Innoventions (Disneyland)

For the former Epcot attraction, see Innoventions (Epcot).

Innoventions
Entrance to Innoventions before closure
Disneyland
Area	Tomorrowland
Coordinates	33°48′43″N117°54′59″W / 33.812°N 117.9165°W / 33.812; -117.9165
Status	Removed
Soft opening date	July 3, 1998
Opening date	November 10, 1998
Closing date	March 31, 2015
Replaced	Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress (1967–1973) America Sings (1974–1988)
Replaced by	Tomorrowland Expo Center (2015–present) Super Hero HQ (Upper level) Star Wars Launch Bay (Lower level)
Ride statistics
Attraction type	Interactive exhibits
Music	"There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow", written by the Sherman Brothers
Hosted by	Tom Morrow (Nathan Lane) (former) Audrey Wasilewski (former) [1] J.A.R.V.I.S. (Paul Bettany) (former Stark Industries exhibit) [2]
Ring show	Honda (Transportation) Taylor Morrison (Home) Southern California Edison (Information)
Wheelchair accessible
Assistive listening available
Closed captioning available

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. ^[3] 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.

History

From 1967 to 1973, the building housed Walt Disney's Carousel of Progress. This attraction was moved from Disneyland to its current location in Magic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973, at the request of its sponsor, General Electric. America Sings occupied the building from the following year until 1988. Audio-Animatronics from the show were used in Disneyland's Splash Mountain. The upper level of the building continued to house the Tron SuperSpeed Tunnel segment of the PeopleMover until that attraction eventually closed in 1995.

The attraction used the same rotation mechanism built in 1967 for the Carousel of Progress. In the attraction’s early years, the outer portion of the first floor would stop rotating during the evening, but in later years, it stopped rotating altogether and guests enter on the second floor.

Final years

In 2012, the Tom Morrow Audio-Animatronic was removed from display and was no longer part of the attraction.

From 2013 until its closure, its focus mainly shifted to character meet-and-greets featuring superheroes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The attraction closed March 31, 2015. ^[4]

Tomorrowland Expo Center

The building was redesigned and reopened on November 16, 2015 as the Tomorrowland Expo Center. ^[5] The first floor of the building hosted Star Wars Launch Bay, a Star Wars exhibit featuring peeks behind the scenes and character meet and greets with Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, Boba Fett, and Chewbacca, while the second floor hosted "Super Hero HQ", featuring meet and greets with Marvel characters Thor and Spider-Man and an exhibit featuring Iron Man's suits based on the film. ^[6]

In the Super Hero HQ location, guests were able to meet Captain America, Thor, and Spider-Man. Guests were also able to embody Iron Man in The Iron Man Experience, which had guests partake in a simulator that enabled them to fly. Guests were also able to purchase Marvel merchandise.

Star Wars Launch Bay originally gave guests the opportunity to meet Darth Vader, Chewbacca, and Boba Fett. January 2016 saw the addition of Kylo Ren (who replaced Darth Vader until mid-October 2016). In addition to this, Jawas were introduced roaming around the Cantina area with Boba Fett. Rey was later added and greeted guests daily. There was also a variety of exhibits, such as props and costumes used in the films, and an area to buy Star Wars merchandise.

Super Hero HQ closed in April 2016. ^[7]

On March 30, 2023, it was announced that a new Disney Vacation Club lounge, called Star View Station, would be opening later that spring. ^[8] On April 19, the new lounge opened on the top floor of the Tomorrowland Expo building, themed to old Tomorrowland. The bottom floor was used as an exclusive Disney Visa character meet-and-greet, as well as a space for the Disney Imagination Campus program. Many of the exhibits from the Star Wars Launch Bay remained on the bottom floor, although this attraction was closed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and has yet to reopen.^{[ citation needed ]}

Attraction

The first floor hosted the Dream Home in alliance with Microsoft, HP, and Taylor Morrison. Keeping with Walt Disney's vision of bringing cutting-edge, inspiring ideas to Tomorrowland, the Innoventions Dream Home introduced Disneyland guests to then-newly available technology from the participating companies that would enhance their lives, while providing them a glimpse of the emerging digital advances they may find in their homes in the future. The attraction provided guests with a "high-tech, high-touch" opportunity to experience technology in an entertaining, low-risk environment showing them how the power of technology could connect them to the people and things they care most about.^{[ citation needed ]}

Guests who entered the Innoventions building were greeted by Tom Morrow, an Audio-Animatronic voiced by Nathan Lane, who was the fictional mayor of Tomorrowland. He explained Innoventions in a comedic style and performed an updated version of the Sherman Brothers song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" from the original Carousel of Progress.

