Our trip around the Magic Kingdom brings us to our tenth and final land of this reimagined version of the park - a land that finds itself in a different space and time in the distant future, appearing as a pulsing, electronic, sleek city of tomorrow that has appeared within a time wormhole on the outskirts of our galaxy.
This is…
A description of Tomorrowland at its simplest is a city that depicts views of what the future could be like. As one of the original lands of Disneyland, Walt had created the land with the intention of making it “avista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying Man's achievements... A step into the future, with predictions of constructed things to come. Tomorrowland offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals. The Atomic Age, the challenge of Outer Space and the hope for a peaceful, unified world.” The original Tomorrowland, albeit rushed and facing budget cut, was much more of a showcase for companies and was very corporate-fueled, with many attractions being built as a sort of sponsorship for affiliated companies. The opening of Tomorrowland hosted experiences like Rocket to the Moon, walkthrough exhibits about chemistry and the original Autopia, which is the only remaining attraction from Disneyland’s Tomorrowland. With that being said, I don’t believe that it is much of a surprise that Disneyland’s Tomorrowland saw recurring overhauls and additions to turn it into something more. Over time, we saw things come and go, additions like the Monorail, the House of the Future and the Submarine Voyage would be built, but around the time of the 1964 World’s Fair, Walt would turn his attention to his Florida Project. By this time, Tomorrowland was already to show its age so early on in its lifecycle. In 1967, the entire land was rebuilt with the additions of Adventure Thru Inner Space and Carousel of Progress from the World’s Fair, the land-roaming Peoplemover, a Circle-Vision experience called Flight to the Moon and years later, the iconic staple of Tomorrowland, Space Mountain.
It was around this same time where Walt Disney World opened and, just like Disneyland’s Tomorrowland before it, it was opened unfinished with only two attractions: the Grand Prix Raceway and the Skyliner. The land was noted as being very barren and sterile, flat and not themed. In the years to come, we would see a similar buildout to Disneyland. Carousel of Progress would be relocated, Flight to the Moon would open and additions like our own PeopleMover, Space Mountain and Astro Orbiter - then known as “Star Jets” would all become a part of Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland. In the years to come, we would see transformations to both Tomorrowlands, with attractions coming and going more frequently than any other part of the park had seen. Disneyland introduced Star Tours and a short-lived Rocket Rods (which permanently replaced and dismantled their PeopleMover), Walt Disney World introduced Tomorrowland originals like a Circle-Vision show called The Timekeeper, a frightening audio-animatronic show named The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter and the If You Had Wings dark ride. In more recent years, both coasts have seen Tomorrowland originals replaced with IP…
…which brings me to the reasoning behind my total Tomorrowland overhaul, which I’ve commented on in the past: it’s doing too much of the wrong thing, not enough of the right and none of it captures what “Tomorrowland” was made to be or what it should be.
I see two major flaws when it comes to Tomorrowland. The first is the excessive use of IP - and I don’t hate IP being used, but use it well and make it work. In recent years, Tomorrowlands across the world have become this strange mash-up of originals like Space Mountain, PeopleMover and the Orbiter spinners, thrown in with Star Wars, Buzz Lightyear, Monsters, Inc, Stitch running around over there, Nemo swimming over here, a Marvel meet and greet placed there…it’s really become the part of the park where IP is thrown in as long as they can see the smallest thematic tie to make it work. Tomorrowland’s IP placement isn’t even about the future or “a city of tomorrow” as it stands - it’s basically just finding whatever IP has a high-tech or galactic tie-in, bonus points if it actually has a futuristic theme.
Which brings me to the second flaw, one that Tomorrowland has seen from the beginning: having a futuristic theme. Tomorrowland’s as it was built was designed off the perspective of what the future was perceived to be at the time of the 1950s. Seventy years later, we’ve come a long way, but our perspective of what a “futuristic”, otherworldly city looks like is entirely different now. I would argue that the Tomorrowlands in the U.S. parks don’t even fit the theme of futurism well based on what some of the other Disney resorts have done with their aesthetic of Tomorrowland. And that’s the problem: the second you build for what we think “tomorrow” will be today, it’s already outdated by tomorrow - which is exactly why our Tomorrowlands hold the record for most attraction replacements: we’re always trying to keep up with capturing the future as we think it will be, but by the time we do, it’s already too late. The solution? Not to design a Tomorrowland that is a future that we will see and anticipate, but to design something that is so ethereal and otherworldly, that looks so discernibly different and unusual and unlike anything that we will ever see outside of a Disney theme park in our lives.
