Rumor Siemens is going to end their sponsorship with the parks - Spaceship Earth and IllumiNations

rle4lunch

rle4lunch

Well-Known Member
I see the screens as this: technology that was almost irrelevant in 2008, being thrown into the 'what our future will look like' portion of the ride.
The problem isn't the screens though, it's that they were satisfied with using current (nearly outdated when it was introduced to the ride) to what used to showcase what our lives would look like in 50 years. The old version of SSE saw the future. Those technologies came to fruition, which led to a quandary, "what do we put in here now"? Technology is moving so fast that they can't forecast next year, let alone 50 years from now. WDO needs to reach out of their half a$$ed comfort zone of "It'll do for now" mindset and offer up SSE to the futurists of today and let them have a stab at it.

They let Cameron nitpick and have a lot of his 'way' with Pandora, they can do the same with people like Musk, Kurzweil, Kaku, etc. and let them take a whack at it... So instead of plopping my stillframe headshot onto a poorly drawn cartoon and show where I should live in 20 years crap, we'd see possible technologies like interstellar travel, deep water habitation, robotic/human prosthetic augmentation, and so on.
 
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Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
smile said:
why are you asking him to explain to you what's so damn compelling when it was your idea for us to be happy in our respective churches?
...you know whatever the response, you're not changing your mind.

do as you say, but not as you do?

and he wasn't asking a question either, just merely giving his opinion and you jumped on him
- thought you were going to 'agree to disagree', but guess i was wrong
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Kettle... meet pot!
 
THEMEPARKPIONEER

THEMEPARKPIONEER

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Let me add the effect was never run for guests. It didn’t make it past the tests. I don’t even know if a projector was mounted to a spacer. Given the moon station set was partially installed there’s a chance possibly that they got quite far with it.
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I always suspected tomorrow's child might have been in the works or something complimenting the original ride after seeing those random glowing triangles
 
Tom Morrow

Tom Morrow

Well-Known Member
Even at 10 years old I was moved by the Jeremy Irons descent. The message of cautious hope, the model of SSE that seals the message of the entire ride and structure, the emotional music that faded out into the sound of wind, giving you a moment to reflect on it...

The issue really isn't the use of the screens. I do agree that there is something to be said about the tech of the onboard screen intending to be impressive (even if it wasn't very impressive in 2007). It's the fact that they decided that not only is looking at an onboard screen a good use of significant ride track with absolutely nothing else to look at other than standard theater star curtains and triangles, the cartoon is so ridiculously tone deaf, pandering, and patronizing.

Isn't one if the principles of Disney supposed to be to not pander to children and assume the audience would be too stupid to pick up and messages and themes? That was certainly true with the original Epcot. You also see this when watching a Pixar film vs. all the other animated fodder that is released these days. The SSE cartoon assumes people's imagination of the future is limited to FUTURE=JETSONS and one day everything will be PERFECT! It doesn't even present a single thing that is realistically within our lifetimes, instead it opts to just throw out a bunch of outlandish and cliche' sci-fi concepts. It leaves no lasting impression on anyone and the only entertainment anyone ever derives out of it is "hahaha look at my head on a cartoon body".

I hope the screens are put to better use in the next version, perhaps allowing you to interact with or obtain more information about whichever scene you're in.
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
atighe42 said:
The Irons descent was one of the most brilliant finales ever created for a Disney attraction. The marriage of practical sets and a stunning score have made a lasting impression on me. Saying that black tarp and a touch screen is more memorable is the most absurd thing I’ve read in a long time.
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Oh, you'll enjoy this one then. This is not from this forum. Someone said the "touchscreens feel out of date" and, well...
Really!?!? Those screens are still very high resolution even for being 9 years old and the animation is super cute and fun. I don't even see it being "incredibly" out of date at all. I mean, one of my MacBookPro's that I use every day is only 2 years younger than those screens, and I'm going to assume that Disney used the highest-end tech possible at that time considering they were going to be touched thousands of times per day, so really I don't think they are that out of date at all!

I honestly don't get where you're coming from on this one.
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A couple posts saying the touchscreens are great and holding up fine as well were in there. And in response to someone asking what was at the end before the screens...
^There were previously some small additional show scenes with static sets that you'd pass by. Honestly not a huge loss compared to what was there before.
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i understand and respect others opinions about things in general, so this is to give people more of an idea on what most probably think about SSEs current state. Personally, I don't care for the screens and the cheap animation, but that's just me.
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Well-Known Member
atighe42 said:
The Irons descent was one of the most brilliant finales ever created for a Disney attraction. The marriage of practical sets and a stunning score have made a lasting impression on me. Saying that black tarp and a touch screen is more memorable is the most absurd thing I’ve read in a long time.
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What the Irons descent did was tie the ride together and put it in the context of the rest of the park. We had just travelled to the history of communication and seen how communication had impacted our world as different advances were made. Now, we see the potential of what current and near-future technology could do to our world. Keep in mind, it was created in 1994, which was really before the widespread use of the internet and way before broadband. Even in 2007, although it was more current than futuristic, it wasn't really outdated. Oh, and the score. It was a grand vision - here we are, traveling on Spaceship Earth, and because of our advances in communication technology, we were on the verge of a new global community with endless possibilities. The Irons descent showed that potential.

