Tomorrowland
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| Tomorrowland | |
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| Attraction type | Themed Land |
| Theme | The Future, Space, and Moving Forward |
| Opening date | July 17, 1955 |
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Tomorrowland is one of the many themed lands at the five "Magic Kingdom-style" theme parks owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company around the world. Each version of the land is different and features numerous classic and unique attractions that depict the numerous views of the future. At Disneyland Paris, the area whose theme and content are much like those of the Tomorrowlands at other Disney parks is called Discoveryland.
Walt Disney was known for his futurist views and, through his television programs, showed the American public how the world was moving into the future. Tomorrowland was the realized culmination of his views. In his own words: "Tomorrow can be a wonderful age. Our scientists today are opening the doors of the Space Age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future."
Ironically, it is this movement into the future that has, on occasion, left Tomorrowland mired in the past. Disneyland's Tomorrowland is now in its third generation, and the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland is in its second. The Walt Disney Company has mentioned that it wanted to keep Tomorrowland from becoming "Yesterdayland". As a self-referential joke along this line, Disney's 2007 film Meet the Robinsons (which is set mainly in the year 2037) features an amusement park called Todayland, which has rides that look remarkably like Space Mountain and Disneyland's original Rocket Jets.
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[edit] Disneyland
[edit] Tomorrowland 1955-1967
The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 17, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open due to budget cuts. Because the construction of the park was rushed, Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. Walt Disney was reluctant to turn his land into a corporate showcase. Monsanto Company, American Motors, Richfield Oil, and Dutch Boy Paint were some of the many company showcases that were open in Tomorrowland in the first few years. Since the park was on a strict budget, one cost-cutting idea was to use the sets of the Nautilus from the 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a walkthrough attraction, which remained open until 1966. For the first four years, most of Tomorrowland was generally open space and considered to be very corporate-fueled.
However, it was not solely composed of exhibits, and there were many attractions which have since been retired. Tomorrowland's showpiece was the TWA Moonliner, derived from the "Man In Space" television show developed in the 1950s. It was the tallest structure in the park at the time, even taller than the park icon Sleeping Beauty Castle. Autopia, an opening-day attraction, gave visitors a view of the National Interstate System that was to be built in the future. The attraction still remains open today, though it has received numerous updates.
In 1957, the Monsanto House of the Future, a plastic house with four wings cantilevered from a central plinth was built. This was similar to precursors at previous World's Fairs, though in those cases, they were simply homes with modern conveniences and were aimed at housewives. Aside from displaying "modern" conveniences such as picture phones and television remote controls, this house introduced many people to their first microwave oven.
In 1959, three major attractions, the park's first billed E-ticket attractions, opened at Tomorrowland. The addition of the Disneyland Monorail, Submarine Voyage, and Matterhorn (later became part of Fantasyland), was so large that it was televised as the second opening of Disneyland. New attractions came and some went, as Walt Disney focused his efforts on the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. After the Fair closed, he turned his attention to a new Tomorrowland and the Florida Project, which would later become Walt Disney World.
[edit] Tomorrowland 1967-1998
Unfortunately, Walt Disney died in December 1966, almost seven months before the a new Tomorrowland would open. In 1967, the area was completely rebuilt with new attractions and scenery. The original layout was demolished, and a new set of buildings was erected. The addition of Carousel of Progress, Flight to the Moon, Adventure Thru Inner Space, a new Circle-Vision building, and the PeopleMover/Rocket Jets, gave Tomorrowland the "World on the Move" theme.
In 1973, "The World On The Move" began to change. General Electric decided to close Carousel of Progress, which would later re-open at a new home in Walt Disney World in 1975 as part of its expansion.
With the American Bicentennial approaching, Disney designers seized the opportunity of the vacant carousel theater to present a large musical extravaganza which featuring 114 Audio Animatronics - America Sings, in 1974. The following year, Flight to the Moon was updated into Mission To Mars, as actual flights to the moon had since become a reality. In 1975, during the same year, Walt Disney's proposed 1965 "Space Port" would finally become reality. Construction began, and in May 1977, the "Space Port", which later became Space Mountain, opened to the public.
During the eighties two new attractions found homes in Tomorrowland, Star Tours and Captain EO. Captain EO replaced the Space Stage and Star Tours replaced Adventure Thru Inner Space.