And so, with all that history and exposition taken care of, I’d like to begin with my take on a New Tomorrowland - where there will be some odes to originals that have come and gone, reimagined classics and some interesting choices to be made. Just like my New Fantasyland in this version of the Magic Kingdom, this new Tomorrowland will also see new additions and transformations with every existing part of the land - with the exception of Tomorrowland’s latest inclusion of TRON Lightcycle Run, which I actually think works quite well for MK’s Tomorrowland. The attraction’s visibly striking “Upload Conduit” canopy with glowing lights is going to be a new architectural motif that is spread throughout the rest of Tomorrowland, adorning the land’s buildings with these curving sweeps of pulsing light waves, which will breathe new life into the land and create a sort of cohesive synergy coming from TRON and traveling throughout. As for the overall tone and aesthetic in addition to the TRON enhancements throughout, Tomorrowland is reborn as a dazzling, electronic pulsing city on the edge of space and time. The buildings are sleek and a futuristically otherworldly by day and a neon-lit metropolis at night, where every structure hums with energy and pulsing light throughout. After crossing over the bridge from the Hub and under a new, sleek Tomorrowland sign that pulses with energy, the path crosses into the land’s main thoroughfare, framed by large metropolitan-themed show buildings on the left and right. Tomorrowland’s skyline has been radically changed and is now a glowing tapestry of layered architecture. Bold, geometric lines curve across the show buildings, working in unison with the weaving, lit conduit structures spreading from TRON. Dozens of otherworldly forced-perspective city towers and skyscrapers are built atop the show buildings, really making the land feel like an expansive, lived-in metropolis beyond the areas accessible to guests. Curved metallic facades shimmer with pulsating LED grids. Kinetic sculptures move within the city’s faux skyline and new overheard archways are supported by swirling double-helix pillars that have waterfalls cascade from within, pooling into new pools of water in the main thoroughfare. The overheard arches and show buildings are adorned with overgrown, lush plants that hang and cascade down from the ledges and add a nice touch of greenery that Tomorrowland sorely lacks. In the concrete path below, energy ribbons ripple and shoot off across the land, synced to ambient soundscapes that echo throughout Tomorrowland.
On the left past the land’s entrance, now housed in a sleek pavilion with a new domed roof designed with interlocking rings that rotate and pulse with waves of cosmic light is the
TOMORROWLAND GALACTIC OBSERVATORIUM, an interstellar observatory that hosts a fusion of science, spectacle and a deep dive into the lore of Tomorrowland. Projected constellations swirl across the building surface at night, making the pavilion look like a living planetarium. Inside this space formerly occupied by Stitch’s Great Escape, this new SFX show welcomes guests into Tomorrowland’s Research and Communication Control Center, a space once operated by the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Society. As guests make their way through the research center, the mission of the Society becomes clear: to unite planets, cultures and galaxies through research and understanding. Similarly to the audio-animatronic shows that came before it, this experience features two alternating chambers where the show takes place. Guests enter into the chamber, a circle in the round-style theater with tiered seating, where a raised oval platform of research computers buzzes in the center and the ceiling above is a raised observation dome used for close planetary and galactic studies. Once guests are seated, the show begins and the domed ceiling opens - a stunning projection dome observatory effect where planets orbit, nebulas swirl, stars stream across space. From the galaxies above, a beam shines down and a teleport transmission is received just as the room goes dark, save for the projected dome above. Our host, guide and entertainer, Sonny Eclipse, now seated at his iconic Astro Organ is teleported to the center of the chamber!
