Information AboutAudio-animatronic |
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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 Lee Adams. However, perhaps the most impressive of the early audio-animatronics efforts was The Enchanted Tiki Room (Disneyland Anaheim), where a room full of tropical creatures synchronize eye and facial action with a musical score entirely by electro-mechanical means. Disney's 1963 animatronics of the Tiki Room robot birds 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 (beak, wing, etc.). The artificial audio-animatronic birds' movements were all triggered by sound, hence the prefix 'audio-'. Figures' movements had a neutral "natural resting position" that the limb/part would return to when there was no electric pulse. The movements were all On/Off moves, such as an open/closed eye or beak. On/Off movement was called a digital system. Other early examples was 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 Hydraulic s 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. LIST OF DISNEY ATTRACTIONS THAT HAVE UTILIZED AUDIO-ANIMATRONICS The technology of the AAs at the theme parks around the world vary in their skill. 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 figure of Benjamin Franklin at The American Adventure at Epcot, which is capable of walking down a flight of stairs, or the "Roz" figure in the newest Disney's California Adventure attraction "Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!", which can interact with guests. 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
EXTERNAL LINKS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Animatronics also gained some popularity in the 1980's through use at Family Entertainment Centers such as ShowBiz Pizza Place and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre. |