Carosel of Progress to be removed and moved to the Walt Disney Family Mueseum

[TP2000]

Wasn't he to some degree involved with Country Bear Jamboree?

Yes, that was planned initially in 1966 as a "singing bear show" for Walt's proposed Mineral King ski resort in the California Sierras that was never built.

After Walt's death, Imagineering refined the "bear band" concept and worked on it in the early 1970's and opened it in WDW in October, 1971 and at Disneyland five months later in March, 1972.

 

[wolf359]

Walt was such a believer in bringing newer attractions to the parks I think if he had lived longer none of the attractions we know and love today would have lasted long enough for us to have ever seen them.

I think the most fitting way to respect the legacy of the Carousel of Progress would be to remove it from the Magic Kingdom, restore it to its original 1964 form, and put it in a museum.

I think the changes necessary to make it relevant as a theme park show would require massive changes, because simply updating the final scene makes the rest of the show more and more disjointed. With a little reshuffling the leaps could be expanded to 40-year intervals, keeping 1900 as-is and moving the 1940 scene, adding a 1980s scene, and making the final stop 2020.

The problem with that approach is that it really only buys another 15 or 20 years before they'd need to tear the whole thing apart all over again.

 

[s8film40]

Walt worked on the Disneyland or 1964 World's Fair versions of those attractions in the 1950's and 60's.

The attraction was moved from the Worlds Fair to Disneyland and then moved again to WDW. The WDW carousel of Progress is the original that Walt worked on.

 

[sloanfreak]

When people call me a Disney freak or a Disney loser, all I need to do is come read a few comments in this forum to realize I am neither.

Wow, there are some people that take this stuff a little to seriously or are living on another planet.

CoP is one of my favorites, and I never want it to leave. I already lost Mr. Toads Wild Ride and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. If you take away CoP, you might as well get rid of It's A Small World, Space Mountain and the Tea Cups.

 

[WDW Vacationer]

I still have hopes of a CoP update in the near future.

I think it'll stay in WDW. Maybe not in MK,but in WDW.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

"And when the current World's Fair ends, all four of our shows: the Magic Skyway, the Carousel Theater, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, and "it's a small world" will find a permanent home at Disneyland." -Walt Disney "Disneyland Goes to the Fair" 1964

The Magic Skyway was not able to come back in full form due to lack of available show building space as originally thought out in Tomorrowland and Ford dropping out as sponsor, however the famous Diorama segment with the Dinosaurs did make it to Disneyland and a similar version was created for the Universe of Energy when it opened with EPCOT Center. Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln was popular enough and was cheapest of the popular Disney world's fair attractions to replicate right then and there for a West Coast audience, thus a replica of Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln opened at Disneyland in 1965 while the World's Fair was still going on. The Carousel of Progress had a second story post show featuring the EPCOT/Progress City model, but would also allow the post show to change when need be at GE's request along with a tie in finale in Act IV. GE wanted the show to go on the East Coast to WDW because the MK was doing well with a variety of US and International Vacationers and not the 80% of annual local visitors Disneyland was seeing at the time. In 1973 the CoP was packed up and sent to FL. "it's a small world" is still at Disneyland of course with similar ones at Disneyland style parks around the globe.

 

[wm49rs]

When people call me a Disney freak or a Disney loser, all I need to do is come read a few comments in this forum to realize I am neither.

Wow, there are some people that take this stuff a little to seriously or are living on another planet.

CoP is one of my favorites, and I never want it to leave. I already lost Mr. Toads Wild Ride and 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. If you take away CoP, you might as well get rid of It's A Small World, Space Mountain and the Tea Cups.

Well, that was pleasant....

 

[mickey2008.1]

I can understand COP staying as a piece of walts original and only ride, not sure if thats true. But what is the fascination with this outdated and completely boring attraction? Is not SSE the modernized version of COP?:shrug:

 

[wm49rs]

I can understand COP staying as a piece of walts original and only ride, not sure if thats true. But what is the fascination with this outdated and completely boring attraction? Is not SSE the modernized version of COP?:shrug:

Well, no.........

 

[hrcollectibles]

Walt Disney didn't personally work with those ideas in WDW, though...at least not beyond the design phase. And he wouldn't even have done design on WDW's Pirates, since it wasn't planned to be included until guests started asking for it after opening.

Carousel of Progress is indeed one of the only parts of WDW that the man himself worked on from start to finish. (Probably the only part, but I don't want to be that absolute and have someone come along and point out something else on property that fits the bill.) :lol:

But he did have some input in the Disneyland versions which is what I think the poster meant

 

[hrcollectibles]

I know how they can add a new spin to Carousel of Progress... Make it lost themed..Richard Alpert can host since he never ages.. and each scene change could be a bright flash of light and all of the sudden you are in a new decade...

 

[Future Guy]

I don't think the final scene of the show should simply be updated to reflect the world of 2010. After all, the original show showed us the innovations of the 20th century in twenty-year intervals, starting at the turn of the century and ending in the ‘60s. If you reset the final scene to the modern day, then you’ll have a show that takes three twenty-year jumps forward followed by one huge fifty-year jump. And that’s just silly.

So, the question is what do we want the Carousel to be? If we want to keep it modern and relevant, then the first scene should be set in 1950s, the second in the 1970s, the third in the 1990s before we arrive at the 2010s. Of course, this would mean that you'd have to do a once-a-decade rehab where the oldest scene would be discarded and a new final scene set in the current decade would be implemented. Unfortunately, TDO would never pay for something like that.

