The Inspiration for Today’s Audio-Animatronics
Beginning with the opening of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room in Disneyland in June of 1963, and followed by the amazing first-of-its-kind display of a standing and speaking President Lincoln at the 1964 / 1965 New York World’s Fair, Disney’s Audio-Animatronics technology has always played an important role in entertaining, informing, amusing and even frightening guests as they enjoy the show that plays at Disney theme parks around the world each and every day.
Be it “Chef Remy”, a small yet personable rat in Epcot, a towering fire-breathing dragon in Fantasmic!, or even the many rascals, scoundrels, villains and knaves found in the different Pirates of the Caribbean attractions across the globe, all of these “characters” are a result of a single moment of inspiration, which Walt drew from a small gilded birdcage he spotted in an antiques shop while on vacation in New Orleans.
Inside this golden birdcage was a tiny feathered bird, which moved and sang as though alive through the creative use of tiny gears and bellows. A form of entertainment in the late 19th century, it was manufactured by B. Bontems, a small company located at 72, Rue de Clery, Paris and known as a “Manufacturer of Birds and Butterflies Machine Heads.” The model Walt found was manufactured as early as 1850.
Seeing the small bird within the cage “perform”, Walt was intrigued by how the mechanism located within the base of the cage worked to bring the small bird to life, and he pondered how he might be able to expand upon that technology to bring characters, animals and even humans to “life” within his new theme park. He purchased the antique birdcage and gave it to Roger Broggie, who in turn provided it to Wathel Rogers. Walt had charged Wathel and Fred Joerger with creating architectural models for Disneyland’s upcoming construction, so Wathel was just the person to decipher the small and intricate details of this intriguing antique.
Discovering a system of gears, springs and bellows, Wathel and Roger explained how it all worked to Walt, who, in seeing the possibilities, tasked Roger and his team with developing and improving upon the concept to ultimately create the concept of Audio-Animatronics.
“Just as we had to learn to make our animated cartoons talk, we had to find a way to make these characters talk, too. Now, to accomplish this, we created a new type of animation. So new that we had to invent a new name for it…Audio-Animatronics.” - Walt Disney
Walt and his team of Imagineers began to explore applying this new technology to various story elements within Disneyland, ultimately leading to the opening of the innovative Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room attraction in June of 1963. About this time, Walt was asked to develop some attractions for the 1964 / 1965 New York World’s Fair. Seeing this as an opportunity to showcase the new Audio-Animatronics technology, he set out to move beyond what had been created so far and began developing a full size human figure in the form of Abraham Lincoln. Appearing in the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction in the Illinois pavilion at the World’s Fair, Walt’s new Audio-Animatronic figure of America’s 16th President greeted guests while seated in a chair, but soon rose to his feet and began delivering moments from some of his more notable speeches. Having seen nothing like it ever before, audiences were amazed at the lifelike appearance of the figure and its ability to stand up from a chair and speak.
“…the final result is so lifelike, you may find it hard to believe.” - Walt Disney
In addition to the Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln attraction, Walt and his team also created three other attractions for the fair, including “it’s a small world”, The Ford Magic Skyway, and the General Electric Carousel of Progress, all of which used the new Audio-Animatronic technology. Today, this technology has been honed to create hundreds of lifelike characters, which guests enjoy every day at Disney theme parks around the world.
