Here at Theme Park Tourist, we’ve been developing an entire library of Lost Legends, telling the in-depth stories of loved-and-lost attractions from around the world. We’re chronicling the full, complete, detailed histories of how these forgotten rides came to be, what they were like, and what lead to their downfall. From Journey into Imagination to Horizons; Maelstrom to TOMB RAIDER: The Ride and dozens more, keep an eye out for links to these outstanding Lost Legends entries across the site.
But Legends don’t exist alone. That’s why our new series, Declassified Disasters, is here to tell the other side of the story, chronicling attractions that were missteps, flops, or outright failures. We’ve seen how “New Management” almost closed a Walt Disney classic forever, explored how Superstar Limo was so terrible that guests at the original Disney’s California Adventure reported being happier when it was closed, watched Cedar Point’s Star Tours rip-off crash and burn, told the full story behind Epcot’s most hated ride, and experienced the in-depth story behind what some call Disney’s worst attraction ever.
Today, we’ll take an in-depth look at yet another Disaster, but this one is a little bit different: it’s a triple threat. It replaced a beloved fan favorite, anchored a terrible and despised new land, and was closed more often than it was open. It can only be Disneyland’s failed Rocket Rods, the most disastrous ride any Disney Park has ever dealt with. Ready for the full story behind this technological travesty? Let’s start at the beginning…
Looking Back on Tomorrow (1955 – 1959)
Image: Disney
When Disneyland opened in 1955, its Tomorrowland was a world away from the one most visitors would recognize. In fact, Walt’s original Tomorrowland was… well… nothing to write home about. And Walt knew it. After all, the construction of Disneyland was quick – just a year and a day from groundbreaking to opening – and that meant that some projects earned priority over others. Tomorrowland was an “other.”
As the story goes, construction was so far behind on Tomorrowland that Walt decided in late autumn of 1954 to suspend construction indefinitely, instead planning to simply open the park without Tomorrowland. He’d give the rest of the park time to earn back its budget and recoup investment, then reveal a grand Tomorrowland in a planned Phase II expansion a year or two later. But as the summer opening drew nearer, he relented. Walt’s designers pressed forward with the construction of Tomorrowland, even if the final product would not match the future he’d envisioned. Instead, it would be a World’s Fair style showcase of corporate technologies and investments with the land’s real estate rented out to large companies.
Among its offerings in 1955, for example, Tomorrowland contained the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame, the Dutch Boy Paint Color Gallery, the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, and the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow.
Image: Disney
While this Tomorrowland purported to show us a glimpse into the distant year of 1986, it wasn’t what Walt had envisioned when his dedication for the land called for “[a] step into the future, with predictions of constructed things to come,” promising that “[t]omorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals.”
But Walt and his team did have a plan for bringing Tomorrowland up to snuff.
Image: Disney
Four years after the park’s opening, his vision came a little clearer when Disneyland got its first large-scale expansion. On June 14, 1959, Tomorrowland became home to three new headlining attractions, each earning the brand new “E-Ticket” designation created just for them: the Matterhorn Bobsleds, the Submarine Voyage, and the Disneyland-ALWEG Monorail, each astoundingly advanced for audiences of the time. The investment was so large, the attractions’ openings were accompanied by a rededication of Disneyland televised as a grand re-opening!
Inspired by a World’s Fair (1960 – 1966)
Image: PLCjr, Flickr (license)
From there, progress at Disneyland slowed for a period, and for good reason – Walt and his designers at WED Enterprises were offered the chance to design and develop four headlining attractions at the 1964 – 65 World’s Fair in New York. Disney jumped at the chance and designers got to work. The end result of their work was the creation of four one-of-a-kind, groundbreaking displays for the Fair.
- Pepsi-Cola Presents Walt’s Disney’s “it’s a small world” – a Salute to UNICEF and All the World’s Children would be the world premier of “the happiest cruise to ever set sail,” selling millions of tickets (the proceeds from which benefitted UNICEF) and setting a precedent for a new, high –capacity ride system that would be adapted for the in-development pirate attraction at Disneyland.
- Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln debuted an unprecedented Audio Animatronics figure at the State of Illinois’ pavilion.
- General Electric Progressland – A Walt Disney Presentation was an Audio Animatronics show in a revolving theater, showcasing how GE’s electrical innovations propelled the American family forward.
- Ford’s Magic Skyway toured guests through elevated highways along the Ford pavilion’s exterior and into massive show scenes depicting the Primeval World of dinosaurs.
Of course, it’s easy to immediately recognize the role that a few of these attractions played back at Disneyland. After the Fair’s closure, Great Moments With Mr. Lincoln arrived at the park’s Main Street Opera House in 1965, and “it’s a small world” was packed up and shipped to Disneyland for a 1966 debut.
Image: Disney
Now with their projects finished and only the earliest initial ideas for “the Florida Project” in development, Imagineers turned their attention to Tomorrowland. They were determined to make the land as vibrant and innovative as Walt had envisioned. Luckily, their work at the World’s Fair had given them just the ingredients to build a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.
New Tomorrowland (1967)
Image: Disney
While Walt Disney would not live to see the 1967 debut of New Tomorrowland, it would be impossible to separate the land from his DNA. Walt’s fingerprints were everywhere in the land. More than just a refresh, Imagineers had totally rebuilt Tomorrowland from the ground up, with new showbuildings, new architecture, and new attractions. It was truly a visual, kinetic wonder, and for many fans – even those who never saw it in person – this is the “definitive” Tomorrowland; its most iconic and ideal state.
This is the land that set the precedent, with the sleek, white Googie architecture that would later make Space Mountain feel right at home. In a towering showbuilding along the land’s main entry stood a ride so revered by Imagineering fans, it earned its own in-depth feature – Lost Legends: Adventures Thru Inner Space.
Image: Disney
Overhead, the Rocket Jets would spiral along the third story of a pedestal in the center of the land, with the revolving Carousel Theater showing the esteemed Carousel of Progress, straight from the World’s Fair (where it had been GE’s Progressland, of course). The old Flight to the Moon theater-in-the-round attraction was given a new lease on life as Mission to Mars. To the north, the sleek submarines of Walt’s Submarine Voyage cut through choppy water with the futuristic Monorail sailing by overhead…
Image: Disney
This was the Tomorrowland Walt wanted – a “world on the move,” filled with kinetic energy and pastel colors, all set among the era’s Space Age architecture that signaled this unique time in American history when families gathered around television sets to watch rockets launch to the stars.
If you’re checking off your list, you’ll notice that three of Walt’s World’s Fair attractions made it to Disneyland – Mr. Lincoln, “it’s a small world,” and the Carousel of Progress. But what of Ford’s Magic Skyway with its vehicles whisked effortlessly and silently along aerial highways and into enormous dinosaur dioramas? It seemed that Ford’s Magic Skyway was no where to be found… Unless, of course, you knew where to look. The towering animatronics and prehistoric sets from the Magic Skyway were relocated to the Disneyland Railroad (as an evolution of the existing Grand Canyon Diorama) just outside Tomorrowland. Meanwhile, the elevated highways that had whisked guests around Ford’s pavilion were present, too, in a spiritual sibling that might be one of Disney’s most beloved rides ever.
The PeopleMover
Image: Disney
A sort of mainstay of New Tomorrowland, the PeopleMover was always intended as a living prototype – a working model to showcase what would inevitably become the de facto mass transit system of the future. So convincingly adaptable was the PeopleMover’s constantly moving elevated highway, Ford declined to continue its sponsorship of the attraction lest the technology replace their motorcars.
Instead, Goodyear came aboard, installing genuine Goodyear tires affixed to motors every nine feet along the ride’s track. On the ride, guests would be whisked along the elevated highways of Tomorrowland, departing from a constantly-moving platform on the second level of the land’s central pedestal, under the spiraling Rocket Jets.
Image: Disney
During the sixteen-minute tour of the land, the ride would reach speeds of seven miles per hour darting in and out of the ride’s showbuildings for up-close, inside peeks at Adventure Thru Inner Space (and later its replacement – another Lost Legend: Star Tours), CircleVision, and, eventually the distant galaxies of Space Mountain. Passing through the upper level of the Carousel Theater, guests would get a stunning view of the tremendous model Imagineers had designed for Walt’s Progress City – what later became E.P.C.O.T.
The gentle, functional, whimsical, narrated trip was an absolute wonder and an epitome of Walt’s hopes for Tomorrowland, adaptable to any style that the land may evolve into. It was timeless in that very particular way that made it an understated but beloved element of Disneyland’s ride lineup.