That’s right, with Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe removed from this Tomorrowland, I decided to give Sonny Eclipse his own attraction experience to star in, keeping the charm and sort of unusualness of having an original Tomorrowland character and utilizing them as a light-hearted host to deliver on some lore of Tomorrowland and its surrounding galaxies. It might be an odd, strange choice, but it’s something that is so fun and unique - a galactic, musical space voyage accompanied by the smooth, jazzy vocals of Tomorrowland’s own celebrity alien singer. It seems bizarre…but it’s so campy that it makes total sense, fits and is a something Disney would’ve done a few decades back. As Sonny takes us on a tour of the galaxies surrounding Tomorrowland and the dome above the guests takes them through a visual spectacle, he speaks of his home world, the planet Zork and how his Yew Nork upbringing lead him into the music being and he began touring the galaxy. Sonny takes guests through neighboring galaxies, adding facts and figures of the worlds beyond Tomorrowland - interestingly enough, some of these galaxies seem to spark and fizzle away to Sonny’s surprise - a deeper mystery awaiting in Tomorrowland’s galaxy. Meteor showers, Space Mountain rockets and other intergalactic phenomena dart through the galaxy in a fantastic cosmic display. Some of his featured hits include his title single, “My Name Is Sonny Eclipse”, “Gravity Blues”, “Yew Nork, Yew Nork”, “Planetary Boogie” and “Hello Space Angels”, a number where he is accompanied by the Space Angels, his backup singers consisting of invisible alien singers that descend from the galaxies beyond. Sonny concludes the tour of the galaxy with an original finale number, “Outta This World With You”, as guests are taken through a glittering tour of distant star clusters among the farthest reaches of the Andromeda galaxy. Sonny thanks the guests for coming to his tour of the galaxies beyond Tomorrowland, a beam of light emerges around him and in a chamber blackout, Sonny disappears and the domed observatory dims at the conclusion of the number, as guests exit the show. Guests exit into
THE LUNCHING PAD, a newly relocated counter-service snack location that has been moved into the former Aunt Gravity’s Galactic Goodies and the adjacent gift shop space. The location features an indoor seating area adorned with stylized posters of the land’s attractions and sights, as well as a large map showing rocket and PeopleMover routes throughout Tomorrowland. The counter service features snack options like Jumbo Planetary Pretzels, Galactic Footlong Hot Dogs, Cosmic Churros, Nebula Nachos and a collection of flavored Starport Slushes - sort of a collection of quick, traditional, but themed snack foods to enjoy on the go. Just off of The Lunching Pad,
STAR TRADERS is located at the border of Fantasyland and Progressland and offers traditional and nostalgic Tomorrowland merchandise in a setting that has murals of the city surrounding the shop, as well as floating planetary orbs that light from above.
Across from the Tomorrowland Galactic Observatorium and in the former location of Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor is
TIME KEEPERS, a Circle-Vision experience where guests find themselves in a race against time itself! Guests enter into a sleek time-travel rotunda, which showcases holographic displays that recount the legendary exploits of The Timekeeper - the eccentric chrono-navigator who once guided curious travelers through the centuries of the past. The Timekeeper has disappeared across the layered fabric of time itself, passing his work on to a new generation of Timekeepers that now work to protect the fragile web of time and uphold his work… and today, guests are enlisted on their most critical mission yet. Prior to entering the circular time travel chamber where the experience takes place, guests are loaded into the Time Control Center, a holding room filled with buzzing equipment fuzed with clockwork and large computer screens. One of the computer screens blinks on and the guests are introduced to Timekeeper Nova, a spirited, fast-talking robo-host with a shimmering chrono-metallic form. Nova welcomes the guests and briefs them on why they’re here today: an ancient time anomaly, known only as “The Null” to the Timekeepers, has awakened - a chaotic force that consumes worlds with unstable timelines. It has slowly been consuming Tomorrowland’s neighboring galaxies - perhaps we saw a glimpse of this with Sonny Eclipse in the Tomorrowland Galactic Observatorium. The Null has been slowly zeroing in on Tomorrowland, drawn by its constant flux of innovation and change, wiping away galaxies that exist in its path. If it reaches the present, Tomorrowland as we know it could be erased from existence. Nova and her assisting team of Timekeepers are going to put an end to the Null’s chaotic rampage and attempt to force the anomaly out of this world - trapping it in a time-locked black hole at the farthest reaches of the galaxies, space and time.
Guests leave the Time Control Center and enter into the large 360* Circle-Vision chamber, where the surrounding “screens” are “closed” and made to look like you’re on the inside of a metal vessel, with the churning smoking of vibrating engines. Nova’s voice comes over an intercom system, addressing the guests to step into the middle of the room and the experience begins. The surrounding vessel “windows” open into the Timekeepers vessel bay, where Nova is aboard a Chrono-Circuit - an experimental temporal vessel that the Timekeepers use to traverse through points in the future. She connects her Chrono-Circuit to the guests circular “vessel” and with a powerful launch, the screens pulse with energy as Nova propels guests forward in time, the screens around them becoming an electrified display, showing the outside galaxies streaming past at light speed. Nova uses her vessel to summon the energy to create a time transport tunnel that she and the guests blast off into - but instead of launching into the past like the Timekeeper’s original exploits, we take off into the distant future. On the other end, we arrive in the Year 2125, in the time period known as The Floating Renaissance, where metropolis cities lay adrift, hovering in float above oceans, bustling with flying aerial trams and gardens that grow upwards. Propelled forward by Nova, the guests blast down another time tunnel, arriving in the Year 2525, known as the Intergalactic Revolution, where humanity thrives alongside alien civilizations in peace and prosperity, as the guests dart through a massive orbiting marketplace. Nova remarks that these future points in time have been untouched by The Null, but the more frequent and farther they travel through time, the more she can sense the anomaly’s growing presence. The guests are once again blasted into a new point in time, arriving in the Year 3000, known as the New World - something both strange and ethereal, looking both ancient and otherworldly all at once, as floating monoliths of ancient-stored knowledge float around the guests, chronicling every even of history’s past, present and the future to come.
