Terrifying Animatronic Music Shows

[Music] if you're a theme park fan you're probably familiar with some of Disney's music-based animatronic shows the enchanted tiki room is always a classic and while it's gone at Disneyland the Country Bear Jamboree is still kicking in the Magic Kingdom although Disney has announced plans to completely refurbish and rewrite the show this seems to now include having the bears sing songs from Disney films which seems really distasteful to me but hopefully they still maintain some element of uniqueness here and for what it's worth the version of bare necessities that they teased is actually kind of funny however Disney has a pretty interesting history of ambitious animatronic shows and you might recall attractions such as America Sings and Disneyland which celebrated the American Bicentennial as well as the Mickey Mouse review which is where Mickey's filler magic sits in the Magic Kingdom today and had a similar concept although it did use actual physical animatronics there's also the astuder computer review which was an incredibly short-lived show which opened with Epcot and communicore and taught audiences about computers through musical numbers until it closed in 1984. early Epcot is more famously known for another animatronic musical show though which was Kitchen Cabaret also opening with the park this time in the lands Pavilion and using anthropomorphic food products to teach audiences about nutrition wanting to update the show it was replaced by food rocks in 1994 which was conceptually similar but now had an edgier Rock theme That was supposed to be more popular with teenagers or something anyways I do find that Disney's animatronic shows can range from Charming to outright terrifying but they're all quite interesting for one reason or another however as the industry leader in theme parks there was very much a period of time in the late 20th century where other theme parks often copied the success of Disney and having more recently covered the defunct animatronic attractions of Fantasyland I was surprised to learn that it too had its share of old animatronic musical reviews some of which were clearly inspired by Disney and we'll discuss them in depth here because well I already covered them in that video but it resulted in me going down a rabbit hole of nightmare inducing animatronic musical reviews which were apparently far more popular than I initially realized so while I won't be covering every type of show like this that existed I did think it would be interesting to take a look at some of the more unique highlights that I discovered along the way thank you foreign [Music] [Music] 1981 Dream World opened in Gold Coast Australia and like many theme parks in the 1980s was its own localized version of a Disneyland it took a lot of inspiration specifically from Main Street USA offering its own Australian themed version as well as frontierland adopting themes such as the Australian Gold rushes Into Gold Rush country which opened in 1986. however in an area formerly known as Gumtree Gully a show ran from 1982 through 2002 known as The Koala country Jamboree which if you couldn't tell from the name is quite literally an Australian version of The Country Bears in content the show itself almost seems like an American parody of Australia as the majority of animatronic figures are koalas and they initially start off by singing a song about hoping that you like their country songs and while little complete video exists of this act I did catch them throwing in a tongue-in-cheek line about running out of beer throughout the show various acts was saying what are described as Australian favorites and being unfamiliar with the majority of these I couldn't name what they were but the show itself is set up in a really similar manner to The Country Bears with characters being revealed or Hidden Away by curtains on small stages that flank the main one in the middle manufactured by Hoffman figurine which is a German company that also manufactured the figures for the old musical reviews at Fantasyland that I already covered these animatronics were definitely state of the art for their time even rivaling what Disney had managed to produce yet there's still something about seeing Mechanical Animals standing and singing that guides you into an uncanny realm of surrealism that I've always found fascinating with older animatronics and the koala country Jamboree certainly doesn't disappoint in this aspect [Music] after the first few acts a rabbit appears and starts singing itsy bitsy teeny weeny yellow polka dot bikini [Music] I'm not seeing the Australian connection unless it's literally just referring to Australian beaches but since this is intended to be a variety of Acts I suppose it has its place the next ACT continues to get more interesting introducing the bunyip a mythical and aggressive Aboriginal water creature that was reported to live in Australian swamps here this cartoonish Country Bumpkin version of the creature sings Shout from the Isley Brothers he's Then followed by a koala singing what I believe is probably a love song Who in turn is followed by a foreign guest the American bear who unfortunately comes right out of the gate singing Dixie before