Suddenly, it whirrs into life: it has spotted an emperor penguin. With its antenna set to scan, the 90-centimetre-long robot trundles towards the bird, searching for a signal from an RFID chip ...

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Directors of some of of the year’s most notable animated features talk about the design and inspiration behind key characters including a sentient robot, expressive cat and villainous penguin.

understood – they discuss the comfort that a robotic penguin, a ‘helper-bot’ such as Milton, can bring to a child entering and waking from surgery, for example. And of the future?

Directors of some of of the year’s most notable animated features talk about the design and inspiration behind key characters including a sentient robot, expressive cat and villainous penguin. Anxiety ...