Tomorrowland (Disney Parks)
Tomorrowland is one of the many "themed lands" featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by the Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions that depict views of the future. Disneyland Park in Paris includes a similar area called Discoveryland, which shares some elements with other Tomorrowlands but emphasizes visions of the future inspired by Jules Verne.
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."
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, the 2007 Walt Disney Animation Studios film Meet the Robinsons features an amusement park called Todayland, which has rides that look similar to Space Mountain and Disneyland's original Rocket Jets.
Disneyland
History
First Tomorrowland 1955–1966: The "original" Tomorrowland incarnation
The first Tomorrowland opened at Disneyland on July 17, 1955, with only several of its planned attractions open, due to budget cuts. The construction of the park was rushed, so Tomorrowland was the last land to be finished. It became something of a corporate showcase, despite Walt Disney's reluctance. Monsanto Company, American Motors, Richfield Oil, and Dutch Boy Paint were some of the many companies to open showcases in Tomorrowland in the first few years.Since the park was on a strict budget, one cost-cutting idea was to reuse the sets of the Nautilus from Disney's 1954 movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea as a walkthrough attraction. This remained open until 1966. For the first four years, most of Tomorrowland was generally open space and considered to be very corporate-fueled.
When Disneyland opened, Tomorrowland imagined the future, of the year 1986.
Tomorrowland's showpiece was the TWA Moonliner, derived from Disney's "Man In Space" television episodes developed in the 1950s. The Moonliner was the tallest structure in the park at the time, even taller than the park icon Sleeping Beauty Castle. The Moonliner hosted Rocket To The Moon which was a ride to the moon. The entrance showpiece was the clock of the world showing the time anywhere on earth. The north show building hosted Circarama U.S.A. which showed 360° movies on nine screens, like a moving cyclorama, and space station X-1 which showed a satellite view of America. The south show building showed the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, which was a walk-through tour about chemistry. 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 been modified and rebuilt several times. This is the only attraction in Tomorrowland that has been open since opening day.
Several new attractions opened in 1955. Among them were Tomorrowland Boats, The World Beneath Us, which showed the Earth's geology, and the Aluminum Hall of Fame, sponsored by Kaiser Aluminum. The final Tomorrowland attraction to open in 1955 was The Flight Circle which demonstrated methanol-powered model planes, boats and cars.
In 1956, Tomorrowland Boats were renamed Phantom Boats, and were closed later in the year. Dutch Boy Color Gallery opened in 1956, sponsored by Dutch Boy Paint. Two major attractions opened in 1956: the Astro Jets, where guests were able to fly their own rockets, and Skyway to Fantasyland, where guests rode "Buckets" over to Fantasyland.
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 those were simply homes furnished with modern conveniences and aimed at housewives. Disneyland's attraction displayed conveniences such as picture phones and television remote controls, and it introduced many people to their first microwave oven. The Viewliner Train of Tomorrow also opened where guests could ride in "the fastest miniature train in the world." It closed the next year making it the shortest lived Disney attraction ever.
In 1959, three major attractions, the park's first billed E-ticket attractions, opened at Tomorrowland. These were Disneyland Monorail, Submarine Voyage, and Matterhorn Bobsleds. These additions were collectively so large in scope that they were 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.
Tomorrowland 1967–1997: "New Tomorrowland"
By 1966, Tomorrowland was becoming quickly outdated. Most of its attractions were only there as advertisements for various sponsors, such as Monsanto, despite the 1959 Tomorrowland expansion. In 1967, the area was completely rebuilt with new attractions and scenery. The original layout was demolished, with a few exceptions, and a new set of buildings were erected. The addition of the Carousel of Progress, Adventure Thru Inner Space, an improved and larger Circle-Vision auditorium, Flight to the Moon, and the PeopleMover helped give Tomorrowland its "World on the Move" theme.In 1973, "The World On The Move" began to change. General Electric decided to close Carousel of Progress, which later reopened at a new home in Walt Disney World in 1975 as part of its expansion. In 1974, with the American Bicentennial approaching, Disney designers seized the opportunity of the vacant carousel theater to present a large musical extravaganza called America Sings, which featured 114 Audio Animatronics. The following year, Flight to the Moon was updated into Mission to Mars, as actual flights to the moon had become a reality since the former's construction.