then moving on to Yankee Doodle the kid that's all the candy I'm a Yankee Doodle [Music] more than halfway through the show a kangaroo next appears singing an Australian lullaby it is joined by the Joey in her pouch who pops up and sings along with her for it like the segment quickly an Australian country song begins playing next which I was able to identify as Duncan written by slim Dusty [Music] moderation and we never never ever get rolling sung by another koala the joke of the song is that he drinks in moderation by only having one beer with each friend but soon has a beer for each person in the entire Pub while promising not to get rolling drunk with each beer he consumes towards the end the song is joined in by two birds who are clearly inspired by the Tiki Room encouraging everyone to join in singing as well staying in theme with Australia these two birds are a cockatoo and a kookaburra finally reaching the end a kangaroo on a piano emerges and begins with I still call Australia home from Peter Allen and as he continues the other characters from the other acts join in for a Sentimental big finale from here the song ends and quickly transitions into the more upbeat tiny Kangaroo Down Sport [Music] at its conclusion the bird trip dialogue directly from the tiki room when directing everyone to leave [Music] have a wonderful magic trick for you everyone the trick is we're going to make you all disappear since we're on the topic of Disney rip-offs produced by Hoffman figurine I do think it is worth quickly mentioning that when a fantasy landformer shows the kombimskis which opened in 1977 was actually moved to aventuran park helendorn in the Netherlands in 1989 which I didn't mention in the initial fantasyline video initially a German version of The Country Bears but using various apes and monkeys instead it was renamed to the magic monkey show and had minimal changes though it was Rewritten in Dutch and a parrot wearing a pirate tricorn was added to make commentary between the ax more so than the koala country Jamboree this particular show fits that theme of The Nightmare inducing animatronic Musical review and I also think it's worth mentioning that the show was apparently cloned and brought to both a park in Sweden and Italy successfully traumatizing children and audiences all across Europe remarkably it even had its own country bears that played a small part as well so it's clear then that Hoffman figurine was in the business at least initially of conceptually emulating The Country Bears but other animatronic Musical shows would go in weirder but also more interesting directions [Music] [Music] for this next segment I'm going to cover a number of smaller shows more quickly because there are absolutely a ton of them there's a lot of history involving the development of two popular children's restaurants and arcades that featured animatronic shows Chuck E Cheese's pizza time theater and the similar ShowBiz Pizza Place their in-depth history is a fascinating story for another time but with their success as cultural icons for children in the late 70s and throughout the 1980s an explosion of other similar themed businesses featuring animatronic shows would continue being built even up into the early Arts these were often incredibly similar and were mostly animatronic bands meant to draw people away from the two big established Brands but there are a few that stand out gadgets was a Restaurant entertainment Enterprise that managed to open and operate five locations from 1982 through 1992 and were known for an animatronic piano player known as Sami Sands however in addition to him and what looks to be other cool theming the locations were best known for a musical review that featured licensed Looney Tunes characters which were led by Bugs Bunny as the lead vocalist another place with a similar concept was Bullwinkle's family and fun which naturally sported a Rocky and Bullwinkle theme its Central animatronics show of course featured its famous characters and their own Musical review and oddly it also offered an elaborate fountain show which was set to the weird disco version of the Star Wars theme from mecco which is just an interesting but bizarre thing to note surprisingly three locations still exist today although the Rocky and Bullwinkle references have been really toned down and the animatronic band long removed existing almost more like a Dave and Buster's or other similar adjacent arcade concept while ShowBiz Pizza is long gone the company that once co-managed it creative engineering still continued developing animatronic bands for other themed Enterprises that you can still find today one of its older shows which I don't think exists anymore anywhere is the hard luck bears clearly inspired by The Country Bears and existed in 11 different locations ranging from Blackpool pleasure Beach to Knoebels to play center in Brazil its spiritual successor the rockafire explosion actually played in many ShowBiz Pizza restaurants up through 1992 but could still be found in various locations today if you know where to look although they're often in poor condition still creative engineering shows have always had Yankee almost violent movements to their figures that gives them a weirdly