Copyright SFGATE
If you don’t know what you’re looking for, it’s easy to miss Garner Holt Productions in Redlands. The nondescript factory is tucked away behind blocks of industrial buildings, and from the outside, it looks like any other concrete box. But inside, it’s a literal wonderland, full of the moving animatronic creatures that fill theme park rides all over the world. And it all happened because one teenager had a dream. “Disneyland was my spark,” company founder Garner Holt, now in his 60s, told SFGATE during a tour of the factory. “I got pixie dusted when I went to Disneyland.” At 14, his parents took him to the park from their home in San Bernardino. “I told them on the way home that I wanted to build the rides at Disneyland,” Holt said. And so, he did. Using his parents’ garage as a workshop, Holt built rides for neighborhood kids in his backyard and crafted little puppets to figure out the mechanics of movement. By high school, Holt had created a haunted house attraction that got lots of local interest. By 17, he had left school early by testing out, his passion for animatronic design pushing him to move forward with the business rather than pursue a college degree. Advertisement Article continues below this ad “I never dreamed of it being like this … going from a little nothing to becoming the largest animatronic company in the world,” he said. Holt’s first goal was to work for Disney itself. Holt sent a portfolio to Walt Disney Imagineering. They were impressed and sent then-Imagineer and now Disney Legend Wathel Rogers out to San Bernardino. “Some of the top people at Imagineering would come and visit my stuff. They liked me and I liked them, but they said, ‘What are we going to do with you? We don’t have a way for this to work out for you because you’re 17, you’re not even 18 yet.’” They told Holt to go to college and get a degree in mechanical engineering, then “come back and see us when you’re done,” Holt explained. But that didn’t work for him. “I’m very impatient. I didn’t want to wait.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad Work for trade shows came first, in the lean days when Holt was sleeping in his shop, and eventually, some animatronic work on the Calico Mine Ride at Knott’s Berry Farm. It led to other small jobs with Disney, like in retail and on parade floats, and eventually much bigger projects, many of which Holt can’t discuss but are open secrets within the theme park industry and fandom. It’s common practice for Walt Disney Imagineering and Universal Creative to partner with third-party companies that specialize in the design and construction of themed attractions, but equally as common for theme parks to prefer those companies to stay quiet about their involvement. But internet sleuths usually do a pretty good job of finding out who comes on board for which attractions; Intamin, a ride manufacturer in Liechtenstein, is rumored to be working on the forthcoming “Fast & Furious” coaster at Universal Studios Hollywood, just like they developed Universal Orlando’s VelociCoaster. A quick Google search would tell you what Holt isn’t really allowed to say himself: that he’s done work on many of Disneyland’s most iconic and beloved rides. John Lasseter from Pixar and legendary Disney Imagineer Bob Gurr have both gone on the record talking about Holt’s work for Disney, and Holt has displayed that work at major fan events like San Diego’s Comic-Con International. Advertisement Article continues below this ad “What I say is that it’s no secret that we’ve worked on Matterhorn and Radiator Springs Racers and Monsters and Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo and It’s a Small World and Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion and, you know, all that kind of stuff,” he said. A quick walk around his factory — which is something about 12,000 kids do a year on field trips — will also show you just how deeply ingrained Holt is in manufacturing Disney magic. Turn a corner and you’ll see a huge Sulley figure from Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue! in Disney California Adventure. (If you’ve always wanted to pet him, let me just say, he really does feel like a big blue “kitty,” as Boo names him in the film.) Turn another corner and you’ll see a Baby Grogu in his floating pod, the same one who charms guests in Galaxy’s Edge with his 22 separate animatronic functions. “Grogu, I’d like you to meet some people here,” Holt said. “They’re here to take some pictures and ask some questions. So maybe you’ll have some answers, right? You want to answer some questions?” Grogu squished up his face into a look of determination and extended his little hand. “Yes, he’s answering,” Holt said, “but he’s trying to use the force.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad The way the animatronic future Jedi master seamlessly moves and reacts to external stimuli is impressive, but it’s far from the most impressive piece of machinery in the shop. Next to him is a British gent who speaks in a cockney accent, designed to be a display piece in the factory, who can move his eyebrows and the corners of his mouth independently. “That’s more expressive than any human head that’s ever been built in history,” Holt explained. “We have the highest level of technology and development as far as expressions. There’s 40 movements in that face.” Nearby, a Velociraptor is equally uncanny, so much so that I’m a little bit nervous to walk up and get a closer look at those razor sharp teeth. Then Holt reached into its mouth and waggled its tongue. (In the “Skingeneering” room, where they design external appearance details, there’s an entire wall of tongues.) In another room, there’s the original train car No. 1 from Mine Train Through Nature’s Wonderland, which Walt Disney himself drove. Holt is restoring it for the Walt Disney Archives. “It’s hard for me to believe,” Holt said. “It’s amazing that he actually drove this.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad Holt may have done work on some of the most high-profile theme park projects over the last several decades, but it’s far from the only work. Garner Holt Productions has done commissions in 36 countries, for everything from malls to casinos to state agencies. Ask him about his biggest scale project, and he’ll tell you about a 45-foot-tall Trojan horse designed for Caesars Palace, which was so big that there was a store inside the horse, and it had 14 independently moving animatronics inside. Ask him about his most interesting one, and he’ll tell you about the animatronic figures he designed for Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch in Santa Ynez Valley. In modeling his home after Disneyland, Jackson installed a working train similar to the Disneyland Railroad and tapped Holt to design and build the animatronics that populated the route. A huge King Kong face that hangs in the machine shop is a model of one created for a shopping mall in Indonesia. A moving Charles Entertainment Cheese stands nearby, with his mechanical insides exposed so that people can see how the inside of the Chuck E. Cheese animatronic works; Holt’s company has built over 500 of the same Mr. Cheeses for the company. Advertisement Article continues below this ad On the day I visited, the big priority was finishing up an order of holiday elves for Hersheypark in Pennsylvania. But Holt is also gearing up for his annual fundraiser gala for the Garner Holt Foundation in November. The nonprofit helps keep shop classes in schools and educates kids about STEAM— science, technology, engineering, arts and math — through fun activities like building little animatronic birds, similar to his earliest projects as a teenager. “People say, ‘Oh, you must have college education,’” he said. “I don’t. I have shop classes that were my whole history. That’s what led me to start building things.” Holt has devised his own version of a shop class, called an Ani-Makerspace, that he works to get in schools around the country. In November, he’s opening Garner’s Garage, an educational space to help underserved kids learn about STEAM. “I’m really focusing on using animatronics as a hook to get kids into STEM and STEAM … and learn about the 30 to 50 different careers we have under this roof,” he explained. His goal is to “get them into something that they can use their hands and have fun building.” Advertisement Article continues below this ad As he approaches his 50th year in business, he has about 70 employees. That includes everyone from electrical engineers to figure finishers who hand-dye feathers and install them individually on animatronic tiki birds, like the ones the company designed for the Pesky Parrot tiki bars aboard Royal Caribbean cruise ships. “We had an absolutely wonderful compliment that was kind of a backdoor compliment, but the president of the cruise line wanted realistic birds,” Holt said. “He called us one day and was very excited because two different people had complained to PETA that we were mistreating animals on the ship because there was no food and no water next to the birds,” he explained. That’s how realistic the animatronics seemed to those two people. “We dream for those kinds of things to happen,” Holt added. 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