German Circus Uses Holograms Instead Of Live Animals For A Cruelty-Free Magical Experience
For a very long time, people couldn’t have imagined a circus show without horses, elephants, monkeys, and lions. But recently, Circus Roncalli has shunned tradition, swapping flesh and blood for hologram projections. The shows, however, remain just as spectacular.
More info: roncalli.de
Circus Roncalli has been entertaining crowds with its animal shows since 1976 but has decided to change things up in an attempt to fight against animal cruelty in the industry.
Its shows still feature tusks and tails, fiery circles and acrobats, but in a world’s first, not one of the circus animals are real. Roncalli wanted to create 3D images from hologram projectors while filling the arena measuring 32 meters (105 feet) wide and 5 meters (16 feet) deep with 360° visibility for the entire audience.
Roncalli’s agency TAG/TRAUM in cooperation with Bluebox partnered with Optoma, and 11 ZU850 laser projectors were installed for a mesmerizing holography experience.
Birger Wunderlich at Bluebox said, “We have been using Optoma projectors for 6 years and have consistently had a very positive experience in price, performance, and reliability. We needed a high contrast projector with great colors for the 3D effect and the ZU850’s 2,000,000:1 contrast is perfect for this project.”
The bold move comes amid increasing worldwide concerns about circus animals living much of their lives under horrible conditions in captivity.
Activists have accused many circuses of beating, starving and keeping their show animals in unsanitary conditions while they perform for large crowds according to very tight schedules.
In the UK, for example, legislation is before the government which would ban traveling circuses from using wild animals from 2020.
Check out the holograms in action in the video below
Here’s what people had to say
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Combined with human clowns and acrobats, that would be a fantastic show!
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This is wonderful! I stopped going to circuses because of the inhumane treatment of animals (I saw a tiger abused). All circuses should do this or opt to use no animals at all.
Maybe I’m perverse, but it sort of reminds me of Bladerunner in a devastated future where all the animals are gone due to man’s stupidity with refusing to do all we can about the environment.
Thank you Circus Roncalli for your compassion to animals; everything human beings do, can do humanely, our own survival depends on it. "Compassion is the chief law of human existence." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (universal compassion, that is).
I'm glad they are combating animal cruelty, but personally I wouldn't go see this. It's very unoriginal, the same thing every time, just like a movie (except I doubt there's any sort of plot here). Instead, go see a ballet or some kind of show where humans do tricks. Much more ethical and original, and LIVE, not pre-made
You know what the thing is? Some people suck and some don't. I've seen performers with animals where in the off season those animals live practically in their home, where they treat their animals great and you can see that the animal is happy. I think better overview and control is needed, but I am not categorically against animals in the circus. The pictures above are great but those do not reflect hours, days, months, years of training and companionship between human performer and animal performer. I don't know. I understand the no cruelty point , especially with those bears on chains made to dance, but I also understand the good people who have had animals for generations and love them but now can't work.
Love this! Even as a kid I thought the circus animals in the cages at the looked sad. Great new concept with endless possibilities and bring back the joy of the circus.
Think of the possibilities, they could bring back the dinosaurs or take everyone into the ocean, with whales and fish.
What an amazing experience this would be for anyone. I'd love to go. Imagination and a touch of reality as well.
Cruelty free except for all those poor electrons and photons getting whipped around
This is cool, I just think it isn't nearly as entertaining. But I understand it's important to stop abuse.
And what about the 42 years of parading animals around? Probably only did it as it was getting harder to get licenses/ insurance etc.
This is borderline pathetic. Animals do not belong in a circus and banning them from participating in them is a positive thing. However, the whole point of a circus is to act out in real time features of physical abilities that are entertaining and cannot be professionally done by the public...when you put in a hologram show, IT STOPS BEING A CIRCUS. There is nothing circus about watching virtual reality. My issue is calling this cinematography a circus, it isn't.
If these animals are taken out of the circus, then where are they . They ARE being filmed in a different places by cameras performing and then the show can go on to fool people that these aren't real. If these were works of art by computer animators then yes this is very good and I too wold like to see this in person. Unless they come to my house and make a hologram out of me sitting in the audience, then I would not like that, like the elephants with torn ears doing knee stands.
