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The stage measures 130 by 50 feet, about half the size of a football
field.
The "actors" in the show are Audio-Animatronics®,
life-like figures designed and built by Walt Disney Imagineering.
The figures are made of the latest in micro-processors and other
electronics, new plastics, and breakthrough materials. The production,
five years in development, involves some of the most technically
demanding staging techniques ever used.
All characters appear and sound life-like -- down to such details
as garment styles and colors, and regional accents in speech. Mark
Twain carries a smoking cigar; Benjamin Franklin actually climbs
stairs and walks across the stage.
For the first time, each Audio-Animatronics character is equipped
with an individual voice and speaker system instead of a theater
system.
A silent 175-ton scene changer is housed under the electronic
wiring, electrical connections, air, hydraulic fluid and water lines
which give life-like movement to the figures and help create special
effects such as rain.
The scene changer -- a 65-by-35-by-14-foot steel framework --
is as long as a boxcar and twice as wide.
Operated by computer, the scene changer moves the sets into place
horizontally. The sets then rise into audience view on telescoping
hydraulic supports. There are also seven lifts which bring sets
into view from either side and above.
More than two dozen computers control the entire operation. Once
the button is pushed, Audio-Animatronics actors move and speak,
music plays, lights brighten and dim, curtains open, sets rise,
and motion picture projectors roll.
Behind the 13 three-dimensional settings and performers, the rear
projection screen adds dimension to the settings and transition
between decade spanning scenes.
The rear projection screen -- 28 feet high by 155 feet long --
is the largest ever used. The American Adventure uses more than
3,000 feet of 70 mm film.
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