Many of the attractions that first debuted at Walt Disney World during the 1970s and 80s are still fondly remembered today. Their collective nostalgia fuels fond memories for those that experienced them as children or young adults. Some have lasted long enough that one generation was able to experience them with the next upon return visits to the resort. However, one Tomorrowland adventure seems to have evaded such strong emotional attachment, despite operating for more than 20 years. Looking back, its existence is more of an enigma than anything else; a casualty of a company with bigger priorities, rapid change in technology and limited space for alternations.
Flight to the Moon was not ready for The Magic Kingdom’s opening in October 1971, but by that Christmas had opened its doors for holiday crowds looking for more things to do. It was a clone of an attraction that had opened four years earlier at Disneyland. After visiting a Mission Control center populated by robotic scientists, guests than entered one of two twin theaters in the round for a simulated trip to space. Circular screens on the floor and ceiling showed viewers getting further from Earth and closer to the Moon, while two side monitors displayed facts and “transmissions” from the Moon’s surface. Seats rose up and down at key points to suggest zero gravity.
This experience was really just an updated iteration of one of Disneyland’s opening day attractions, Rocket to the Moon. Much the same, but without the Animatronic pre-show, the attraction represented the merging of two mid-century fads; the growing interest in outer space exploration and the rapid emergence of novelty cinema.
In an attempt to reverse the decline in movie theater attendance in the wake of early television, movie studios and independent filmmakers began experimenting with other methods of projecting film. Cinerama (three projectors using a curved screen), CinemaScope (widescreen projection with an anamorphic lens) and others were designed to be so big and wondrous that you just had to see them, and that it was worth paying more to do so than a regular picture. The gimmick was paying off. Disneyland appeared to catch on to their popularity by producing Circarama (later referred to as Circle-Vision) outdoing Cinerema with a screen that completely wraped around an audience for total immersion. Rocket to the Moon was also another attempt to use multiple screens to enthrall Disneyland guests, and it worked.
In 1967, Disneyland’s Tomorrowland got a major makeover. Removing several of the original exhibits and updated others, including Rocket to the Moon. New footage was shot for the theater and a pre-show with Animatronics only seemed natural, as most of the new Disney attractions were including them. It was a way to keep the attraction fresh while outside of Disneyland NASA was working to get man on the moon for real.
In a bit of bad timing for the theme park, just two years later, the monument of the space race had finally happened. Man had landed on the moon, and science fiction became science fact. Flight to the Moon was set in the future, “when a trip to the moon will be an everyday adventure”, but now American tourists had a better idea of what a lunar landing would look like and Flight to the Moon’s expiration date was rapidly moved forward.
On the opposite end of the country, Disney was rushing to finish their $400 million vacation complex in time for October 1971. Every possible resource was being employed to make this happen, right up until the last minute. The scramble to open Walt Disney World on time meant that many experiences intended to debut on October 1 were delayed anywhere from weeks to months. Tomorrowland itself only opened with two rides, the skyway cable car and a miniature raceway. Any thought about whether Flight to the Moon would be dated by then, or if anything could be done to modify its custom built auditorium (bordered by a major pedestrian thoroughfares to the South and East, a canal to the West and a restaurant complex on its Northern wall) was secondary to getting the park open at all. Flight to the Moon was to be built first and any changes thereafter would simply have to wait.
1975 would bring an end to phase one of The Magic Kingdom, symbolized best by the completion of Tomorrowland and the towering mass of Space Mountain. In between the efforts to build that high-tech roller coaster, move General Electric’s Carousel of Progress back to the East coast, finishing the mile long PeopleMover track and rushing to build a version of Pirates of the Caribbean for the other end of the park, Disney decided to update Flight to the Moon to something more futuristic, Mission to Mars.
It can’t be overstated though, that Mission to Mars was a minor makeover. Resulting in only a few months of downtime, Mission the Mars recycled as much of the infrastructure of the previous show as possible. Any changes to the actual building were cosmetic with the biggest only occurring to the attractions audio and visual elements. This was likely due to funds being stretched elsewhere and the lack of desire or inspiration to fully replace something that was still relatively new. Mars was to extend its shelf life and nothing more. The attraction continued to operate unchanged at Disneyland until 1992 and Walt Disney World until 1993. As new attractions and theme parks were being built elsewhere, Mission to Mars became forgotten, drifting further out into the orbit of general priorities, surviving purely on its utilitarian purposes of absorbing crowds on busy days. If nothing else, it had air conditioning.
It’s clear to see why Mission to Mars became as dated as it did. The attraction’s overall aesthetic remained stuck in the early 70s. Everything from Mission control’s wardrobe and computers to the basic presentation was no longer up to date or impressive, much less futuristic. Some of the footage in the main show was still recycled from the original 1950s Rocket to the Moon! Compounding this was the long ago end to the space race and the subsequent decline in interest of space travel among the general public.
This explains why it was ultimately closed, but does not explain why Disney fans don’t hold it in as high a regard as other retired attractions. Many of those became dated over time, or were simplistic in their execution, but they had an intangible quality that created a genuine, positive emotional response that kept their memory alive. Compared to the original Journey Into Imagination or Florida’s Mr Toad’s Wild Ride, Mission to Mars is simply a footnote in the park’s history.
It’s here this article deviates into speculation, but upon review of both Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars it becomes clearer what ingredients were missing. Perhaps the biggest problem was the overall tone. In an effort to create a “scientific” presentation, these two attractions are missing much of the humor, excitement and music that make many WED-era shows so memorable.
Many of the old Tomorrowland and EPCOT Center rides have theme songs to tie their imagery together and provide a kind of thesis statement. EPCOT Center had a whole album of theme songs as did the Carousel of Progress and the two rides sponsored by Walt Disney World’s official airlines. These songs were translated as non-lyrical musical motifs than ran through their rides to gently remind people of their themes and underscore the action. From beginning to end, Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars had no music. None.
Also lacking was Disney’s trademark humor, corny of otherwise. Besides a pesky albatross setting off an alarm and a few groaners (“in fact, they’re the latest thing in Moon fashion”), the jokes were kept to an absolute minimum. This was a space voyage executed by professionals and the vacuum of space did not necessarily offer a lot of potential for comic relief. Carousel of Progress had familiar banter, If You Had Wings had frolicking tourists, World of Motion was comedy from beginning to end. This absence of humor only compounded the dryness of tone.
Finally, and perhaps most damming, it wasn’t that interesting. Other than a meteor shower at the end, the trip went off without a hitch. Once we got to the Moon, the reveal of the dark side was that it’s “about the same as the other”. Mars was even worse, lacking any human contact from a manned space station, audiences were left to look at pictures of deserted craters with general figures about their dimensions to mull over. If you wanted an exciting space trip, you had to visit the mountain roller coaster. This is not to say that Disney should have ditched all pretense of authenticity and stage a Martian attack, but perhaps other things could have been seen or learned.
Flight to the Moon and Mission to Mars were the only Disney attractions were guests were outright asked to suspend their disbelief. Before entering, a hostess would cheerfully ask guests to “bring along all their personal belonging, including their imaginations”. Most Disney attractions present some form of the fantastic. Regardless of their scale or complexity, there is an implicit understanding that guests are willing to engage with these fantasies in good faith. Guests of all ages who visit Disney theme parks want to play make believe too, because the experiences present worlds of genuine interest and amusement. Perhaps Disney knew too well that some would find these particular space flights uninteresting or ridiculous, but for all the genius of first generation WED, it appears in this example they didn’t know or care about what else to do. The idea of a trip to space is however, a quintessential Disney theme park adventure and it appears that Imagineers are to some extend fascinated with the challenge of creating a space voyage that’s more realistic than Space Mountain. Despite this, it wouldn’t be until a decade after Mission to Mars closed that Disney would open a new Mars trip that did push the limits of technology and their guests.
