It’s easy to dismiss the Disney theme parks as one-note fantasies with little connection to real life. They can point to the corporation behind the scenes as evidence that profits are the only goal. In one sense, that reaction is true. The parks are designed to manipulate us. Money drives their creation and most decisions about the parks. Even so, I believe there is something beyond the surface that remains. For lack of a better term, let’s call it magic.
My first EPCOT Center visit in 1984 built the idea in my eight-year-old mind that the future would be amazing. Each pavilion offered a new discovery, and there was nothing else like it. The neo-futuristic architecture and positive ideas promised a better world where people worked together to solve problems. The gorgeous public spaces were imposing but delivered a sense of hope, not fear.
This feeling is everywhere in Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland, an upbeat and deceptively complicated tale about our potential. We landed on the moon! Why can’t we work together to fix the environment? The script from Bird and Damon Lindelof includes a few speeches that will send many running for the exits. That doesn’t mean it’s simplistic propaganda, however.
The heroes are thinkers who ask “how do we fix it?” instead of surrendering. Casey Newton (Britt Robertson) can’t accept that our dreams of reaching the stars are gone. Her character’s sabotage of the NASA launch pad speaks to my frustration with the marginalization of space flight. She sticks out her neck to make something happen, even if resistance is futile. That persistence makes Casey unique in a society where the end of the world feels way too close.
A Perplexing Reaction
What is it about this movie that turned off so many? It is possible there’s only a limited subset of people excited to imagine a futuristic world of jet packs and people movers. Given our unquenchable need for spectacle, that theory seems unlikely. Instead, the message of confidence in a better future may be falling on deaf ears. Has the audience given up on an optimistic technological world? There are definitive connections between his plans for the forward-thinking community of EPCOT and this Tomorrowland.
Direct references to Walt Disney were cut, but his presence hangs over everything. In a way, the criticisms of Tomorrowland prove its central conceit that dreamers are few and far between now. The current EPCOT remains popular, but it’s lost much of its original message. I am a fairly pragmatic soul, yet all the negativity towards the film’s central themes surprises me.
Connections to Disney History
The story opens with a warm look at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair — a pivotal event in Disney history. Young Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) stares with wide-eyed amazement at technological displays while the Sherman Brothers’ “There’s a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow” plays. He rides the original “it’s a small world” and is transported to a mysterious city of the future. This place is straight out of a pulp sci-fi novel and has a similar vibe as the displays at the World’s Fair. It’s a real treat to catch even a brief glimpse at such an important time for the Disney Company.
Walt used his commissioned World’s Fair attractions to test out new technologies for Disneyland. It’s believable to expect there were mysteries behind the scenes at the fair. This vision of a better place that exists alongside our world is fascinating and connects to the Tomorrowland areas of the parks. It’s no surprise that Space Mountain appears in the distance when Casey makes her first visit. Bird captures the excitement so many of us felt when first visiting EPCOT and Tomorrowland.
The Challenges for Tomorrowland at Walt Disney World
Tomorrowland keeps its secrets hidden from Casey (and us) for quite a while. Once the credits have rolled, we’ve barely scratched the surface. It is the type of movie built to unveil intriguing deleted scenes and other gems. When Casey and the adult Frank (George Clooney) stop the apocalypse, it ends the movie but feels like just the beginning. Plus Ultra should make the future better, but there is still more to do to make that vision real.
There may be no way to save humanity from destroying itself. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, however. I wish that Tomorrowland at Disney World still conveyed the same vibe. Extinct attractions like The Timekeeper, Dreamflight, and even the goofy Mission to Mars conveyed that excitement. The potential remains for an inspiring land, but recent changes haven’t served that goal.
Prior to Tomorrowland’s release, I hoped its success would encourage Disney to re-design its parks. Less popular attractions like Stitch’s Great Escape and Innoventions at Disneyland offered perfect spots to expand the film’s story. If Jack Sparrow could find his way into the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, why couldn’t this happen? The poor box-office performance makes that prospect unlikely, however.
The crowds weren’t convinced they needed to visit this world. It’s hard to sell original properties that aren’t tied to Marvel or another recognizable brand. The connection to a theme-park land through the title was not enough. Clooney has star power, but we are past the days when an actor can open a movie.
The Silver Lining for Tomorrowland
Despite the financial disappointment, I love that Bird got the chance to make such a unique movie. He creates a convincing world that makes an android (“audio-animatronic”) resembling an 11-year-old girl believable. Athena (Raffey Cassidy) is very different from the evil robots we typically see in modern sci-fi. It’s easy to care about her while recognizing that she’s an artificial creation. That heart is why the story connects so strongly with me.
It’s one thing to recreate the 1964 World’s Fair and depict a wondrous place out of a sci-fi fan’s dream. That is only half the battle. All the pretty imagery in the world means little if it doesn’t connect emotionally. Tomorrowland lost millions, but it charmed idealists like me. It may not dramatically impact the parks, but it’s cool to see the effort.
Related Articles – Tomorrowland
Five Small Moves: Walt Disney World’s Tomorrowland
Splitting Tomorrowland at Disney World
Listen to Episode 60 of The Tomorrow Society Podcast with Tomorrowland Producer John Walker
Disney Transportation: Progress and the Future
Before Tomorrowland: Constructing the Future (Book Review)
This post contains affiliate links. Making any purchase through those links supports this site. See full disclosure.
I feel just as you do Dan. I honestly was very excited about this film and I thought that it was very well done. There are still many of us Dreamers out here who haven’t given up. This sounds like it’s gonna be a great group to belong to.Great job Dan!
Great to hear from you, Peter! I think that Tomorrowland really worked with a lot of Disney fans, especially those that share its views about the future. It just wasn’t able to find the gigantic audience that’s needed for such a big movie. I really appreciate the comment!
I really liked the movie and the central notion of it, but I do acknowledge that there are some things that worked with it and some things that didn’t. That doesn’t mean at all that I didn’t like it. In fact, I wanted to like it so much more than I did. (And I still want to own it on Blu-Ray.) I feel that the tiny peeks at Tomorrowland were too reserved. I needed more to contrast the already present “doomsday” motif that the film dealt with.
Athena (Raffey Cassidy) stole the show for me. She was so brilliant and made me yearn more for her own story than Casey’s. Athena’s line “I am the future” resonated with me, being that when I was a young girl at EPCOT Center, experiencing Horizons, Journey Into Imagination and all the other pavilion attractions for the first time, I felt like I was the future. My dreams felt destined to be part of this great weaving of future fabric in front of me. I got why now was “the best time of my life” – INSPIRATION! It was there: tangible and palpable in Tomorrowland and in EPCOT Center. The film makes me relive that feeling. So I liked it a lot.
I’m older now, but still chasing my dreams and I still believe in the future. I am an idealist, a futurist and a humanist despite realist misgivings that both leave me disappointed and keep my mind from floating off into realms of personal flakiness. LOL I’m a musical storyteller with a strong passion for EPCOT Center attraction songs, so you had me at mention of them! 🙂
Loa, I can totally see parts of Tomorrowland that could have worked out better. Your point about not seeing enough of Tomorrowland (especially when it was thriving) is a good one. We have to take a leap of faith more than we should. I’m glad that a lot of it still worked for you! What surprised me was how much the negative reviews focused solely on the message within Nix’s speech. Many admitted they liked a lot of it but then gave up because of the end. I’m totally with you on Athena, who essentially steals the movie.
Glad to hear from another fan of the ’80s EPCOT songs. They really helped to sell the optimistic future within those early attractions! I wish Disney still believed in the park like it once did. I also try to stay positive about where we’re headed (and there has been some good news recently), but it can be tough at times. Thanks so much for the great comment!
When I was a kid the future was different. I used to have a recurring dream where I was in a flying car approaching a futuristic city filled with gleaming towers and wonderous technologies. I would exit my flying car and board an elevator to an observation deck atop one of the skyscrapers and marvel at the technological utopia before me.
Back in the real world of the 1970s and 1980s my dad went to work and built computers, my grandmother wired avionics for the space shuttle and my grandfather built jet airliners. Surely by the time I was an adult the future world of my dreams would be well on it’s way to becoming a reality.
Flash forward 30 years: The space shuttle plant is now a shopping center. The airplane factory is an empty decaying shell, gutted of the rows majestic airliners that once filled it’s cavernous interior. I live in a cookie-cutter suburban house, my car does not fly and my vision of a gleaming future faded years ago.
Then on May 21st, I sat in an IMAX theater and saw the futuristic metropolis from my adolescent dreams come to life on the screen. It was all there; shiny spires, flying cars, rockets and far-flung inventions. And Space Mountain! Instantly my mind started buzzing, the imagery before my had stirred long dormant ideas of a better and brighter future.
Seven weeks and five screenings later and I still have Tomorrowland on the brain. The themes and visuals of the film connect with me on so many different levels. My interest in science and technology has been rekindled. As a self-professed Disney geek I would have liked to have seen more scenes from the ’64 World’s Fair and a snippet or two of Walt Disney. Maybe those will be included on the Blu-Ray edition.
Most people I’ve talked to about Tomorrowland say the message of the film is that “optimism is good”. The message I got is that optimism is only the start, that you have to act upon your thoughts and ideals to make them a reality. Walt Disney and Nikola Tesla are perfect examples of this ideology. Despite several personal and professional setbacks both men spent most of their lives creating the dream of a better tomorrow, right up until their last breath.
Like most fans of Tomorrowland, I’m disappointed the film did not fare better at the box office. A combination of poor marketing and myopic critical reviews kept a lot of casual movie goers from seeing the film. My wife’s high school students thought it was actually a movie about visiting Disneyland! Several reviews calling Tomorrowland a “theme park” or “attraction” based movie didn’t help either, did these critics even watch the film? Some have blamed Damon Lindelof’s script for being too arcane and esoteric. I think most viewers are so accustomed to having every bit of detail spoon fed to them that they are unable to use their imagination to fill in bits and pieces of the plot with their own ideas.
Will Disney fund any more “original” big budget sci-fi films? The cancellation of Tron 3 (aka Tron: Ascension) seems to indicate that they won’t. Why take any risks when they can crank out money making hits with the Star Wars and Marvel franchises.
Ron, I think you hit the point that bugged me about many reviews. Critics I typically enjoy reading boiled down the message to “we all need to be positive.” I didn’t get that idea at all. What stuck with me was the idea that there are challenges everywhere, but we should be working to create a better world. That’s an idea that resonates with me!
I grew up in the ’80s, and we were still close enough to the Apollo missions that I got the sense we could do anything. I’m not sure the same feeling is there today, and that might help explain why the message didn’t stick.
I do think you bring up a good point about the marketing. In a sense, the name “Tomorrowland” may have hurt the movie because of its connection to the parks. I also wish we’d seen a little more at the World’s Fair (especially at Carousel of Progress!) and with Walt. That was a disappointment, but I still really connected with the movie. I’m glad you had a similar experience.