distinct sense of charm and it's cool to still see them around today another company still currently operating that once dealt with animatronic musical reviews is Sally dark rides in manufacture from out of Jacksonville Florida I'm not sure how many of these were made but they had their own version of The Country Bears known as Bubba and the Badland band with locations ranging from South Korea to Dutch Wonderland in Pennsylvania another Showbiz and Chuck E Cheese's competitor was the Rivertown restaurant company which had its own animatronic show known as Captain Andy's Rivertown band I couldn't find information on who actually manufactured it whether it was the restaurant company or someone else but it's strangely enough had one of its own shows relocated to watermouth Castle in England where it apparently still plays today focused on mostly small children watermouth Castle contains milder attractions but also includes a second smaller but still interesting animatronic show Goosey Gander and the geeses I can't find any information on where it came from or who manufactured it but like Captain Andy it seems like something that likely started its life elsewhere well I've only just shown you a few examples the world of Chuck E cheese and ShowBiz Pizza rip-offs is actually quite fast but I thought that these were some of the more distinct or historically important shows that related to competing with the two arcade Giants so having briefly touched on this let's now move on to a few other shows that had prominent runs in theme parks [Music] having covered a good portion of the history of Fantasyland it's clear to me that like dream world you want it to be its own version of Disneyland but for Germany at least in its earlier years unfortunately for them Europa Park which is also in Germany is owned and operated by the mock family and has its own Rich history of Designing attractions meant to emulate Disney as well this once included an animatronic show hosted by Ed euromouse the mascot of the park who is clearly their version of Mickey I'll give credit to Europa Park and then instead of ripping off the country bears like everyone else did this show which was known as the euromouse music review instead was clearly inspired by the Mickey Mouse review having opened in 1985 existing in the Netherlands themed area of the park it couldn't rely on an extensive library of iconic Disney songs and so instead presented different musical acts themed to various Western countries and Nations also I lied if you look carefully in the back some of it did clearly lift elements from The Country Bears while it's not clear when changes were made by at least 1993 the show was overhauled into the magic music show with Ed uramus beginning with Frank Sinatra's New York New York somehow the figures became scarier when the show included a new slate of songs while also throwing in magic tricks and circus acts generally this seemed like the more interesting version of this show at least from what I've watched and it ran until 2003. still Europa Park had another show that clearly ripped off elements from Disney in the Italy themed area opening in 1982 and translated as bird wedding this show was incredibly similar in concept to the euromouse music review covering various International songs and even using edura Mouse as a character however this attraction was clearly inspired by the enchanted Tiki Room directly ripping elements such as opening the show with banjo between Birds on perches having singing birds of paradise flowers and it even had its own version of the cockatoo mobile that descended from the ceiling unlike the magic music show though the bird show is still around today and is known as Carnival in Venice and is obviously themed more specifically to Italy with Italian songs though I cannot find any information on when it was re-themed moving back over to the United States one last big Park show I want to discuss was located at AstroWorld in Houston Texas the park opened in 1968 but was bought by Six Flags in 1978 and oddly enough pursued building its own version of a big animatronic show premiering in 1982 the great Texas Longhorn review resided in the Cow Palace and mostly featured farm animal singing songs about the greatness of Texas the show initially opens with three cows presenting a number that welcomes the audience to the great Texas Longhorn review and as the show progressed every single act would present either a country or rockabilly song that usually related back to Texas in some way in my opinion the show can come off as a bit generic but some of the more distinct elements include a penguin trying to desperately cool himself off on the Texas heat a scary looking Basset Hound that pops out of the wall and a cow that slides out laying on the piano like a lounge singer but through her entire sequence audiences can hear the piano cracking under her weight well I'm not personally a fan of this show it did at least manage to distinguish itself through its strange animatronics and unique Texas theme and is admittedly something that feels ambitious for Six Flags park I'm sure that there are many people that remember this fondly but while it's one of the less interesting shows to me it did think it