This article may be too long to read and navigate comfortably. Consider splitting content into sub-articles, condensing it, or adding subheadings. Please discuss this issue on the article's talk page.(October 2021)
Steeped in both nostalgia and (in the past) futurism, the attraction's premise is an exploration of the joys of living through the advent of electricity and other technological advances during the 20th century via a "typical" American family.[3] To keep it current with the times, the attraction has been updated five times (in 1967, 1975, 1981, 1985, and 1993), and has had two theme songs, both written by the Sherman Brothers, Disney's Academy Award-winning songwriting team.
The Carousel of Progress holds the record as the longest-running stage show in the history of American theater.[1] It is one of the oldest attractions in the Walt Disney World Resort. It is also the oldest attraction at Walt Disney World to have been touched by Walt Disney.
Summary
Intro
The attraction begins with a brief introduction about Walt Disney's idea for the attraction's debut at the 1964-1965 New York World's Fair and how he always had a passion for progress. Regarded as the longest-running stage show in American theater history, the theater then begins to rotate for each act to the theme song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" by the Sherman Brothers.
Act 1: Turn of the Century (1900s)
The first act is set on Valentine’s Day, "right around the turn of the century". The father of the family, John, is sitting on a wooden rocking chair in his home, his dog, Rover, lying on the floor. He mentions that two brothers in North Carolina are working on a "flying contraption" but comments it will never work, followed by mentions of the new inventions and technological achievements of the day. After he shows off the new technology, he calls to his wife, Sarah, who is ironing in the room to John's right. The two discuss how Thomas Edison is working on an idea for "snap-on electric lights", to which Sarah comments "no more kerosene, no more gas" will be needed to illuminate rooms.
She also shows her new "wash-day marvel" that helps her do laundry in five hours, instead of two days, and she needs to get the laundry off the line before it starts raining. John initially denies that it is about to rain as his lumbago hasn't acted up, but is immediately proven wrong. Shortly after, the family's son, James, begins to talk from the right room and is scolded for using his father’s Stereoscope without permission. James is watching Little Egypt dancing the "Hootchie-Cootchie". John comments that she is going to be the star of the upcoming World's Fair, and that James better put the Stereoscope away before his mother finds it. As John and James finish talking, John tells talks about owning "one of those new talking machines", after which, the family’s grandmother appears on the left room, having fallen asleep while listening to the phonograph. John's attention is then drawn to a room on the right, where his daughter, Patricia, is getting ready to go to a Valentine’s Day dance on the other side of town. John explains that she will be taking one of the new "horseless trolleys", before telling her that she better be home by 9 o'clock. He then mentions he's going to take one of the said trolleys downtown to have a root beer, which he explains is just a sarsaparilla with a new name.
Act 2: 1920s
The second act is set in the "Roarin' Twenties". John is once again sitting in his kitchen, this time on a smaller kitchen chair on Independence Day. Wires and new electric machines are all over the room. He says things have changed a lot in the last twenty years. He proceeds to tell guests the new accomplishments of the era, such as Charles Lindbergh about to fly over the Atlantic Ocean, sports stadiums being built all over the United States, regarding Babe Ruth as the country's best baseball player, advertisements for a film, where Al Jolson will talk and sing, electric starters replacing cranks in automobiles, and travel time from New York to California in three days.
John then tells guests that Thomas Edison has brought electricity to his home, after which, the electrical appliances all turn on at the same time, blowing up a fuse, shutting the power in the house and the neighborhood. John then tells his son, Jimmy, to go put in a new fuse and power is restored. John's wife, Sarah, who is sitting on the front porch, is sewing a George Washington costume for John to wear to the town's Independence Day celebration, as her Ladies Club is in charge of the festivities. John tells the guests that the whole family will be performing in their presentation, with John and Sarah going as George and Martha Washington. Sarah is happy electric lights can be installed on the porch. Sarah tells John that Jimmy has volunteered to pick the music for the celebration. Jimmy then appears with his grandfather in the left room, dressed in a colonial outfit and standing next to a radio, which is playing patriotic music.
