by such a legend. RIP Tom Lehrer.

Thank you!