Saw them twice today. Very, very smooth. No breakdowns, only one millisecond audio glitch. They rolled all the way to Sunshine Plaza for the morning show. Bunsen was funny and quick with good responses to random questions. Beaker is just so cute, right down to his argyle socks.
Movie and pics
Observations:
- Bunsen is controlled by a puppeteer in a building somewhere. His vision is not perfect and he sometimes gets disoriented. If you're right in front of him however he can see you fine. He did call out things to people as he drove past so he does have side cams. You could see the cams on the vehicle.
- By the second show we could tell that Beaker is prerecorded noises/movements that the puppeteer triggers. Same goes for the "experiments", or bits, that they perform. The timing wasn't perfect on some of that but it was close.
- Bunsen stalled a few times while obviously searching for the right button to push. I'd say it was something that takes practice and that after a while the filler would go unnoticed.
- Bunsen's voice was spot on and even the character seemed well done to me.
- The gags written on the vehicle were also Muppet style and continued to elicit giggles as he rotated around.
We really enjoyed it. Quite the good sign of audio-animatronic things to come.
The only downside was an obnoxious person from another message board who stole a moment to advertise his board.
Let me say that when Bunsen called it LaughingStock I thought he was right on.