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Tomorrowland
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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.
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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.
Disneyland
Tomorrowland 1955-1967
The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 17, 1955, with only a subset of its planned attractions due to budget cuts. Because the timeline in the first park's construction was rushed, Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. Walt Disney was reluctant to turn his land into a corporate showcase, but when the time crunch came he accepted any offer he could. Monsanto Chemicals, 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 from the 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a walkthrough attraction, which remained 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 exhibits, and had many attractions which have since been retired. Tomorrowland's showpiece was the TWA Moonliner, derived from the "Man in Space" set of three television shows in the 1950s. It was the tallest structure in the park at the time. Autopia, an opening-day attraction, gave visitors a view of the soon-to-come National Interstate System. The attraction still remains open, though it has received numerous updates.
1957 brought Monsanto House of the Future, a plastic house with four wings cantilevered from a central plinth. This too had its precursors at 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. The addition of the ALWEG Monorail, Submarine Voyage, and Matterhorn (later changed to the Fantasyland realm), was so big it was televised as the second opening of Disneyland. New attractions came, as Walt Disney focused his efforts on the 1964-65 New York World's Fair. After the Fair he turned his attention to a new Tomorrowland and his original Florida Project.
Tomorrowland 1967-1998
Unfortunately, Walt Disney died in December 1966, almost seven months before a vast new Tomorrowland opened. In 1967 the area was completely rebuilt with new rides and scenery. The original layout was demolished, and a new set of buildings was erected. The addition of the Carousel theater (Carousel of Progress), Flight to the Moon building, the Adventure Thru Inner Space building, a new Circle-Vision building, and the PeopleMover/Rocket Jets platform, gave Tomorrowland the "World on the Move" theme.
In 1973 "The World On The Move" began to change, as General Electric decided to close their show, Carousel of Progress, which would reopen later at a new home in Walt Disney World.
With the American Bicentennial approaching, Disney designers seized the opportunity of a vacated carousel theater to present a mega musical extravaganza featuring 114 Audio Animatronics - America Sings, in 1974. The following year Flight to the Moon was updated to Mission To Mars, as actual flights to the moon had since become a reality. It was that year, 1975, Walt's 1965 idea "Space Port" would finally break ground. The Space Port opened in May 1977, featuring the Space Mountain indoor roller coaster, an amphitheater, 2 story arcade, a restaurant, and expanded Peoplemover.
Tomorrowland 2055
During the late 1980s and early 1990s, the planning phase of Michael Eisner's "Disney Decade" called for both American Tomorrowlands to receive makeovers. "Tomorrowland 2055" was slated to be completed by the late 1990s. The back-story of this renovation would be that with mysterious alien relics having been excavated in Disneyland, aliens were given the signal that Earth was now ready for intergalactic tourism and a century after Disneyland's opening, Disneyland would have become a popular destination for aliens visiting Earth. Within the new land were proposed and classic attractions such as:
Astro Orbitor,
The Timekeeper,
Star Tours,
Rocket Rods,
ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter,
Captain EO,
Space Mountain,
Plectu's Fantastic Intergalactic Revue,
The UFO Show,
Disneyland Railroad,
Disneyland Monorail, and
Submarine Voyage.
The expansive project would have not only welcomed fresh attractions and makeovers, but would include features found at Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland which was then in the designing phase. Unfortunately due to the heavy cost of the project and the financial disaster of Disneyland Resort Paris, Tomorrowland 2055 was never built.
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 rides remained the same, except for the removal of Circle-Vision 360, Captain EO, and Mission to Mars attraction theaters. The Rocket Jets were replaced by a similar attraction called the Astro Orbitor, placed at the entrance of the land, at ground level. The original Rocket Jets ride mechanism remained intact atop the Rocket Jets queue, converted into an unmanned show element dubbed the "Observatron". Two EPCOT attractions found their place in Tomorrowland, "Honey, I Shrunk the Audience!" & "Innoventions". The whole land, including Space Mountain, was painted in bronzes, golds, and dark browns, with emerald green trims on some attractions. Landscaping, with apparent vegetable plots being planted in some locations, made reference to "neo-agrarian" concepts.
