I still remember my first trip to Disneyland. I was five years old and it was 1972. While I enjoyed Adventureland with its Jungle Cruise, New Orleans Square and its Pirates and Ghosts, I was most taken with the feel of Tomorrowland. It was infused with a vitality and optimism born in postwar America which grew through the 50s and 60s (in part with the help of Walt Disney). I loved the idea of gliding above the action in a Peoplemover, passing through buildings and looking out on various attractions, shops and other sights from a perfect angle. I hoped (and assumed) that one day -- as the narrator said -- a Peoplemover would operate in my community. That it would be a part of everyday life.
Adventure Through Inner Space was another thrill. I'll admit to being a little scared when we entered the attraction, took the winding pathway towards the 'Atomobiles' and I saw the effect of the 'Mighty Microscope' on the guests ahead of us. The shrunken adventurers heading toward inner space looked very real to me, and I didn't know how I felt about following them in. It all worked out, of course, and I loved the ride.
In addition, the Flight to the Moon (soon to become Mission to Mars) and the Carousel of Progress, along with the Autopia gave me the same kind of excitement. Everything in the future was going to be terrific.
By the early 80s, however, I feel that my fondness for Tomorrowland was based more in nostalgia than anything else. No fault to the Imagineers, really. Two things had happened. I'd grown older and began to see the world differently, and Tomorrowland had aged. Things no longer felt cutting edge. What's more, the images of tomorrow that were presented had never really come to fruition. Peoplemovers may have crawled through the Houston airport, but they never got anywhere near my community of Phoenix, AZ. I understood the limitations of physics well enough to know that I was never going to travel inside the confines of an atom. I also knew that if I did, it wouldn't look anything like the now less-impressive Adventure Through Inner Space appeared.
Did I happen to hit Tomorrowland at just the right age, in just the right year to be properly mesmerized? Was it possible after the luster was off Tomorrowland 1967 that it could have been effectively updated to ring true for guests in 1987 or 1997? Let's face it, the future, as a concept, is viewed in a very different way today than it was in the late 60s and early 70s. What's more, technology is advancing so much more quickly today than it was during either of the first two Tomorrowland designs that it seems likely new incarnations would have a tough time staying 'cutting edge' for long...if at all.
The first visit I made to the Tomorrowland of 1998 left me decidedly underwhelmed. I missed the Peoplemovers. I'd already been missing Adventure Through Inner Space (quaint, though it had become). I immediately assumed that Disney was not interested in spending what it would likely have cost to make a 'true' Tomorrowland and ended up settling for something more appropriate to an outdoor themed mall. Still, I wonder to this day: Would it be possible for Disney Imagineers to 'wow' us with a Tomorrowland that really fits what Walt Disney's vision for the land was? Are we too sophisticated and too aware of what's on the horizons of technology to be impressed by anything that could be placed in a modern Tomorrowland? What's more, is the future still a place about which we can feel unbridled optimism the way we once did?
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