Bringing Mickey Mouse to Life within the Most Terrifying Means Doable

You could have seen a sudden explosion within the variety of films—horror movies, specifically — that function Mickey Mouse, however which aren’t made by Disney. For those who look carefully, you’ll see that all of them comprise the model of Mickey from the unique Steamboat Willie cartoon. That’s as a result of the copyright for Steamboat Willie expired and in order that model of Mickey is now within the public area. In honor of the event, Jaimie and Jay of Depraved Makers constructed this terrifying Mickey Mouse animatronic head styled after the characters from the 5 Nights at Freddy’s franchise.

Depraved Makers have expertise on this enviornment, as a result of they constructed a Springtrap animatronic just a few months in the past. Like that venture, it is a life-sized animatronic robotic. However not like Springtrap, that is only a head. Nevertheless, that definitely doesn’t make it any much less creepy. It nonetheless retains the unsettling actions and decrepit styling that makes it appear like a forgotten theme park attraction left in storage for many years.

To start out the venture, they commissioned BeardlessProps to create a 3D mannequin of the Steamboat Willie model of Mickey. That mannequin accommodates a number of damaged and battered items in line with the theme. After 3D-printing the top elements, Depraved Makers started working bringing it to life.

A large quantity of that work went into giving Mickey the best look. Plain 3D-printed plastic wouldn’t lower it. One cool trick they got here up with was to stay shredded black fibers to the plastic utilizing Mod Podge. That gave it the looks of felt and didn’t require any sanding or smoothing of the prints. Different areas acquired a coat of Bondo physique filler to cowl the layer strains and create texture. With some paint and weathering, the consequence was phenomenal. We don’t assume that Hollywood prop makers might do any higher.

Mickey’s head and jaw motion comes from a number of small servo motors. An Arduino UNO board controls these. It receives instructions from a Sony PlayStation 4 controller related by a USB host protect. That was a intelligent thought, as a result of it lets Depraved Makers carry out the puppeteering work with a well-recognized, intuitive interface.