Showing Results for "animatronics"

See Also:

• plural of animatronic.

animatronics

American  

[an-uh-muh-tron-iks] / ˌæn ə məˈtrɒn ɪks /

noun

1. (used with a singular verb) the technology connected with the use of electronics to animate puppets or other figures, as for motion pictures.

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animatronics British  

/ ˌænɪməˈtrɒnɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) a branch of film and theatre technology that combines traditional puppetry techniques with electronics to create lifelike animated effects

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• animatronic
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of animatronics

1975–80; blend of animate and electronics

Explanation

The art of making mechanical creatures that look like animals is called animatronics. If you create a robotic cat, you've mastered the technique of animatronics. Before computer animation became versatile and sophisticated, many movies used animatronics to create the illusion that people were interacting with dinosaurs or imaginary creatures. Animals created using animatronics are robotic, but they appear fairly realistic. Walt Disney was the first film director to use animatronics, in the 1960s,though he originally called the technique Audio-Animatronics.