It didn’t take long for Disney to encounter that most discouraging element of designing Tomorrowland: tomorrow always becomes today. Wait long enough, and it may even become yesterday!
“Tomorrowlands” opened with Disneyland Park, Magic Kingdom, and Tokyo Disneyland in 1955, 1971, and 1982, respectively. Each represented the future as envisioned by its time, so each looked very different. And each eventually began to look desperately out-dated.
With the prospect of yet another Disneyland-style park with a future-oriented land at Disneyland Paris in 1992, Imagineers said “enough is enough.” Instead of trying to predict a future that wouldeventually come true, they decided to take a different approach. It worked, and the rest of the Tomorrowlands followed suit. Across the world, each Tomorrowland diverged into very different styles.
Below, we’ve documented the four Tomorrowland-style areas you’ll find in Disney Parks today. On the next page, we’ll chronicle four Tomorrowland styles that were hinted at or even officially announced by Disney, but have yet to come to life.
1. A classic industrial, geometric, World’s Fair vision of tomorrow
Location: Tokyo Disneyland
Debut Year: 1983
This is what Tomorrowland looked like at the Magic Kingdom in Florida when it opened. A clean, white, simple land of geometric shapes and towers. When Tokyo Disneyland opened in 1983, it looked… well… a lot like the American version. Tokyo’s leadership was very specific that they did not want their Disney park to focus on or resemble Japanese culture or architecture. They wanted a clone of the Magic Kingdom, with all the Western, American design and ideology that went into it. They got it, and that included a copy of Florida’s Tomorrowland.
Magic Kingdom (and thus Tokyo Disneyland) had almost identical Tomorrowlands at the time, each entered between towering geometric structures that housed waterfalls. Within, the land is mostly made up of plain show-building style attractions with simple geometric facades and decidedly dated patterns. Magic Kingdom got a “New Tomorrowland” in 1994 (which we’ll look at next). Tokyo didn’t. The park still has the simple, clean-line Tomorrowland of the era. Somehow, it still works.
The addition of Star Tours in 1989 did create a new sub-section of the land. Equally and obviously of the 80s, the “industrial” building with its striped yellow-and-black trim and Panasonic satellite dish looks like something out of an anime, so it, too, works. It also happens to be sat right next to a full-sized recreation of Monsters Inc. headquarters for the impressive dark ride that calls Tomorrowland home. So Tokyo’s land is an odd duck; a mish-mash of themes with no consistent style or story (which is especially odd given that DisneySea next door is so immersive). But it works for the park, and visitors don’t seem to give it a second thought.
2. A silver and neon sci-fi alien spaceport of tomorrow
Location: Magic Kingdom
Debut Year: 1994
While Magic Kingdom started with the same Tomorrowland that Tokyo Disneyland still has, it didn’t stay that way. Magic Kingdom got a New Tomorrowland in 1994 that solved the Tomorrowland Problem at the Florida resort. Rather than trying to showcase actual technological advancement, the land turned to science fiction.
New Tomorrowland was designed as a real, functioning city of the future (not unlike Frontierland being a functioning city of the past). Each of the land’s rides takes place in one continuity. That building on the left? That’s the Tomorrowland Interplanetary Convention Center. Right now, it’s rented out by X-S Tech, who’s showing off their new teleporter technology. Across from it is the Tomorrowland Metropolis Science Center, where a robotic scientist has a set up an exhibit on time travel. The Tomorrowland Transit Authority functions as the “city’s” public transportation as it glides along overhead highways, pointing out the Convention Center and Science Museum en route. This simple level of reality explains how Alien Encounter and The Timekeeper could co-exist, and it was brilliant.
This “City of the Future” is entered via the magnificent Avenue of Planets, where towering architecture draws guests right into an early 20th century pulp comic book. It feels like you’re walking into a serial adventure like Buck Rogers. The design calls for striking silver, giant cogs, and neon colors. It’s truly breathtaking, and probably the most well-developed Tomorrowland style in the history of the parks.
3. A golden fantasy seaport of European storytellers
Location: Disneyland Paris
Debut Year: 1992
When Imagineers designed Disneyland Paris, they were determined to make the most beautiful of all the Disneyland-style parks. Given a clean slate and massive budget, they planned to redesign the park’s themed lands from the ground up, infusing them with new romanticized stories and details. The shift is evident in each of the park’s themed lands, but the big difference is in the land of the future.