Contrast that to the current ending, where you basically do a Madlibs version of your own personal future and see it played out in a cartoon-y, silly way. Even if the animation were less silly, the problem remains in that the core theme of Spaceship Earth is our shared journey into the future - but the current descent focuses on the personal. That's what I mean when I say that the scope isn't as grand and inspiring.

In 2007, I would have liked them to keep the main thrust of the Irons descent, but update it to include mobile technology and how that would impact our world. If they redid it today, include the internet, mobile, wearables, personal voice assistants, AI, Virtual Reality, etc... Not how we use them today (they are still fairly new and immature), but how we envision them being used 5, 10, 15 years from now. If they really wanted to introduce the screens and an interactive element, make some of the show scenes interactive (so what you do on the screen could be interactive with the sets in some way). But in any case, focus on the global community made possible by communication, not just a cartoon-y vision of a personal future.
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
Sorry that you folks missed out on the message. I didn't and in spite of an iffy opinion of the downward display since day one. I found that the current one was far more relevant to modern technology in communications than anything that proceeded it. There used to be an old saying that was (not literally) You go to your church, I'll go to mine. Maybe I just enjoy new and creative. It may be true and that is what I said, that the purposes were missed by many, that was my point. I'm just happy, I didn't miss it. It made it all a lot more fun.
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I don't think that's it at all. I love new tech, I do it for a living, and it's a hobby of mine - so I can certainly appreciate the technology (at the time) and what they did there. I just think it detracts from the story of Spaceship Earth, which is how advances in technology affect our shared experience as humans traveling together on Spaceship Earth.
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
mikejs78 said:
I don't think that's it at all. I love new tech, I do it for a living, and it's a hobby of mine - so I can certainly appreciate the technology (at the time) and what they did there. I just think it detracts from the story of Spaceship Earth, which is how advances in technology affect our shared experience as humans traveling together on Spaceship Earth.
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OK, I guess it is all in how you look at it. But, tell me, isn't that experience a perfect example of showcasing advances in technology and how it affects our shared experience as humans traveling together on Spaceship Earth? Instead of watching what is happening with other people. We are included in the story in a fun way that occupies our time as we fall back down to the planet. Isn't it better to be part of something then just observe others being part of something?
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Well-Known Member
Goofyernmost said:
OK, I guess it is all in how you look at it. But, tell me, isn't that experience a perfect example of showcasing advances in technology and how it affects our shared experience as humans traveling together on Spaceship Earth? Instead of watching what is happening with other people. We are included in the story in a fun way that occupies our time as we fall back down to the planet. Isn't it better to be part of something then just observe others being part of something?
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Again, I don't object to the idea of an interactive element - it could enhance the story as I suggested above. I do think a better way would have been to combine an interactive element with the physical sets, so you're not just looking at a screen on the way down and they make use of the space inside the attraction. It's not the tech/interactivity that bothers me, it's the fact that the story that the interactive part tells doesn't really mesh with the rest of the attraction unless you really stretch it. The animation doesn't in any way indicate the "shared experience" aspect, which I wish it did.

There's a lot of people who feel this way too. And some like yourselves who like the current one. Maybe the next iteration can incorporate both points of view?
 
Goofyernmost

Goofyernmost

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
It is a massive waste of the available space imho.
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Could very well be, but, it is what we have. We can either accept that and make an effort to find the positive or we can wring our hands and fret that it isn't spectacular. It would be more significant to me if the originals were better or at least had some element of spectacular, but, imho, it has always been anti-climatic maybe because of the top scene. Heck, it might even be ridiculous to even think that anything could seem good after the big blue marble. As I said, I loved the city scape and the song Tomorrows Child was inspiring and very much a quality ending. They could still have that, why it's gone is almost criminal. It could have been incorporated and still have been inspirational. But, it's not. I miss it, but, it hasn't ended my enthusiasm for the attraction which still remains 90% what it was in the 80's.

But, I guess it's time to just agree to disagree on the topic. Since I have been accused of trying to convince people to change their minds, by people, not you, attempting to change my mind, it is pretty much just saying the same things over and over again. So, I'm out for now. Until there is something useful and productive to talk about. Constant discussion of what is as opposed to what used to be is also a massive waste of cyberspace especially since there is so little to talk about in that section of the attraction anyway and always has been that way. No one ever left that ride talking about how great that last couple of minutes was, but, they did hum the song.
 
Haymarket2008

Haymarket2008

Well-Known Member
trainplane3 said:
Oh, you'll enjoy this one then. This is not from this forum. Someone said the "touchscreens feel out of date" and, well...

A couple posts saying the touchscreens are great and holding up fine as well were in there. And in response to someone asking what was at the end before the screens...

i understand and respect others opinions about things in general, so this is to give people more of an idea on what most probably think about SSEs current state. Personally, I don't care for the screens and the cheap animation, but that's just me.
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Goodness, this is why we can’t have nice THINGS. Blasphemy.
 
trainplane3

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
atighe42 said:
Goodness, this is why we can’t have nice THINGS. Blasphemy.
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Well...the forum isn't a Disney forum, more focused on parks in general. But unsurprisingly, you can't have any personal opinion about Disney. If you judge something they do, prepare to be bombarded...by the owner of course. No professionalism or constructive argument. Just straight yelling most of the time. I'll leave you with this:
FP+ is better in every single way and people who say it isn't just are clueless on how to use the system. And it shocks me that a local would be this clueless on how to use it.
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I'll post their response about parking in the other thread. It's really something else.
 

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