The Chazen Museum of Art’s latest exhibit is an intuitive childhood drive from which emerge fantastical realms, perplexing creatures and comedic narratives that instigate the innocent wide-eyed excitement, the nostalgia of toy-filled yesterdays that adults — confined to cages of responsibility and societal norms where creativity and innocent fun oft appear to have little place in reality — cherish but are afraid to admit.

Mechanical sculptures, animated by the simple act of cranking gears via handle, provide an escape into our own Neverland where we emerge as Robin Williams in jungle spandex indulging children’s freedoms. But back in reality, we settle for the perks of “over 21.”

Michael Croft’s collection of automata showcased in the Chazen’s “Automata: Contemporary Mechanical Sculpture” exhibition, popularizes and exhilarates an ancient and little-known art form dating back to 1000 B.C. in China (for the average, the-Mona-Lisa-is-an-amazing-painting-because-my-teacher-said-so citizen.)

On display are mechanical sculptures from purportedly 14 international artists and a few domestic artists — the result of Croft’s peculiar enthrallment and hobby-like motivation occupying the last 15 years of his life. He is not our modern-society’s ideal of what constitutes an art expert but rather what an art historian, whose highs are administered by the academic field of art behind desks as opposed to easels, wakes up to wet bed sheets for. He’s an all around da Vinci-like expert whose critique of artists is piggybacked by self-created collections of automata — hence his own automata inventions on display.

Little is left open for interpretation among these recently built sculptures — the oldest creation dated 1997 and the most recent fashioned just last year — with the best model for self-interpretation via Jan Zalud’s “Sleepless,” a mundane wooden caricature of a Picasso-esque contorted head allowing diminutive dogs to circumnavigate in and out of the face’s gaping mouth.

Rather, the majority of Croft’s collections are personal takes on well-known narratives and folktales or slapstick that cull a laugh-out-loud appreciation for the artist’s humorous wittiness. They’re three-dimensional mediums that seek to amuse with animate representations of idioms and folklore as simple as “The early bird catches the worm,” comically reinterpreted to be “the early bird catches a tiger’s tail disguised as a worm.”

Croft’s own creation entitled “The Flasher,” comprised of an unassuming wooden silhouette of a bald man painted in peach staring shrewdly into visitors’ eyes while gripping his grey trench coat in preparation to perform its titular act, is perched atop an open box exposing wooden gears and bronze attachments.

“The Flasher” and all but two automata unfortunately sit inside respective glass cases. With exposed gears and protruding handles behind transparent walls, understandably a security measure, the mystery behind these adroitly hand-made sculptures beckons the primal urge that killed the cat. One question eats away at our curiosity. What happens when we crank the automata?

To compensate, two television screens screwed to opposite ends of the gallery digitally replace the viewer’s intended tangible connection to the sculptures. Upon pulling back the trench coat, “The Flasher” hides the surprise of an LED superimposed upon a minute fa?ade of a camera, flashing a white light toward its viewer. The creation will likely catch visitors off guard and incite a giggle.

How does the addition of the digital intermediary translate with viewers? Omit the cool metallic sensation of bronze and the unadulterated sound of wood clapping on wood with every successful rotation of the crank. Like Amazon’s Kindle does not have the same feel as paper bound books, watching the cranking is not the same as self-cranking. Toys and automata,especially those that exhibit narratives and idioms held dear to our childhood, are meant to be touched, felt and cranked even as adults.

“Automata: Contemporary Mechanical Sculpture” runs through March 14 in the Mayer Gallery at the Chazen Museum of Art. Visit www.chazen.wisc.edu for more information.