Gallery

• 
  Innoventions
• 
  Queuing area
• 
  Pre-show area
• 
  Kitchen of Tomorrow
• 
  One of the bedrooms
• 
  Office of Tomorrow
• 
  The Air Scooter
• 
  The technology tree
• 
  Xbox Row
• 
  Power City (part of Project Tomorrow)

Former exhibits and sponsors

• 1998–2000: Honeywell sponsored playground
• 1998–2000: Silicon Graphics sponsored A Bug's Life Exhibit (designed and produced by Santeler Marketing Group)
• 1998–2004: General Motors simulator attraction
• 1998–2007: Hewlett Packard-sponsored (formerly Compaq) free computer game arcade
• 2000–2007: AT&T–Hyperlink Hopscotch, previously an interactive cartoon show.
• 2000–2007: Pioneer "Virtual Resort", guests experience a virtual reality vacation
• 2000–2013: St. Joseph Hospital's Healthy University, where guests visited different stations themed as part of a school that promoted healthy living. Guests could calculate their BMI, learn about exercise on a stationary bike, play virtual sports games, and have a chance to see themselves 50 years in the future.
• 2004–2005, 2007–2008: Segway track, where guests 16 and older could ride a Segway
• 2005–2007: VMK Central (closed on June 3, 2007, scheduled to be a limited time only )
• 2005–2009: Talk to Stitch, an interactive experience in which guests could talk to Stitch from Disney's Lilo & Stitch using technology similar to that of Turtle Talk with Crush at Disney California Adventure
• 2005–2015: Honda ASIMO theater, a 15-minute presentation on the state-of-the-art ASIMO robot
• 2007–2015: Siemens AG Project Tomorrow, featuring some of the same games as its counterpart at Spaceship Earth (Epcot). During its run, Project Tomorrow featured:
  • Power City, a large digital "shuffleboard-style" game that had guests push "power pucks" into targets to provide energy to neighborhoods and create the largest city possible. The more neighborhoods that were powered, the higher the city's population became. The largest city attainable was Tokyo, which required the population to reach 10 million.
  • Body Builder, a 3-D game allowing guests to build a digital human body. It featured the voice of Wallace Shawn as "Dr. Bones."
  • Super Driver, a driving simulation video game featuring vehicle accident and avoidance systems.
  • A large glass globe with digitally projected images coming from within it. Below it were consoles that took photographs of guests, asked a series of questions about each guest, and superimposed the automatically cropped images of their faces onto an animated vision of the future. These consoles utilized the same system as the one used during the descent of Spaceship Earth

• 2008-2011: The Neighborhood at Innoventions, where guests watched and sometimes participated in live shows about Taylor Morrison homes, Yamaha musical instruments, ABC multi-format programming (in the form of a trivia game show), Honda, or Southern California Edison, depending on which of the five zones into which they entered.

• 2008–2015: Taylor Morrison / Microsoft Innoventions Dream Home (sponsored by HP, Microsoft, and Taylor Morrison), a house filled with the latest technology that was either on the market or soon to be available. The house was inhabited by the fictional Elias family, which hosted an open house to show off their newly acquired technology. Gadgets included
  • Four Microsoft Surface tables which were connected in a single dining room table
  • A 100-inch, 1080p rear-projector screen
  • Control4 panels in every room connecting to photo frames, lights, window shades, and speakers (previously Life|ware)
  • A "Magic Mirror" that placed virtual three-dimensional pieces of clothing on a body-mapped subject
  • A bedroom that came to life with the story of Peter Pan
  • A kitchen featuring a countertop voice-activated cookbook, an internet-connected bulletin board, and Siemens appliances, including the Liftmatic Oven
  • Michael Jackson: The Experience and video games in the party tent
• 2013–2016: Thor: Treasures of Asgard , a promotional exhibit to commemorate the release of Marvel's Thor: The Dark World . ^[9]
• 2013–2016: Iron Man Tech Presented by Stark Industries , a promotional exhibit to commentate the release of Marvel's Iron Man 3 . ^[10] Paul Bettany provides the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. ^[2]
• 2014–2015: Captain America: The Living Legend and Symbol of Courage, a promotional exhibit to commemorate the release of Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier . ^[11]

References

1. "Full Voices of the Disney Theme Parks presentation from D23 Expo 2011". YouTube. 2011-08-27. Archived from the original on 2021-12-21. Retrieved 2013-08-20.
2. Goldman, Eric (12 April 2013). "Disneyland Introduces Their First Marvel Exhibit with Iron Man Tech". IGN. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
3. Geryak, Cole (September 2, 2016). "Disney Extinct Attractions: Innoventive Houses of the Future". The Laughing Place. Retrieved 17 July 2020.
4. Pimentel, Joseph (March 7, 2015). "Disneyland's Innoventions set to close March 31; will 'Star Wars' go in?". The Orange County Register . p. Local 9. Retrieved 2015-03-06.
5. Glover, Erin. "Star Wars Enhancements, New Experiences Coming Soon to Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts". 15 August 2015. The Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 16 August 2015.
6. Martin, Hugo (October 14, 2015). "Spider-Man to join fellow superheroes at Disneyland". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 16, 2015.
7. Pimentel, Joseph (March 7, 2016). "Captain America coming back to Disneyland, Super Hero HQ to close". The Orange County Register. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
8. Concannon, Heather (2023-04-19). "New Disney Vacation Club Member Lounge Opens at Disneyland Park". Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 2024-02-26.
9. Graser, Marc (August 20, 2013). "Thor Is Headed to Disneyland". Variety . Archived from the original on August 20, 2013. Retrieved August 20, 2013.
10. Glover, Erin (28 March 2013). "Iron Man Tech Presented by Stark Industries Coming to Innoventions at Disneyland Park". The Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 28 March 2013.
11. Slater, Shawn. "Meet Captain America from 'Captain America: The Winter Soldier' This Spring at Disneyland Park in Anaheim". 10 January 2014. The Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 14 February 2014.