Disney Facts: A history of Disney’s Audio-Animatronic figures
The Disney kingdom may have all started with a mouse, but the Audio-Animatronic robots all started with a bird — a mechanical bird Walt Disney purchased in the 1950s, while on vacation in Europe, that became the inspiration for what is seen around the World today.
The term Audio-Animatronics was first used by the Disney company in 1961 and was trademarked in 1967. What started off as talking birds in the Enchanted Tiki Room has evolved into an interactive figure which can hold conversations and react.
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| Scott Brinegar / @2009 Disney |
1951: Work begins on “Project Little Man.” The idea is to create a miniature figure programmed with cams, cables and tubes to mimic tap-dancing routines performed by the late Buddy Ebsen.
1963: Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room opens at Disneyland. It’s the first show to feature Audio-Animatronics technology.
1964: The world’s first fully animated human figure, Abraham Lincoln, debuts at the New York World’s Fair in Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln. Audio-Animatronics figures are also in three other World’s Fair shows designed and produced by Disney: Carousel of Progress (featuring figures animated using a programming harness, a precursor of today’s motion capture systems), Magic Skyway and It’s a Small World. Two Audio-Animatronics birds, Robin and Umbrella, appear in “Mary Poppins.” Walt Disney reinvests profits from the film to create MAPO, an organization within Walt Disney Imagineering dedicated to creating and innovating Audio-Animatronics figures.
1965: Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln – featuring the Audio-Animatronics figure of Abraham Lincoln (actually, a duplicate since the original was still performing at the World’s Fair) – opens at Disneyland.
1970: Audio-Animatronics technology enters the computer age with the use of Digital Animation Control System, a computer-controlled playback system for Disney shows and attractions.
1989: The first A-100 Audio-Animatronics figure, the Wicked Witch of the West, debuts as part of The Great Movie Ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios in Walt Disney World Resort. The A-100 has technology that gives the figures more fluid and realistic movements.
1992: Pirates of the Caribbean opens at Disneyland Paris. The attraction features sword-fighting pirates figures.
1998: Hopper, the grasshopper from the Disney•Pixar film “A Bug’s Life,” is the most sophisticated Audio-Animatronics figure produced to date. Featuring 74 functions, the character appears in “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
2002: The first portable, all-electric Audio-Animatronics figure, Meeko, the raccoon from the Disney animated film “Pocahontas,” appears in a basket carried by Pocahontas.
2003: The first totally autonomous Audio-Animatronics figure, Lucky the Dinosaur, makes his debut at Disney’s California Adventure.
2007: The Muppet Mobile Lab, featuring Muppets Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker, marks the first time free-roaming Audio-Animatronics characters can interact and converse with each other, as well as with guests they encounter along their way.
2008: Mr. Potato Head in Toy Story Mania! at both Disney’s California Adventure and Disney’s Hollywood Studios marks the first time an Audio-Animatronics figure features lips with such a wide range of lifelike movements, can remove and re-attach a body part (his ear) and has digitally animated eyes that can look directly at the particular guest with whom he is conversing. Also, since Mr. Potato Head has more lines of dialogue than any Audio-Animatronics figure ever created by Walt Disney Imagineering, it has required more programming hours than any other figure.
