I pride myself as a huge Disney fan, particularly in the Audio-Animatronics and Imagineering Department. So the newest FNAF trailer for Sister Location REALLY got my gears going (ha-ha pun) when I recalled an incident from Disney’s past and the location it occured in. Let’s talk about Disney’s Attraction from 1974-1988, America Sings.









THE BACKSTORY:

America Sings was an attraction in Disneyland park created to celebrate the Bicentennial of America (that would be 1976). Patriotism was EVERYWHERE during this time of Disney Park’s lifespan, but I digress. America Sings showcased the musical eras of America from early Southern up until rock and roll, all sung and preformed by audio-animatronic animals. This attraction took the place of a previous show, Carousel of Progress, designed for the 1964 World’s Fair in New York that was later moved to the Walt Disney World where it still remains today. With that out of the way, let’s see how it compares to what we’ve seen of Sister Location.

Part 1: Design of the Theater/Attraction space.

America Sings featured a stationary stage with six pie shaped stages. The audience would revolve around the stage, and they would visit four scenes, a loading, and an unloading room. The only difference between the two, would be that America Sings rotated COUNTER-clockwise rather than clockwise (we’ll get to that later)

Here is a mark up as to how the pavillion looks from above. (you can find reference here.)

So let’s take that circular area, used to get somewhere I’ll talk about later and put it up against:

Some people I’ve seen put this as an “elevator” but my theory against this is simple: That vent. The vents are shown to be your mode of transportation. “What about it shaking?” you ask. Well, if it’s designed anything like Carousel of Progress/America Sings, the moving theater but stationary center, an entire REVOLVING audience above your head might, right?!

Secondly, while I cannot speak for Disneyland’s General Electric theater as I can for Disney World’s, but beneath the latter there is a basement…used for maintenance, and storage. Found here by Abandoned Disney Series, written by Gibson:

“…in the basement of the C.O.P building directly under one of the stages. The Carousel of Progress in it’s round building is divided into 6 pie-shaped pieces- one for each of the 4 acts plus 2 small stages for load and unload. Under these stages are pie-shaped maintenance and storage rooms. Remember, the center portion of the building is stationary. Only the outer portion with seating rotates.” (Taken from The Abandoned Disney Series by Gibson as well.)



Now, if we all recall, the Sister Location is supposed to take place “underground” and what a better place to be than UNDER the actual attraction. Why cart your messed up Animatronic to some shop, when you can do it on location?!





Part 2: Audio Animatronics and Entertainment.

I have a feeling that the Sister Location will have less to do about food and more to do about entertainment. Notice how there are no animatronics dedicated to food in current known animatronic set, or even the main list! In previous games (sans FNAF 3 which was a HORROR ATTRACTION) had Chica offering you cupcakes and/or wearing her bib that says “Let’s Eat!” The entirety of the Animatronic cast are performers. Ballerina dancers, puppeteers, so on…which is a good reason for those boxes. The only poster we see is Ballora with “Let’s Dance!” It implies the show is a lot like Disney AA shows that ask for audience participation, and need we forget:

If you’ve ever been to Disney World and a theater attraction breaks down, I’m sure you’ve heard the line Baby spouts in some cartoony voice.

Speaking of which, let’s talk voice boxes. Scott is now using voice acting for this game, so the correct term for our attraction pals are AUDIO-Animatronics, or AA, which, surprise surprise, was a Disney invention back in 1964 with The Tiki Room. In fact, the A-100 Elvis Crane in America Sings is used to train incoming Disney Imagineers in programming the AA’s today. While the voice boxes were never “on the nose”, I don’t think Scott is going for realistic AA here…or at least for cosmetics or the voice boxes. A seam down the middle of an AA’s face is uncanny and unnecessary. Other than the ability to move eyebrows out of sync, this would only be a hindrance for actual Imagineers if implemented. However, since uncanny is exactly what Scott wants, I believe the face flaps are just for the scare factor of the game and nothing more.

Also, a lot of people are really underestimating the fluidity and “shine” of animatronics that are 20-30 years old, so here are a few AA-100 Disney actors that strike me as similar that are from around the early 90s (Plus a lil puppet one for the lil guys)

In short, I think that the sister location will focus more on ENTERTAINMENT and less on dining. I also believe that the same era of FNAF 2 is the most appropriate time frame.

Part 3: Programming AA’s

Let’s talk about the programming board used for creating audio animatronics. It’s actually sort of ironic. As futuristic those AA’s look from way back when, the programming board of audio animatronics is hardly as sophisticated looking. Here are two boards from the 80s at the latest:



Even this one from the late 2000s looks older (Sans the sreen used to translate the movements and probably play the audio.)



Let’s compare one to another. First, A programming board used for a Spaceship Earth A-100 (appropriate for the time period of 80s-90s)

To our FNAF counterpart:

Other than the laptop replacing the speaker (you can see the headphones for programming sound) the resemblance to a programming board is uncanny! The wires and the canisters on the left and right are meant for programming the muscles and mechanics (some of which are hydraulic) of the Audio-Animatronics. The speaker will no doubt have Audio animatronic voices coming from it, which also fits to how a programming board is meant to play music and define lip-syncing.

Part 4: The Tragedy of America Sings.

Just a little over a week into the shows run is why I would like to direct America Sings to the FNAF public. On July 8th, 1974 at 10:30 PM, 18 year old cast member, Deborah Stone, was found dead, crushed between the revolving stage and a stationary wall.

Thanks to @nexanaeon for the reference, “Mouse Tales: A Behind-The-Ears Look at Disneyland,” by David Koenig, (specifically page 173, chapter 8). has a little bit on the ordeal:

“Stone may have fallen, stepped backwards, or tried to jump from one stage to the other. Fellow operators think she leaned back on purpose because when the building was used for the Carousel of Progress, it rotated in the opposite direction and it was safe to lean back to talk to co-workers in adjacent theaters. But it was Stone’s first week at Disneyland. She had never worked on the Carousel of Progress.”



While these are all speculation, I have read several accounts of her screams for help being assumed as part of the attraction, and the sound of her ribs and skull cracking sounding like the snapping of wood. To read more about her story, check out Buzzle’s article on it here.

What I see parallels a mixture of an untrained staff member versus careless changes to the attraction on Disney’s part (Disney can have a few hiccups as they were practically pioneering the industry in the 60s and 70s).

Now, what do we know about the Sister Location? A bunch of spring lock failures happening at once. Now, that means the employees were affected, not the children. How could this have happened? due to untrained usage of the suits versus staff who made a finicky and fragile machine that can kill if handled improperly.

In conclusion: (TLDR)

In the end, like America Sings, I think Sister Location is an entertainment AA show that had an accident involving employees and mismanagement and you are currently working night shift at the attraction in the maintenance rooms beneath the theater and dealing with ghosts of adult employees that were wrought with anger over accidental lack of safety precautions.