Today
In late 2003, Matt Ouimet became president of the Disneyland Resort and sought to change some of the cost-cutting trends established by the former management. Space Mountain was closed for two full years, as the entire ride was refurbished and the track was completely replaced, albeit with the same track plan. The empty Rocket Rods queue, the old Circle-Vision theater, was converted into "Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters", a new version of the popular attraction at the Tokyo & Florida Disney Resorts.
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 mix of blue, white and silver while keeping a little of 1998's gold and bronze colors.
Attractions
Restaurants
Shopping
- Little Green Men Store Command (Formerly "Premiere Shop")
- Star Trader
- Tomorrowlanding
Background music
Since 2004, both Disneyland's and the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowlands have featured the same background area music, which includes updated instrumental versions of classic Tomorrowland attractions from both parks:
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, opened unfinished. But by 1975, the entire land was completed, and was built much closer to 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 PeopleMover is here under the name of the Tomorrowland Transit Authority, and the Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress was moved here from California.
For most of its history, this Tomorrowland's color scheme was predominantly white with soft blues. In 1994, using the just-completed Discoveryland at Disneyland Paris as its guide, Tomorrowland was renovated 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's Tomorrowland has a much more metallic look, along with darker blues and purples, especially along its main concourse leading from the central hub.
Attractions
Tokyo Disneyland
At Tokyo Disneyland, Tomorrowland opened on April 15, 1983 after the Imagineers set out to create an urban Tomorrowland, much more like a working community than a showcase of future technology. The rides are much more technology-specific, and effects are much more expensive, due to a much larger budget from The Oriental Land Company.
The entrance and front area are similar to WDW's Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland, while the Space Mountain area is similar to Disneyland's Space Mountain area. The paint scheme of the Tomorrowland at Tokyo Disneyland is also mostly white.
Attractions
Restaurants
- Lite Bite Satellite
- Pan Galactic Pizza Port
- Plaza Restaurant
- Soft Landing
- Space Place FoodPort
- The Popping Pod
- Tomorrowland Terrace
Shopping
- Cosmic Encounter
- ImageWorks
- Planet M
- Solar Ray's Light Sopplies
- Stellar Sweets
Closed Attractions
Disneyland Park Paris
Disneyland Resort Paris realizes 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. The major Tomorrowland classics are there, such as Autopia and Star Tours, but Space Mountain is significantly changed. Originally conceived as "Discovery Mountain" it was to hold more than one attraction (including an improved replica of Horizons from Epcot) and a restaurant. But due to budget cuts, it was finished in 1995 as an improved version of the classic, but named Space Mountain: De la Terre à la Lune (From the earth to the moon).
Bordering the Space Mountain show building is Lake Nautilus, with a walk-through recreation of the Nautilus from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Also in Tomorrowland 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 two time-travelling robots that take Jules Verne into the world of the today, which was the future he dreamed and came true.
Parts of Discoveryland have been heavily inspired by the abandoned Disneyland expansion concept, Discovery Bay, which was to have sat on the north bay of the Rivers of America in the Californian park.
Space Mountain was completely refurbished in 2005 for the Happiest Celebration on Earth event, with a new soundtrack and special effects. Buzz Lightyear Laser Blast opened April 8, 2006, in the former building of the Le Visionarium attraction, which closed in September 2004.
Attractions
Restaurants
- Buzz Lightyear's Pizza Planet Restaurant
- Café Hyperion
- Cool Station
- Rocket Café
Shopping
- Constellations
- Light Speed Photography
- Star Traders
Closed Attractions
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.
Attractions
Restaurants
- Comet Café
- Starliner Diner
Shopping
- Space Traders
- Star Command Suppliers
See also
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