Animatronic Obama, Disney World

ORLANDO, Florida (CNN) -- He looks like President Barack Obama, speaks like him, and even gestures like him, but he is not exactly the President of the United States.

This president is an audio-animatronic Obama surrounded by the 43 other U.S. presidents at Walt Disney World's newly re-vamped Hall of Presidents in Orlando, Florida.

Disney gathered a team of what they call "Imagineers," each trained in various disciplines such as artistry, design and engineering, to update the attraction that has been around since 1971.

It's hard to believe the figures are not real people and according to Disney officials, that's the goal.


"The magic of the show is actually being able to see all of the presidents throughout history on this stage together," said Eric Jacobson, senior vice president of creative development at Walt Disney Imagineering. "We have to use our magic to bring that together to make that happen."

Disney calls the new President Obama figure "the most dynamic figure Disney has ever created." "We're very proud of the technological advances that allow this to make him come to life so realistically," Jacobson said.

Imagineers traveled to the Washington, DC to record Mr. Obama's voice for the show. They also worked with White House staffers to make sure his wardrobe, hair and mannerisms were created as accurately as possible.

"He's very tailored and very well dressed all the time so that's what we were trying to achieve and I think we did," said Janice Jones, a costumer at Walt Disney World.

Disney sculptor Valerie Edwards created the Obama figure's likeness. "Well it's a great pressure of course to completely do an accurate job of somebody that's in the media so often," Edwards said.

She used an array of pictures and video of the president to capture even the slightest facial expression.

"I can watch the different speeches and I can watch his cadence as he speaks, I can watch his muscles as they move, I can see how his face changes as he speaks to see if there's any dominance in muscle," Edwards said.

Where's the teleprompter? Did they include the TOTUS?

I wonder what the Obamatron says.

This would be entertaining:

Over the last 15 months, we’ve traveled to every corner of the United States. I’ve now been in 57 states? I think one left to go. Alaska and Hawaii, I was not allowed to go to even though I really wanted to visit, but my staff would not justify it.