When Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens at Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios later this year, it will certainly be nothing short of absolutely incredible. Thanks to a recent press event hosted by Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering, new information has finally been shared on the amazing new land, giving us the first in-depth look at the attractions, shops, food, and Audio-Animatronics that will be featured on both coasts. While Disney prepares to unveil this amazing new land, they’re also preparing to make Disney history once again, debuting some of their most impressive Audio-Animatronics yet, raising the bar in theme park innovation and technology.
When Disney unveils Galaxy’s Edge it will be the home to one of their most impressive Audio-Animatronic yet, that of course being, Hondo Ohnaka, the space pirate and smuggler featured in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels television series. Hondo’s role serves as an important story point in Galaxy’s Edge, recruiting visitors to Batuu aboard a dangerous mission aboard the Millenium Falcon in the attraction, Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run. Hondo is one of the first projects from Walt Disney Imagineering under the A1000 series of Audio-Animatronics, featuring impressive fifty-one functions. Thanks to coverage from Popular Mechanics, we finally have some more information on how Hondo’s mechanics work, and our first video, thanks to Walt Disney Imagineering, and it looks glorious.
According to the Popular Mechanics report, Hondo, like Rocket Racoon at Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout! at Disney’s California Adventure, has a speaker built into his chest. This allows for more dynamic and realistic audio, depending on the direction the character is facing. Most impressively, Hondo functions include motion in his legs, allowing for the illusion that he is walking–a rarity for Audio-Animatronics.
This amazing new innovation follows another recent groundbreaking Audio-Animatronic project at Disney’s Animal Kingdom with Shaman of Songs, featured in the Na’vi River Journey at Pandora: The World of Avatar. The Shaman is Disney’s most complex Audio-Animatronic in the parks, and her movement is gorgeous and fluid, but her performance is only from the waist up, a feature not present in the creation of Hondo, or even potentially other characters in Galaxy’s Edge. Hondo, along with the other secret A1000 figures, is certain to raise the bar for Disney’s already impressive roster of innovative breakthroughs.
Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is certain to be the most impressive endeavor into theme park storytelling, and we can’t wait to see what other amazing innovations this land will be home to. We’ll be eagerly awaiting more news on Galaxy’s Edge as it unfolds, and we can’t wait to learn more about this amazing land.
Galaxy’s Edge opens this summer at Disneyland and this fall at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
The Mickey Mindset 