englanddg
One Little Spark...
I don't see the introduction of Ellen to Energy as an improvement of the previous attraction.
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Jeremy Irons SSE..excellent..BUT IMHO..Walter Cronkite's The BEST
- Thread starter MIKETFROMRI
- Start date
I don't see the introduction of Ellen to Energy as an improvement of the previous attraction.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Now don't you get all fresh with me, sonny!
Harumph.
* pulls nose up in air, turns around and paces away *
englanddg
One Little Spark...
Now don't you get all fresh with me, sonny!
Harumph.
* pulls nose up in air, turns around and paces away *
I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were one of Cindrella's step-sisters.
THEMEPARKPIONEER
Well-Known Member
Tomorow child would be the perfect ending for Spaceship Earth in todays World. With no future to display any more Tomorows child is perfect for Spaceship Earth. Tomorows child if the do the scenery right could be a timeless ending that never needs any change. If they want to paste everyoned faces on to something they should bring back the origional Journey into Imagination and instrad of putting figment on the screens at the end they should put faces from the audience on those projetions.
Kitchandro
Well-Known Member
The ending to Spaceship Earth should be the ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
That would blow people's minds.
That would blow people's minds.
draybook
Well-Known Member
Well, there must have been some Tupac-ish holograms of Cronkite going on because his voice almost put me to sleep. Although I do like that skit on Disney radio with Cronkite and Robin Williams/Peter Pan.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
That was the just of the love for Cronkite. He was someone that you saw on TV all week long. He could tell you the worst things that were happening in the world and you felt that it would be OK, it would all work out. His delivery was unique and during the stormy 60's and 70's he was what we needed to prevent us from slitting our wrists. On SSE he was able to tell us the history and it came from a familiar voice that we all trusted to be telling us 'the way it was'. No BS, just fact. But they all have done a good job, and this constant slamming of Dench is put in such a way that you would think that she wrote the script. The dumbing down came from people that couldn't deal with anything that assumed everyone already knew something about the world before they entered WDW. Cronkite had a way of teaching you something without you being aware that you were being taught. I know that EPCOT originally was to entertain and educate, but none of us were going there for our PhD. The scripts now are more like a step or two above Kindergarten.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
Great historical perspective! Thanks!
I agree Dench is awesome. In fact, I think all four narrators were outstanding.
I've been watching some old version videos just now. Ooow, SSE is such a glorious ride! Mysterious, majestic! Tomorrow's child remains a great song, and the Irons ending is pure unadulterated lyricism of the pre-ironic Disney era.
I can't relate to the oft heard description of SSE as educational, a history lesson. To me SSE is somewhere between a theater play and a dream. It pulls me into its world then carries me away.
I love those classic immersive ten-fifteen minute rides that do that. May SSE stay with us forever! The emotion is so much deeper than the quick instant thrill of a celeb spotting ride.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
SSE is a one of a kind, only one in the world ride. Even if it were just black inside, the building itself, which has come to be taken for granted, was a marvel in engineering and design. It is an attraction all by itself. My current take on SSE is that it has managed to combine the old with the modern. The backward trip downward, has always just been a grouping of things to make you forget that are practically upside down sliding down a steep incline that we are relying on our faith that these guys knew what they were doing or we would all crash to our deaths. Anyway, the inclusion of modern, albeit cartoon, interaction for our amusement on the latter part of the ride, is just an effort to make it current enough to live a long life.
If you haven't figured out yet, SSE, is my absolute favorite ride. I never stop being impressed by the fact that I am riding around in this huge globe and when I get to the top and the earth is in the distance, I loose all sense of reality and become an astronaut.
The Empress Lilly
Well-Known Member
The top of SSE is a sacred portal across time and space, where the laws of physics no longer apply and where one can bend the space-time continuum at will. I would venture to say that you do not lose your sense of reality, but that it is still functioning properly and that it is in fact your sense of decorum and guilt that prevents you from fully embracing the fact that you are, indeed, for a brief moment an astronaut for real.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
Way too brief a time! This is the only ride that I pray will breakdown exactly when I get to the top. A twenty minute wait would be like heaven to me.
I knew there was a reason I liked you.
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
And all this time I thought it was because of my stunning good looks and vibrant personality.
BlackCauldron
Well-Known Member
I don't mind Dench's interpretation - she really does the best she can with the script she was given. If Cronkite or Irons were given the same script, we'd all be having the same complaints we do with Dench. It's not her fault. My biggest issue with the Dench version is the terrible descent.
But we all also need to realize we are now approaching our critique of SSE from the perspective of an adult. I rode SSE for the first time in 1985. I was 5. I can't remember if it was Cronkite narrating or not, all I remember is that, apart from the cool animatronics, I was bored to friggin tears. Back then, and for quite some time thereafter, EPCOT was very much an "adult" park. No kidcot, no KimPossible/Agent P adventures. It was education / edutainment all the way, with history lessons shoved in your face at every turn. For a 5 year old, the whole EPCOT experience back then was pretty dull - and I can honestly say that when I was a kid EPCOT was nothing I ever cared to do again. It wasn't until Innoventions was finally built and they added video games that kids really had something to DO. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I fully came to understand and appreciate all of what EPCOT had to offer.
If you think about it, Dench's version of SSE came at the same time EPCOT became "child-friendly" and I think the dumbing-down of the script was a way to make it more accessible to kids. The touch screen cartoon ending was probably added for the same reason. I'm personally not a fan of those changes, but I bet I would thoroughly enjoy it if I was a 5 year old. But the adult in me misses the Iron's-era ending.
But we all also need to realize we are now approaching our critique of SSE from the perspective of an adult. I rode SSE for the first time in 1985. I was 5. I can't remember if it was Cronkite narrating or not, all I remember is that, apart from the cool animatronics, I was bored to friggin tears. Back then, and for quite some time thereafter, EPCOT was very much an "adult" park. No kidcot, no KimPossible/Agent P adventures. It was education / edutainment all the way, with history lessons shoved in your face at every turn. For a 5 year old, the whole EPCOT experience back then was pretty dull - and I can honestly say that when I was a kid EPCOT was nothing I ever cared to do again. It wasn't until Innoventions was finally built and they added video games that kids really had something to DO. It wasn't until I was a teenager that I fully came to understand and appreciate all of what EPCOT had to offer.
If you think about it, Dench's version of SSE came at the same time EPCOT became "child-friendly" and I think the dumbing-down of the script was a way to make it more accessible to kids. The touch screen cartoon ending was probably added for the same reason. I'm personally not a fan of those changes, but I bet I would thoroughly enjoy it if I was a 5 year old. But the adult in me misses the Iron's-era ending.
^^^^^ In 85 Vic Perrin was narrating. I don't remember the precise dates, but Perrin narrated from 82-sometime in 86. Cronkite 86-sometime in 94, Irons - 94 - sometime in 2007. I'm sure @marni1971 can get specific days, months and everything. Thus I summon him (Martin - I promise this is the last time. I can't help it. It makes me laugh.).
Club Cooloholic
Well-Known Member
Last time I rode, my 4yr old daughter and I hoped into the car in front, wife and son in the back. I look at the screen and it was set to french, and I did not have time to change! I looked at the CM who loaded and asked, anything I can do, he just shrugged. But, since I have ridden it so much, I gave the play by play to my daughter in english lol was kinda fun.