The way I hear it, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew & Beaker were the real highlight of this year’s corporate Christmas party at the Walt Disney Company.
Over the past two months, numerous Mouse House insiders have written to me — wanting to share details of their bizarre encounters with this next phase of Disney’s “Living Character Initiative” program. These folks were just standing around at the party, minding their own business. Only to have this rocket ship-shaped craft roll up right next to them. And the next thing they knew, these remote controlled AA versions of Bunsen & Beaker would begin interacting with them.
Given Beaker’s limited vocabulary (I.E. He only speaks in “Meeps”), Dr. Bunsen Honeydew had to do most of the talking. And the routine that he’d do would typically start off with the good doctor first complimenting the party guest on their outfit (“That’s a lovely ensemble you wearing. It wouldn’t — by chance — be flame retardant, would it?”), then try & cajole them into taking part in a field experiment for Muppet Labs.
Given that this particular “LCI” project was still under wraps at that time, senior company officials supposedly asked politely that no pictures be taken of the Muppet Mobile Lab. As one party guest told me:
“They actually said ‘I don’t want to see any pictures of this popping up on Jim Hill or Al Lutz‘s website.’ “
And it would appear that all of the guests at this particular holiday gathering complied with that request.
So where did the image below come from? Sorry, I’m not at liberty to say. What I can tell you is that this photo was reportedly taken early one morning while this “Living Creature Initiative” unit was being test driven around the WDI parking lot.
And — to be honest — I guess I should mention that this very same photograph has been posted in Muppet Wiki. Though (to give you some idea how incestuous the Internet has become these days) which article does the Muppet Mobile Lab entry of this online encyclopedia cite as its primary source? My own “The Muppet Mobile Laboratory to begin rolling through DCA in early 2007” story from September 2006.
Anyway … What else can I tell you about these two remote controlled AA figures? The sculpts of Bunsen & Beaker were based on the really-for-real puppets that were used in the production of “Muppets Tonight.” The folks at Muppet Holding Company LLC (Now Muppet Studios LLC) made these cloth characters available to WDI. And the Imagineers then carefully measured each Muppet to make sure that they got the scale on each of these new “Living Creature Initiative” figures just right.
More to the point, Dave Goelz made a trip down to Glendale late last year to consult on the Muppet Mobile Lab project. And he reportedly seemed thrilled with the job that WDI had done with his character, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew.
So when will Bunsen & Beaker stop playing the party circuit and finally make an appearance in the theme parks? According to what I’ve heard, the Imagineers weren’t entirely pleased with how the Muppet Mobile Lab performed at Disney’s corporate Christmas party. Which is why this “Living Creature Initiative” unit was then taken back to Glendale for a little tweaking. (More to the point, so that the roughly-worked-out scripts for Bunsen & Beaker’s mostly improv routines could be punched up a bit).
Now that all that work has been done … Supposedly sometime over the next few months, the Muppet Mobile Lab will make its very first official test drive through DCA‘s Hollywood Pictures Backlot area.
Anywho … I just thought that you folks might enjoy getting a glimpse of the latest incarnation of Disney’s “Living Character Initiative” program. Which (to my way of thinking, anyway) is a significant step up from Lucky the dinosaur.
After all of those reptilian coos, growls & whines, we now get … Meeps!
Your thoughts?