The 1992 Tim Burton film Batman Returns was the first to use the boid model for behavioural animation. A modified version of the original boids software, originally developed at Symbolics, was used to produce realistic imagery of bats swarming, and an amination of a an 'army' of penguins marching through the streets of Gothan City.
Andy Kopra used Reynold's original program as a starting point, but extended the technique to simulate the same 3D enviroment as was being used by the human actors. He also used special effects, such as blurring the wing motion, to reinforce the idea of speed. Other specialists then combined the boid-inspired bats and penguins, with the human shots to produce the finished film.
In behavioural animation then, an autonomous character determines its own actions to a certain extent. This gives the character some ability to improvise, and frees the animator from the need to specify every detail of the character's motions.
Some films that have used behavioural animation since Batman Returns are: