Mirror Disneyland - An Alternate History

[MANEATINGWREATH]

By the way, if I may bring up Charlie Callahan again, will Mirror Disneyland's Matterhorn see a track replacement as part of its 2015 refurbishment? That was one of his biggest gripes with the ride, as detailed here...

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Also, it should be noted that he would renege on his decision to make Matterhorn a "Dishonorable Mention", and placed it back on the list.

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I would assume the track would be redone entirely at some point for a smoother, less painful experience. I'm a frequent haunt of Disneyland and a lifelong Southern Californian, and I can attest to the pain endured while riding the modern Matterhorn. I could say the same for WDW's Space Mountain, though. I was in loads of pain after riding that for the first time in 2016. Regardless, I'd like to think that alternate history WED (it's still called WED in this reality) decided to completely renovate the track.

Today’s update, which will finish out the rest of Fantasyland, takes inspiration from a D23 article (“Lesser-Known Characters from ‘Enchanted Snow Palace’) and several different articles from both ThemeParkTourist and JimHillMedia more than my other usual sources. Please give them a look and enjoy. If you haven’t visited the rest of Fantasyland yet on Page 3, please do.

Today's update puts a realistic spin on the fate of an attraction you wouldn't think likely for removal. Think if Disneyland ever had its own version of Maelstrom.

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Walt Disney once said, “Disneyland will never be completed. It will continue to grow as long as there is imagination left in the world.” Imagination went to work again on June 6, 1981.

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Disney Legend Marc Davis might be best known for his magna opera: Pirates of the Caribbean, the Jungle Cruise and the Haunted Mansion, and later, Thunder Mesa Expedition, which opened a short five years after Davis’s death. Indeed, it seems Davis specialized in character-driven, detail-packed dark rides of unmatchable caliber. The fifth of Davis’s legendary dark rides once resided in Fantasyland: The Enchanted Snow Palace.

In the late 1970s, Davis envisioned his Enchanted Snow Palace for a location in the Small World Promenade, a large expanse of geometric shapes, towers and colors in the foreground of “Small World Palace.” Just as Pirates of the Caribbean has its cast of whimsical skeletons and townspeople, the Enchanted Snow Palace introduced its own supporting cast of “Snowball Men,” penguins, seals, polar bears, reindeer, rabbits, walruses, wolves, Frost Giants, and the beautiful Snow Queen of the Hans Christian Andersen fairytale, all animated and “life-like” in the typical “Davis” style.

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The Enchanted Snow Palace was designed as an escape from the Southern California sunshine. Disguised as a massive, icy glacier melting in the middle of Fantasyland, passengers once sailed down a melting river in “bateaux” (boats) and into the icy realms of a polar wonderland. Musical, mysterious, magnificent, and gorgeous, the attraction had, of course, included innumerable scenes in true Davis fashion. To the strains of Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker Suite,” Audio-Animatronics polar bears and penguins capered on ice-flows all around the gently moving bateaux. Timber wolves howled at the Aurora Borealis, and soaring Frost Giants - carrying huge icicle clubs - appeared distracted by the beautiful Frost Fairies of Fantasia.

But, true to Marc’s comical form of perfectly-orchestrated character vignettes, the ride would then enter a mysterious cave and travel past skating polar bears and penguins, odd Snowball Men sledding and sliding down hillsides, and an orchestra of penguins conducted by a seal in a tuxedo. Eventually, the boats entered a fanciful ice castle for a face-to-face encounter with the beautiful, hypnotic Snow Queen herself, who would conjure real snow to fall from the twinkling heavens above in a glorious finale.

Of course, the Enchanted Snow Palace lacked the subtle but compelling narrative that had made Pirates and the Haunted Mansion a success just a decade or so prior. The attraction was a little too passive; a friendly but admittedly dull ride through cute encounters and charming sets without a solid reason for being. Nevertheless, the attraction remained until June 9, 2015. The Disney Parks Blog and The Disneyland News both announced (and quietly) that Fantasyland and its Enchanted Snow Palace would soon play host to a new attraction...

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Frozen became a cultural phenomenon after its global release in November, 2013. The film dethroned The Lion King as the highest grossing animated film of all time, and became a de-facto fairytale of the 2010s, instantly cemented as a classic forever on par with The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. The stunning score, storyline, and gorgeous animation made Frozen a timeless film, quickly spawning a number of spin-offs, shorts and a sequel in 2019. It was inevitable for an attraction to follow in Disneyland.

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The new Frozen Ever After attraction would re-use the Enchanted Snow Palace and its decades-old ride system and - even so - its seven minute ride time. The old glacier exterior was reshaped into the regal stone, Scandinavian architecture and timber of Arendelle Castle; the second “life-size” castle to feature inclusion in Fantasyland. The queue inside had been brilliantly rerouted from the old attraction, too. The formerly outdoor stanchions and switchbacks were enclosed and re-purposed into the ornate halls and chambers of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna’s lavish palace. The “Load Area” itself would take after a central esplanade of Arendelle Harbor at night as lanterns flicker in the frosted town’s windows…

"Hear ye! Hear ye! The Kingdom is invited to a Summer Snow Day Celebration in honor of the day that PRINCESS ANNA saved her sister QUEEN ELSA with an unselfish act of true love. All shall be welcome to a Royal Reception inside the Ice Palace."​

The original bateaux have returned for the new attraction but with an artistic redesign inspired by the medieval decor of Scandinavia, a fitted transport into the world of ice and snow. A supernatural, frozen grotto seems magical in its own right, never mind the appearance of Olaf, an Audio-Animatronics figure among the new generation of Disney’s advanced Audio-Animatronics figures. The incredible figure blinks, gestures, walks, jumps, and sings:

"Do you wanna build a snowman? Come on, let's go and play! Elsa wants to give us all some fun, she's making everyone a snowy summer day!"

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Soon, we are rubbing shoulders with some “boulders” - aka Kristoff’s family from Troll Valley - before bracing for the cold high up in the icy blue world of the North Mountain, Queen Elsa’s enchanted ice palace. The enchanting “Summer Snow Day Celebration” - complete with Anna, Kristoff, Sven, and Elsa - is sure to melt even the coldest of hearts. The song-filled journey is much like its predecessor, a slow-moving boat ride through gorgeous environs. In fact, many of the original Audio-Animatronics from the Enchanted Snow Palace have been re-purposed for use in the original story for Frozen Ever After.

Amidst a grove of tall pines on the perimeter of Arendelle Castle, Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post (and Sauna) welcomes us, so called “weary travelers,” to its year-round “Big Summer Blowout!” The friendly “Wandering” Oaken sells any and all things Frozen, including fresh carrot-snacks and winter-wear exclusive to the Fantasyland mercantile. Oaken’s backyard sauna, clearly built to resemble the Gol Stave Church of Oslo, Norway, hisses and trembles from the excess of steam within, often accommodated by a chorus of friendly “Yoohoos!”

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Of course, one might expect to meet Anna, Elsa, Olaf or Kristoff in the fjord of Arendelle Castle, but these Frozen friends can only be found at the Royal Sommerhus. The cozy summer home of Anna and Elsa, the Royal Sommerhus is chock full of memories (and memorabilia) from the sisters travels with their parents when they were younger. Now that Elsa is queen, the house has reopened so the sisters, and their friends, can relive their fond memories and make new ones with guests. Jagged rocks and ocean bluffs near the Sommerhus mark the transition from Arendelle to the abstract Seven Seaways Canal of “it’s a small world.”

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The Mickey Mouse Club Circus “came to town” on Thanksgiving Day, 1955. Although it included the first live appearance by television’s Mouseketeers, the overall Circus did not have the uniqueness of the other Disneyland shows, and was discontinued in early 1956. Its spiritual successor, however, lives on…

In 1979, the Small World Promenade welcomed a new neighbor. Dumbo’s Circusland, an entirely original “Sub-Land” set aside from the European Village proper, is located on five hitherto undeveloped acres both inside and outside the berm adjacent to “it’s a small world.” Here, circus banners herald a wide variety of attractions, including a relocated and elevated Dumbo the Flying Elephant and Casey Jr. Circus Train, a new Pinocchio dark ride with Stromboli’s Puppet Theater gracing its queue, a whimsical “Clown Restaurant,” and Mickey’s Madcap Circus, a thrilling ride-through the glorious color and whimsy of a “never-before-seen” Mickey Mouse short.

The taller trees of nearby Storybook Land transition into a sparkling thoroughfare of striped awnings, festive banners, popcorn lighting and “retro” circus posters with classic Disney animated characters, where hot-air balloons soar overhead and searchlights pierce the heavens above. The old-time banners and posters hearken to such fictitious acts and attractions as “The Reluctant Dragon: Fire-Eater” or “Shere Khan: Man-Eater.” Circus animals have left behind their footprints in the pavement; the elephants seem to have also left behind their peanut shells. Tournament flags and shouting barkers line the midway on our trail toward Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Designed by Tony Baxter as a balance to his unrealized vision of “Discovery Bay,” Dumbo’s Circusland provides a home for the Disney Characters who are a little too “bizarre” to fit in with the rest of Fantasyland. This “Phase One” expansion of New Fantasyland brought Dumbo the Flying Elephant to the center of Circusland, elevated high above the land on an ornate platform.

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Dumbo the Flying Elephant is a favorite attraction for anyone who is of preschool age and younger, but parents and adults delight even more when they see the sheer joy it brings to the eyes of a little one. Dumbo represents the true spirit of fantasy, and reminds us all to believe in our dreams and soar above the clouds. With the help of Timothy Mouse and a “Magic Feather,” we climb aboard Dumbo for a joyful flight around the skies of Disneyland, reliving that magical moment when Dumbo first discovered his gift of flight - the sights and sounds of Fantasyland whirl by far below. The handmade, gold-flecked carousel is an artistic masterpiece all its own, dropping jaws and inspiring countless passengers to follow their hearts and their dreams.

A well-known European manufacturer of circus organs built the attraction’s vintage mechanical band; the organ, built circa 1915, weighs three-quarters of a ton. It’s circus-like music can be heard well over a mile away.

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The Casey Jr. Circus Train was conceived as a sort of low-speed roller coaster, climbing and dropping over the rolling “cartoon” landscape of Storybook Land. Secure in their various cages, boxcars, and cabooses, passengers aboard the Casey Jr. Circus Train will cheer along as Casey proclaims “I think I can, I think I can, I think I can,” while he chugs and puffs his way up a particularly steep hill.

As we ride the rails and tour the miniature countryside of Storybook Land, we catch glimpse of:

- The Dwarfs' Mine and Cottage from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
- The straw, stick and brick houses and the Big Bad Wolf's cave from The Three Little Pigs
- The Gingerbread House from Tim Burton's Hansel and Gretel
- Rapunzel's Tower and the Snuggly Duckling Tavern from Tangled
- The manicured London park from Peter Pan
- The royal city of Agrabah and the Cave of Wonders from Aladdin
- The French village and mountaintop castle from Cinderella
- The snowy landscapes of Peter and the Wolf
- A "Night on Bald Mountain" from Fantasia
- Halloween Town and Christmas Town from Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas
- The Giant's Patchwork Quilt from Lullaby Land
- Toad Hall from The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
- Belle's Village and the Beast's Castle from Beauty and the Beast
- The Alpine village from Pinocchio
- The English village and Rabbit Hole from Alice in Wonderland
- Prince Eric's Castle and Atlantica from The Little Mermaid
- The Emerald City from Return to Oz

A major refurbishment in 1994 introduced the contemporary settings from Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast and Return to Oz. Other scenes, including those from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Tangled were added in 2015 in celebration of the Park's Diamond Anniversary. 1994 also introduced the inclusion of miniature character figures in their respective locations, a detail not found in the 1956 original.

Casey Jr. was the brave little engine from the classic Disney animated movie Dumbo. The Casey Jr. Circus Train was one of the original Disneyland Park attractions from 1955. The sleigh-style train cars were transplanted from the merry-go-round that later became King Arthur’s Carrousel.

Disney Instrumental ǀ Neverland Orchestra - Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee

www.youtube.com

Circusland is the home of not one, but two original dark rides.

