Definition: When Walt Disney and his Imagineers developed the means to bring three-dimesnional animated characters to life for theme park attractions, the company dubbed the technology Audio Animatronics. The term is an amalgam of animation and electronics combined with sound.
The original Audio Animatronic figures, the birds, flowers, and tiki Gods that debuted in 1963 in the Enchanted Tiki Room, as well as the Abraham Lincoln attraction at the 1964 New York World's Fair, used cams, hydraulics, and other means to program and operate the characters. Through the years, computers and other refinements have helped make Audio Animatronic figures more fluid, sophisticated, and realistic.
While they don't use the term Audio Animatronics, non-Disney parks (notably the Universal parks) and third-party ride manufacturers such as the Sally Corporation also develop attractions with three-dimesnional animated characters.
Also Known As: animatronic characters, robotic characters, robots
Alternate Spellings: Audio-Animatronics, animatronics
Examples:
Disney has developed dozens of attractions featuring Audio Animatronics, inluding:
