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Audio-Animatronics (often abbreviated as animatronics) is the registered trademark for a form of robotics created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and make noise, generally speech or song. An Audio-Animatronic is different from android-type robots in that an animatronic works off prerecorded moves and sounds, rather than processing external stimuli and responding to them.

Creation & Early Development

Audio-Animatronics were originally a creation of Lee Adams, who started his career with Disney as an electrician at the Burbank studio and was one of Disney's original Imagineers. The first Disney Audio-Animatronic was the giant squid in the movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, which was created by Adams.

The term "Audio-Animatronics" was first used commercially by Disney in 1961, was filed as a trademark in 1964, and was registered in 1967.

Perhaps the most impressive of the early Audio-Animatronics efforts was The Enchanted Tiki Room, which opened in 1963 at Disneyland, where a room full of tropical creatures synchronize eye and facial action with a musical score entirely by electro-mechanical means. The "cast" of the musical revue used tones recorded on tape which vibrated a metal reed that closed a circuit to trigger a relay which sent a pulse of electricity to a mechanism that causes a pneumatic valve to move a part of the figure's body.

The movements of the attraction's birds, flowers and tiki idols were triggered by sound, hence the audio prefix. Figures' movements had a neutral "natural resting position" that the limb/part would return to when there was no electric pulse. The animation was all on/off moves, such as an open/closed eye or beak. On/off movement was called a digital system.

Other early examples were the Lincoln Exhibit presented at the State of Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. Also at the fair were three other pavilions featuring Audio-Animatronics. They were Pepsi/UNICEF's "it's a small world", General Electric's Carousel of Progress, and Ford's Magic Skyway.

Inner Workings

Pneumatic muscles were not powerful enough to move larger objects, like an artificial human arm, so hydraulics were used for large figures. On/off movement would cause an arm to be either up over the artificial man's head (on switch), or down (off switch), but no movement in between. To create realistic in-between movement in large figures, an analog system was used. This gave the figure's limbs/parts a full range of in-between motion, rather than only two positions. The digital system was used with small pneumatic moving limbs (eyelids, beaks, fingers), and the analog system was used for large hydraulic human or animal (arms, heads) moving limbs.

Disney attractions that have utilized Audio-Animatronics

The technology of the AAs at the theme parks around the world vary in their sophistication. They range from the blinking and mouth movements at Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room to full body movement, from the mouth to the tip of the fingers at Stitch's Great Escape! At the Magic Kingdom. Current technologies have paved the way for more elaborate AA figures, such as the 'Ursula head' at Mermaid Lagoon Theater at Tokyo DisneySea, the Indiana Jones figures inside the Indy attractions at both Disneyland & Tokyo DisneySea, the 'swordfighting' pirates inside Disneyland Paris’ version of Pirates of the Caribbean, the "lava/rock monster' inside Journey to the Center of the Earth at Tokyo DisneySea, the "Yeti" inside Expedition Everest at Disney's Animal Kingdom, or the Roz figure in the Disney's California Adventure attraction "Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!", which can seemingly 'interact' with guests with the help of an unseen operator who chooses pre-recorded messages for Roz to 'speak', thereby seeming to ‘react’ to individual guests' unique appearances/clothing.

Disneyland Resort

Disneyland

Disney's California Adventure

Walt Disney World Resort

The Magic Kingdom

Epcot

Disney-MGM Studios

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Tokyo Disney Resort

Tokyo Disneyland

Tokyo DisneySea

Disneyland Resort Paris

Disneyland Park

Hong Kong Disneyland Resort

Hong Kong Disneyland

Other uses of animatronic figures

Animatronics also gained popularity in the 1980s through use at family entertainment centers such as ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre.

External links

Disney jargon

Animatronique | オーディオアニマトロニクス | Animatronic | Animatronic

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Audio-Animatronics".

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