Stromboli, the villainous gypsy and cruel puppeteer of Pinocchio, has set up his eerie puppet theater in this timeless trolley park... The color and whimsy of Dumbo's Circusland fades in favor of the dark sanctums and (lifeless) puppet-filled corridors of the theater's grim backstage. Posters herald the arrival of "Pinocchio," Stromboli's star attraction. A bit of light enters the atmosphere through a lavish mural in portrayal of all the characters, friendly or otherwise, from Walt Disney's 1940 animated film, Pinocchio.

Pinocchio’s Daring Journey is sure to captivate with its well-loved story of the lonely woodcarver Geppetto and his desire to have a real son. Along cobblestone alpine roads, we follow little Pinocchio and his faithful conscience Jiminy Cricket as they attempt to avoid fateful encounters with the wily Foulfellow and Gideon, the donkeys of Pleasure Island, the Coachman, and Monstro the Whale. Guided by the “wishing star,” we meet the lovely Blue Fairy and ultimately share in Pinocchio’s happy ending.

Geppetto’s Toy Tent is a must-see for toy collectors and world-travelers alike, a warm collection of international trinkets and treasures. Hand-carved marionettes, nutcrackers, cuckoo-clocks, toys, music boxes and dolls stock the shelves, each an import from Central European countries or beyond. Big Top Souvenirs is our typical "amusement tent" filled to overflowing with merchandise in theme and brand with Dumbo's Circusland. Big Top Treats is also found inside this charming mercantile, a "show kitchen" famous for its cotton candy, caramel apples, shaved ice and other carnival treats.

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It wouldn't be fair to not include an entourage of mischievous clowns in Dumbo's Circusland. The beloved Giggle Gas Gang "from Hannibal, MO," create all the melodramatic and musical mischief required for your yesteryear Victorian circus. The well-rehearsed and well-educated "professionals" have skill and tremendous talent in slapstick violence, bad jokes and puns, humorous dances, and awful - seriously, awful - singing. Gentlemen, be forewarned: the lovely "Miss Peaches" is always on the hunt for "sugar" from unsuspecting male visitors...

Barnum (Original Broadway Cast) - 19. Join The Circus

www.youtube.com

(Artwork by @Basketbuddy101)
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Ringmaster Mickey Mouse, driven by the success of his first circus as seen in the classic Mickey's Circus (1936), has sought to repeat his former success, opening Mickey's Madcap Circus in the heart of Dumbo's Circusland. Dueling tracks and differential show scenes make no two visit the same in this fun house-style dark ride built in the essence of the nonsense and magic of a classic Walt Disney animated short. An ornate caravan sends us on a harrowing, lighthearted misadventure through peculiar obstacles and frenzied mayhem.

Untamed "man-eaters" (Lambert the Sheepish Lion and King Louie), awkward balancing acts (the hippos and crocodiles from Fantasia), and an unintentional blast through the clowns' dressing quarters result in a climactic finale in which the entire three-ring circus is plunged "fathoms below" stray floodwater, courtesy of an overturned dunk-tank, where sharks, mermaids and fish appear to magically materialize and shuffle past.

It’s all fashioned in the spirit and style of the classic, but now extinct Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of Walt Disney World, right down to the dueling tracks and candy-striped facade, a la the Magic Kingdom, circa 1971. Fortunately, the Disneyland Mr. Toad's Wild Ride remains in operation in the Castle Courtyard.

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In late 2006, the famed "Clown Restaurant" of Dumbo's Circusland closed for refurbishment. Instead, the old restaurant was demolished and transformed from the ground-up.

As of Summer 2008, the twinkle of popcorn lights and smell of vanilla have attracted the attention of passers-by toward the allure and excitement of the Coney Island-reminiscent Carnival Corral. Bullseye, the beloved plush horse from Toy Story 2 and 3, welcomes eager patrons into an old-fashioned indoor-midway cut from the same cloth as a turn-of-the-century Coney Island, New York. Innumerable fun house mirrors, nickelodeons, one-of-a-kind arcade machines and other classic games of the midway fill the Corral; Toy Story-style. Woody, Jessie, Buzz and friends have all been detailed into every "vintage" game, a fitting portal to the fun found over at the Toy Box Playhouse.

Mr. Potato Head, carnival barker extraordinaire, is the star performer at the Toy Box Playhouse. The old "hockey puck" performs a daily song and dance routine in celebration of the Carnival Corral's true main attraction: Toy Story Mania!

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Woody's mouth leads a magical transition from the outdoor nostalgia of Dumbo's Circusland and into the interior toy chest of Andy Davis. The chest is strewn floor-to-lid with over-sized board games, puzzles and gargantuan toys. Then, we board a carnival-inspired tram, a pair of 3D glasses handy, and use a spring-action shooter to take aim at various "revisionist" games of the boardwalk. There are 5 fast-paced games to play.

- Hamm & Eggs: fire hardboiled eggs at targets in the barnyard.
- Rex & Trixie's Dino Darts: launch darts and pop balloons in front of a prehistoric volcano.
- Green Army Men Shoot Camp: aim baseballs at dinner plates in the firing range.
- Buzz Lightyear's Flying Tossers: toss rings and catch some aliens.
- Woody's Rootin' Tootin' Shootin' Gallery: shoot suction-cup-tipped darts at targets inspired by the "Woody's Roundup" TV show

From the late 1940s, Walt Disney had a miniature railroad set up in his backyard he called the "Carolwood Pacific." His pride and joy was the Lilly Belle, a hand-built model train named in honor of his wife, Mrs. Lillian Disney. The Disneyland Railroad stops in Dumbo's Circusland at the aptly named "Carolwood Station."

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The Lilly Belle was the prototype for the most letter perfect re-creation of an 1890 railroad train that ever whistled into a Main Street station.

Walt's little locomotive, 1/8 full-scale, was the first "blown up" in drawings, then made into a plywood mock-up large enough for a man to walk through. When it was determined that a six-foot door was adequate for a human passenger, the rest of the design followed in proportion. The size of the door dictated the size of the roof, the sides, and finally the wheels - 36 inches apart on the tracks, or almost exactly the same width as the narrow gauge railroads of old.

The Disneyland Railroad cars followed, proportionately speaking, the Lilly Belle's example. Two trains, an 1890 passenger and a western freight train, were constructed in the machine shop at the Disney Studio. Each train was painstakingly designed and assembled piece by piece. Finely detailed wood, metal and iron-work and most parts were individually crafted in the Disney machine shop. The two trains, named C.K. Holliday and E.P. Ripley, were built specifically for Disneyland in 1954 - 55 and both have 4-4-0 engines (they have four wheels in front, four drive wheels, and no trailing truck or tender.). Two rebuilt engines were later added to the Disneyland Railroad, an 1891 model from Louisiana and a 1925 version from New England.

Walt Disney's lifelong love of trains was expressed in the Disneyland Railroad. His backyard toy had "grown up" and now he could share with the world another of his childhood fantasies. His interest dated back to his teenage years when he "rode the trails" selling candy and newspapers on trains rolling between Kansas City and Chicago.

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Now, it might seem redundant having Toy Story Mania in Fantasyland and Woody's Roundup in Frontierland. However, my argument is... Well, I like it this way haha. I think Coney Island-style TSM from Tokyo DisneySea would make a great inclusion in the Victorian Dumbo's Circusland. Plus, the inclusion is realistic to our reality if you think about it; Team Disney Anaheim LOVES synergy in the Parks, and I can't think of a better attraction for that lol. Since there's no DCA in my reality and Hollywoodland is themed to Hollywood's Golden Age, it works better in Circusland. Also, case in point, Shanghai Disneyland. SHDL might be the best themed Magic Kingdom in the world. Still, it has a Buzz Lightyear attraction in Tomorrowland and an entirely separate Toy Story Land up the walkway. IP's are able to stretch across different lands.

Wow, I'm disgusted that I supported synergy just now.

Next up: Hollywoodland!

 

[Suchomimus]

Two rebuilt engines were later added to the Disneyland Railroad, an 1891 model from Louisiana and a 1925 version from New England.

Aww, Ward Kimball is still Cedar Point’s Maud L.?

 

[DisneyManOne]

I'm personally a bit leery on the idea of having a Pinocchio ride in a circus-themed land, but the rest is superb! Reading through your Mickey's Madcap Circus idea brought along memories of @mharrington's Mickey's Big Top Spin, a personal favorite of mine. I feel that if your ride is based on his, it would be amazing. With thirteen distinct acts, you could have six different experiences on each track, and, in a similar vein to how both Mr. Toad tracks ended with getting hit by a train and facing that "something even more devilish", both tracks here could end with the Great Goofini scene.

However, I must ask: Will the exterior be more circus tent-inspired, or more Barnum Museum-inspired, as in the designs created by @Basketbuddy101 all those years ago?

 

[Evilgidgit]

Wow, I'm disgusted that I supported synergy just now.

And now to make everyone mad!

"Synnnnerrrgggggyyy, there is no living without you! We must make cash from you! Now is the time to find tooooo!"

 

[DisneyManOne]

And now to make everyone mad!

"Synnnnerrrgggggyyy, there is no living without you! We must make cash from you! Now is the time to find tooooo!"

Joke's on you, I'm actually excited for the Guardians ride. I will admit that Universe of Energy was pretty dull and boring, basically just a movie with cool dinosaur animatronics.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Aww, Ward Kimball is still Cedar Point’s Maud L.?

I'm personally a bit leery on the idea of having a Pinocchio ride in a circus-themed land, but the rest is superb! Reading through your Mickey's Madcap Circus idea brought along memories of @mharrington's Mickey's Big Top Spin, a personal favorite of mine. I feel that if your ride is based on his, it would be amazing. With thirteen distinct acts, you could have six different experiences on each track, and, in a similar vein to how both Mr. Toad tracks ended with getting hit by a train and facing that "something even more devilish", both tracks here could end with the Great Goofini scene.

However, I must ask: Will the exterior be more circus tent-inspired, or more Barnum Museum-inspired, as in the designs created by @Basketbuddy101 all those years ago?

@S.P.E.W, I suppose that would be left for personal speculation and imagination. I might have gotten the historical facts set up for Cedar Point's Maude L., but anyone can imagine the alternate history they wish for. The sky's truly the limit.

@DisneyManOne, the Pinocchio dark ride located in Dumbo's Circusland comes from Tony Baxter himself. It isn't my first choice, but I preferred having Pooh and Mary Poppins in the Castle Courtyard. So I figured Stromboli's puppet theater held in a candy-striped tent would be perfectly fine. If you look at the model of Circusland in my previous post, you can see the Pinocchio facade a slight northwest of the Dumbo carousel, complete with show building. Then again, it makes more thematic sense than WDI's original plan to have a Pooh dark ride in Toontown.

Mickey's Madcap Circus was actually a project I worked on with Basketbuddy and friends in an earlier season of SYWTBAI over at Visions Fantastic, believe it or not. I'll have to check out mharrington's idea for his circus attraction. I'd go with the tent facade depicted in the post to better blend with the other tents and awnings of Circusland.

Also, I have to agree with you. As much as I loved the dinosaur segment of Ellen's Energy Adventure, I had been blinded by childhood nostalgia for years. My last trip to WDW in 2016 left me bored to tears on Energy Adventure. It's time had come long before it even closed.

Anyhow, thank you all for the feedback! I truly appreciate it. Today, we'll start our dive into Hollywoodland and get a quick recap of Fantasyland.

Fantasyland

Attractions & Entertainment
1. Sleeping Beauty Castle Walkthrough
2. Make-Believe Brass
3. Sword in the Stone Ceremony
4. King Arthur Carrousel
5. Snow White's Scary Adventures
6. Jolly Holiday with Mary Poppins
7. Pooh's Hunny Hunt
8. Peter Pan's Flight
9. Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
10. Storybook Land Canal Boats
11. Alice in Wonderland
12. Mad Tea Party
13. Matterhorn Bobsleds
14. "it's a small world"
15. Frozen Ever After
16. Royal Sommerhus
17. Dumbo the Flying Elephant
18. Casey Jr. Circus Train
19. Pinocchio's Daring Journey
20. Mickey's Madcap Circus
21. Toy Story Mania!
22. Disneyland Railroad
23. Giggle Gas Gang
24. Storytelling at Royal Theatre
25. Royal Hall

Shopping & Dining
1. Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique
2. Castle Heraldry Shoppe
3. Pooh Corner
4. Mad Hatter (Not Included in Overview)
5. Captain Hook's Galley
6. Edelweiss Snacks (Not Included in Overview)
7. Small World Imports
8. Wandering Oaken's Trading Post (and Sauna)
9. Big Top Souvenirs
10. Big Top Treats
11. Geppetto's Toy Tent
12. Stromboli's Cart (Not Included in Overview)
13. Fairy Tale Treasures
14. Maurice's Treats
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NOTE: I'm excluding the promised Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway from Hollywoodland. I decided that Mickey's Madcap Circus would probably receive an update somewhere along the way to match the style and or technology of Runaway Railway. So, we'll leave it at that. Mickey has his own ride in Fantasyland. It works just the same. Plus, let's leave Runaway Railway unique to Walt Disney World.

Hollywoodland, though not directly referenced in the update, is located north of the railroad tracks, exactly where one would find Mickey's Toontown in the real-world equivalent of Disneyland.

JimHillMedia's article on the Disney Decade (http://jimhillmedia.com/editor_in_chief1/b/jim_hill/archive/2004/11/05/490.aspx) was my reference for the "prologue" of this post.

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Hollywoodland

“It was July 1923. I packed all of my worldly goods - a pair of trousers, a checkered coat, a lot of drawing materials and the last of the fairy tale reels we had made - in a kind of frayed cardboard suitcase. And with that wonderful audacity of youth, I went to Hollywood, arriving there with just forty dollars. It was a big day I got on that Santa Fe California Limited. I was just free and happy!”
- Walt Disney ​

A pair of mighty, ornamental elephants sat atop polychromatic pillars mark the entrance to Hollywoodland, first opened north of Fantasyland in 1999. The project was the conclusion of Eisner's "Disney Decade." The smash success of Disney*MGM Studios in May of 1989 had led Eisner and WED to "dream big" for the American Parks. The Disney Decade, arguably the biggest and most ambitious plan WED has ever designed, called for many successful Walt Disney World attractions to be cloned in Anaheim. WESTCOT Center and Hollywoodland are living proof of this ambitious blueprint.

Plans, unsurprisingly, fell through time and time again throughout the early 1990s. A Young Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular and Dick Tracy's Crime Stoppers both met the cutting room floor by 1995. Tomorrowland 2155, an inspired 21st Century look for the beloved Tomorrowland of 1967, brought with it the arrival of the ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter and Timekeeper attractions to Disneyland. WESTCOT Center made Disneyland a Resort in the summer of 1998. 1999 saw the opening of Hollywoodland, an idealized re-creation of Hollywood Boulevard in the Golden Age of Cinema.

This is the Hollywood of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Here, in the year 1937, the stress of our contemporary life fades for a glimpse into a warm embodiment of the “Hollywood that Never Was.” The shimmer of neon and triumph of a dream set our stage for this reverent tribute to the romance, glamour and sentimentality of the silver screen.

In the vision of a since-defunct dream for the former Disney*MGM Studio in Florida, Hollywoodland is so dedicated in the spirit and fantasy of the "Hollywood Dream." As Michael Eisner once dedicated the Studio Park, “The World you have entered was created by The Walt Disney Company and is dedicated to Hollywood - not a place on the map, but a state of mind that exists wherever people dream and wonder and imagine, a place where illusion and reality are fused by technological magic. We welcome you to a Hollywood that never was - and always will be.”

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Hollywoodland is anchored in the remarkable aspiration of a young man who left Kansas City for Los Angeles with big dreams - and little money. His ideas, drive and determination would one day change the world. This man was Walt Disney. “Storytellers” recalls the moment in which a young Walt and Mickey first laid foot in the City of Angels.

“Hooray for Hollywood
That screwy, ballyhooly Hollywood!” ​

Presented in the style and architecture of one historic building after the next, Hollywoodland is a Magic Kingdom all its own. The Art Deco and Mission Revival architecture instill in us a sense of familiarity with a hint of intrigue, mystery and excitement. The reality of the Great Depression has subdued into the color and excitement of a cinematic Tinseltown, where the vision of an unrealized past is "relived." Here is the Hollywood of Clark Gable, Mickey Rooney and Vivien Leigh. The bustle of traffic and shimmer of neon have built a fairy-land from a suitcase and a dream, "where any office boy or young mechanic can be a panic, with just a goodlooking pan."

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The historic Red Car of the Pacific Electric Railway once criss-crossed Los Angeles from 1887 to 1961. Today, the Red Car Trolley of our Magic Kingdom is of one and the same purpose - efficient travel. With three convenient stops throughout Hollywoodland, the Red Car is in tribute to the bygone memory of a yesteryear Los Angeles, similar to the sights and smells found within Philippe's, an L.A. original.

“Home of the Original French Dipped Sandwich,” specialties of the house include roast beef, pork, turkey, ham, or leg of lamb. Coleslaw, pickles, macaroni salads, pickled eggs, olives and hot peppers compliment the varied deli meats for purchase. This near-exact replica of the real-world location has been built to the minute detail; sawdust on the floor, neon in the signage, and “Carvers” behind the counter. Disneyland's Philippe's is historic, too - it marks the first time the Los Angeles landmark has been featured in a theme park environment.

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Bright light and the crackle of a phonograph welcome us to Oswald’s Filling Station. There always seems to be a ‘40 Pontiac Torpedo Coupe out front. Oswald’s is decked “ear-to-toe” in memorabilia of American Car Culture, with the inventory following suit.

Oswald himself often frequents "his" station in full mechanic attire, a rabbit-shaped wrench at hand. As with Oswald, we might “rub elbows” with the Disney stars of celluloid - including Mickey, Minnie, or Goofy - dressed in their cinematic finest. Hollywoodland is populated with real, believable people. The so called Citizens of Hollywoodland walk the streets in stride, a living snapshot of the optimism, humor and pride of the Hollywood Dream. On the “Sunny Side of the Street,” the musical Five & Dime arrive in "Town Square" by means of their ramshackle jalopy. The band has traveled down Route 66 from Chicago in the hopes of making it big in Tinseltown.

​

The original Carthay Circle Theatre, built in 1926, played a significant role in the life of Walt Disney. His first feature-length film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, premiered there in 1937 and, in 1941, groundbreaking stereophonic Fantasound was installed in the theatre for the West Coast premiere of Fantasia. The Carthay Circle Theatre of Hollywoodland is in reflection of the romance and glamour of Hollywood's Golden Age, including references to the accomplishments of Walt Disney and his original animators.

The historic Carthay Circle is home to an extraordinary journey into the World of Film: CineMagic. The classic silent films of Chaplin, Keaton, Arbuckle and Laurel & Hardy illustrate the significance of early cinema and its influence on modern comedy and adventure films. The main show itself, starring Martin Short and Julie Delpy, is a romantic and remastered English Language version of the now-lost treasure of Walt Disney Studios, Paris. Short, a clumsy oaf from our world, is sucked into the silver screen and sent on one misadventure after the next in search of Delpy, a beautiful siren of the silent era. Titanic, Star Wars and Mary Poppins are among the worlds and dimensions unintentionally explored by Short, all concluding in a waltz down the Yellow Brick Road.

​

The Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Café has a charming selection of dining and bakery items, the second in-park home of Starbucks Coffee. The “Silver Lake Sisters” - Dottie, Dolly and Ethel - once inspired The Three Little Pigs (1933). Now, in 1937, the three sisters have opened a coffee shop laden with the memorabilia of a previous decade in the limelight. The Terminal Bar of Who Framed Roger Rabbit is often rattled by the passing Red Car. Eddie Valiant’s girlfriend, Dolores runs the dive bar, which has since been converted into a clever mercantile for clothing and the like. The office of Valiant & Valiant is found nearby, as with the apartment of Baby Herman, though both sit inaccessible to us - and weasels… The Red Car makes its second in three scheduled stops outside the Terminal Bar, right near the Pacific Electric Depot, a clever facade for…

Disney Animation.

Disney Animation is our firsthand glimpse into the secret world of the Walt Disney and Pixar Animation Studios. Inside the Animation Courtyard, a number of gargantuan screens convey the clips, stills and sketches of the Disney and Pixar Canon. This indoor courtyard is our “hub” for the varied wings of the sprawling exhibition, including:

The Animation Academy
In this magical classroom, learn to draw a beloved Disney Character with a hands-on lesson from a Disney Artist.

Sorcerer’s Workshop
In the dark lair of Yen Sid, we explore the development of appearance, personality and voice in a Disney Character. The Magic Mirror Realm is a course in simple animation. The wise, talking portrait of Yen Sid guides our path into Ursula’s Grotto, the eerie abode of the Sea Witch. Here, “movie pods” offer a chance to sing or act in a famous animated scene. The pod will then play back the scene with your voice… The Beast’s Library lets us get in touch with our “Disney Self” in the glorious library of Prince Adam. Lumiere and Cogsworth host a humorous quiz to discover what Disney Character we most represent.

Back to Neverland
In honor of the late Robin Williams, the wonderful “Back to Neverland” still plays in a reverent tribute to hand-drawn animation. In the film, Robin is transformed into a Lost Boy of Neverland, caught in conflict with Captain Hook. "Back Again to Neverland" is an immediate sequel; Josh Gad is introduced to computer animation, more specifically a prequel to “Peter Pan.” Unlike the first film, “Back Again” features a musical number, performed by an animated Mr. Gad himself.

Jim Henson’s Muppet Workshop
Unique to Disneyland, the Muppet Workshop focuses on a different method of animation: Puppetry. An exhibition of actual Muppet replicas and artifacts lead to a demonstration held to the backdrop of a bizarre factory, complete with sentient machinery and architecture. Here we can build our own Muppet Whatnot from various parts, with one-on-one tips from trained Muppeteers. The enormous Muppet-Tron 5000 overlooks the workshop, playing classic clips and skits of “The Muppet Show.”

Exhibition Hall
The lavish Exhibition Hall is to hold a number of traveling exhibits and touring performance groups. Such past exhibits include “The Mind of Tim Burton” and “Art of Pixar.”​

​

Back in Hollywoodland, a secret panel leads to the opulent foyer of the Ink & Paint Club. The host motions us toward a “larger than life” portrait of Marvin Acme, the so called “Gag King.” Even so, the rose etched on his breast pocket squirts water straight out of the canvas. Suddenly, the entire wall begins to move and we are thrust into the smokey nightclub, with jazz blaring and cigarette girls roaming the room. A large octopus is our bartender, while the penguins of Mary Poppins hustle in lieu of a frantic waitstaff. Corks are popping and dinner is served. Donald and Daffy - the latter seriously on loan from Warner Bros. - gleefully tickle the ivories in their famous “Dueling Pianos” act. Of course, the performance often goes awry - or ablaze - and human entertainment takes the subsequently available spotlight.

Lowbrow tomfoolery is the stock-in-trade of the Gag Factory, where such items as whoopee cushions and rubber chickens are "manufactured" by a highly over-engineered contraption.

​

Roger Rabbit's Runaway Trolley was inspired by the Academy Award-winning film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Directed by Robert Zemeckis and produced by Steven Spielberg, the film successfully created the illusion that animated characters were interacting in the "real" world with people, thanks to the state-of-the-art technology of that time.

The attraction, also opened in 1999 with the rest of Hollywoodland, revisits the story of Roger Rabbit and his beloved wife, Jessica. After a series of mishaps aboard the "Toontown Jolly Trolley," tour guide Roger Rabbit takes the controls. Suddenly, the trolley is sent hurtling into innumerable obstacles and misadventures that would only be possible in Toontown. The villainous Weasels are pouring Toon-melting Dip all throughout Toontown, and our trolley is doomed for its path.

The attraction features state-of-the-art technology - including a "next generation" flight simulator, digital 3D video, Audio-Animatronics characters and "in-trolley" special effects and music.

“A Spectacular Journey Into the Movies
A Cast of Thousands! A Sweeping Spectacle of Thrills! Chills! Romance!” ​

The Great Movie Ride has been faithfully re-created in Hollywoodland, the one-time star attraction of Disney*MGM Studios. The Great Movie Ride holds 95,000 square feet of Disneyland real estate. Entering through a life-size replica of the Grauman Chinese Theatre, we board our vehicle for a narrated showcase of classic films including Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Alien, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Godzilla. Each "soundstage" set is populated with Audio-Animatronics figures, as well as the occasional live performer, all sprinkled with spectacular lighting and sound effects. This is, respectively, the signature attraction of Hollywoodland.

In early 2015, both the Disneyland and Walt Disney World version of the attraction, the latter since closed, gained sponsorship from Turner Classic Movies. The attraction received an updated commentary track from TCM Host and film historian, Robert Osborne. The pre-show trailer montage and ride-film finale were also updated with a tasteful mix of classic clips, new scenes from previously featured films, and the addition of more recent films, such as Tangled and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Hollywoodland opened in 1999 with four attractions: the Great Movie Ride, the Red Car Trolley, Roger Rabbit's Runaway Trolley, and last, but certainly not least, Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D.

Created by the legendary puppeteer Jim Henson, The Muppet Show aired from 1976 to 1981 and was an instant hit, and at one time, it was the biggest show in the world. Muppet*Vision was a unique collaboration between Jim Henson Productions and WED, including the final released film that was directed by Jim Henson and the last to feature his voice as Kermit the Frog.

The venerable Muppet*Vision 3D seats us in a perfect replica of the Muppet Theater from the classic television series, The Muppet Show. As the curtain rises, Kermit, Miss Piggy and the whole Muppets menagerie appear in eye-popping 3D. They're taking us on a zany tour of Muppet Labs and showing off their new movie-making invention: Muppet*Vision 3D. Things, of course, go haywire when Dr. Bunsen Honeydew and Beaker set off a disastrous string of events into motion.

With onscreen musical numbers, Audio-Animatronics figures and live in-theater special effects, it's a show guaranteed to bring the house down - and end with a glorious "three-hour" finale - a "Salute to All Nations, but Mostly America."

"You unlock this door with the key of imagination, beyond it is another dimension. A dimension of sound, a dimension of sight, a dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You've just crossed over into . . . The Twilight Zone.

Hollywood, 1939. Amidst the glitz and the glitter of a bustling young movie town at the height of its golden age, the Hollywood Tower Hotel was a star in its own right. A beacon for the show business elite. Now, something is about to happen that will change all that."

"The time is now, on an evening very much like the one we have just witnessed. Tonight's story on The Twilight Zone is somewhat unique and calls for a different kind of introduction. This, as you may recognize, is a maintenance service elevator, still in operation, waiting for you. We invite you, if you dare, to step aboard because in tonight's episode you are the star. And this elevator travels directly to . . . The Twilight Zone."
​

We step uneasily into the infamous Hollywood Tower Hotel, only to find a dusty, abandoned lobby frozen in time. Even the subdued hotel staff seems to be strangely out of this long-lost era...

A television suddenly springs to life and Rod Serling welcomes our arrival. He of course reveals that on a gloomy Halloween night in 1939, some unfortunate hotel patrons were riding an elevator when a violent storm struck the building...they were never seen again. The hotel closed down and has stood empty ever since.

We enter a rickety, elevator-style lift, strap ourselves in and prepare to discover what lies beyond the darkest corner of the imagination.

We shriek in terror as we are suddenly propelled up and down the abandoned shaft - unexpectedly dropping and rising - as the sound of cables snapping and metal clanging rings in from overhead.

Will we survive our journey and make it back to the real world... Or will we become permanent residents of the Twilight Zone?

May 5, 2004 welcomed the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror to the already impressive skyline of the Disneyland Resort. The popular attraction, first built at Walt Disney World in 1994, was the perfect crowd-puller to the low-traffic Hollywoodland behind "it's a small world." The desolate, 184-foot tall Hollywood Tower Hotel dwarfed nearly all "high-points" of Disneyland - Sleeping Beauty Castle (77-feet), Matterhorn Mountain (147-feet) and Splash Mountain (89-feet). So, as to not dwarf the iconic Matterhorn and Sleeping Beauty Castle, nor create an unfavorable backdrop for nearby "it's a small world," Imagineers built the Tower of Terror lower into the earth. Unaware guests hardly realize that the pavement leading from the entrance of Hollywoodland to the Tower of Terror is built gradually on a downward slope.

The attraction is based on the popular television series which originally aired from 1959 to 1964. Created, hosted and written by Rod Serling, the award-winning show—with its imaginative storylines and unexpected twist endings—was wildly successful and has enjoyed a recent revival hosted by Jordan Peele.

Tower of Terror supernaturally exits into Hotel Gifts, a musty gift shop of the old Hollywood Tower Hotel.

***
​

All done! Tomorrowland is next. I'll have a full list for Hollywoodland with that post! A lot of shops weren't mentioned in this update.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

So the Mickey attraction is going to use the current Mickey Mouse cartoons designs along with Mickey’s second voice? Since Disney owns Marvel & 20th Century Fox any plans for their future in the mirror Disneyland?

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

So the Mickey attraction is going to use the current Mickey Mouse cartoons designs along with Mickey’s second voice? Since Disney owns Marvel & 20th Century Fox any plans for their future in the mirror Disneyland?

I'm probably going to include a bit of 20th Century Fox in the Great Movie Ride, but not sure past that. Marvel will have a presence in this version of Tomorrowland (don't kill me yet, purists!), and other than that, that's about it. WESTCOT won't really have room for IP's from Marvel or Fox to say the least.

Hollywoodland

Attractions & Entertainment
1. The Red Car Trolley
2. Citizens of Hollywoodland
3. Five & Dime
4. CineMagic
5. Disney Animation
6. Roger Rabbit's Runaway Trolley
7. The Great Movie Ride
8. Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D
9. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Shopping & Dining
1. Philippe's
2. Oswald's Filling Station
3. Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe
4. Terminal Bar (Gift Shop)
5. Ink & Paint Club
6. Gag Factory
7. Hotel Gifts
8. Muppet Studio Store (Not Included in Overview)
​

Tonight's update is more so a history into the troubled and ever-changing past and present of Mirror Disneyland's Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland, to me at least, has so much untapped potential in its nostalgia and avenue of possibilities for future development. This portion of the project is a real "go big or go home" moment for me.

This post (and the next for Tomorrowland) would not be possible without the reference and inspiration of DisneyChris.com, ThemeParkTourist.com, JimHillMedia, Disneyland: The First Thirty Years, The Art of Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real.

***

Tomorrowland

Walt Disney’s first Tomorrowland was dedicated with the hope for a peaceful and unified future. Displayed at the entrance to the original Tomorrowland was an Avenue of Flags, flying the colors of all the world’s nations, and a kinetic World Clock that could pinpoint the correct time for any point on Planet Earth. The iconic landmark from the original Tomorrowland was a towering, full-scale rocket ship, “The Moonliner,” positioned and readied for blast-off. The Astro-Jets, Aluminum Hall of Fame and Space Station X-1 were among the featured attractions and destinations on Opening Day, 1955.

Where many people called Walt Disney an “Optimistic Futurist,” author and friend Ray Bradbury instead felt that Walt was an Optimal Behaviorist, “A term I use constantly,” Bradbury says. “I ask of you and others optimal behavior, and if you behave every day, and get your work done, and do it with love, at the end of a day, a week, a month, a year, whatever, you have done your work.” Indeed, to Walt the future was progress, progress was beneficial, and there always was a “great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day.”

As fascinated as Walt Disney was by what progress and innovation tomorrow would bring, he struggled through Tomorrowland’s first decade trying to create and establish attractions that fulfilled his own “promise of the future.”

​

“Tomorrow can be a wonderful age,” Walt said. “Our scientists today are opening doors of the space age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. In Tomorrowland, we’ve arranged a preview of the wonderful developments the future holds in store. You will actually experience what many of America’s foremost men of science and industry predict for the world of tomorrow. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future.”

The actual submarine set from the popular Disney movie, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, was exhibited in Tomorrowland, complete with the Giant Squid. Phantom Boats, Rocket to the Moon and an Autopia “Freeway” exemplified the “world to come” in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland of ‘55.

In mid-1957, Monsanto’s House of the Future opened to show Tomorrowland visitors how the innovative use of plastics could shape our homes of tomorrow. The result of three years of planning and design, the cantilevered plastic shell enclosed a five-room living environment complete with furniture - and almost everything made out of plastic materials. The Viewliner, Tomorrowland’s predecessor to the Monorail, often found itself alongside a living reminder of its “coal-burning” past, the Disneyland Railroad.

1958 welcomed the world’s longest diorama, Disneyland’s re-creation of the flora and fauna of Arizona’s Great Abyss. At the dedication ceremony, 96-year-old Hopi Indian Chief Nevangnewa blessed the trains that would carry visitors past the dramatic diorama. A new station stop for the Disneyland Railroad was added in Tomorrowland as a result. The structure is one of the few remaining remnants from the original Tomorrowland, other than a new marquee that was added in 1994.

As the snowy peaks of the Matterhorn neared completion in 1959, Tomorrowland saw the addition of several major attractions and adventures, including the Monorail and the Submarine Voyage.

​

Since the early days of Disneyland, Walt had wanted to include a “train of the future.” After much research and study, Disney Imagineers returned from Cologne, Germany, where they had been impressed by an experimental monorail developed by the Alweg Company. After recommending the system to Walt, Disney designers joined with the Alweg staff in 1958 to develop a basic plan that would lead to a working prototype. From there, the trains were designed and built at the Disney Studios in Burbank, and the Disneyland Monorail became the first passenger-carrying system of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It remains in operation today. The beamway would later be lengthened significantly to reach all destinations in the Disneyland Resort, including the new WESTCOT Center in 1998.

Inspired by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a fleet of eight realistic submarines also found a home in Tomorrowland. Although his designers had originally suggested a glass-bottom boat ride, Walt wasn’t satisfied. “Let’s give them a real submarine ride. We’ll take them down in the water and let them look out of portholes...give ‘em a real show!” With that, $2,500,000 was “submerged” to create the fascinating world of liquid space. The original Submarine Voyage took passengers on an undersea adventure through coral reefs, a graveyard of lost ships, beneath the North Pole, the ruins of an Atlantean continent, and past an underwater volcano, along the way encountering schools of tropical fish, giant clams, sea turtles, seductive mermaids, a giant squid and a silly sea serpent.

The Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage and the Matterhorn, along with the expansion of several other existing attractions, represented an investment of $6 million.

Although many attempts at a design for Tomorrowland were made between 1953 and 1955, construction on the area clearly did not begin until a scant six months prior to the Park opening in July 1955. Although said significant additions were made in 1959, Walt decided to start from scratch after the New York’s World Fair in 1964 - 1965 and create a New Tomorrowland. Soft yet symmetrical shapes and sculptured reflective surfaces reaching skyward would symbolize human aspiration, while constant movement manifested the ceaseless activity envisioned in a city of the future.

“Now, when we opened Disneyland, outer space was Buck Rogers. I did put in a trip to the moon. And I got Wernher von Braun to help me plan the thing. And, of course, we were going up to the moon long before Sputnik. And since then has come Sputnik and then has come our great program in outer space. So I had to tear down my Tomorrowland that I built 11 years ago and rebuild it to keep pace.”
- Walt Disney, 1966​

​

Walt Disney had often commentated that the one aspect he appreciated most about Disneyland was that it was something he could keep building, keep plussing and keep adding to. No better example of that revamping and reshaping can be found than in the $23,000,000 rebirth of Tomorrowland in 1967.

By the mid-1960s, the astronauts and the advances of science and industry had caused Walt’s original Tomorrowland to become “todayland.” The time for change had come. The true impetus for Tomorrowland’s face-lift came as a result of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, in which Audio-Animatronics had come into its “technological own,” and where Disney had established a unique relationship with American industry. Walt’s idea from the beginning was to move it all (all the Disney shows) to Disneyland. And, the place to start was with General Electric’s Carousel of Progress.

​

After two tremendously successful years at the World’s Fair (where it was seen by sixteen million people), the General Electric Carousel of Progress moved into a new two-story building in New Tomorrowland on July 2, 1967. The upper level contained an elaborate scale model of Progress City, which would eventually become EPCOT Center in Florida. Six auditoriums seating 240 people each revolved around six stages, which told a story of progress through electricity over the first half of the twentieth century. Typical of any Disney show, the designers focused on visual storytelling, developing plot and character through simple vignettes.

With Mickey Mouse - space helmet and all - more than 1,500 celebrities and invited guests attended the dedication of the New Tomorrowland in 1967. The Flight to the Moon adventure lost a rocket but gained a Mission Control Center as part of its new look. The Audio-Animatronics Operations Director, “Mr. Tom Morrow,” gave Disneyland guests a preview of what to expect on their voyage through space. Another returning feature of Tomorrowland was the America the Beautiful Circle-Vision Theatre. This attraction began its Disneyland career in 1955 as “Circarama, U.S.A.” but obtained the “America the Beautiful” title when it went on the road to the Brussels Fair in 1958. “America the Beautiful” was reshot for the opening of the New Tomorrowland (and has since been updated and replaced). Two innovative vehicles were introduced to Tomorrowland in 1967 in the form of the “Atomobile,” transporting guests through the new Adventure Thru Inner Space, and the WEDWay PeopleMover transportation system which illustrated a possibility for rapid transit of the future.

​

Dedicated on May 27, 1977 in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain opened its portals to Disneyland guests for a most incredible thrill experience, housed within a “Disneysphere” of technological and theatrical treats for the imagination.

Walt came up with the idea for Space Mountain in 1964, Imagineer John Hench recalled, and had intended the attraction to open with New Tomorrowland in 1967, but it took eleven years to find a location, let alone the correct technology or a financial sponsor. $20 million (more than Walt spent to build the entire Park in 1955) and over a million man-hours in design and construction, the 118-foot tall, 200-foot wide, cone-shaped superstructure emerged on the Tomorrowland skyline. Because of its enormous size, special consideration had to be made for the design of Space Mountain. Its foundation was built 15-feet below ground surface to make sure that it would fit the existing sale of Disneyland’s other structures, a fate similar for the construction of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in 2004.

Space Mountain, like other Disneyland attractions, was designed to be a total “sight and sound experience”; to put people in the middle of a visceral believable drama. Walt realized that the entire universe could be explored by a device not exclusive to the world of astronomers and space scientists...the vehicle of the mind.

The Carousel Theater had moved to Liberty Street by 1974. The relocated theater would house America Sings, an all-musical revue celebrating over 200 years of America’s music. The loss of the Carousel of Progress and its respective show building had left, what many affectionately called, a “black hole” in Tomorrowland. The walled-off “construction” pit would remain unoccupied for many years, until 1987.

​

The collaboration of George Lucas and the Imagineers in Disneyland was a mythic dream fit for the young and the young-at-heart. “When we started discussing the idea,” says Tony Baxter, “George immediately saw the potential. But he wanted to put a new twist on the story. Disneyland has always been known as a place where nothing could go wrong. In this show, something would go wrong.” The cause of the “intentional misadventure” of what would be called Star Tours was a friendly, well-meaning but totally incompetent droid pilot named Rex.

For several years, the Imagineers had been tinkering with the application of a flight simulator motion base as an attraction vehicle. The notion of incorporating an aerial chase scene of a Star Wars adventure with this technology was a natural fit. “George wanted to make the audience think the spaceship was a typical Disneyland ride vehicle on a track,” show producer Tom Fitzgerald recalls. Vibrations and bumps were programmed into the motion base to make passengers feel as if they were actually moving along a track - at first. “Then, look out!” Fitzgerald grins.

​

Star Tours was inspired by the classic Star Wars films, and was the first ever theme park attraction to use flight simulator technology. On board the StarSpeeder 3000, the rookie pilot Rex would take passengers on a harrowing flight into deep space, encountering icy comets and deadly TIE Fighters, all before destroying an Imperial Death Star. The large, multi-tiered Star Tours “Spaceport” filled the hole left by the Carousel Theater. This would negate a former proposal to replace the Adventure Thru Inner Space attraction with Star Tours. Inner Space would remain intact.

Star Tours, unironically, would eventually inspire the creation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disneyland’s newest Land would open on May 31, 2019, a short walk northwest of Frontierland.

Walt Disney called Tomorrowland “a world on the move.” Decades later, that notion still held true. Much as Walt Disney predicted, the 1970s Tomorrowland had become the present, and it was time to move on.

“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”
- Jules Verne​

​

Tomorrowland 2155 recalls the belief in a near-nonsensical world where the realities of science and today blend with the mysteries of yesterday and tomorrow. Imagine, if you will, a vision of the future with its roots in the past… In this kinetic metropolis of tomorrow, the great thinkers and dreamers of the 19th Century have seamlessly clashed with the color and imagination of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Walt Disney. Amidst landed spacecraft, whirring contraptions and bizarre creatures from the darkest reaches of space, the “future that never was” is finally here.

Tomorrowland 2155 was, and still is, a remnant of Michael Eisner’s Disney Decade. Tony Baxter, the man responsible for Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and yes, even Star Tours, led the third ever redesign for Tomorrowland in the Park’s then-40-year lifespan. Construction began in 1992 on a grand, new vision of the future to be opened in the summer of 1994. Tomorrowland 2155 would defy expectations and, above all, give Disneyland a timeless Tomorrowland that would last forever… Or would it?

***
​

Can you guess the fate that awaits Tomorrowland 2155? Monsters, Inc.? Guardians of the Galaxy? Iron-Man? Star Wars? Alien? Wait and see...

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

You could always put Pandora the World of Avatar and/or Blue Sky Animation in Disneyland.

 

[DisneyManOne]

I'm probably going to include a bit of 20th Century Fox in the Great Movie Ride, but not sure past that. Marvel will have a presence in this version of Tomorrowland (don't kill me yet, purists!), and other than that, that's about it. WESTCOT won't really have room for IP's from Marvel or Fox to say the least.

Hollywoodland

Attractions & Entertainment
1. The Red Car Trolley
2. Citizens of Hollywoodland
3. Five & Dime
4. CineMagic
5. Disney Animation
6. Roger Rabbit's Runaway Trolley
7. The Great Movie Ride
8. Jim Henson's Muppet*Vision 3D
9. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror

Shopping & Dining
1. Philippe's
2. Oswald's Filling Station
3. Fiddler, Fifer & Practical Cafe
4. Terminal Bar (Gift Shop)
5. Ink & Paint Club
6. Gag Factory
7. Hotel Gifts
8. Muppet Studio Store (Not Included in Overview)
​

Tonight's update is more so a history into the troubled and ever-changing past and present of Mirror Disneyland's Tomorrowland. Tomorrowland, to me at least, has so much untapped potential in its nostalgia and avenue of possibilities for future development. This portion of the project is a real "go big or go home" moment for me.

This post (and the next for Tomorrowland) would not be possible without the reference and inspiration of DisneyChris.com, ThemeParkTourist.com, JimHillMedia, Disneyland: The First Thirty Years, The Art of Disneyland and Walt Disney Imagineering: A Behind the Dreams Look at Making the Magic Real.

***

Tomorrowland

Walt Disney’s first Tomorrowland was dedicated with the hope for a peaceful and unified future. Displayed at the entrance to the original Tomorrowland was an Avenue of Flags, flying the colors of all the world’s nations, and a kinetic World Clock that could pinpoint the correct time for any point on Planet Earth. The iconic landmark from the original Tomorrowland was a towering, full-scale rocket ship, “The Moonliner,” positioned and readied for blast-off. The Astro-Jets, Aluminum Hall of Fame and Space Station X-1 were among the featured attractions and destinations on Opening Day, 1955.

Where many people called Walt Disney an “Optimistic Futurist,” author and friend Ray Bradbury instead felt that Walt was an Optimal Behaviorist, “A term I use constantly,” Bradbury says. “I ask of you and others optimal behavior, and if you behave every day, and get your work done, and do it with love, at the end of a day, a week, a month, a year, whatever, you have done your work.” Indeed, to Walt the future was progress, progress was beneficial, and there always was a “great big beautiful tomorrow shining at the end of every day.”

As fascinated as Walt Disney was by what progress and innovation tomorrow would bring, he struggled through Tomorrowland’s first decade trying to create and establish attractions that fulfilled his own “promise of the future.”

​

“Tomorrow can be a wonderful age,” Walt said. “Our scientists today are opening doors of the space age to achievements that will benefit our children and generations to come. In Tomorrowland, we’ve arranged a preview of the wonderful developments the future holds in store. You will actually experience what many of America’s foremost men of science and industry predict for the world of tomorrow. The Tomorrowland attractions have been designed to give you an opportunity to participate in adventures that are a living blueprint of our future.”

The actual submarine set from the popular Disney movie, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, was exhibited in Tomorrowland, complete with the Giant Squid. Phantom Boats, Rocket to the Moon and an Autopia “Freeway” exemplified the “world to come” in Disneyland’s Tomorrowland of ‘55.

In mid-1957, Monsanto’s House of the Future opened to show Tomorrowland visitors how the innovative use of plastics could shape our homes of tomorrow. The result of three years of planning and design, the cantilevered plastic shell enclosed a five-room living environment complete with furniture - and almost everything made out of plastic materials. The Viewliner, Tomorrowland’s predecessor to the Monorail, often found itself alongside a living reminder of its “coal-burning” past, the Disneyland Railroad.

1958 welcomed the world’s longest diorama, Disneyland’s re-creation of the flora and fauna of Arizona’s Great Abyss. At the dedication ceremony, 96-year-old Hopi Indian Chief Nevangnewa blessed the trains that would carry visitors past the dramatic diorama. A new station stop for the Disneyland Railroad was added in Tomorrowland as a result. The structure is one of the few remaining remnants from the original Tomorrowland, other than a new marquee that was added in 1994.

As the snowy peaks of the Matterhorn neared completion in 1959, Tomorrowland saw the addition of several major attractions and adventures, including the Monorail and the Submarine Voyage.

​

Since the early days of Disneyland, Walt had wanted to include a “train of the future.” After much research and study, Disney Imagineers returned from Cologne, Germany, where they had been impressed by an experimental monorail developed by the Alweg Company. After recommending the system to Walt, Disney designers joined with the Alweg staff in 1958 to develop a basic plan that would lead to a working prototype. From there, the trains were designed and built at the Disney Studios in Burbank, and the Disneyland Monorail became the first passenger-carrying system of its kind in the Western Hemisphere. It remains in operation today. The beamway would later be lengthened significantly to reach all destinations in the Disneyland Resort, including the new WESTCOT Center in 1998.

Inspired by 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, a fleet of eight realistic submarines also found a home in Tomorrowland. Although his designers had originally suggested a glass-bottom boat ride, Walt wasn’t satisfied. “Let’s give them a real submarine ride. We’ll take them down in the water and let them look out of portholes...give ‘em a real show!” With that, $2,500,000 was “submerged” to create the fascinating world of liquid space. The original Submarine Voyage took passengers on an undersea adventure through coral reefs, a graveyard of lost ships, beneath the North Pole, the ruins of an Atlantean continent, and past an underwater volcano, along the way encountering schools of tropical fish, giant clams, sea turtles, seductive mermaids, a giant squid and a silly sea serpent.

The Matterhorn, Submarine Voyage and the Matterhorn, along with the expansion of several other existing attractions, represented an investment of $6 million.

Although many attempts at a design for Tomorrowland were made between 1953 and 1955, construction on the area clearly did not begin until a scant six months prior to the Park opening in July 1955. Although said significant additions were made in 1959, Walt decided to start from scratch after the New York’s World Fair in 1964 - 1965 and create a New Tomorrowland. Soft yet symmetrical shapes and sculptured reflective surfaces reaching skyward would symbolize human aspiration, while constant movement manifested the ceaseless activity envisioned in a city of the future.

“Now, when we opened Disneyland, outer space was Buck Rogers. I did put in a trip to the moon. And I got Wernher von Braun to help me plan the thing. And, of course, we were going up to the moon long before Sputnik. And since then has come Sputnik and then has come our great program in outer space. So I had to tear down my Tomorrowland that I built 11 years ago and rebuild it to keep pace.”
- Walt Disney, 1966

​

Walt Disney had often commentated that the one aspect he appreciated most about Disneyland was that it was something he could keep building, keep plussing and keep adding to. No better example of that revamping and reshaping can be found than in the $23,000,000 rebirth of Tomorrowland in 1967.

By the mid-1960s, the astronauts and the advances of science and industry had caused Walt’s original Tomorrowland to become “todayland.” The time for change had come. The true impetus for Tomorrowland’s face-lift came as a result of the 1964 New York World’s Fair, in which Audio-Animatronics had come into its “technological own,” and where Disney had established a unique relationship with American industry. Walt’s idea from the beginning was to move it all (all the Disney shows) to Disneyland. And, the place to start was with General Electric’s Carousel of Progress.

​

After two tremendously successful years at the World’s Fair (where it was seen by sixteen million people), the General Electric Carousel of Progress moved into a new two-story building in New Tomorrowland on July 2, 1967. The upper level contained an elaborate scale model of Progress City, which would eventually become EPCOT Center in Florida. Six auditoriums seating 240 people each revolved around six stages, which told a story of progress through electricity over the first half of the twentieth century. Typical of any Disney show, the designers focused on visual storytelling, developing plot and character through simple vignettes.

With Mickey Mouse - space helmet and all - more than 1,500 celebrities and invited guests attended the dedication of the New Tomorrowland in 1967. The Flight to the Moon adventure lost a rocket but gained a Mission Control Center as part of its new look. The Audio-Animatronics Operations Director, “Mr. Tom Morrow,” gave Disneyland guests a preview of what to expect on their voyage through space. Another returning feature of Tomorrowland was the America the Beautiful Circle-Vision Theatre. This attraction began its Disneyland career in 1955 as “Circarama, U.S.A.” but obtained the “America the Beautiful” title when it went on the road to the Brussels Fair in 1958. “America the Beautiful” was reshot for the opening of the New Tomorrowland (and has since been updated and replaced). Two innovative vehicles were introduced to Tomorrowland in 1967 in the form of the “Atomobile,” transporting guests through the new Adventure Thru Inner Space, and the WEDWay PeopleMover transportation system which illustrated a possibility for rapid transit of the future.

​

Dedicated on May 27, 1977 in Tomorrowland, Space Mountain opened its portals to Disneyland guests for a most incredible thrill experience, housed within a “Disneysphere” of technological and theatrical treats for the imagination.

Walt came up with the idea for Space Mountain in 1964, Imagineer John Hench recalled, and had intended the attraction to open with New Tomorrowland in 1967, but it took eleven years to find a location, let alone the correct technology or a financial sponsor. $20 million (more than Walt spent to build the entire Park in 1955) and over a million man-hours in design and construction, the 118-foot tall, 200-foot wide, cone-shaped superstructure emerged on the Tomorrowland skyline. Because of its enormous size, special consideration had to be made for the design of Space Mountain. Its foundation was built 15-feet below ground surface to make sure that it would fit the existing sale of Disneyland’s other structures, a fate similar for the construction of the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in 2004.

Space Mountain, like other Disneyland attractions, was designed to be a total “sight and sound experience”; to put people in the middle of a visceral believable drama. Walt realized that the entire universe could be explored by a device not exclusive to the world of astronomers and space scientists...the vehicle of the mind.

The Carousel Theater had moved to Liberty Street by 1974. The relocated theater would house America Sings, an all-musical revue celebrating over 200 years of America’s music. The loss of the Carousel of Progress and its respective show building had left, what many affectionately called, a “black hole” in Tomorrowland. The walled-off “construction” pit would remain unoccupied for many years, until 1987.

​

The collaboration of George Lucas and the Imagineers in Disneyland was a mythic dream fit for the young and the young-at-heart. “When we started discussing the idea,” says Tony Baxter, “George immediately saw the potential. But he wanted to put a new twist on the story. Disneyland has always been known as a place where nothing could go wrong. In this show, something would go wrong.” The cause of the “intentional misadventure” of what would be called Star Tours was a friendly, well-meaning but totally incompetent droid pilot named Rex.

For several years, the Imagineers had been tinkering with the application of a flight simulator motion base as an attraction vehicle. The notion of incorporating an aerial chase scene of a Star Wars adventure with this technology was a natural fit. “George wanted to make the audience think the spaceship was a typical Disneyland ride vehicle on a track,” show producer Tom Fitzgerald recalls. Vibrations and bumps were programmed into the motion base to make passengers feel as if they were actually moving along a track - at first. “Then, look out!” Fitzgerald grins.

​

Star Tours was inspired by the classic Star Wars films, and was the first ever theme park attraction to use flight simulator technology. On board the StarSpeeder 3000, the rookie pilot Rex would take passengers on a harrowing flight into deep space, encountering icy comets and deadly TIE Fighters, all before destroying an Imperial Death Star. The large, multi-tiered Star Tours “Spaceport” filled the hole left by the Carousel Theater. This would negate a former proposal to replace the Adventure Thru Inner Space attraction with Star Tours. Inner Space would remain intact.

Star Tours, unironically, would eventually inspire the creation of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Disneyland’s newest Land would open on May 31, 2019, a short walk northwest of Frontierland.

Walt Disney called Tomorrowland “a world on the move.” Decades later, that notion still held true. Much as Walt Disney predicted, the 1970s Tomorrowland had become the present, and it was time to move on.

“Science, my lad, is made up of mistakes, but they are mistakes which it is useful to make, because they lead little by little to the truth.”
- Jules Verne

​

Tomorrowland 2155 recalls the belief in a near-nonsensical world where the realities of science and today blend with the mysteries of yesterday and tomorrow. Imagine, if you will, a vision of the future with its roots in the past… In this kinetic metropolis of tomorrow, the great thinkers and dreamers of the 19th Century have seamlessly clashed with the color and imagination of Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and Walt Disney. Amidst landed spacecraft, whirring contraptions and bizarre creatures from the darkest reaches of space, the “future that never was” is finally here.

Tomorrowland 2155 was, and still is, a remnant of Michael Eisner’s Disney Decade. Tony Baxter, the man responsible for Splash Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and yes, even Star Tours, led the third ever redesign for Tomorrowland in the Park’s then-40-year lifespan. Construction began in 1992 on a grand, new vision of the future to be opened in the summer of 1994. Tomorrowland 2155 would defy expectations and, above all, give Disneyland a timeless Tomorrowland that would last forever… Or would it?

***
​

Can you guess the fate that awaits Tomorrowland 2155? Monsters, Inc.? Guardians of the Galaxy? Iron-Man? Star Wars? Alien? Wait and see...

I wonder if TRON will play a part here? I still want to keep Deco-Tech Tomorrowland a part of Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland in some way, shape or form, but will the canopy of the TRON Lightcycle Power Run blend in with the Deco-Tech?

 

[mharrington]

I'm personally a bit leery on the idea of having a Pinocchio ride in a circus-themed land, but the rest is superb! Reading through your Mickey's Madcap Circus idea brought along memories of @mharrington's Mickey's Big Top Spin, a personal favorite of mine. I feel that if your ride is based on his, it would be amazing. With thirteen distinct acts, you could have six different experiences on each track, and, in a similar vein to how both Mr. Toad tracks ended with getting hit by a train and facing that "something even more devilish", both tracks here could end with the Great Goofini scene.

However, I must ask: Will the exterior be more circus tent-inspired, or more Barnum Museum-inspired, as in the designs created by @Basketbuddy101 all those years ago?

Actually, I think I have abandoned the Madcap Circus idea. Instead I am going with Mickey's House of Wonders instead. Look here for a verbal tour of that (and also here for some details on it (the verbal tour is relatively bare-bones)).

 

[Basketbuddy101]

Ahh, I do like that old concept art, although I'm sure I can prove much better results now

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

If some of the Marvel characters like Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Captain America, Thor, Captain Marvel, Spider-Man, Ant-Man & the Wasp, X-men, and Fantastic Four can’t fit in Tomorrowland there could always be a Marvel subland in Tomorrowland.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Ahh, I do like that old concept art, although I'm sure I can prove much better results now

You're alive!!! Haha. I've always loved that bit of concept art of yours. It emulates 1955 Fantasyland perfectly. It's a miracle that I even have it saved on my computer ever since we lost Visions Fantastic. I also thoroughly enjoyed showing off your Hollywood Haunted Mansion artwork in my last thread a year or so back. Some of your best work.

@DisneyManOne, I'm probably going to opt out of TRON as an inclusion. I think the ride concept and design is brilliant, but we are supposedly getting TRON as part of a new Tomorrowland once Marvel Land is open at DCA next year. There's a strong rumor that a retired Tony Baxter was recently seen on the PeopleMover tracks with Imagineers. His rumored advice was to completely demolish the current Tomorrowland (except Space Mountain) and build a new version from the ground-up. If the rumor mill is correct, TRON will take up a dominate portion of New Tomorrowland's skyline, almost like Knott's Berry Farm has coasters hanging over walkways. Not my preference, but alas, times are a changing.

@Twilight_Roxas, Marvel will for sure have inclusion in modern Tomorrowland, but not all of those characters you had listed. Mostly GOTG and Iron-Man. As for Pandora, I'm going to leave that unique to Animal Kingdom.

Expect more Tomorrowland tonight!

 

[Basketbuddy101]

Definitely alive lol. Have been looking for a comp. to join but also wouldn't mind collabing on the right project.

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

Definitely alive lol. Have been looking for a comp. to join but also wouldn't mind collabing on the right project.

Well, if anything in this project catches your eye to design an image for, feel free.

 

[spacemt354]

Ahh, I do like that old concept art, although I'm sure I can prove much better results now

Glad to see you around again Basketbuddy!

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

***

​

​

The year is 2155. It’s Disneyland’s 200th Birthday, and things certainly have changed in old Tomorrowland. The Disneyland News released a backstory for the under construction project:

“At Disneyland Park in Anaheim, California, Tomorrowland 2155 is a community where everyday living is made better through science, invention and intergalactic influence. Inhabited by robots, space aliens and a few humans, this amazing Earth community is so world-renowned, it was selected as the universal headquarters for the League of Planets.

In Tomorrowland, robots perform household chores, ice cream comes from the Milky Way, and a trip through time is as common as a spin around the solar system. ‘Tomorrowlanders’ keep up with the latest on and off-world wonders and technologies by visiting the exhibits presented at their neighborhood Interplanetary Convention, Science, and Health Centers.

Those who work and play around the mighty Orbitron, the bustling heart of the community, live outside of town in the hoverburbs. They commute via the Tomorrowland Transit Authority’s Superskyway Blueline Express - a state-of-the-art ‘PeopleMover.’ Locals get all the news before it even happens by subscribing to the 'Tomorrowland Times.'

Today, in this fantasy community of Tomorrow, the future that never was is alive and well.”​

Tomorrowland 2155 opened in June 1994, and was inspired by the optimistic machine age of the 1930s, early publications of Mechanix Illustrated and Amazing Stories, and the future fantasies portrayed by Jules Verne and H.G. Wells. Inhabited by robots, outer space aliens and, of course, “a few humans,” Tomorrowland was finally timeless. WESTCOT Center opened four years later with a “Future World” of its own, a better detailed and more realistic glimpse into the future than Tomorrowland ever had been.

​

Ironically, Star Tours, the one-time saving grace of Tomorrowland in 1987, went on to inspire Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. Star Tours closed on January 5, 2018. The loss brought another of Disney’s sci-fi IP’s into Tomorrowland later in 2019. Galaxy’s Edge, though set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, in and of itself took the heart of Tomorrowland 2155 with aliens, humans and droids (robots) interacting, living and thriving in an urban spaceport. The natural forests and mountains of the planet “Batuu” are a stark contrast to the metallic towers, sculptures and retro-futuristic spacecraft of Tomorrowland.