John tells guests that they can now get news and entertainment on their radio from all over the country. The radio programming announces crowds have begun gathering downtown for the 4th of July. After hearing this, John rushes his daughter, Patricia, to get ready. Patricia is sitting in a room on the right, wearing a Statue of Liberty costume, worrying her new boyfriend will be scared away if he sees her in her costume. John then mentions the house now has indoor plumbing which is great for cold days, especially for Uncle Orville, who is shown sitting in a bathtub on the left side of the stage. John informs guests that he has set up an air cooling system next to the bathtub, with a fan sitting in front of a block of ice, blowing on him.
Act 3: 1940s
The third act is set on Halloween during the "Fabulous Forties". John is wearing a sweater while sitting at a circular booth-style kitchen table. New kitchen technologies include a refrigerator that holds more quantity of food and ice cubes and an automatic dishwasher. John mentions he is now part of the "rat race" and they now have television, when it works, and that John Cameron Swayze brings the news every night.
The grandparents then appear on the right room, where the grandfather is sleeping and the grandmother changes the television channel to wrestling. A now teenage Jim calls from his room and asks for his father's opinion on the Jack-O-Lantern he carved, to which John says it's scary; Jim remarks he used his "beautiful sister Patty" as a model. Patty is seen on the right room using an old exercise machine that was "all the rage in the twenties", while talking on the phone about her date for that night. After this, John tells the audience that he is caught up in the "do-it-yourself" craze as they are redoing their basement and making it into a rumpus room. On the left room, Sarah is putting up wallpaper using a "paint mixer" that John says he made for her, using Sarah's food mixer. As John admires his handiwork, the paint mixer goes haywire and shoots paint everywhere.
Act 4: 21st century
The fourth and final act is set during Christmas in the 21st century, with the family gathered in the living room and kitchen. John is standing in the kitchen, where he is working on Christmas dinner while Sarah is working on her computer nearby. A now-young-adult Jim and his grandmother are playing a virtual reality game while a 20-something Trish and her grandfather sit around the Christmas tree. Sarah tells John that she has programmed the oven to recognize his voice. John comments that all of the household items are now voice-automated, and Sarah demonstrates this by requesting that the Christmas tree lights be brightened. She then asks John to try the voice-activated oven, which he does with no problem as it confirms John's temperature command.
The grandmother has reached a score of 550 points in the virtual reality game, impressing both John and James, who repeat the score in awe. Upon hearing John say 550 aloud, the oven increases its temperature, although nobody seems to notice. The grandfather then remarks that he cannot believe the new gadgets that people have today. Between Trish and her grandfather, new technologies have arisen such as car phones, laser discs, high-def TVs, and automated plumbing. When the grandmother gets a high score of 975, John repeats the number out loud in front of the oven, unintentionally causing it to overheat and begin to smoke and blare warning noises before opening the door to show a severely burned and blackened turkey. John jokes that maybe in the new century, ovens will learn to read minds.
In the late 1950s, after Disneyland's initial success, Walt Disney planned to expand the Main Street, U.S.A. area with two districts, International Street and Edison Square. In Edison Square, guests would see a show called "Harnessing the Lighting". Hosted by an "electro-mechanical" man named Wilbur K. Watt, it would chronicle the evolution of electricity in the home from the late 19th century to the present and beyond, and show how much electrical appliances—specifically, GE appliances—had benefited American life. After each time period, or "act", was over, the audience would get up and walk to the next one. The idea was eventually scrapped.
The Main Street expansion idea fell by the wayside. One reason was that technology wasn't yet available to achieve what Disney wanted. However, the idea stayed in Disney's mind for the next few years. GE still wanted to work with Disney, but a better outlet was needed.
1964 New York World's Fair
General Electric approached Walt Disney to develop a show for the company's pavilion at the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. Disney leapt at the chance to rekindle his relationship with GE, who would fund the project and the new technology necessary to bring it to life. Reaching back to the Edison Square concept, he again pitched the idea of an electrical progress show to GE executives, who loved it.
During the planning phase, Disney's Imagineers perfected the Audio-Animatronics (AA) technology necessary to operate the "performers" in the show, using technologies similar to those in Walt Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, another attraction designed by Disney for the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair. The Imagineers, led by Disney engineers Roger E. Broggie and Bob Gurr, also devised a "carousel theater", so that the audience could stay seated and ride around a stationary set of stages, instead of getting up and walking from stage to stage. This allowed the audience to remain comfortably in place during scene changes, avoiding time-consuming disruptions between acts.
Singing cowboy Rex Allen[4] was tapped to voice Father, the host and narrator that replaced the original "Wilbur K. Watt" character. Allen later commented that he did not know exactly what he was getting into.
Walt Disney asked songwriters Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman to create a song to bridge the "acts" in the show. When he explained what the show was about, they decided to write a song based on Disney's enthusiasm, titled "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow". The brothers later said that they considered it Walt's "theme song," because he was so optimistic and excited about the future and technology itself.
The show opened at the Fair as Progressland, and was one of its most popular pavilions. Though more than 200 people entered and exited the attraction every four minutes, it was not uncommon to wait over an hour in line. For the Fair's 1965 season, a massive covered queue was constructed next to the pavilion on an empty lot to protect visitors from New York's hot summer sun.
At the end of the Carousel show, fairgoers were invited to walk up to the second floor of the pavilion and see the General Electric "Skydome Spectacular". The "Skydome Spectacular" projected images of nature and energy into the domed roof of the GE pavilion, similar to a planetarium. The show demonstrated the many ways that GE was harnessing electricity and the power of the sun for the benefit of its customers. At the end of the Spectacular, in the first demonstration of controlled thermonuclear fusion to be witnessed by a large general audience, a magnetic field squeezed a plasma of deuterium gas for a few millionths of a second at a temperature of 20 million degrees Fahrenheit. There was a vivid flash and a loud report as atoms collided, creating free energy that was evidenced on instruments. The temperature listed in the 1964 guidebook was 20 million degrees F; in the 1965 guide the temperature was up to 50 million degrees F.
The Carousel of Progress reopened at Disneyland Park on July 2, 1967, with only small differences from the World's Fair version. It opened nearly seven months after Walt's death, as part of the New Tomorrowland. Due to the success of the attractions Disney created for the Fair, General Electric agreed to sponsor the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland as well. However, the Carousel of Progress was to be a permanent fixture at Disneyland. It is unknown how many years GE would have sponsored it had it stayed there, although it is presumed the sponsorship would have lasted 10–12 years, as many other sponsors throughout Disneyland Park had.
The actual attraction was located on ground level and a new, nearly identical theater system was constructed. The sets and "performers" all came right from the Fair exhibit and remained in nearly their original states. A new voice was recorded for Mother; "Christmas in the Home of the 1960s" was slightly updated in set design and technology; all references to General Electric's passé "Medallion Home" campaign were dropped; and Father from "The Home of the 1940s" now sat on a bar stool rather than on the kitchen nook bench.
After the show, guests boarded an inclined moving walkway to the building's second level, where a 4-minute post-show, narrated by Mother and Father (with a few barks and growls from their dog) coincided with a view of an enormous animated model of Progress City, based on Walt Disney's original concept for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) and the Walt Disney World property.
As the 1970s rolled in, the Carousel of Progress saw dwindling audiences. GE thought they were not getting the most for their advertising dollars, surmising that 80% of the people that saw the attraction were Californians who had seen it many times. GE asked Disney to move the show to their new Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The Disneyland show closed on September 9, 1973, and was packed up for Florida. The Progress City model was disassembled and portions of the center of it were reassembled in Florida.
Disneyland soon incorporated The Carousel Theater into its plans to celebrate America's Bicentennial. In 1974 it was filled with a new show called America Sings, a salute to American music. It closed in 1988, and was not replaced for ten years. Innoventions, a version of the popular Epcot attraction of the same name, opened there with the New Tomorrowland in 1998, using a stylized rendition of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" as its theme song. The building was then redesigned and reopened in 2015 as the Tomorrowland Expo Center, hosting the Star Wars Launch Bay.[5]
Carousel of Progress opened in the Magic Kingdom's Tomorrowland on January 15, 1975, alongside Space Mountain, under a 10-year sponsorship contract with General Electric. Unlike the small changes that occurred when the show moved from the 1964–1965 New York World's Fair to Disneyland, extensive changes were made.
A new carousel theater building was designed to house the attraction: a one-story pavilion, with a loft above it used by the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover track, wrapping around the building's north side. The interior and exterior of the building received new color schemes, with blue and white stripes that grew smaller and larger as the building turned. The theater also now rotated counterclockwise, rather than clockwise like the two former theater systems.
The load and unload theaters no longer featured the stunning "Kaleidophonic Screens" that had dazzled guests as they boarded and exited their respective theater. The old screens had stretched from one wall to the other, with the giant GE logo in the center, and lit up in various colors and patterns like a kaleidoscope as the orchestral version of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" played. Various problems plagued the screens after 1973, so a set of generic silver curtains with colored lights shining on the GE logo took their place in both the load and unload theaters.
The Florida version was planned so that guests loaded and unloaded on the first floor, without a post-show. The Progress City/EPCOT model was significantly downsized to fit in a window display that could be seen while riding PeopleMover. This display is located on the left side of the PeopleMover track inside the north show building which formerly housed Stitch's Great Escape!
GE wanted the attraction to have a new theme song, as they did not want their customers to wait for a "great big beautiful tomorrow", but to buy appliances today. So the Sherman Brothers created a new song, "The Best Time Of Your Life". Although it was very peppy and positive, the brothers later said that they felt that "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was a better fit.
A new cast of voices and audio-animatronic "performers" were prepared for the 1975 version, including actor Andrew Duggan as Father. The first three acts had some cosmetic and set-design changes. The finale was changed to "New Year's Eve in the Home of the 1970s," and the breed of the family's dog was also changed.
In 1981, a new final act was created to showcase "New Year's Eve in the Home of the 1980s"; the rest of the show remained the same. The attraction closed briefly for the change to be implemented.[6]
Post–GE years
Act 3 of the Magic Kingdom versionAct 4 of the Magic Kingdom version as it appeared in the 1980sThe entrance sign to the attraction prior to its 2016 refresh
On March 10, 1985, General Electric's contract expired and the company chose not to renew. The attraction closed shortly thereafter so that all GE references could be removed. The external GE logo was replaced with a design of a blueprint of the six carousel theaters surrounding the six fixed stages. The GE logo on the silver curtain was covered with a round sign with the blueprint logo and the name "Carousel of Progress". The GE logo still exists on several household appliances throughout the attraction, such as the refrigerator in Act 3.
On August 16, 1993, the attraction closed and many blueprints at the time showed a new "Flying Saucers" ride inside the show building. It was eventually decided to update the Carousel of Progress to better reflect the theme of the New Tomorrowland: "The Future that Never Was." Gears and other mechanical symbols were prominently featured throughout New Tomorrowland, so the Carousel of Progress theater was redesigned to feature them. The attraction and show were renamed Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. A giant cog-design sign, "Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress", replaced the blueprint sign in the load and unload theaters, and the final scene was updated to "Christmas in the House of 2000" as it was envisioned in 1993. A new voice cast was hired, with American writer, raconteur and radio personality Jean Shepherd as John, the family's father, as well as the ride's narrator. Additionally, Rex Allen, the voice of the father at the original Disneyland attraction, played Grandfather in Act 4. A four-minute pre-show about the attraction's creation played on monitors while guests waited in line. A contemporary version of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" returned as the attraction's theme song. The attraction reopened on November 23, 1993, and was the first updated attraction for the New Tomorrowland, which was unveiled in phases. Since then, it has undergone many slight mechanical and cosmetic changes.