Imagineers were finally able to solve the Tomorrowland Problem by creating a land that was not based on predicting the future, showcasing evolving science, or trying to guess at futuristic transportation systems. Instead of turning to science-fiction, designers instead relied upon fantasy. Tomorrowland had typically been the stark white land of modern architecture, clean lines, and vast concrete expanse. Not here.
Disneyland Paris didn’t have “Tomorrowland.” In its place was “Discoveryland,” based on the retro-futuristic ideas of great European thinkers. The land was not a cold and harsh scientific city, but a lush golden seaport, bringing to life the “steampunk” future envisioned by Jules Verne or H.G. Wells, with contraptions right out of a Leonardo da Vinci sketchbook. Filled with bubbling lagoons and iron towers and forested hillside, Discoveryland turned the Tomorrowland concept on its head.
4. A mish-mash of all the above
Location: Disneyland
Debut Year: 1998
By far, the original Disneyland is the oddest duck of all. When the land opened in 1955, it was meant to represent the distant future… 1986. Surprisingly (or not), many of Walt’s predictions did come true, and he nailed the look and feel of the Space Age with unusual precision. Still, Tomorrowland began to feel antiquated. In 1967 (four years before Walt Disney World opened), the park got a New Tomorrowland that would set the feel of every Tomorrowland to follow – white, clean, and bold with triangular towers and Googie architecture. By the 1990s as Florida and France created their “timeless” lands, Disneyland set out to do the same. But under the crushing debt of Disneyland Paris’ overexpansion, things changed.
Instead, money was slashed. Tasked with creating a marketable New Tomorrowland on a paltry budget, Disney Imagineers decided to borrow. New Tomorrowland 1998 looked a lot like Paris’ Discoveryland, but not where it counted. The land was bathed in dark copper paint and artificial red rocks were planted all around the already-cramped land. The Rocket Jets that had swirled above Tomorrowland since its early days was relocated to ground level at the land’s entry, and re-modeled to look a LOT like Paris’ Da Vinci style Orbitron. The only significant new additions for the land were the Rocket Rods – a failed thrill ride that lasted only a few years and destroyed the park’s own Walt-Disney-original Peoplemover in the process – and a tired re-hash of Epcot’s Innoventions in the Carousel Theatre.
New Tomorrowland floundered. People didn’t like seeing the distinctly Space-Age architecture of Space Mountain painted dreary bronze and green. The “European” retro-future of Discoveryland was pretty, but it didn’t translate when simply painted over Disneyland’s existing Space Age style buildings and rides. A Jules Verne-style exterior to Star Tours made little sense, and it wasn’t as compelling as Paris or Orlando’s. Starting in 2005, the land was re-painted in white and silver, except for the prominent Astro Orbitor (a golden clone of Paris’). So for now, the land is part gold, part white, part silver, with Walt’s original Space Age architecture coexisting with retro-future accents added in 1998, and with the unused Peoplemover / Rocket Rods track sitting, empty, overhead. A very odd look at the future, isn’t it?
You can read our detailed feature on Tomorrowland 1998 by clicking here.
So now we see the ways in which the future is currently portrayed at Disney Parks across the globe. Continue onto page two for a glimpse into the future that never was and concepts for Tomorrowland that simply haven’t come to life… yet.
The Future That Never Was
So, the four Tomorrowland styles currently spread across Disney Parks are very, very different. As the parks diverged and took on new and unique styles, they grew and expanded. As with any Disney Parks project, there were quite a few ideas that simply didn’t make it off the table. Here are four more Tomorrowlands, but these aren’t designs that you’ll actually see in the real world. At least, not yet…
Which of these four never-built concepts would you like to see next time Tomorrowland readies for a re-build?
1. Sci-Fi City
Proposed For: Tokyo Disneyland
As mentioned, Tokyo Disneyland still has the relatively simple Tomorrowland style that it and Magic Kingdom opened with. It never got a full, “timeless” re-do like the rest, but that doesn’t mean one wasn’t planned. In fact, Tokyo had ambitious plans for a re-build of their Tomorrowland that they called Sci-Fi City. Perhaps the easiest way to describe the eclectic land is Magic Kingdom’s comic book Tomorrowland meets gritty industrial anime meets Fox’s Futurama.
The pop culture land would’ve been bright, fantastic, and loud with searchlights, hover cars, planetarium domes, rocket ships, and giant robots. The idea is practically perfect for the Japanese park. The land would’ve included rides like the Flying Saucers, a Sci-Fi Zoo, and new racing speeder bikes on Space Mountain’s exterior. As well, Space Mountain would’ve become Hyperspace Mountain, a completely upgraded take on the classic. In the end, the Oriental Land Company who owns and operates the resort decided instead to build Tokyo DisneySea, a second gate. Ultimately a good choice.
2. Tomorrowland 2055
Proposed For: Disneyland Park
When Disneyland Paris hit a wall of financial disaster, plans across the Disney Parks were reduced as budgets were cut. The unfortunate result was the much-maligned “Tomorrowland 1998” we chronicled on the last page, which tried to emulate Paris’ golden, European fantasy future in California. The look floundered, of course, at today the land is a mish-mash of styles that make little sense together.
If those budgets hadn’t been cut, Disneyland would’ve ended up with Tomorrowland 2055, a very ambitious and groundbreaking timeless take on the area. The unique land would’ve been an technological, streamlined spaceport connected by skywalks and lit by cloud-scanning searchlights.
The key attraction, surprisingly, would’ve been a version of Magic Kingdom’s ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter, with the circular theatre already set aside. The Carousel Theatre (formerly home to Carousel of Progress and America Sings) was due for another magnificent musical animatronic show: Plectu’s Intergalactic Revue. Instead, Alien Encounter’s theatre became a pizza restaurant, and the Carousel Theatre became a West Coast version of Epcot’s Innoventions. Tomorrowland 2055 would’ve been a sight to see, for sure, and one of the coolest Tomorrowland concepts around.
3. Star Wars Universe
Proposed For: Disneyland Park
Disneyland’s ill-fated New Tomorrowland opened 16 years ago. For that entire time, the park has slowly backed away from the style, covering copper and gold paint with silver and white once again, and trying to lean away from the fantasy style that contradicted the land’s Space Age architecture and rides. It’s now 2014, and rumors suggest that it’s time for a New New Tomorrowland – another full, floor-to-ceiling rebuild. Can you imagine a future set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away?
For a while, rumors have swirled that New Tomorrowland is on its way and that it will be firmly rooted in the Star Wars mythos. Especially with Disney having purchased LucasFilm and taking control of upcoming Star Wars sequels, it seems assured that the Star Wars Universe will find its way into Disney Parks in a big way, and the aging and disliked Tomorrowland in California could be one place to start.
That said, even insiders say that Imagineers and executives change plans by the day, and it increasingly seems that while Star Wars will be huge in Disney Parks by the end of the decade, Tomorrowland might not be the target anymore… Instead, an original, from-scratch Star Wars land might hit Disneyland in the next few years. Let’s just hope that a New Tomorrowland happens, too, even if it’s separate.
If you’re hoping for a Star Wars overlay to Disneyland’s Tomorrowland, be sure to read our complete feature on the concept by clicking here.
4. Tomorrowland Shanghai
When Shanghai Disneyland opens, it’ll be quite a departure from your local Disney Park. For one, Disney has completely shuffled the park’s lands and layout. In each successive Disneyland-style park, lands have been tweaked, but never has Adventureland been to your right when standing at the Hub. Likewise, Tomorrowland will be to the left.
Truthfully, there’s still not a whole lot that we know about this new Tomorrowland. Artist’s renderings of the whole park are intentionally abstract or light on detail. Disney did release concept art of Tomorrowland, but the angle doesn’t give a great sense of its style. For one, it makes Tomorrowland appear like an airport plaza alongside a golf course. If that’s true, maybe this Tomorrowland won’t have a grand entry avenue leading to a futuristic city like all the rest.
One thing we do know is the lineup of attractions it’ll house. Replacing the spinning Astro Orbitor rockets will be a new Jet Packs ride. Likewise, the typical Buzz Lightyear dark ride present at other parks will get a new lease on life in a new form, as Buzz Lightyear Planet Rescue. Most surprising, the park won’t have a Space Mountain at all. Instead, it’ll feature a double dueling coaster called TRON: Lightcycles Power Run based on the sci-fi motorcycle-esque sequences from the TRON films. It’s a whole new world of sci-fi adventures.
A glimpse into tomorrow
Tomorrow is a funny thing, because it can take a lot of forms. It’s interesting and ultimately compelling that Disney’s Parks purposefully diverge and represent different styles of the future, and it’s great to watch those visions change and grow. It’s also good to know what could have been. They say good ideas never die at Disney, so just because you haven’t seen some of these concepts come to life yet, it doesn’t mean they won’t.
If you’re interested in the many never-built lands at Disney Parks, be sure to check out our countdown of nine lost concepts for theme park lands. As for Tomorrowland, which of the current four styles is your favorite? Which of the never-built ideas would you be most excited to see brought to life?
