Since 1982 Spaceship Earth has been a mainstay at the Walt Disney World Resort as the very memorable icon for Epcot. It also has some of the richest history out of all the Disney icons, growing and changing with the times. Here are four ways this attraction has stayed relevant throughout the years and staved off extinction.
1. Narrators and scripts have changed to reflect current trends
Even though the original was written by renowned science fiction author Ray Bradbury, the script for Spaceship Earth has been updated several times in the last thirty-plus years. Still, the first that debuted with the icon in October of 1982 remains a favorite for many. Here are the opening lines of the original Spaceship Earth attraction, courtesy of Walt Dated World. You can read most of the Spaceship Earth scripts in full at that link.
The narrator has also changed with each new version of the script. Who narrated the original version, however, is actually up for debate amongst Disney fans. Most believe that the original narrator was Vic Perrin, a voice actor known for his various roles on The Outer Limits TV show. Some time after that belief became widespread, though, Imagineer Marty Sklar did an interview in which he said that he didn’t understand why people thought Perrin voiced the attraction. According to him, the narrator was actually a man named Larry Dobbin. Because that’s apparently not complicated enough for Disney historians, some even claim that there was another narrator who contributed to the ride before the first major remodel of Spaceship Earth in 1986. It’s unclear if we’ll ever get the definitive word of who narrated the original Spaceship Earth attraction. I kind of like that it’s up in the air, personally; it’s another great mystery for fans of Disney lore to ponder.
Legendary journalist Walter Cronkite would go on to narrate the next version of the ride. Here are the opening lines from his script.
For eons, our planet has drifted as a spaceship through the universe. And for a brief moment, we have been its passengers. Yet in that time, we’ve made tremendous progress in our ability to record and share knowledge. So let’s journey back 40,000 years to the dawn of recorded history. We’ll trace the path of communications from its earliest beginnings to the promise of the future.
With the next major update to Spaceship Earth ten years later in August 1994, Jeremy Irons became the narrator. Here are the first lines of his script.
Like a grand and miraculous spaceship, our planet has sailed through the universe of time; and for a brief moment we have been among it’s passengers. But where are we going? And what kind of future will we discover there? Surprisingly, the answers lie in our past. Since the dawn of recorded history, we’ve been inventing the future one step at a time. So let’s travel back in time together. I’ll show you how our ancestors created the world we know today, and then it will be your turn to create the world of tomorrow.
2. The attraction itself has also evolved over time
Obviously, as the script for the attraction underwent changes, so did the attraction itself. There have been a number of remodels over the years. The basic concept of a ride through dark spaces where riders enjoy a series of lighted historic vignettes hasn’t really changed, but details have been altered over the years.
In May 1986 a few changes were made to the attraction in addition to Cronkite’s narration, the most notable being the removal of the fog machine and a theme song called Tomorrow’s Child for the end of the attraction. In August 1994 the changes were more extreme, perhaps the most significant being an almost completely remade ending. In 2007 the most recent changes were made to Spaceship Earth. There were new scenes, modifications to existing scenes, some new costumes, a new score and of course the new narration by Judi Dench. Perhaps the most fascinating difference, though, is the interactive ending that gives passengers the opportunity to pick their own futures. It adds an extra element of wonder for guests as they get to consider what’s next for the planet Earth.
3. Different sponsors have kept it going through the years
Epcot is known for its use of sponsorships, and Spaceship Earth has received support from a few different businesses. When Spaceship Earth opened on October 1st, 1982, it was sponsored by a big phone company conglomerate named Bell Systems. In 1984, though, Bell was broken into smaller companies. One of them was the familiar AT&T, which sponsored Spaceship Earth from 1984 to 2004. Since 2005, German engineering company Siemens has been the sponsor of Spaceship Earth.
4. Spaceship Earth has kept its iconic structural design
One aspect of Spaceship Earth that never really changed was the architecture for the attraction. Walt Disney Imagineering put a lot of effort into the original design of Spaceship Earth, and it stuck when a lot of other things about the Disney icon didn’t. Ray Bradbury also helped design the original structure. That immediately added a respected pedigree to Disney’s attempts for something that truly seemed out of this world. Neo-futuristic architect Buckminster Fuller was another named contributor. He developed the structural mathematics for the geodesic dome and was the one to name the Disney icon Spaceship Earth. The Epcot icon was similar to the United States pavilion at the 1967 World Expo in Montreal also created by Fuller, but Spaceship Earth was unique because it was a complete sphere supported with three pairs of legs. Spaceship Earth is described geometrically as a pentads dodecahedron, with 60 triangles divided into 16 smaller triangles.
The only real modification to the Spaceship Earth structure was a fairly minor one that only lasted a few years. For the Millennium Celebration, a 25-story magic wand with Mickey Mouse’s hand holding it was added to Spaceship Earth in 2000. However, by 2007 this unpopular addition was removed for good. Other than that, it’s essentially stayed the structure it always has been, the Disney icon that looms large at Epcot.