was worth mentioning because it was one of the more unique takes on The Country Bears which draws our look into theme park specific animatronic musical reviews to a close [Music] [Music] while not necessarily a traditional theme park the various Great Wolf Lodge locations have apparently had a history of small animatronic displays this seemed to include stuff such as a talking tree a talking moose that sneezed into a tree stump and a weird bear that would ask questions in an unsettling seductive voice however these were phased out for the great Clock Tower show from 2003 through 2009 which was roughly a 12-minute show about a boy named Simon who gets lost in the woods he eventually encounters a woman named yellow feather and with her animal friends they sing a number of songs that calm him down and help him find his way out it's not particularly interesting but the animatronics are weird so I like looking at them at least unfortunately Great Wolf Lodge also introduced the forest friend show which is actually the most recent animatronic band show that I can find having premiered a few of these between 2014 and 2017. introducing a band known as the endangered species these animatronic forest animals definitely have a more polished cuter look to their design and also engage in a 12-minute musical show this time singing about the seasons which is somehow even less interesting still you don't really see too many animatronic Musical shows anymore so I thought that these were worth mentioning moving on to something a bit different Stew Leonard's is a small supermarket chain with seven locations throughout New England and are most notable for their large stores with various animatronic displays that sing about the food that they represent for example at the location in Danbury Connecticut various store displays include a Chiquita banana singing a Samba piece a pine tree singing about fresh spring water a chicken singing about laying eggs and a wall-mounted Horsehead who makes horse puns about shopping as a country tune plays in the background while not ripping off Epcot the store also had various displays that remind me quite a bit of Kitchen Cabaret such as this butter display featuring characters known as the Dixie sticks or the animatronic milk carton band known as The Farm Fresh 5. singing about what I believe is the benefits of protein it's a weird and intriguing place and I thought was also worth throwing into the conversation while there are still so many animatronic shows we could look into the final one I want to finish off with is Mac Tonight a character created by McDonald's as part of a marketing campaign in the late 1980s named after the song Mack the Knife combined with the signature Big Mac Mack tonight was a strange moon-headed crooner who wore sunglasses while he sang and created a culture of intrigue that actually boosted sales from McDonald's pretty significantly while the marketing campaign ended in 1989 due to the son of Bobby Darin suing McDonald's claiming that the character used the likeness of his father the lawsuit was eventually dropped and the character reappeared over the years even being installed in a few locations as an animatronic character in the early 1990s such as the restaurant known as the solid gold McDonald's in Greenfield Wisconsin however only one single version of this character still exists which is located in the world's largest McDonald's on International Drive in Orlando Florida it's remarkable that it still exists because the restaurant went through a major refurb in 2018 that ripped out all of its theming but Mac tonight still made an appearance and seemed to work for a brief period of time where he would sit above diners and play his piano to my knowledge he hasn't worked in years because of damage to the figure but if you still want to see a weird piece of History he still sits there static to this day so we've covered a lot of ground in terms of animatronic musical reviews which were popularized by Disney but became far more popular than I initially realized some were often blatant rip-offs in theme parks mostly of the enchanted tiki room or The Country Bears others try to capitalize on the formula developed by Chuck E Cheese's and ShowBiz Pizza which is where I think the majority of these shows came from but some did manage to stand out as a bit more distinct overall regardless of whether these shows were derivative or more original they existed across a number of different entertainment Enterprises and were often uncanny nightmare inducing Terror machines that scarred and traumatized generations of children so while there's a decent amount that I covered I'm sure that many people have their own memories of obscure animatronic bands that are probably worth mentioning so if you've experienced something like this that I didn't cover here be sure to let me know about it in the comments as always you can do me a favor by leaving a like on the video and if you haven't yet hit the Subscribe button with bell notification you can do so now to be alerted to new videos when they're released foreign [Music]

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Length: 21min 41sec (1301 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 18 2023