By 2019, Tomorrowland had dropped the “2155” from its name entirely. A number of recent additions and details had, naturally, made little sense of the 22nd Century theme. Tony Baxter’s intent for a beautiful, thriving starport of intergalactic life and traffic remained, but was held in an entirely new light, content and era. This Tomorrowland is timeless, wherein there is no set year or destination. For now, we visit the past, present and future of Tomorrowland as it stands in our Mirror Disneyland today.

​

A Disneyland construction crew, while using a backhoe to bury some electrical cable in Tomorrowland, unintentionally discovered a weird series of otherworldly crystals buried deep beneath Disneyland. These stones, as it would turn out, were in actuality ancient, intergalactic beacons that had been buried centuries before by sentient beings. Now, uncovered and exposed to sunlight, the crystals have begun to undulate with an ethereal light, transmitting messages deep into space that Earth is finally an advanced enough civilization that it could begin accepting visits from out-of-town extraterrestrials.

These same crystals and supernatural rock formations flank the entrance to Tomorrowland today, pulsating with energy and light in an ethereal, almost alien glow. These unnatural formations were indeed "uncovered" in the construction of New Tomorrowland, the last relics of a vanished sentient race. Clocks of all shape, size, style, variety and time period lay strewn among the rock-work and crystals, their hands spinning rapidly backward and forward. The starport beyond stands as an advanced, “modernized” metropolis of the 22nd Century.

Outlandish, ominous, and wholeheartedly bizarre, this current Tomorrowland blends the aesthetic of gritty steampunk with the color, neon and imagination of a "Space Age" science-fiction comic-book. H.G. Wells, Jules Verne and Leonardo Da Vinci all “live” here. In fact, diehard Disney Fans might recognize the remaining skeleton of Tomorrowland 2155 to be a perfect cross between the real-world Tomorrowland of Walt Disney World and the Discoveryland of Disneyland Paris, with a hint of Tony Baxter’s unrealized Discovery Bay thrown in.

The new, thriving metropolis of Tomorrowland isn’t a conceptual place, it’s a habitable one. People - and aliens - appear to live, work, and play in this decidedly urban landscape. The old New Tomorrowland of 1967 was based around movement and kinetics, with the WEDWay PeopleMover, Rocket Jets and Monorail dominating the skyline. This is, fortunately, still the case, only much has changed…

​

The WEDWay PeopleMover became the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover in 1994. The PeopleMover cars travel four to a train - each car seats four people. Passengers board the PeopleMover by stepping onto a rotating platform. As we approach the station, the PeopleMover cars move the same speed we are traveling aboard the rotating platform, so all we have to do is step aboard the nearest car! Now, safely aboard, we settle in and take a tour of Tomorrowland.

Walt Disney’s long affiliation with aviation dates back to the original Astro-Jets, first introduced in 1956. But it was his lasting fascination with science, innovation and the challenge of outer space that ultimately led to the creation of the elevated Rocket Jets, Tomorrowland and its “Atomic Age” adventures. The breathtaking Orbitron stands high in the sky amid a gleaming constellation of stars and planets, a suited replacement for the former Rocket Jets. An elevator lifts space travelers to a platform two stories high, where they board not a retro self-controlled rocket, but instead an exhilarating, astronomical jet-pack. The new technology is a cutting edge, sci-fi-fantasy where passengers dance, float and sail through the air. Two at a time, fledgling sky pilots don rocket-powered backpacks connected to the Orbitron via 16 mechanical arms.

Cosmic Way, the “Main Street” of science fiction, is the central thoroughfare of Tomorrowland. Kinetic sculptures, video walls and electronic advertisements allude to the innovation and mystique of “tomorrow,” complete with one nonsensical gadget after the next built to save on human labor. Storefront windows display robots performing household chores. In the vast esplanade at the end of Cosmic Way, the sleek, streamlined Orbitron points to the stars, readied for an adventure through the cosmos, far-off beyond our own sight and sound. This narrow “mall” of Cosmic Way has an attraction on either side; one to the north (our left), The Visionarium: From Time to Time, and one to the south (our right), Adventure Thru Inner Space.

​

Franz Reichelt, ill-fated pioneer of the parachute, is the namesake of Reichelt Hangar, home to the fabled Hyperion, a mighty zeppelin. The Astronomer’s Club, featured inside, is the star restaurant of Tomorrowland. Here, a Victorian observatory examines the universe through an antique telescope poised heavenward. As we dine amidst a collection of Renaissance charts and “maps” of the Final Frontier, we are introduced in-person to such iconic visionaries and thinkers as Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and Leonardo Da Vinci. The legendary astronomers spin tales of the stars and discovery. It all makes a fitting portal for the main attraction also housed in Reichelt Hangar, The Visionarium: From Time to Time.

​

“This combination of photographic skills and entertainment talents promises an unusual spectacle for visitors to Disneyland. We’re happy to have a part to play in making Circarama possible. As it represents added pleasure and value for the public, sponsorship of the Circarama is another forward step in our program to make American Motors mean more for Americans.”
- George Romney, President, American Motors Corporation​

The first Circarama film, A Tour of the West, was an original 1955 attraction at Disneyland. America the Beautiful replaced A Tour of the West in June 1960, and was later updated and replaced in 1967. Innovations in photographic and movie projection methods allowed a 360-degree view of the presentation, a Walt Disney developed method known as, what else, but Circarama, or "Circle-Vision 360." The original Circarama and its successors were housed in the left section of the north Tomorrowland show building, a building we recognize today as “Reichelt Hangar.” The remainder of the space would become the Astronomer’s Club, indoor real estate that had previously been used for exhibits in Tomorrowland’s first near-half-century.

1994 would bring “From Time to Time” a popular attraction based on the French version, "Le Visionarium," which played at Disneyland Paris beginning in 1992. Of course, the film received an “American-friendly” re-edit, with additional scenes, voiceover and removals to cater to a Disneyland audience. “The Visionarium: From Time to Time” was the first CircleVision-360 film to have a central plot and characters. The Timekeeper, an esteemed robot-scientist, has pioneered the art of time travel and has recently built his first ever time machine. He sends an advanced probe, with nine cameras, back and forth through time, aptly named “9-Eye.” Robin Williams and Rhea Perlman starred as Timekeeper and 9-Eye respectively.

The Metropolis Science Center opened inside Reichelt Hangar in 1994 with the majority of Tomorrowland 2155. The original pre-show and holding areas for America the Beautiful were completely refurbished. The Metropolis Science Center is filled with the various failed and successful experiments of Timekeeper, as well as a detailed history of prototypes and builds for 9-Eye. Animated “portholes” look into a futuristic cityscape “outside.”

​

"The Timekeeper" closed, with no foreseeable replacement, in early 2007. The old Circarama theater would be used for meet ‘n’ greets, traveling exhibitions, and special events, mostly geared toward Annual Passholders. This, however, changed after the unfortunate and tragic death of Robin Williams on August 11, 2014. Ill-advised plans for a second Toy Story dark ride in Disneyland (Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin) were quietly cancelled.

Soon after, the Disney Parks Blog and Disneyland Times would announce the return of From Time to Time for a "limited, exclusive engagement" at Disneyland Park starting in February 2015. The defunct Timekeeper and 9-Eye Audio-Animatronics, who had been kept motionless and in sight of visitors for nearly eight years, were restored. Ironically, the “limited engagement” has remained ever since, and the oddly popular attraction has been remastered in high-definition with a new form of 3D technology implemented to accommodate the 360-degree series of screens and footage.

​

Tomorrowland is not just the realm of outer space and time travel… One of the most unusual attractions, a staple of old New Tomorrowland, has survived - Adventure Thru Inner Space.

“I am passing beyond the magnification limits of even the most powerful microscope...what compelling force draws me into this mysterious darkness? Surely it must be my imagination.” ​

The Pan-Galactic Center of Medical Discovery & Innovation is famous for its dedication to biological science and the human, or extraterrestrial anatomy.

In a “true-life” adventure adapted from the classic 1967 attraction, the current Adventure Thru Inner Space is a technological and atmospheric masterpiece narrated not by Paul Frees, but instead Tim Curry.

This new adventure, originally opened a year after the rest of New Tomorrowland in 1995, is a bold exploration through the strange and microscopic world found inside an alien creature’s body… From the relative safety of our “Atom-Mobile,” we are shrunken to the size of a single blood cell via the Mighty Microscope. What danger and mystery lies ahead is anyone’s guess…

Our host, an unseen biologist, is our narrator and guide through the peril and excitement, he himself having been trapped inside the specimen for longer than our human comprehension. In this incredible adventure, we learn that good health is based more than anything else on our own personal responsibility and behavior...even if you are an alien monster.

​

A suspected closure to transform the attraction into Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin in 2015 proved false, when the attraction reopened in time for the Park's Diamond Anniversary. Guests were astonished to find that the classic revitalized attraction had been remastered to include new technology and breathtaking special effects. Projection mapping and spectacular Audio-Animatronics micro-organisms graced the renovated classic. Tim Curry, who had unfortunately suffered a stroke in 2012, was on hand for a re-dedication ceremony, even having recorded additional dialogue for the attraction.

Merchant of Venus ("Merchant of Venice") not so oddly became a superstore for Lilo & Stitch in 2002 at the height of the film's popularity. Stitch's "Cousins" can be seen wandering throughout a mural of Tomorrowland found in the store. Merchant of Venus was, formerly, a simple store with merchandise unique to Tomorrowland 2155.

***​

Obviously, there's a whole lot more to come! If I might say so myself, this version of Tomorrowland might be my magnum opus for this particular project.

 

[Twilight_Roxas]

With Fox is Book of Life going to be the same as Coco with Dias de los muetros during Halloweentime?

 

[MANEATINGWREATH]

@Twilight_Roxas, no, I would only include Coco.

My sources, today at least, mostly come from Disney Mountains: Imagineering at Its Peak by Jason Surrell, plus DisneyChris.com. ThemeParkTourist also had some influence.

I had a lot of issues with uploading this post. Since most was copied from a large portion of a Google Doc, the Google Doc weirdly copied a "paper-like" outline to the post and the formatting was constantly changing without me doing anything. Literally, this took me hours to put together because the dang thing kept spacing together or spacing apart, and aye-aye-aye-aye-aye. No matter how hard I tried to get rid of it, it stayed. I'm not sure if it will turn up in the final product.

Also, I hate to say it, but this might be the last post for a few days! I start a full-time job tomorrow, so I might need a break this week to fully focus my time on that! But I plan on coming back this weekend

***

​

On May 27, 1977, two days after the blockbuster release of Star Wars, Disneyland began sending guests on their own journey into superspace. Space Mountain was completed at a cost of $18 million, and anchored an entire new complex that also included the Starcade, Space Place Restaurant, and the Tomorrowland Space Stage. The intergalactic mission was launched by the very first Americans into space, the original Project Mercury astronauts: Captain Scott Carpenter, Colonel Gordon Cooper, Senator John Glenn, Captain Walter Schirra, Admiral Alan Shepard, and Donald “Deke” Slayton, along with Betty Grissom, widow of Apollo I astronaut Gus Grissom. “Just like the real thing!” They would know; and now, so would Disneyland guests.

As would-be space travelers approach the escalator-entrance to Space Mountain, they hear the mysterious and eerie sound of rocket technicians preparing for launch on a closed circuit radio broadcast, accompanied by the haunting reverberations of synthesized musical interludes.

In 1996, each Space Mountain “rocket-train” was given an onboard audio system. This provided synchronized narration, sound effects and music, adding a new level of dramatic excitement to this white knuckle race through the cosmos. In 2003, Space Mountain, already due for a major refurbishment, was closed to incorporate a completely rebuilt ride track, state-of-the-art special effects and show elements, new rocket vehicles, an upgraded onboard audio system, and an original musical score from veteran film and TV composer Michael Giacchino.

The new and improved Space Mountain relaunched on July 15, 2005, as part of The Happiest Homecoming on Earth, celebrating fifty years at Disneyland. This time the guest of honor was no less a luminary than Neil Armstrong himself, the first man to walk on the moon. The revitalized attraction looked, sounded, and felt better than ever upon its triumphant return.