In 1975, construction began on Walt Disney's proposed 1965 "Space Port". In May 1977, this project opened to the public as Space Mountain. The same year, the Super Speed Tunnel was added as part of the Peoplemover experience, as the Epcot model that was formerly in the building moved to Florida.
In 1984, Circle-Vision 360 received a brand new travelogue of the United States, to replace the aging "America The Beautiful" film – American Journeys.
In 1986, two new attractions found homes in Tomorrowland: Star Tours and Captain EO. Captain EO replaced the Space Stage in September 1986, and Star Tours replaced Adventure Thru Inner Space in January 1987. Aside from the Skyway closing in 1994, Tomorrowland remained largely unchanged for much of the following decade until it was redesigned in 1998.
In 1993, The Walt Disney Company planned a major refurbishment, "Tomorrowland 2055". This Tomorrowland was planned to have more of an extraterrestrial theme, and was going to replace Mission to Mars with ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter. In 1994, however, this plan was scrapped due to the poor initial financial performance of Euro Disneyland.
Tomorrowland 1995–1998: "Tomorrowland in Decline"
From 1995 to 1998 several Tomorrowland attractions were slated to be closed or remodeled. The Peoplemover, The Rocket Jets, Mission to Mars, Circle-Vision 360, Captain EO, and the Starcade were all permanently closed or planned for renovation. At this time, most of these attractions were left vacant or walled off from the public.In 1995, the cost of an adult day pass at Disneyland was $34.00, and a Disneyland Annual Pass was $99.00. There was only one type of annual pass—as opposed to the current tiered system—and many Southern California locals had passes. Tomorrowland quickly became a local hangout for many local junior high and high school teenagers residing in Southern California. Teenagers congregated near the Tomorrowland Terrace, which featured a live band every night.
Tomorrowland became so synonymous with Southern California teenagers at that time, popular bands began to reference the local scene in their music. Local Anaheim-area ska-rock group No Doubt named their 1995 breakthrough third album “Tragic Kingdom”, in which the final track begins with the ambient sounds of faint music and park guests boarding Snow White's Scary Adventures, and an ominous, pre-recorded male voice announces "Remain seated please; permanecer sentados por favor..." Just as the song begins, the iconic scream of the Wicked Witch falling to her death can be heard. The first verse of the song says "Once was a magical place; over time it was lost. Price increased the cost, and now the fortune of the kingdom is locked up in its dungeon vaults." In reference to Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade, another section laments "The parade that's electrical, it serves no real purpose; Just takes up a lot of juice, just to impress us."
Ska band Jeffries Fan Club wrote a song called "12" about a high school boy who meets a 12-year-old girl at Disneyland, and Pop-Punk band the Ataris’ "San Dimas High School Football Rules" was about the lead singer going to Disneyland with a girl he met and getting on all the rides.
This influx of teenagers did cause some negative consequences to the park. Disneyland had to employ more security because many of the teenagers were not respectful to the families visiting the park. To combat the issue of mischievous locals, Disneyland made minor changes, including an increase to both one-day and annual passes. Tomorrowland officially began its renovation in 1995. The three-year makeover started only two years after the park's last major project: the construction of Mickey's Toontown. The land was not completely closed off the entire time, but major sections were blocked off to guests, and the entrance was finally walled up in 1997. As construction continued, rumors about possible new attractions went rampant. Guests wondered if Tomorrowland would start to phase out transportation and space travel attractions in favor of a brand new theme. By the first months of 1998, New Tomorrowland was at the forefront of every Disneyland fan's mind, and the springtime opening drew major crowds. When Tomorrowland re-opened Disneyland had raised prices and many of the locals either moved on or aged out of using Tomorrowland as a hangout.