The “reanimated” character will require “dumbing down” the animatronic technology.
ANAHEIM, CA — With Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge just months from opening, another less-than-exciting audio-animatronic figure has been spotted arriving at the Disneyland Resort.
As Uncle Walt’s Insider has reported, Disney already installed less popular figures from the Star Wars Universe: Jar Jar Binks and Bea Arthur’s Ackmena from the Star Wars Holiday Special; old, frozen General Leia; dancing Han Solo; and, inexplicably, the Minions.
Tarkin the low road
This time, the new character arriving at the park is none other than Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin from the original Star Wars! (That’s “Episode IV” for those of you younger than 50.) We’re actually impressed — Tarkin is a genuine bad guy, and a cool one at that, who calmly orders the destruction of…
Wait, hold on.
Sorry, we were wrong. According to a source in Disney Imagineering, it is not Peter Cushing’s Tarkin that is being installed. Instead, it is the creepy CGI version from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
Welcome to Uncanny Valley
Oddly, our Imagineering source seems proud of this fact. “Our audio-animatronic figures have become so realistic these days. We really had to work hard to make CGI Tarkin’s movements and expressions just a wee bit ‘off’.
“I think we really hit the perfect amount of wrongness. You’ll see the figure and think, ‘That really almost looks like a dead actor reanimated without his knowledge or permission’!”
Which bad Star Wars characters would you like to see animatronics of? Comment below!
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