[edit] Tomorrowland 1998
A new Tomorrowland opened in 1998, loosely based on Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland and a "retro-futurist" concept. In place of the slow-moving PeopleMover was the ill-fated Rocket Rods. Most of the attractions remained the same, except for the removal of Circle-Vision 360, Captain EO, and Mission to Mars. The Rocket Jets were replaced by a similar attraction called the Astro Orbitor, which was placed at the entrance of Tomorrowland at ground level. The original Rocket Jets ride mechanism remained intact atop the Rocket Jets queue, and was converted into an unmanned show element dubbed the "Observatron". Two Epcot attractions found their place in Tomorrowland, "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!" & "Innoventions". When the land re-opened, many areas, including Space Mountain, was painted in bronzes, golds, and dark browns, with some emerald green. Landscaping, with apparent vegetable plots being planted in some locations, made reference to "neo-agrarian" concepts.
[edit] Tomorrowland 2055
Before the introduction of Tomorrowland 1998, a much more elaborate Tomorrowland was planned for the park. Tomorrowland 2055 would be Tomorrowland as it appeared one hundred years to the day of Disneyland's opening. The new backstory would simply be aliens have landed in Tomorrowland to visit the 100th anniversary of Disneyland. The revised land would take cues from Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris, much like Tomorrowland 1998, along with cues from the newly refurbished Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, which had recently been given a sci-fi makeover. The new land would host both new and old favorites, including:
1. Astro Orbitor 2. Autopia 3. Captain EO 4. Disneyland Monorail 5. Disneyland Railroad 6. ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter 7. Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue 8. Rocket Rods 9. Space Mountain 10. Star Tours 11. Submarine Voyage 12. Timekeeper
[edit] Today
In late 2003, Matt Ouimet became president of the Disneyland Resort and sought to change some of the cost-cutting trends that were established during the Eisner era. Space Mountain was closed for two full years, as the entire ride was completely refurbished and the track was completely replaced, albeit with the same track plan. The empty Rocket Rods queue, which used to house the old Circle-Vision theater, was converted into "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters", a new version of the popular attraction at Tokyo Disneyland & the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World.
In February 2005, Walt Disney Imagineering approved a repaint of Tomorrowland for the Happiest Homecoming on Earth fiftieth anniversary celebration. The new paint scheme incorporates a composition of blues, whites and silver while keeping some of the 1998 gold and bronze colors.
[edit] Attractions
- Astro Orbitor
- Autopia
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Disneyland Monorail
- Disneyland Railroad
- Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
- Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
- Innoventions
- Space Mountain
- Star Tours
- Starcade
[edit] Restaurants
- Redd Rockett's Pizza Port
- The Spirit of Refreshment
- Tomorrowland Terrace
[edit] Shopping
- Little Green Men Store Command (Formerly "Premiere Shop")
- Star Trader
- Tomorrowlanding
[edit] Magic Kingdom
The second Tomorrowland opened on October 1, 1971 at the Magic Kingdom in the Walt Disney World Resort, Florida, and, like at Disneyland, was opened unfinished. But by 1975, the entire land was completed, and much more closely resembled Walt Disney's vision for Tomorrowland.
Some of the most popular Disney park attractions premiered here, such as Space Mountain, which opened in 1975 and is now part of every Tomorrowland around the world. Some classic Tomorrowland attractions which have closed in Disneyland still live on at the Magic Kingdom Park: the Tomorrowland Transit Authority is like the old PeopleMover, and the Carousel of Progress was moved here from California in 1975. Walt Disney's model display of the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow is also here, as a display visible only from the Tomorrowland Transit Authority.
For most of its history, Tomorrowland's color scheme was predominantly white with soft blues, creating a retro-modernist landscape. Huge monolithic towers, spires, and clean lines completed the futuristic look. In 1994, using inspiration from Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris, Tomorrowland was completely re-built and altered to resemble a galactic spaceport as it would have been envisioned by the science-fiction comic strips of the early 20th century, like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. In essence, Tomorrowland would represent "the future that never was." Today, Tomorrowland has been given a much more metallic look, along with new darker blues and purples, especially along its main concourse leading from the central hub.
[edit] Attractions
- Astro Orbiter
- Tomorrowland Indy Speedway
- Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
- Space Mountain
- Stitch's Great Escape!