So outstanding was the PeopleMover, it earned it own in-depth feature – Lost Legends: The PeopleMover – that’s a must-read for Disney Parks fans. Unfortunately, the PeopleMover is part of our Lost Legends series because it’s gone. It was doomed to be replaced by what might be the most embarrassing attraction Disney’s ever dealt with…
The Fall of Walt’s Tomorrowland (1988 – 1997)
Image: Disney
While we encourage you to read the in-depth Lost Legends entry above, here’s the unfortunate ending of the PeopleMover and the rest of Walt’s Tomorrowland: by the early 1990s, the Tomorrowland Walt and his team had developed three decades prior was looking like Yesterdayland. Pop culture’s vision of the future had evolved. The pristine, Googie, pastel future envisioned in the ‘60s was downright dated to audiences of the ’90s, given that the grimy, industrial futures of dystopian sci-fi films had become the norm.
(Sure, in retrospect, we can see very clearly that if this ‘60s version of Tomorrowland had held on for just a decade or so longer, it would’ve become retro-cool again – nostalgic and hip for its groovy influenced style and its naïve and simple view of tomorrow. In fact, we might argue that restoring Tomorrowland to this gleaming, geometric, retro-future might be the land’s best bet at this juncture… but we digress…)
In the 1990s, Imagineers were faced with giving Tomorrowland another facelift. The land needed to be redesigned from the ground up, with a fresh identity that would resonate with audiences of the era. But executives had learned their lesson in their continuous dealings with “the Tomorrowland Problem.” Ever since Disneyland’s opening, Tomorrowland (in California, Florida, and Tokyo) had been determined to showcase real scientific advancement. But “tomorrow” always becomes “today” (and sometimes, “yesterday”) meaning that each Tomorrowland around the globe would need continuous investment to stay convincingly futuristic…
Unless Imagineers could come up with a way to develop Tomorrowland in a new direction… If executives had their way, Tomorrowlands around the globe would leave actual science behind and instead diverge.
Image: Disney
In 1992, Disneyland Paris would open without a Tomorrowland at all. In its place was Discoveryland, taking all the elements of the futuristic land and passing them through a lens of fantasy. Discoveryland is not an ever-changing, ever-evolving view of the real future, but a version of the future as it might’ve been envisioned by great European thinkers and authors like Jules Verne and Leonardo da Vinci… A golden seaport of bubbling lagoons, iron-rich red rocks jutting from the earth, wind-sail towers, and floating zephyrs where Disney classics would be entirely re-imagined.
There’s no doubt that this Discoveryland is based on the never-built but much-beloved lost land once earmarked for Disneyland, and we chronicled the detailed behind it in its own incredible Possibilityland: Discovery Bay feature. But this new version of Tomorrowland proved that by rooting the future in the past, Tomorrowland would never need to be updated!
Tomorrowland 2055
While Walt’s Tomorrowland in the ‘60s had been determined to showcase real scientific advancement and cultural understanding of the future, whatever replaced it would need to forego science in favor of something else. In Paris, it was fantasy. In California, it would be science-fiction.
The plan was staggering. “Tomorrowland 2055” would transform the dated ‘60s land into a stunning sci-fi comic book spaceport city where aliens from around the galaxy would live, work, and play. The industrial cityscape would continue to include fan favorites like Star Tours (much more at home in this industrial future than the ‘60s one, anyway), and the Carousel Theater would now host Plectu’s Intergalactic Revue animtronic musical extravaganza.
Image: Disney
But the land’s new headliner would introduce something more sinister. A mysterious Martian race would have you test out their newest intergalactic teleportation technology when something would go horribly wrong, releasing a bloodthirsty arachnoid creature into the audience where terrifying special effects would takeover in pitch black darkness.
Yes, the incredible and renowned Lost Legend: The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter was due to debut in this staggering New Tomorrowland before being duplicated at Disney Parks across the globe.
Of course, Tomorrowland 2055 never landed. You can find out the full story of what this land entailed and what happened to it in our in-depth Possibilityland: Tomorrowland 2055 feature, but like so many Disney projects in the 1990s and early 2000s, it’s all because of Paris. The overbuilt and underfunded resort came crashing down upon its opening in 1992, and CEO Michael Eisner became wary of any large-scale investments, slashing projects across the parks division for a decade.
Trouble is, Disneyland needed a New Tomorrowland. By the mid-1990s when a Tomorrowland 2055 would’ve debuted, the land was in a sad state:
- The Carousel Theater had been closed as the 100+ animatronic animal cast of “America Sings!” had been relocated to the new Splash Mountain.
- Michael Jackson’s Captain EO was feeling very tired, still playing after a full decade.
- Mission to Mars had already closed to become Alien Encounter when the project was cancelled leaving the building empty.
- And to top it all off, on August 21st, 1995, the PeopleMover was closed forever.
Even if Tomorrowland 2055 was off the table, Imagineers were tasked with making sure Disneyland’s Tomorrowland was reborn. But now, whatever they came up with would need to be done quickly and – most importantly – cheaply, with as little development as possible. That meant they’d have to borrow. So they did. This new New Tomorrowland would see one of Disney’s most well-loved rides transformed into one of its most disatrous ever. Read on…
New Tomorrowland (1998)
Walt’s “world on the move” is no more.
Image: Disney
Tomorrowland had been transformed. The first thing you’re likely to notice is the land’s entry. The grand plaza of flowers and geometric concrete planters had been uprooted, and in its place, towering crystalline rocks have burst forth from the ground. The fantastic geodes are supernaturally oriented around a massive golden contraption in the land’s entrance, marked by spinning gold and brass planets with sails, rivets, and metalwork orbiting above golden rockets.
The Rocket Jets that once revolved high above the land have been grounded (literally), replaced by the beautiful and hypnotic Astro Orbitor that looks like as astronomical device straight out of da Vinci’s sketchbook.
Image: Disney
The land’s two mirrored showbuildings that flank its main entry are now washed in deep, dark bronze with planted hillsides and crawling vines snaking up their exteriors, with deeply saturated murals along their convex sides.
The Carousel Theater is now dark and brassy with a towering, deep green marble wedge and a bronze globe announcing its new inhabitant: Innoventions, a west coast transplant of Epcot’s rotating exhibit. Innoventions’ lineup is meant to revolve (pun intended) as it showcases the technologies of the corporate sponsor who’s taken up residence.
Image: Disney
Space Mountain, of course, is here, too, but the white conical mountain of your grandfather’s generation is gone. Now, the building is deep bronze with oxidized green and teal showing through. At its base, the Magic Eye Theater designed to showcase George Lucas and Michael Jackson’s Captain EO has been painted dark brown, too, and it now hosts another borrowed Epcot attraction: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, a 3D adventure.
Image: the_tahoe_guy, Flickr (license)
At the land’s center, high atop the central pedestal, a most unusual sight: a bronze mechanism with metallic arms holding satellite dishes. Once in a while, as if synched up to the clock, this contraption comes alive to the rousing classical orchestral score borrowed from Disneyland Paris’ Discoveryland, revolving and lifting its satellites toward the sky as if searching. (This Observatron is quickly recognizable as the old skeleton of the Rocket Jets, its rockets replaced with satellite dishes.)
On the edge of Tomorrowland, the Submarine Voyage that Walt pioneered is… well… sunk. To celebrate this “grand” New Tomorrowland, the very last bits of Walt’s DNA have been scrubbed away, and Submarine Voyage was doomed. (Or was it…?)
But this land’s headlining attraction might surprise you. Look overhead to the aerial highways of the PeopleMover that would gently glide through the land. It’s here along these now-brown tracks that you’ll find Disney’s newest E-Ticket. And truthfully, you may hear it before you see it. With a screech and a electronic squeal, the would-be star of this New Tomorrowland – its only original attraction – is ready to tour you through the land.
Ride the Road to Tomorrow
Image: Ellen Levy Finch, Wikimedia (license)
The PeopleMover’s loading platform used to be accessed by a moving speed ramp carrying guests from the Rocket Jet’s platform base to the second level of the land, where continuously moving PeopleMover trains would glide effortlessly through the station. The Rocket Jets load in the same place, but these slow-loading, low-capacity vehicles require a much more robust queue.