These holograms are definitely animated, not filmed. None of these animated animals moves perfectly natural. Quite good, but not perfect.
Load More Replies...
I love the idea of this it’s brilliant, I just worry about what happens to the animals once they are out of a job? I hope the new laws put in place have a way of making sure the animals aren’t put down once they go into effect.
Well-trained healthy horses are worth a bit. I guess some will be sold to another (international) circus and continue their job, others will be sold to private horse people. The same goes for dogs. Lions or elephants are a bit more complicated, but probably there are places for them in zoological gardens (worldwide), best case breeding programs.
Load More Replies... 
Oh yes, wild animals are known to do acrobat tricks just for crowd cheers and all the fame that brings
Load More Replies...
Combined with human clowns and acrobats, that would be a fantastic show!
Load More Replies... This is wonderful! I stopped going to circuses because of the inhumane treatment of animals (I saw a tiger abused). All circuses should do this or opt to use no animals at all.
Maybe I’m perverse, but it sort of reminds me of Bladerunner in a devastated future where all the animals are gone due to man’s stupidity with refusing to do all we can about the environment.
Thank you Circus Roncalli for your compassion to animals; everything human beings do, can do humanely, our own survival depends on it. "Compassion is the chief law of human existence." - Fyodor Dostoyevsky (universal compassion, that is).
I'm glad they are combating animal cruelty, but personally I wouldn't go see this. It's very unoriginal, the same thing every time, just like a movie (except I doubt there's any sort of plot here). Instead, go see a ballet or some kind of show where humans do tricks. Much more ethical and original, and LIVE, not pre-made
You know what the thing is? Some people suck and some don't. I've seen performers with animals where in the off season those animals live practically in their home, where they treat their animals great and you can see that the animal is happy. I think better overview and control is needed, but I am not categorically against animals in the circus. The pictures above are great but those do not reflect hours, days, months, years of training and companionship between human performer and animal performer. I don't know. I understand the no cruelty point , especially with those bears on chains made to dance, but I also understand the good people who have had animals for generations and love them but now can't work.
Love this! Even as a kid I thought the circus animals in the cages at the looked sad. Great new concept with endless possibilities and bring back the joy of the circus.
Think of the possibilities, they could bring back the dinosaurs or take everyone into the ocean, with whales and fish.
What an amazing experience this would be for anyone. I'd love to go. Imagination and a touch of reality as well.
Cruelty free except for all those poor electrons and photons getting whipped around
This is cool, I just think it isn't nearly as entertaining. But I understand it's important to stop abuse.
And what about the 42 years of parading animals around? Probably only did it as it was getting harder to get licenses/ insurance etc.
This is borderline pathetic. Animals do not belong in a circus and banning them from participating in them is a positive thing. However, the whole point of a circus is to act out in real time features of physical abilities that are entertaining and cannot be professionally done by the public...when you put in a hologram show, IT STOPS BEING A CIRCUS. There is nothing circus about watching virtual reality. My issue is calling this cinematography a circus, it isn't.
If these animals are taken out of the circus, then where are they . They ARE being filmed in a different places by cameras performing and then the show can go on to fool people that these aren't real. If these were works of art by computer animators then yes this is very good and I too wold like to see this in person. Unless they come to my house and make a hologram out of me sitting in the audience, then I would not like that, like the elephants with torn ears doing knee stands.
These holograms are definitely animated, not filmed. None of these animated animals moves perfectly natural. Quite good, but not perfect.
Load More Replies... I love the idea of this it’s brilliant, I just worry about what happens to the animals once they are out of a job? I hope the new laws put in place have a way of making sure the animals aren’t put down once they go into effect.
Well-trained healthy horses are worth a bit. I guess some will be sold to another (international) circus and continue their job, others will be sold to private horse people. The same goes for dogs. Lions or elephants are a bit more complicated, but probably there are places for them in zoological gardens (worldwide), best case breeding programs.
Load More Replies... Oh yes, wild animals are known to do acrobat tricks just for crowd cheers and all the fame that brings
Load More Replies...
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