- Tomorrowland Arcade (Tomorrowland Light and Power Co.)
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority
- Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress
- Stitch's Supersonic Celebration
[edit] Tokyo Disneyland
At Tokyo Disneyland, Tomorrowland opened on April 15, 1983 after the Imagineers set out to create an more urban Tomorrowland, much like a working community than a land of future technology. The rides are much more technology-specific, and the special effects are much more expensive, due to a much larger budget from The Oriental Land Company.
The area closely resembles the original 1970s Tomorrowland, which used to be at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, Florida until 1994. The Space Mountain area, however, is more similar to Disneyland's Tomorrowland. The paint scheme of the Tomorrowland at Tokyo Disneyland is also mostly white, with some blues and turquoise.
[edit] Attractions
- Star Jets
- Grand Circuit Raceway
- Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters
- MicroAdventure!
- Monsters Inc: Ride And Go Seek
- Showbase
- Space Mountain
- Star Tours
[edit] Restaurants
- Lite Bite Satellite
- Pan Galactic Pizza Port
- Plaza Restaurant
- Soft Landing
- Space Place FoodPort
- The Popping Pod
- Tomorrowland Terrace
[edit] Shopping
- Cosmic Encounter
- ImageWorks
- Planet M
- Solar Ray's Light Sopplies
- Stellar Sweets
[edit] Extinct Attractions
- Captain EO
- The Timekeeper
- Eternal Seas
- Magic Journeys
- Meet the World
- Starcade
[edit] Disneyland Park Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris has Tomorrowland with an entirely new concept, Discoveryland. European culture was used distinctively in the park and Discoveryland uses the ideas of famed European thinkers and explorers, with Jules Verne featured most prominently.
Architecturally designed using Jules Verne's vision of the future as inspiration, the land is laid out very differently. Major Tomorrowland classics exist here, such as Autopia and Star Tours, but Space Mountain is significantly changed. Originally conceived as "Discovery Mountain", it was originally proposed to hold more than one attraction (including an improved version of Horizons from Epcot) and a restaurant. But due to budget cuts, it opened in 1995 as Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune (From the Earth to the Moon).
Opposite the Space Mountain show building is the Nautilus Lagoon, with a walk-through recreation of the Nautilus submarine from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also in Discoveryland is Autopia and "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience". The showcase attraction on opening day was a Circle-Vision 360 film, titled Le Visionarium. The attraction featured an eccentric time-travelling robot and his robotic assistant who take Jules Verne into the world of today, which was the future he dreamed and eventually came true.
Discoveryland had been heavily inspired by the abandoned Disneyland land concept, Discovery Bay, which was to have sat on the North of the Rivers of America in the park.
Space Mountain was completely refurbished in 2005 for the Happiest Celebration on Earth, with a new soundtrack and special effects. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast opened April 8, 2006, in the former building of Le Visionarium, which closed in September 2004.
[edit] Attractions
- Arcade Alpha & Arcade Bêta
- Autopia
- Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast
- Disneyland Railroad- Discoveryland Station
- Honey, I Shrunk the Audience
- L'Astroport Services Interstellaires
- Les Mystères du Nautilus
- Orbitron, Machines Volantes
- Space Mountain: Mission 2
- Star Tours
- Videopolis (Currently showing Cinéma Mickey)
[edit] Restaurants
- Buzz Lightyear's Pizza Planet Restaurant
- Café Hyperion
- Cool Station
- Rocket Café
[edit] Shopping
- Constellations
- Light Speed Photography
- Star Traders
[edit] Extinct Attractions
- Arcade Omega
- Captain EO
- Le Visionarium
[edit] Hong Kong Disneyland
The newest Tomorrowland opened on September 12, 2005 at Hong Kong Disneyland. Like the newer generations of the American Tomorrowlands, Hong Kong's version features an emphasis on metallic trim, with lots of blue and purple hues.
Since the opening of the park, some unique attractions have been added into the Hong Kong's Tomorrowland, such as a newer version of Autopia and Stitch Encounter.
[edit] Attractions
[edit] Restaurants
- Comet Café
- Starliner Diner
[edit] Shopping
- Space Traders
- Star Command Suppliers
[edit] See also
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