So you’ll find the entrance to the ride right at the entrance to the land, just across from the entrance to Star Tours (now also painted golden and affixed with organic sail-like towers, as if Jules Verne was a Star Wars fan). The north showbuilding along Tomorrowland’s main entry used to be Walt’s Circlevision theater, with nine screens arranged around audiences for full 360-degree films. The queue and theater from Circlevision are now the waiting area for Rocket Rods. Cleverly, the queue carries you past replicas and models of Disneyland’s transportation systems (alive and dead), painted blue and projected with grids as if to analyze them.
Passing into the old Circlevision theater, the nine screens are now alive with a whimsical “documentary” style preshow tracing the evolution of transportation from the idling speed of the past to the fast-paced future, all thanks to the Tomorrowland Rapid Transit Authority.
And today, you’ll experience the next step in the evolution: the Rocket Rod.
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
Passing through an underground tunnel, you’ll catch a glimpse of a land-wide map, with the “Rocket Rod Proposed System Expansions,” where the Tomorrowland Central Terminal (that’s where we are) should eventually connect with local sights like the Angel’s Stadium and the Orange County Convention Center.
But for now, your journey is round-trip. Ascending up from the tunnel, you’ll find that you’re at the base of the central pedestal with a staircase ahead leading up to the old PeopleMover loading platform. But now, the futuristic cadence of “beep-boops” and squealing tires suggests that the leisurely tour the PeopleMover offered in sincerely in the past.
The Rocket Rods
The Rocket Rods themselves are strange – dark, to match this New Tomorrowland, but somewhat skeletal, like an intentionally-half-sketched concept. They seat five in an unusual 1 – 1 – 1 – 2 arrangement.
Once strapped on board, your Rocket Rod will inch out of the station and round the corner, facing a straightaway down the length of the land’s entry. A drag race style stoplight to the right indicates that you’re about to feel the force of this wild attraction, and as the stoplight changes to yellow, then green, the Rocket Rod squeals forward, racing straight toward the orbiting golden planets of the new Astro Orbitor.
Image: Disney
The acceleration is a thrill, with on-board audio systems simulating a high-pitched, electric engine revving. The Rocket Rod even lifts its front end as if the launch had resulted in a wheelie! Along this massive straightaway, you’ll reach the ride’s top speed – 35 miles per hour. As the Astro Orbitor grows closer and closer, you might think that you’re in for a thrilling near-miss where you’ll duck to the left in the nick of time and race away into the Star Tours showbuilding. Instead, the Rocket Rod begins to slow as it approaches the intersection before tackling the turn not much faster than the PeopleMover did.
But now inside, the vehicle aligns with a straight section of track and signals with a high-pitched beep before accelerating a bit and passing through the queue for Star Tours’ terminal in a few seconds, racing above the parked Starspeeder 3000 with C-3PO attending to it. As R2-D2 chirps, the Rocket Rod continues ahead, audibly powering up and down, up and down, as it navigates the twisted track designed for the PeopleMover through the Star Tours showbuilding and Star Traders gift shop.
Rounding the corner, the ride accelerates along a straightaway and under a glittering starfield before entering the bowels of Space Mountain. Where once this unique and surprising inner view of the roller coaster offered a chance for young people to see its starry experience, the Rocket Rods are now billed as an equal thrill, and the fleeting glimpse into the darkness is hardly enough to offer any idea of Space Mountain’s thrills.
Image: Disney
The Rocket Rods blaze out of the Mountain and along the rooftop of the old Mission to Mars theater-in-the-round (which closed in 1992 intentionally to begin being retrofitted into the Alien Encounter attraction that Tomorrowland 2055 would’ve called for. But in this New Tomorrowland, the attraction instead became a pizza restaurant). Then it enters the second level of the Carousel Theater (remember, now home to Innoventions) precariously curving around the back of the circular, revolving exhibit where windows look in on the tourists below as you speed past. (In the PeopleMover’s days, this unique view provided stunning looks at the EPCOT Progress City model that served as the Carousel of Progress’ post-show.)
Now free from the confines of the land’s showbuildings, the Rocket Rods can race off into the convoluted, twisting tracks that intertwine along the wild edge of Tomorrowland. Among towering trees, the tracks dart above and below the Monorail’s, racing over the idling gas-guzzling cars of the Autopia that putter along the rooftop of the drained Submarine Voyage. The Rods accelerate and decelerate against every dip and turn in the track. Precisely fed power bursts and brakes monitor its speed at each twist and turn.
Ahead, the Rocket Rods into the darkness in the rear of the old Circlevision building that now serves as their own queue. A burst of air and a strobe flash stand in for a finale as you pass large windows looking down on the guests below, who are just beginning their wait for the thrill ride. Then, the vehicle emerges back at the front of the land before the Astro Orbitor, turning back down the straightway from which it started. As a vehicle pops a wheelie racing down the track, your own Rocket Rods begins to slow and pulls back up to the pedestal.
Ready to see the Rocket Rods in action? Check out the point-of-view video embedded below. While you watch, notice how many times the ride falters and pauses as it recalculates block zones. You may also be able to “feel” how many times the vehicle jostles as it tackles the twists of the PeopleMover’s track at a speed that’s simply too fast.
Well, what’d you think? Maybe you agree that it was fun to traverse in three minutes the twisting route that took the PeopleMover over sixteen. And sure, the Rocket Rods are a fine aside for a day at the park, even if they don’t do much to compile a cohesive story for this New Tomorrowland they’re meant to anchor. You might even agree that they’re thrilling or – dare we say? – fun.
But you know what was not fun about this would-be E-Ticket? The two hour wait on even the most moderately attended days. Or the constant closures shutting the ride for days, weeks, or months. Or the abysmal New Tomorrowland it was supposed to headline. One thing is almost universally agreed upon by Disney Parks fans: the Rocket Rods were not worth the loss of the PeopleMover, even if they had stayed open.
And they didn’t.
What happened to sizzle Disney’s most disastrous ride ever? Let’s finish off the story…
The first issue with Rocket Rods might’ve been the land it was placed in. The New Tomorrowland designers came up with for Disneyland was a clever (and cheap) re-use of the concepts they’d conceived of for Paris’s Discoveryland. The earthy, golden, fantasy vision of the future was effective in Europe. Imported to California, it didn’t amount to much.
The real problems were in its style and substance.
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Problem 1: New Tomorrowland’s Style
There’s nothing at all inherently wrong with the “Discoveryland” concept. In fact, Paris’ Discoveryland is gorgeous and atmospheric and romantic in a way that the (intentionally) more sterile and comical Tomorrowlands can’t be. There’s also something interesting about Florida’s Tomorrowland being a sci-fi future and California’s being a fantasy future – a unique and intentional divergence.
But while Paris’ land was custom designed as a Victorian steampunk port, the overlay in California amounted to little more than painting the existing, Space Age buildings in dark, dismal bronze and brass. It was immediately recognizable as a dreary, dark coat of paint on buildings that, architecturally, were a world away from the custom-made Jules Verne wonders of the real Discoveryland.
The rocks positioned at the land’s entrance only served to clog the infamously tight pathways of the tiny park. While the duplication of Paris’ spinner at the land’s entrance is, admittedly, very beautiful, it only made the traffic situation worse while eliminating what had been the must-try thrill of the old elevated Rocket Jets. (According to insiders, the elaborate gold ornamentation was too heavy to be supported on the pedestal, adding insult to injury.)
Image: Disney
Then there was Space Mountain – an icon of gleaming white Space Age architecture, it was haphazardly painted in rusted brown and green. Paris’ custom-made, Jules Verne themed, golden Space Mountain (above, with its built-in De la Terre à la Lune literary storyline) is beautiful. Simply painting the obviously Googie mountain in California dark brown did not convey the same gravitas. Worse, it was a total mismatch for the experience contained within… Which brings us to…
Problem 2: New Tomorrowland’s Substance
Even the corners of Tomorrowland that looked halfway decent in their new, earthy color scheme missed the point. It simply made no sense to affix a “Jules Verne” exterior to Tomorrowland’s rides. Once you were inside the bronze Space Mountain, it was the same ‘70s Space Age décor that had been there for decades… The da Vincian Astro Orbitor was incongruous to the ‘80s-inspired Star Tours it stood in front of… And then, golden, steampunk-maritime accents atop Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters…
In other words, even if the Discoveryland overlay in California had been done with a sky-high budget and looked as beautiful as the original in Paris (which it didn’t), it still wouldn’t have made any logical sense given the contents of the land.
And by the way, it did not escape fans’ notice that this New Tomorrowland amounted only to dark brown paint, a 3D movie from Epcot, the tired Innoventions from Epcot, and the always-closed Rocket Rods coinciding with the closure of the Submarine Voyage and PeopleMover. Some “New” Tomorrowland.
