"Robobama" Debuts at Disney World
We wish we were kidding
By CALLIE MCCLENDON
Updated 1:34 PM EST, Sat, Jul 4, 2009
Disney is getting desperate. And weird.
After seeing visitor spending plunge in the past few months (helloooo, recession), Disney has decided that nothing is more inviting to little children than a life-sized, fully-functioning, ROBOTIC version of Mr. Change himself.
Disney animators, sculptors, and engineers have spent the past eight months analyzing Obama's appearance, speech and mannerisms. Their hard work has resulted in a robot Obama who "purses its lips to pronounce its b’s and p’s in a way frighteningly evocative of the real one, and raises its hands, open-palmed, while shrugging its shoulders, in a way that can only be described as Obamaesque," reports the New York Times.
Robobama has now been formally introduced to the public this weekend at Walt Disney World in Orlando, where he will (correctly) recite the oath of office and other selected speeches. The occasion will also mark the reopening of the Hall of Presidents, which has been undergoing its first facelift (ha!) since the 1970s.
And yes, the past 43 presidents will also attend the unveiling, albeit in robot form.
"Young children watch this, and you want them to feel a sense of identification with the president," said presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
A sense of identification? What about a sense of sheer terror? The only thing that would have frightened us more would have been a visit from Santa declaring that he was taking back all the presents he'd ever given us.
So if you and the kiddies head to Disney World this summer and seek a little scare, skip the lines at The Haunted Mansion and head to the inauguration of Robobama. That'll surely do the trick.
First Published: May 26, 2009 10:48 AM EST
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