The only other alternative is to truly make it Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. In other words, give up trying to keep the final scene modern and just return it to what it was in 1964, minus the GE references. I mean, the rest of the show is pretty much as it was in '64, so you might as well be consistent. Sure, it means turning the show into a museum piece, but really that’s all it is anyway. It's currently caught in the awkward position of trying to pretend it’s still up-to-date even though everyone knows it’s not. If they restore it to its 1964 incarnation, it’ll become the kind of attraction TDO likes best: the kind that requires only periodic maintenance. Disney could promote it with some kind of a “you won’t know where you’re going if you don’t know where you’ve been” theme.

Now, I know what you're thinking: wouldn't it be inconsistent with Tomorrowland's theme to have a museum piece there? Well, since the rest of the land is devoted to cartoon characters, gasoline-powered go-carts, and a roller coaster that hasn’t changed much since the ‘70s, would a museum piece from the '60s be that much more out-of-place?

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

A preshow could be developed to show that the Tomorrowland Metro Retro Historical Society has aquired WD's CoP....redesign the building to look like the rest of tomorrowland 94, giving it a flying saucer look and having look as it if it was transported and landed in tomorrowland. Like future guy said...have act's 1-4 do the 1964 version as close as possible....but I say take the stage in the unload theater and turn that into a bonus ending that can always change and then use the load theater as a dual load and unload theater...basically the retro society is saying "Here's what walt disney showed the future of the space age.....and here's our version of what the future for humans has in store" (obviously not an apocalyptic version :lookaroun )

and whenever the scene needs to be updated, a cast of voices can be hired to read from the set in stone acts 1-4 script and then read from the new script for the updated ending

 

[_Scar]

You are arong.

:lookaroun ?

 

[mickey2008.1]

Well, no.........

Then please explain what cop is supposed to be as SSE is. I get COP is about the american family as SSE is about the world, but its still about technology and how it has evolved.

 

[imagineer boy]

A preshow could be developed to show that the Tomorrowland Metro Retro Historical Society has aquired WD's CoP....redesign the building to look like the rest of tomorrowland 94, giving it a flying saucer look and having look as it if it was transported and landed in tomorrowland. Like future guy said...have act's 1-4 do the 1964 version as close as possible....but I say take the stage in the unload theater and turn that into a bonus ending that can always change and then use the load theater as a dual load and unload theater...basically the retro society is saying "Here's what walt disney showed the future of the space age.....and here's our version of what the future for humans has in store" (obviously not an apocalyptic version :lookaroun )

and whenever the scene needs to be updated, a cast of voices can be hired to read from the set in stone acts 1-4 script and then read from the new script for the updated ending

Eh, I don't think a pre show would be necessary for an attraction like this. You could however, have a lot of external themeing that coud convey the Historical Society story.

And I do think there should be a little bit of a time warp for the scenes.

The first should be the same at the turn of the century, the second in the 1950s, the third in the late 80s/early 90s, and the final in the not too distant future (but try to make it as timeless as possible, no references to current technology).

 

[Wilt Dasney]

But he did have some input in the Disneyland versions which is what I think the poster meant

If my post come off too pedantic, I apologize. :lol:

I just wanted to make sure Carousel of Progress got its due as a truly unique attraction at WDW, in the sense that Walt Disney personally rode that exact ride. Nothing else at WDW can claim that distinction, to my knowledge.

It's nice to think that Walt's spirit is involved in all the derivative Magic Kingdom/Disneyland parks around the world (Orlando/Tokyo/Paris/Hong Kong), but CoP has a more direct connection than that. As a non-Anaheim attraction that Walt actually saw, it's pretty special.

(And for the record, I wouldn't be sad to see it removed, despite the gushy tone of this post. :lol

 

[wm49rs]

Then please explain what cop is supposed to be as SSE is. I get COP is about the american family as SSE is about the world, but its still about technology and how it has evolved.

SSE is focused on how communication has evolved and shaped the course of human history......

 

[wm49rs]

If my post come off too pedantic, I apologize. :lol:

I just wanted to make sure Carousel of Progress got its due as a truly unique attraction at WDW, in the sense that Walt Disney personally rode that exact ride. Nothing else at WDW can claim that distinction, to my knowledge.

It's nice to think that Walt's spirit is involved in all the derivative Magic Kingdom/Disneyland parks around the world (Orlando/Tokyo/Paris/Hong Kong), but CoP has a more direct connection than that. As a non-Anaheim attraction that Walt actually saw, it's pretty special.

(And for the record, I wouldn't be sad to see it removed, despite the gushy tone of this post. :lol

It wasn't...

And while I understand the desire to replace CoP with something shiny and new, for me the fact that this was one of Walt's personal projects gives it a pass. Refurb it, dress it up a little, improve the sound quality and replace the carpeting. But let's just leave CoP where it is. It's just as easy to simply walk on by if you're not interested....

 

[lazyboy97o]

As for Main Street USA, if I were Mayor of Marceline, MO., I would put up the cash and make it SIMILAR to Main Street USA, since Mercaline was the inspiration for MSUSA. Just think of how their economy would be boosted just from tourism!? They could actually invest in the town a little more and create a SMALL park with some of the main attractions! Disney could help and make it a Disney Vacation Destination...kind of a see the inspriation for the area of the park type vacation. Just an idea, hehehehe! Not a well thought out idea at that!LOL

Pretty much ever effort to revitalize "Main Street" across the country since opening of Disneyland has been based on Main Street, USA. Look up some photos of Marceline from when Walt Disney lived there. It was much dirtier and cluttered than Main Street, USA or it is today.

The attraction was moved from the Worlds Fair to Disneyland and then moved again to WDW. The WDW carousel of Progress is the original that Walt worked on.

It is not the exact original, as the show has changed over the years. When the show first opened in the Magic Kingdom it did not even have the same theme song that Walt had approved.