Problem 3: Rocket Rods Technology
Image: Disney
New Tomorrowland was bad, but the Rocket Rods themselves did not help matters. The Rocket Rods opened along with the rest of New Tomorrowland on May 22, 1988. Barely a month later, on July 6 (right as the summer season kicked in), they were shuttered. In its first month, the ride was plagued by downtime, often operating in its own hours separate from the parks. The problem was in the technology.
To send guests flying down the old PeopleMover tracks, Imagineers used a retro-fitted version of the ride technology they were concurrently installing for Epcot’s Test Track. But that’s not saying much – to give you an idea of how Test Track’s development was going, Disney approached its sponsors – General Motors – to ask if they’d like to sponsor the Rocket Rods, too. When GM was told that the Rocket Rods would use the same technology as the troublesome Test Track, they declined to become involved…
Problem 4: Rocket Rods Budget & Infrastructure
Mired in the midst of Eisner’s budget-conscious regime and forced to keep the budget for the land’s redesign to a minimum by penny-pinching park executives at the time, Imagineers scrambled. They were locked into using only what Walt’s “old” Tomorrowland had left them – namely, the PeopleMover’s track. But by its nature, the old scenic tour (with a maximum speed of 7 miles per hour) would glide through buildings, gently curve along corners, and tour through convoluted twists and turns in the track. The Rocket Rods would accelerate along the same route at five times the speed. The trouble is, the PeopleMover’s tracks would require extensive reconstruction to rebuild infrastructure and – most importantly – bank the ride’s tracks to allow the Rocket Rods to zoom along uninterrupted.
But the budget wasn’t there.
The Rocket Rods would need to use the old PeopleMover track exactly as it was. Which meant that at every turn or twist in the flat, unbanked track, it would need to slow to a crawl – no faster than the PeopleMover had gone – before accelerating again at straightaways, then braking for the next turn, on and on.
The constant start-stop, slow-fast undulations of the ride tested the patience of computer systems that traced the location of all 22 – 23 Rocket Rods on the track, automatically stopping the ride if any vehicle was even slightly off from where the computer calculated it should be to maintain block clearance.
In other words, consider it a vicious cycle: unbanked turns forced the ride to constantly adjust its speed, frazzling computers, braking (and breaking) the ride. That constant stopping also wore out tires at lightning pace, sending maintenance, downtime, and budgets flying, and ballooning wait times to over two hours on weekends (which, combined with the vehicles 1 – 1 – 1 – 2 seating arrangement, led to Rocket Rods being the first Disney attraction ever to offer a Single Rider Line).
Some insiders even report that the PeopleMover tracks – engineered for the idling and lightweight PeopleMover trains – were physically buckling at the weight of the Rocket Rods and their slot-car style equipment affixed to the paths. According to these sources, the physical infrastructure needed reinforced to handle the weight of the ride and the force exerted by the high speeds and quick decelerations.
End of Line (2000 – 2003)
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
The brand new ride lasted barely a month before closing for a refurbishment. It was supposed to last for a full month. Instead, it lasted three, ensuring that the Rocket Rods missed the busy summer season that should’ve marked its debut. The ride re-opened in October 1998… with as many problems as before. The Rocket Rods seemed to be closed more than they were open, and it must’ve become clear to engineers that without serious modifications, the ride was simply not viable.
On September 25, 2000, the Rocket Rods were closed with signs indicating that an extensive refurbishment (or maybe a full rebuilding) would see the ride re-open in Spring 2001. Spring came (seeing the opening of another Disaster Files: the original Disney’s California Adventure) and there appeared to be no work completed on any square foot of the Rocket Rods track.
On April 28, 2001 – about the time the ride was due to re-open – Disney spilled the beans and the Orange County Register announced that the Rocket Rods would never re-open. The park’s president at the time, Cynthia Harris, admitted to the New York Times that “the high-speed attraction was never able to perform to its designed show standards.” The Times added, “The problem, she said, was a budget-conscious decision to run the high-speed Rods on the PeopleMover’s unbanked track.”
As quickly as they’d appeared, the Rocket Rods vanished, leaving this bronze New Tomorrowland without its headlining attraction.
What’s Next?
