At first glance, it can be difficult to tell whether the Scooter character in the pre-show of the Muppets’ new Rock and Roller Coaster attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a live puppet or an animatronic.
Walt Disney Imagineering created the figure using motion-capture technology applied directly to the actual Scooter puppet. Longtime performer David Rudman (who also plays Janice and Beaker) operated the puppet during capture sessions. The resulting data was used to program the animatronic so it recreates his exact puppeteering performance.
The animatronic uses two separate robot hands...one controlling the head and body, the other specifically operating the arm rod (the control stick used by live puppeteers). This detail helps the figure move and look like a real Muppet being performed rather than a traditional Audio-Animatronic.
Scooter is joined in the studio by two penguin audio engineers working the soundboard. These are repurposed Audio-Animatronics figures originally from the now-closed MuppetVision 3D* attraction.