Due to a decrease in attendance following the September 11 attacks, Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress closed in October 2001. It reopened soon afterwards on a seasonal basis, causing fans to become concerned for its future. Although numerous "permanent closure" rumors still plague the attraction, Disney has consistently said that there are no plans for permanent closure or any closure at all. It has had minor refurbishments in recent years, but has remained open nearly every day of the Magic Kingdom's regular operations since 2003.[7]
The Sherman Brothers write in their joint autobiography regarding the history of the pavilion:
Three years after Walt Disney World opened, the Carousel of Progress moved east from Disneyland to Florida, and we were invited to write a brand new theme song: "The Best Time Of Your Life". In 1996, as a special tribute to the dreams of Walt Disney the Carousel of Progress was "updated" back to its original show, featuring our original theme song, "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow".[8]
As of 2016[update], the gears-and-cogs paint scheme was replaced by futuristic "strikes" of various different colors. The attraction's name is now painted on the rotating part of the building.[citation needed]
In 2022, the animatronics in the final act got an updated wardrobe, with a few Easter eggs. For example, Trish, the daughter now wears a collegiate sweater for "Progress Tech School of Urban Planning", in reference to Progress City, the model city that Walt had in mind for Epcot. Both Trish and Jim are now wearing slippers with designs of the reindeer characters from the Disney Christmas parade. James, the son, wears a ski hoodie with a logo for the Mineral King Ski Resort, an abandoned idea that Walt had planned before his death, emblazoned on it. And John, the father, now wears a green apron that reads "My Food Rocks", in reference to the closed Epcot attraction Food Rocks. The dialogue, however, remains unchanged.[9]
The show draws much of its inspiration from industrial films that American appliance manufacturers funded to demonstrate how their products would change the pattern of domestic chores and improve life. The desire to sell during the Great Depression and the rural electrification projects of the New Deal were two of the motivating forces behind these films.
America Sings, the audio-animatronic attraction that replaced the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland, used the same rotating theater building, with the outer ring of six theaters connected by divider walls, revolving around six fixed stages in the center. It operated from 1974 to 1988. Like the Carousel of Progress, its first and last scenes involved the loading and unloading of guests, while the other four scenes, or "acts," depicted particular eras. It rotated counter-clockwise, rather than clockwise like the original attraction.
From October 1, 1983 to January 9, 1999, an attraction known as Horizons existed at Epcot in the Walt Disney World Resort. It was more or less a sequel to the Carousel of Progress, depicting the host family living and working in technologically enhanced environments in the near future. It was sponsored by General Electric from 1983 to 1993. It included a scene where a robot "worked" in the kitchen, making quite a mess, while the song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" was heard in the background.
In 2009, following a refurbishment, Space Mountain featured several tributes to Horizons in its post-show.
Also in 1983, Meet the World was an attraction at Tokyo Disneyland that was housed in a rotating theater. It featured both audio-animatronics and video and explored thousands of years of Japanese history. It closed in 2002.
Innoventions replaced America Sings at Disneyland in 1998. Some images from the older attraction were included in its colorful exterior murals, and the attraction's Audio-Animatronic host Tom Morrow (voiced by Nathan Lane) sang an updated version of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow". Banners were hung from the building depicting the Carousel of Progress and other past attractions. Inside, the ASIMO show featured a stage set reminiscent of the "contemporary" scene in the Carousel of Progress, including a view of the Community of Tomorrow through the set's picture window. The ASIMO exit music is the original Rex Allen recording from the Carousel of Progress at Disneyland. The building's rotating platform used for Carousel of Progress, America Sings, and Innoventions stopped spinning in later years, and by the time of the opening of the building's latest tenant, Star Wars Launch Bay in November 2015, the mechanics used to rotate the lower level appear to have been removed altogether.
Soundtrack
The entire soundtrack for the Disneyland version (1967–1973) can be heard on A Musical History of Disneyland (2005). The soundtrack was also released as part of the 5-disc CD set Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair released on March 24, 2009, which includes instrumental versions of "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" representing different eras of progress, and an early "Alternate Universe" version of the complete show. The complete 1975 "Now is the Time" version was found on Walt Disney World Forever. The current (1994) theme song of the show, "There's A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow", was previously available on the 2008 "Four Parks – One World: Walt Disney World" album and is currently available on the two-disc "Walt Disney World Resort Official Album" from 2013, along with other hard-to-find songs from the Walt Disney World parks.[13]
Mike Judge's 2006 film Idiocracy features the "Time Masheen", a poorly maintained amusement park ride which presents apocryphal American history in a format similar to the Carousel.
