Beam Me Up, Mr. Morrow!
Who at this point doesn't love the sheer greatness of the 1967 Flight To The Moon attraction?
As a much needed follow-up to the 1955 TWA's Rocket To The Moon, the 1967 New Tomorrowland brought McDonnell Douglas' Flight To The Moon. This was even more topical in 1967 as opposed to 1955 in that it arrived during the last phases of NASA's Gemini program and heading into Apollo.
An actual moon landing was just around the corner!
Saturn rockets were the launch vehicles of the period and WED designer George McGinnis based his art direction on the industrial design of those space vehicles and NASA's actual Mission Control Center.
For kids of the time, this had quite an impact!
Taking further advantage of a full environmental theme, WED advanced the experience with the addition of the now famous, Disney queue pre-show.
The Mission Control queue area was meant to help prep guests thematically for their simulator flight as well as 'uplift' the boredom of waiting the for next trip.
The future's so bleak, I gotta poke out my eyes!
Wow. What does a Walt Disney's Disneyland fanatic see when they look at this image? To me, it's a crime scene. Forensic study reveals a lack of taste, judgement, direction, funds, ideas, philosophy and most of all hope...
I honestly try to steer away from the negative with these posts and just center on the old, good stuff. Tomorrowland makes this very hard. It's the one aspect of the parks that I believe blatantly pisses on Walt's memory.
This must be addressed by the new creative management as a priority.
To the Pixar guys: Mayday! Fire retros!!! Tomorrowland is in a decaying orbit!
For far too many years in Tomorrowland, failure's not only been an option, it's been a mandate!
Who at this point doesn't love the sheer greatness of the 1967 Flight To The Moon attraction?As a much needed follow-up to the 1955 TWA's Rocket To The Moon, the 1967 New Tomorrowland brought McDonnell Douglas' Flight To The Moon. This was even more topical in 1967 as opposed to 1955 in that it arrived during the last phases of NASA's Gemini program and heading into Apollo.
An actual moon landing was just around the corner!
Saturn rockets were the launch vehicles of the period and WED designer George McGinnis based his art direction on the industrial design of those space vehicles and NASA's actual Mission Control Center.
For kids of the time, this had quite an impact!
Taking further advantage of a full environmental theme, WED advanced the experience with the addition of the now famous, Disney queue pre-show.
The Mission Control queue area was meant to help prep guests thematically for their simulator flight as well as 'uplift' the boredom of waiting the for next trip.
These days, the space that once had kids thinking about the future has them thinking about how to get fatter...
The future's so bleak, I gotta poke out my eyes!Wow. What does a Walt Disney's Disneyland fanatic see when they look at this image? To me, it's a crime scene. Forensic study reveals a lack of taste, judgement, direction, funds, ideas, philosophy and most of all hope...
I honestly try to steer away from the negative with these posts and just center on the old, good stuff. Tomorrowland makes this very hard. It's the one aspect of the parks that I believe blatantly pisses on Walt's memory.
This must be addressed by the new creative management as a priority.
To the Pixar guys: Mayday! Fire retros!!! Tomorrowland is in a decaying orbit!
For far too many years in Tomorrowland, failure's not only been an option, it's been a mandate!
posted by thepicklebarrel at 11:52 PM
5 Comments:
Jordan isn't the future of kids today now to be overweight and obese due to decreased physical exercise and increased video game playing?
Love that rare Douglas Flight to the Moon poster (though it is not as cool as the TWA Rocket poster!).
I wonder what could be added to "save" Tomorrowland? Bringing back the Peoplemover would help, but I have no idea what else they have planned to revive this land. I also hope that John Lasseter's ideas for Disneyland don't all involve Pixar-themed attractions!
Major...
Well, they do! That's why I can't understand the (theme) logic of the Finding Nemo ride. What does that have to do with forward thinking? It's a lost fish!
My feeling is, they should just rip out Tomorrowland completely rather than let it suffer through neglect of concept. Just make it 'Pixarland' and cut it clean.
Tomorrowland was to feature fun and inspiring futuristic themes.
I believe the reason Tomorrowland has been in such decay is its a very good litmus test for the state of the Disney company (at least under Eisner in later years).
Indiana Jones was a great, all around well done ride that fit the theme of Adventureland. However, I think it's because the hard creative lead work was done by Lucas and Speilberg. Had it been left to the Disney executive management, it probably would have been as weak as any new Tomorrowland attraction.
Bringing back old rides won't do it. That says even worse things about our future!
I LOVE the TWA rocket...but a replica to advertise a Pizza joint? All it does is show the lack of ideas in management. I DON'T lay blame with the creative staff at WDI. I have some friends there who are just as pissed as we. Their hands are tied behind their backs.
Honestly, I don't envy Lassiter right now. He's gotta have a load on his plate and fixing the ails of Disneyland must be an Everest of problems.
Walt left a very clear map of how to creatively direct the company's efforts. Especially, at Disneyland! All it takes is the willingness to follow it.
I saw images online (I don't recall where), quite some time ago, of the sad and sorry ruin that became of the Mission to the Moon/Mars "Mission Control Room" and "Mr. Johnson". If I remember correctly, it was depicted that some wayward CMs had thoughtlessly bashed up all the sets and the AA of the decomissioned attraction. Rather metaphorical for what the Eisner era did to the park, actually...
As I've said before, I pretty much avoid Tomorrowland anymore. Had lunch at the Plaza Inn the other day and was stoked that there was a new pin they were giving away for "free" (cough cough). I was so bummed when I saw that the restaurant it was commemorating was the Pizza dump in Tomorrowland!
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