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Turtle Talk with Crush: How Does It Work?

Turtle Talk with Crush: How Does It Work?

Turtle Talk with Crush is a 15-minute chat with our favorite sea turtle from Finding Nemo, though we love Disney’s description of this attraction better. They say, “Shoot the breeze under the seas…” Turtle Talk takes place over in World Nature in the same building as the ride, The Seas with Nemo and Friends at Epcot in Walt Disney World. Let’s dig into just how does Turtle Talk with Crush work.

What is Turtle Talk With Crush?

Guests gather in a special theater to have a real-time, group-on-one chat with Crush. You read that right, guests can communicate with Crush the Sea Turtle. This is not a canned show running on a loop. Crush will teach audiences about the ocean and the creatures that call it home. 

Sometimes you might get lucky and have guests in your chat as well! We have seen Marlin, Dory, Squirt, Nemo, and other characters from Finding Dory! What is great is that this attraction will be different each and every time! 

Children will be invited by Crush to sit up front so he can see them better and will even call on children to ask him questions. They can ask about anything! Crush will even turn it around and ask the children questions. 

Meanwhile, all of the adults in the room are just stunned! This animated turtle is swimming around in front of us and talking like he is alive! How can this be happening? Magic, of course! Magic of Imagineering. 

Imagineering: Creating the Magic

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What started as WED Enterprises in 1952, has since been renamed Walt Disney Imagineering. This area of the Disney Company is responsible for creating magic and bringing fantasy to life! Imagineering is the term coined to envelop imagination and engineering. 

Walt Disney was quoted as saying, “If we can dream it, we can do it”. It seems that Imagineers are still living by this motto because we see attractions pushing the boundaries of possibility with every new ride, show, and attraction. 

Bringing Crush to Life

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The innovations of the Imagineering team have come a long way since the 1950s! Turtle Talk With Crush combines computer animation and computer graphic techniques, image projection, and live actors with a sense of humor who can think on their feet! 

What is absolutely wild is that the large screen that the audience sees is actually a rear projection of the underwater area and Crush is a wildly sophisticated puppet! A live actor/puppeteer operates Crush by means of live 3D digital animation. 

Considering that the original hand-drawn cartoons took 72 drawings per second of film, can you just imagine what Walt Disney himself would say if he saw this technology in action? 

The animation technology enables the digital puppet to match the actor’s lip and body movements at an impressive 60 frames per second, so that way Crush’s mouth is moving in tune with the words that you hear. 

What about the guests? How can Crush see the crowd enough to call on them by describing their clothing or accessories? The theater room is very small and very dark. We bet you didn’t know that you were being watched in that room! The whole room is equipped with cameras so that the actor/puppeteer can see the whole audience in order to complete the whole interactive experience. 

Share the Love

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Now, we have given a lot of credit to the Imagineering team for the technology that brought us Crush, but we need to extend credit where credit is due, and that is to the actors. Actors that portray our pal in Turtle Talk With Crush are knowledgeable, quick-witted, funny, and bring such life to the entire experience! Even as an adult sitting in the room, Crush is so seamless that you forget that you are not hanging with the actual Crush. Come on, we all know he lives in EAC, dude! 

See Crush in Action!

You can find Crush all over the internet because of his funny jokes and epic reactions to kids. Let’s be honest, kids are unpredictable with their questions! We love how he weaves facts with his jokes. It’s so seamless! 

Check out this great Crush compilation here!

3 FUN FACTS ABOUT TURTLE TALK WITH CRUSH! 

Righteous! This so totally rocks, dude! 

  • Turtle Talk With Crush is actually original to Walt Disney World! So often, attractions are original to Disneyland in California and then mirrored in Florida, or experimented with in other parks and then brought to Walt Disney World, like Tron Lightcycle Run. Not Crush!

    This attraction opened in EPCOT in 2004 and then was replicated in Disney’s California Adventure in 2005, Hong Kong Disneyland in 2008, and finally, Tokyo Disney Sea in 2009.
  • Did you know that Turtle Talk With Crush is the first Disney attraction to be donated to a non-Disney entity? Back in 2013, Disney Imagineering made a complete replica of the attraction and donated it to the Children’s Hospital of Orange County to entertain child patients and their siblings can just enjoy the magic of being a child even when dealing with serious, and oftentimes scary, health issues. 
  • Turtle Talk With Crush will speak the native language of the country that the attraction is in, so the attraction speaks Japanese in Tokyo, etc. That makes sense, right? But what is really funny is that Disney wants to keep the integrity of the movie characters so Crush is speaking Japanese with a full surfer dude accent, and it is hilarious! 
  • Crush answers the question that we all want to know!!! Is he the famous turtle that Moana saves from the birds? He mentions that that story was about 2,000 years ago and he’s a little over 150… “That math doesn’t check out, dude.” 

Love the Live Animation Show?

If you absolutely loved the quippy real-time animation show, then you’ll be happy to know that you can experience a similar experience in the Magic Kingdom! Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor operates with similar technology. But whereas Turtle Talk With Crush is education through entertainment, Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor is all about fun! The monsters need your help to fill the Laugh canisters to help them with the energy crisis, and get ol’ Roz off Mike’s back! 

Martine Rose

Sunday 20th of August 2023

Crush is a vtuber!!!! Love this!

Jessie Winn

Monday 24th of October 2022

Hey! It says the attraction opened in 1994 but Finding Nemo didn’t release until 2003. Did you mean 2004?

Patty

Tuesday 25th of October 2022

Thank you that was a typo!