In the film Iron Man 2, Tony Stark promotes the "Stark Expo", a fictional version of the World's Fair. The original Carousel of Progress building can be seen on the map of the Stark Expo 2010 website as the Kodak Pavilion. The Ford Magic Skyway pavilion can also be seen nearby, north of the Fountain of Planets, incorporated as the Royal Purple Synthetic Oil Pavilion.[15] In addition, Richard Sherman wrote the Stark Expo's theme song, "Make Way for Tomorrow Today."[16]
In the "Breakfast Food Killer" episode of the adult animation series Drawn Together, the characters sing the "Carousel of Progress" song thrice to help them teleport from one place to another.
The ride plays a central role in Cory Doctorow's 2011 novella The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow, where it is preserved by the protagonist in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.[17][18]
The game Epic Mickey features the ride as part of the land called Tomorrow City.
In the 2015 Walt Disney film Tomorrowland, during the opening scene showing the New York City World's Fair, the song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" can be heard.
In the 2019 live-action version of 1941's animated Dumbo (set in 1919), characters visit an amusement park's Carousel of Progress-type attraction featuring 1930s/1940s-style "futuristic" appliances.
Related Research Articles
The Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, shortened to EPCOT or E.P.C.O.T., was an unfinished concept for a planned community, intended to sit on a swath of undeveloped land near Orlando, Florida. It was created by Walt Disney in collaboration with the designers at Walt Disney Imagineering in the 1960s. Based on ideas stemming from modernism and futurism, and inspired by architectural literature about city planning, Disney intended EPCOT to be a utopian autocratic company town. One of the primary stated aims of EPCOT was to replace urban sprawl as the organizing force of community planning in the United States in the 1960s. Disney intended EPCOT to be a real city, and it was planned to feature commercial, residential, industrial, and recreational centers, connected by a mass multimodal transportation system, that would, he said, "Never cease to be a living blueprint of the future".
Audio-Animatronics is the registered trademark for a form of robotics animation created by Walt Disney Imagineering for shows and attractions at Disney theme parks, and subsequently expanded on and used by other companies. The robots move and often synchronise with audio by the assistance of an external sound system on the stage.
The PeopleMover is an attraction in Tomorrowland in the Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida just outside of Orlando, Florida. Designed as an urban mass-transit system of the future, vehicles take passengers on a grand circle tour of the realm of Tomorrowland that provides elevated views of several other attractions.
Tomorrowland is one of the many "themed lands" featured at all of the Magic Kingdom styled Disney theme parks around the world owned or licensed by The Walt Disney Company. Each version of the land is different and features numerous attractions that depict views of the future. Disneyland Park in Paris includes a similar area called Discoveryland, which shares some elements with other Tomorrowlands but emphasizes visions of the future inspired by Jules Verne.
Horizons was a dark ride attraction at Epcot, a theme park at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida. Located on the eastern side of the Future World section of Epcot, the attraction used Disney's Omnimover system, but unlike most omnimover systems, it was suspended from a track above, which took guests past show scenes depicting visions of the future. It is believed to be the sequel to Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress, an attraction in Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. Horizons was the only attraction in Future World to showcase all of Epcot's "Future World" elements: communication, energy, transportation, anatomy, along with humankind's relationship to the sea, and the land.
Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is a stage show featuring an Audio-Animatronic representation of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, best known for being presented at Disneyland since 1965. It was originally showcased as the prime feature of the State of Illinois Pavilion at the 1964 New York World's Fair. One year after its debut at the World's Fair, the show opened at Disneyland, where it has undergone several changes and periods of hiatus over the years. Today Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln is an element of the Disneyland attraction The Disneyland Story presenting Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which opened in 2009.
America Sings was an attraction at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, United States, from 1974 to 1988. It featured a cast of Audio-Animatronics animals singing songs from various periods in America's musical history, often in a humorous fashion.