Image: HarshLight, Flickr (license)
Ouimet got Tomorrowland back on track, but it’s painfully obvious that efforts to breathe new life into Tomorrowland in the 1990s were no more successful than any that came before. Tomorrowland is tired.
In Florida, the ‘90s redesign led to a clever sci-fi spaceport somewhat resembling Disneyland’s forgotten Tomorrowland 2055. The land there was crafted into a stunning alien city with a single continuity connecting all of its rides, shows, attractions, and even restaurants, packed with original concepts like the Timekeeper, Alien Encounter, Take Flight, and the Tomorrowland Transit Authority joining Space Mountain and the still-sky-high Astro Orbiter. But time hasn’t been kind to the land, which now serves as a catch-all for Disney / Pixar movies like Monsters Inc. and Toy Story 2. Beloved Lost Legend: Alien Encounter even turned into an attraction so terrible; we ranked it as the worst Disney attraction on Earth in its own standalone Disaster Files: Stitch’s Great Escape feature. Still, Florida’s Tomorrowland proved that Disney could do a story-centered Tomorrowland packed with original attractions… when they want to.
Disneyland Paris’ brilliant Discoveryland fell, too. While it’s style is still timeless and wonderful in the way designers wanted, its substance has tanked, becoming yet another Tomorrowland. The gorgeous European port is home to Buzz Lightyear and Star Tours, and the once-Jules-Verne themed, ornately decorated steampunk Space Mountain was stripped of its Jules Verne ornamentation and is now due to become the Star Wars themed Hyperspace Mountain… A gilded land.
But even among these sad declines in quality, Disneyland’s Tomorrowland is still the worst off, with lingering corners of gold meshing awkwardly with Ouimet’s best attempts to bring silver back into the picture. While all the rest of the park’s lands are all ruled by overarching continuities connecting the rides, shows, and attractions within to a single time period and setting, Tomorrowland is an intellectual property grab bag with no sense of time, place, or character. It’s just a mash-up of vaguely-futuristic buildings with mismatched rides themed to everything from Star Wars and Toy Story to Finding Nemo. And that’s a shame.
By the way, an entire Star Wars land is due to open at Disneyland in just a few years, which will make Star Tours redundant, probably leading to its closure. And if you think Marvel might be the hero in this story, granting Tomorrowland a new lease on life, forget it. Marvel is heading next door to Disney California Adventure, inexplicably having toppled a Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror that’s closing forever in January.
So where will that leave Tomorrowland? In a sad state.
We have to imagine that Disney’s designers are looking far enough ahead to realize that Tomorrowland needs reborn in a big way. And if you ask us, Pixar ought to be left out entirely.
The Highways of Yesterday
Image: Loren Javier, Flickr (license)
So what’s whisking along the sleek tracks of the PeopleMover today? Tumbleweeds. More than 15 years after the closure of the Rocket Rods, the tracks are still there.
Insiders say that the PeopleMover won’t return, given that if it were built today, accessibility and safety requirements would necessitate wider openings, emergency egress routes, and exit stairs every so-many feet along its course – a multi-million dollar project in the name of nostalgia? Doubtful.
Removing the tracks is also out of the question, though. That’s because, when New Tomorrowland was master-planned in 1967, the PeopleMover physically built into the land’s buildings. Its tracks and supports serve as support and foundations for showbuildings and demolition would be a costly and delicate process. A multi-million dollar project in the name of de-cluttering? Equally doubtful.
Put simply, there’s no reasonable way to bring the PeopleMover back, and no compelling reason to remove the tracks. Either project would likely cost millions.
Image: Disney
That means that the next time we see movement on the PeopleMover – be it as a new attraction or its crumbling at the wrecking ball – will likely coincide with the next major reimagining of Tomorrowland as a whole, if and when that finally happens. Which isn’t to say Imagineers haven’t dreamed… The image above shows one Imagineers’ interpretation of what could be. But until tomorrow comes, we can at least look back on the interesting story of the Rocket Rods, one of the most disastrous attractions Disney ever dealt with.
Tell us – did you get a chance to experience the Rocket Rods? How long did you wait? Were they worth it? Given the choice, would you see the PeopleMover return to Disneyland, or give the tracks a proper, well-done thrill ride? What other attractions do you count as “disasters” that you’d like to see chronicled in our growing collection?