​

In his 1998 book Work in Progress, Michael Eisner reminisced on an idea he had shared with Frank Wells back in 1984.

“The third idea we came up with for Disneyland was to create something with Michael Jackson, who appealed to teenagers, but also to young kids, and even their parents. Jackson was a huge fan of our parks, sometimes visiting several times a month, in and out of disguise. Our notion was to put him in an extended 3D music video. George Lucas happened to be one of Jackson’s heroes, and provided another lure. Ultimately, Lucas decided to produce the video and recruited Francis Ford Coppola to direct.”​

The result of this collaboration would become Captain EO, which opened at Disneyland on September 18, 1986. The score was written by James Horner, and featured two songs ("We Are Here to Change the World" and "Another Part of Me") both written and performed by Michael Jackson. The 3D movie told the story of Captain EO and the ragtag alien crew of his spaceship on a mission to deliver a gift to a wicked alien queen, the Supreme Leader, on her dark home world of rotting, twisted metal and steaming vents.

The home of Captain EO, the “Magic Eye Theater,” would enclose and replace the formerly outdoor Space Stage built beneath Space Mountain. The show would close in April 1997. It was replaced with Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in May of 1998, which, arguably, did not fit the theme of Tomorrowland 2155. Regardless, the film remained on an extended engagement well into 2013! A Captain EO revival was not in the cards with corporate Disney, nor was a replacement for the dated Rick Moranis comedy film, even following the untimely death of Michael Jackson in 2009.

Honey, I Shrunk the Audience closed in late 2013. The Magic Eye Theater later held an “exclusive sneak peek” of Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, beginning July 4, 2014. Guardians of the Galaxy grossed $773.3 million worldwide. CEO Bob Iger needed no further convincing. Tomorrowland would become the home of Disneyland's first ever Marvel Studios attraction.

​

The Magic Eye Theater was, naturally, not large enough for what WED had intended for their shiny new Marvel attraction. Thus, the Starcade would close and become a large portion of the new attraction’s queue - as well as Space Mountain’s; the bottom level would serve “Guardians” and the upper level would serve “Space.” The old venue for Captain EO was entirely gutted and leveled, now the first half of an impressive, oddly formatted show building. The first half of the attraction would travel down a narrow corridor and around the perimeter of Space Mountain (unbeknownst to riders). The rest of the attraction, the “meat” so to speak,” would all take place nestled against the backside of the Space Mountain complex before returning to the former Magic Eye Theater through the opposite side of that same narrow corridor traveled earlier. It was an ingenious use of a limited space.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Destination: Tomorrowland was designed, oddly, as a throwback adventure. Tanaleer Tivan, a.k.a. The Collector, has brought his unique collection of fantastical fauna, relics and species from across the cosmos to earth for the very first time. He displays his latest acquisition… “Relics of Tomorrowland Past” in the Tomorrowland Exhibition Hall - old PeopleMover cars, the Rocket Jets, Audio-Animatronics from the Carousel of Progress, forgotten ruins of the original Submarine Voyage, it’s all here. But, alas, the Collector has unwittingly acquired an Abilisk, a multi-dimensional tentacled monster known for devouring the power sources of unwitting planets. The Abilisk was, of course, frozen in an acquired chunk of Matterhorn Bobsleds ice.

The Collector’s infinite number of containers have been drained of their power source, and all the varied creatures, fauna and sentient beings are on the loose in this sudden and exhilarating crisis. The Collector has hired the Guardians of the Galaxy to exterminate the problematic, power-draining Abilisk and restore order to his hundreds upon thousands of escaped specimens. Star-Lord, Gamora, Rocket, Drax and Groot arrive on “Terra” (Earth) in the nick of time to complete their assignment and reclaim the Tivan Collection for Tomorrowland.

Our quaint tour of the Tivan Collection is interrupted in a blackout. An emergency generator kicks on. Our fast-moving tramcar careens through intergalactic mayhem from all ends of the Tomorrowland Exhibition Hall, as one of Star-Lord’s “Awesome Mix” tapes blasts a classic tune. Each tramcar is equipped with a peculiar flashlight-type device purportedly constructed by Rocket for our personal use. The flashlight provides an interactive element to the elaborate dark ride, a sort of “flashlight tag” similar to Monsters, Inc. Ride & Go Seek at Tokyo Disneyland. Various gags and effects are triggered only when exposed to a flashlight beam.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Destination: Tomorrowland opened after an astonishing three years of construction and development. By the time the attraction opened in May of 2017, Guardians Vol. 2 had already been released. Pom Klementieff, who played Mantis in Vol. 2, filmed a last-minute bit of footage for the attraction only a month from Opening Day.

The Cast of Guardians of the Galaxy - Destination: Tomorrowland

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill / Star-Lord
Zoe Saldana as Gamora
Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
Fred Tatasciore as Groot (voice)
Bradley Cooper as Rocket (voice)
Benicio del Toro as Tanaleer Tivan / The Collector
Pom Klementieff as Mantis
Stan Lee as Himself
Seth Green as Howard the Duck (voice)
Unknown as Apheta, The Collector's Assistant

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The Space Place Restaurant became the Pan-Galactic Pizza Port in 1994. The restaurant, a clone from Tokyo Disneyland, is a multimedia dinner show with an Audio-Animatronics “Tony Solaroni.” Solaroni has a boss and a wife who are always breathing down his neck (on an overhead screen), and is the charismatic mechanic behind a gargantuan machine that delivers pizza to anywhere in the galaxy. His pizza includes all our favorite flavors, and some unique “extraterrestrial” varieties. Tony sings. Tony dances. Tony argues with his wife and his boss. Tony makes pizza.

But, Tony doesn’t work alone. Oh no, for the Pan-Galactic Pizza Port is also home to the one, the only, the venerable…

Sonny Eclipse, the “biggest little star in the galaxy!” His 27-minute set of tunes - and wisecracks - has been enjoyed by diners multiple times a day since ‘94. This literal “lounge lizard” tickles the glowing keys of his Astro-Organ, an invention devised in his hometown of Yew Nork City on the Planet Zork, “a topsy-turvy town where the subways are up and the streets are down.” Sonny’s favorite songs include “Planetary Boogie,” “Gravity Blues,” “Bright Little Star” and more. “You know, I recently heard the universe was expanding. Guess it’s time to loosen the asteroid belt!”

Among the new E-Ticket attractions in Tomorrowland 2155 was an adult and decidedly “PG-13” attraction; Mission to Mars was no more. The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter had moved in.

The infrastructure from Mission to Mars remained but had become the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Convention Center. The Convention Center welcomes us to experience the latest in scientific innovation and design from the various corporate leagues of the known universe. A stone “mural” on the facade is in portrayal of demoralized humans holding the crippling weight of Greek gods and goddesses. If that weren’t warning enough, there are intensity warnings - everywhere. This is not an attraction for children.

X-S Tech, an evil corporation from a distant planet, has invited us to “seize the future” and witness the extraordinary power of their latest advancement, the X-S 2000 Teleportation System. A demonstration of the technology is intended to transport X-S Chairman L.C. Clench to Earth… But a botched transmission instead results in the accidental arrival of a bloodthirsty creature from a different planet… Angered, hungry, and confused, the alien monster breaks loose from the teleportation tube, and that’s where the fun begins.

Gnashing fangs, warm breath, hot drool, shattering glass, splattering blood, and a slimy, foreign tongue are among the extrasensory sights, sounds and thrills in this Alien Encounter. Shoulder restraints simulate the alien running free, enhanced by a binaural sound system.

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The first closure for Alien Encounter came in 2004. Almost every film segment of the original attraction was re-shot and replaced altogether. Actor Jeffrey Jones (who starred as Chairman Clench) had been arrested two years earlier for an inappropriate misdemeanor charge. A reworked script and storyline called for the replacement of the original Dr. Femus (Kathy Najimy) and Spinlock (Kevin Pollak) as well. The new cast included Nia Vardalos (Dr. Femus), John Michael Higgins (Spinlock), and Kelsey Grammer (Clench). The late Phil Hartman was retained as the voice of T.O.M. 2000*.

The attraction closed again in 2013 for an unannounced refurbishment. A circulated rumor suggested that Alien Encounter would be transformed into the much-disliked "Stitch's Great Escape" that had replaced Walt Disney World's Alien Encounter in 2004. Other rumors claimed a Wreck-It Ralph VR attraction or the Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor from Walt Disney World would be installed. Instead, the 2004 film was remastered into high-definition, and the main Alien Encounter show was given a multitude of new audio effects, show elements and a re-designed Audio-Animatronics monster.

*T.O.M. 2000 lasted for about a month in the original Magic Kingdom Alien Encounter. He was quickly replaced with S.I.R. (Tim Curry) for a more sinister pre-show experience.

Star Tours closed on January 5, 2018. The massive attraction had filled a hole left by the Carousel Theater well over thirty years before. Now, it would begin an incredible and brisk transformation into a similar, but new attraction, one in which would premiere on April 26, 2019, the same release date as Avengers: Endgame, and almost a month to the day of the opening to Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge.

Stark Industries has come to Tomorrowland. The Stark Expo offers an all-access look into the company’s legacy of changing the world for the better, before introducing the ground-breaking technology that will shape our future. Displayed are innumerable Stark innovations that will change and improve our home today and the visionary thinking that will transform our entire world tomorrow.

The Stark Expo is divided into several exhibition halls. In the Hall of Protection, we glimpse a number of Iron Man and War Machine suits, including the famous MARK III suit and other leading advancements in the sphere of defense. The Hall of Energy details how an arc reactor could provide enough clean and sustainable energy to power an entire city. The Hall of Mobility holds the latest technological masterpiece from Stark Industries - the gravity-defying Iron Wing.

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Each flying “Expo Edition” Iron Wing is powered by its own arc reactor and features all the latest Stark Industries technology - including heavy-duty armor plating, artificial intelligence and self-healing glass. We pick up a pair of StarkVision glasses, and prepare to be launched into a whole new era!

Once we are cleared for take-off, we are launched rapidly from Tomorrowland and taken on a thrilling aerial tour of a fully-rendered Los Angeles, California, for a unique perspective on the latest and tallest addition to the Los Angeles Skyline, the Los Angeles Stark Tower. However, a word of warning - there are reports of Hydra elements operating in the region. Be prepared for action!

After a series of mishaps and dangerous situations caused by Hydra robotics and weaponry, led by Arnim Zola, Jarvis and Iron Man himself take the controls. Suddenly, the Iron Wing is intercepted by a gargantuan Hydra “octopus” hellbent on stealing the arc reactor from atop Stark Tower. This attraction immerses us into the Marvel Cinematic Universe for an unforgettable, high-definition, digital 3D adventure!

Unlike the Hong Disneyland version of the attraction, opened on January 11, 2017, the California version of the Iron Man Experience is set in a digitally rendered version of Los Angeles (and briefly Disneyland), rather than Hong Kong, and is set a few years following the 2010 New York Stark Expo. This version also includes a turbulent selection of 54 different ride variations. No ride is alike.

Expo Gifts is the epicenter of all Marvel merchandise, gadgets and innovations for available purchase.

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The Avengers Hall of Fame is found in the same complex as the Stark Expo. In this expansive museum and tribute to "Earth's Greatest Heroes," we discover one detailed exhibition after the next in honor of almost every hero in the Marvel Canon - Captain America, Iron Man, Black Widow, Black Panther, Scarlet Witch, Vision, Falcon, Ant-Man, Doctor Strange - everyone is here, even Deadpool. We can even meet some of our favorite heroes, including, but not limited to Thor, Spider-Man, Captain America and Groot.

Stan's Comics, our resident "exit through the gift shop," is Disneyland's one-stop shop for all the comic-books and exclusive Marvel memorabilia one could ever hope to find under one roof. This is no ordinary collectibles shop, however. The "cardboard" cutouts and statuettes in depiction of heroes and villains engaged in combat have a tendency to spring to life and stir quite the ruckus... Imagine, for example, a cardboard cutout of the Incredible Hulk that punches a wall and subsequently shakes the entire building to its foundation... Sounds simple enough, right?

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Stay tuned, we still have a few more spots to cover in Tomorrowland! See you in a few days!