Meet the World was an attraction at Tomorrowland in Tokyo Disneyland that operated from 1983 until 2002. It was a show that explored the history of Japan over the course of 19 minutes, focusing specifically on the history of Japan's engagement with the outside world. The show featured an animated crane explaining Japanese history to a young boy and girl from Yokohama. The show featured dialogue between a number of audio-animatronic figures and a movie screen in the background. Park guides and maps said "explore Japan's heritage in an incredible time-travel adventure!"
The Hall of Presidents is an attraction located in Liberty Square at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. The attraction is a multi-media presentation featuring Audio-Animatronic figures of all 45 individuals who have served as President of the United States. It opened on October 1, 1971, along with the rest of the Magic Kingdom, housed in a building resembling Philadelphia's Independence Hall. A short film is presented for the first portion of the show, with Abraham Lincoln reciting the Gettysburg Address. A stage presentation of all the presidents in Audio-Animatronic form follows the short film, with George Washington reciting a speech, before the incumbent president of the United States recites the oath of office. It was also the final project Disney Legend Ub Iwerks worked on.
Magic Journeys was a 3D film created by WED Enterprises for presentation at Disney theme parks. It was featured at four different parks over the course of its 11-year run.
WestCOT was a planned second theme park for the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It was essentially a replica of EPCOT Center at the Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and was dedicated to the celebration of human achievement, namely technological innovation and international culture. The park was represented by SpaceStation Earth, a larger version of the geodesic sphere Spaceship Earth featured at EPCOT Center.
Mission to Mars was an attraction located in Tomorrowland at Disneyland and at Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom. It originally opened as Rocket to the Moon at Disneyland in 1955, and as Flight to the Moon in Walt Disney World on Christmas Eve 1971, before it was retooled to the Mars version in 1975. It then closed down in 1992 and 1993, respectively. The attraction simulated taking guests on a space trip to the Moon or Mars.
"There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" is the theme song to two Disney attractions, Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress at the Magic Kingdom of Walt Disney World and Innoventions at Disneyland. It was also used in one scene of the Epcot attraction Horizons.
The American Adventure is the host pavilion of the World Showcase within Epcot at Walt Disney World in Bay Lake, Florida, United States. It is also the name of the Colonial American-themed pavilion's main attraction, an Audio-Animatronics stage show of American history. It is located between the Italy and Japan pavilions.
"The Best Time of Your Life" is a song written by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman in 1974 as a new theme song for Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. The attraction was being moved from Disneyland to Walt Disney World, and a replacement was sought for the original song, "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow".
Innoventions was a two-story exhibit in Tomorrowland at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Opening on July 3, 1998 as part of the New Tomorrowland, it featured rotating exhibits focusing on near-futuristic technologies. The attraction operated for nearly 17 years, closing on March 31, 2015. It occupied the Carousel Theater, a round two-story building in which the outer half of the first floor rotates. A similar attraction of the same name existed in Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort until 2019.
Captain EO is a 1986 American 3D science fiction short film shown at Disney theme parks from 1986 until 1998. The movie, starring Michael Jackson, was written by George Lucas, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film was shown as part of an attraction with in-theater effects. The attraction returned to the Disney Parks in 2010 as a tribute after Jackson's death. The film was shown for the final time at Epcot on December 6, 2015.
Tomorrowland is a 2015 American science fiction film directed by Brad Bird, with a screenplay by Bird and Damon Lindelof, based on a story by Bird, Lindelof, and Jeff Jensen. It stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy, Tim McGraw, Kathryn Hahn, and Keegan-Michael Key. In the film, a disillusioned genius inventor and a teenage science enthusiast embark to an intriguing alternate dimension known as "Tomorrowland", where their actions directly affect their own world.
Walt Disney and the 1964 World's Fair is a 2009 five-CD box set compiling music and audio from Disney's attractions at the 1964 New York World's Fair:
↑ Strodder, Chris (2017). The Disneyland Encyclopedia (3rded.). Santa Monica Press. pp.107–108. ISBN978-1595800909.
1 2 The Imagineers (September 1, 2005). The Imagineering Field Guide to the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World. Disney Editions. p.121. ISBN0-7868-5553-3.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
Wheelchair accessible
Assistive listening available
Closed captioning available