But midway through the experience, the Chrono-Circuit glitches - timelines stutter and collapse in on themselves. A dark fissure crackles across the screens as Nova reverses course. Now, the guests race backwards through fractured versions of the timelines they just witnessed - scenes morph, distort, and crumble as The Null’s black void creeps across the periphery of the screens, a sweeping mass of dark cosmic energy that arrives, pulsing with purple electricity that flash glances of wiring, metal and cogs beneath The Null’s sweeping mass. As the ride hurtles backwards through collapsing futures, Nova’s voice grows strained and begs us to “hold the future together”… but just as she calls out, she and the guests are both consumed by the Null’s endless void, lost into nothingness like all of the timelines and galaxies before us. We find ourselves floating through the great darkness with Nova, feeling as though we’ve started to fade away from existence…until a flicker of light from Nova’s Chrono-Circuit reveals ashadowed form from with The Null’s vast darkness - humanoid with faint glimmers of mechanical gears and optics - just like Nova - beneath the swirling void of dark energy. Nova has a sudden revelation when she sees the true form within this destructive mass, the very being that is creating such upheaval across galaxies and timelines - a form she knows all too well.
…The Null
is the original Timekeeper!
Nova pieces together the chilling truth: The Timekeeper, famed for his voyages through time, had become a prisoner of time itself. Pushing beyond the limits of time travel, his very being unraveled, controlled by the time paradoxes he once sought out with his existence tied to different points in time throughout the future. His form turned into an ever-growing anomaly of time itself, until his original form transformed, the future timelines he’d become latched to all collapsed and he’d re-emerged as The Null - a being that could only exist to consume the galaxies and futures.
“Too many trips through time…too many futures seen and forgotten. He lost himself and now he’s trying to erase everything, including us.”
Instead of trying to destroy or trap the indestructible force. Nova reaches out with empathy to the shrouded form - activating a core memory of the Timekeeper’s original purpose: to use time travel to inspire and dream of a land of tomorrow that is both wondrous and innovative. When the Timekeeper realizes that his original purpose inspired Nova and a new generation of Timekeepers to continue his pursuit of inspiring to create and protect the future, the chamber surges with a radiant burst of imagery from Tomorrowland’s past, present and future, as the once-consumed galaxies and timelines are restored, dotting their way across space and time itself. For a fleeting moment, The Null’s dark form dissolves into shimmering light, leaving the Timekeeper’s figure to be seen for just a moment, giving Nova a thankful nod, before disappearing into the fabric of time.
Nova’s heartfelt line closes the moment, “Even the greatest explorers need someone to remind them why they began the journey. Tomorrowland is saved - not by force, but by remembering its heart. The screens settle on a serene vision of Tomorrowland - glowing, pulsing with renewed energy, alive in its timeless state beyond space and time. Nova concludes, “Well, that was close. Good thing you’re all honorary Time Keepers now.” The doors open to Tomorrowland’s neon streets, as a musical motif of the original Timekeeper score “From Time to Time” swells in the background a a final homage to the past, future, and the ever-changing spirit of Tomorrowland. On the opposite side of the building’s entrance, a path circumnavigates the southern border of Tomorrowland and connects back to Main Street U.S.A. near Walt’s - An American Restaurant. This area was formerly where the Tomorrowland Terrace was, which in recent years, its primary purpose was to serve as the location for expensive up-charged dessert party events. In this version of the park, much of this landing had been modified with the Main Street-side of it being used as space for Walt’s, while the seating landing over the water leading towards Tomorrowland remains. There’s no quick service or attached dining to the area, it’s just a nice shaded seating area that Magic Kingdom could use more of and acts as a nice futuristic-themed bypass between Main Street and Tomorrowland, while offering great views of the Hub and Cinderella Castle.
