Getting your
Trinity Audioplayer ready...Star Wars fans got their first look at “The Mandalorian and Grogu” food cart with levitating droids serving sodas that could be heading to Galaxy’s Edge at Disneyland later this year.
Walt Disney Imagineering Research and Development showcased the Star Wars food cart during the D23 fan expo at the Anaheim Convention Center.
The Hugo’s Sweets and Fizz food pod designed to entertain and interact with visitors could debut later this year at Disneyland, according to Bloomberg.
Imagineer Tony Dohi worked on the development of the Star Wars food pod with “The Mandalorian and Grogu” filmmaker Jon Favreau and his production team.
“We were trying to do our best at recreating the food pod from the movie,” Dohi said during a D23 media preview. “We’re just showing what the experience could be and what the character elements are.”
Hovering droids delivered Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite beverages in distinctive thermal detonator bottles using magnetic levitation at the replica of Hugo’s food cart in “The Mandalorian and Grogu.”
The autonomous food delivery droid robots hovered on top of the food truck counter as if the surface were a stage.
In the simplest terms, Hugo’s Sweets and Fizz worked like an elaborate soda machine with an Imagineering-produced show featuring audio-animatronics and droids.
The soda bottles sat atop floating coasters that carried the drinks across the food truck counter and dropped them into a slot so customers could retrieve them below.
The food delivery droids made noises as they worked.
“They have their own little personalities, their own little language,” Dohi said.
Disneyland visitors will be able to order several types of soda using the Disneyland mobile app and pick up the drinks at Hugo’s food cart in Galaxy’s Edge, according to Bloomberg.
“Depending on the exact order, characters behave a certain way and essentially put on a show at the food cart’s counter,” according to Bloomberg. “If the guest only buys one drink, for example, the robot might act lonely.”
Hugo’s food stand in “The Mandalorian and Grogu” is operated by a vendor named Hugo Durant, voiced by Academy Award-winning director Martin Scorsese.
“He’s an Ardennian,” Dohi said of Hugo. “They have four arms, so it makes them very agile at operating as a chef in a little food pod.”
Hugo’s food cart on the Star Wars planet Shakari serves a Flat Meat Fry sandwich made with pan-fried meat, queso sauce, electric blue onions and a hairy egg.
Kogi chef Roy Choi worked as a food consultant on the film and created the recipe for the Flat Meat Fry sandwich.
“We’re not getting a sandwich here,” Dohi said of the food cart on display at D23. “This is going to be snacks and drinks.”
In the film, the Mandalorian orders a sandwich at the food cart and asks Hugo for information on Rotta the Hutt.
A Grogu animatronic handled most of the drink and snack orders during the D23 demonstration. A Hugo animatronic lounged on the left side of the food truck at D23.
“He can’t make sandwiches because he’s actually on break,” Dohi said of Hugo. “That’s why he’s snoozing off to the side.”
Dohi led Imagineering’s development of the Stuntronics technology used in the flying Spider-Man show in Avengers Campus at Disney California Adventure before shifting to the Star Wars food cart project.
“This is really a prototype,” Dohi said of the Star Wars food cart. “We think there’s something here.”
The Imagineering R&D team in Glendale is working on several robotics projects designed to entertain and interact with visitors at Disneyland and other Disney theme parks, Bloomberg reports.