“Suspended in the timelessness of inner space are the thoughtwaves of my first impressions. They will be our only source of contact once you have passed beyond the limits of normal MAG-NI-FI-CA-TION!” Over the past year, the Lost Legends series at Theme Park Tourist has been dedicated to preserving the timeless tales of lost ride masterpieces for future generations. We’ve explored fan-favorites like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Alien Encounter, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, TOMB RAIDER: The Ride, the Peoplemover, Soarin’ Over California, and so many more. All along we’ve asked for your comments and memories to help us save these attractions forever and explore their in-depth stories.
Now, we turn to a Tomorrowland favorite, and an almost-unbelievable journey down to the size of an atom. A classic dark ride that kick-started the intellectual wonder of a generation, Adventure Thru Inner Space was an early precursor to the optimistic, inspirational, enigmatic dark rides that populated EPCOT Center when it opened. This once-headlining dark ride debuted brand new technologies still in use today, and is still remembered as an icon of Disneyland’s most well-loved era: Tomorrowland 1967.
A stunning journey into the retro-wonders of atomic energy and structure, this educational dark ride left riders speechless. So what did guests find in the magnificent reaches of the microscopic world? We’re about to find out. Prepare for magnification!
Old Tomorrowland (1955 – 1959)
Image: Disney
So many of our Lost Legends entries begin here, in the Tomorrowland guests encountered when Disneyland first opened in 1955. There’s a good reason that the stories of so many classics are rooted in this land at this time: because it was a rare disappointment.
Like Walt himself, so many of Disney’s fans look to the past as an idealized, romantic time when things were the way they ought to have stayed. Very few people would say, though, that Tomorrowland was ready to be one of Disneyland’s anchor areas in 1955.
In fact, that Tomorrowland was so far behind schedule during the park’s construction, Walt allegedly ordered that construction on the east side of the park stop entirely. He intended to divert funds from what would be Tomorrowland to the park’s other themed realms. Once Disneyland was on its way, he could reinvest in a Phase II that would open an impressive Tomorrowland more along the lines of the grand display of futurism he envisioned.
Image: Disney
But apparently, in the autumn before the park’s summer opening, he relented. Walt announced that construction should go ahead on Tomorrowland and that, despite his hopes, the land would simply be a corporate showcase; a “World’s Fair” where American companies could display their innovations and peddle their products to the growing middle class.
This Tomorrowland featured such riveting displays as the Kaiser Aluminum Hall of Fame, the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow, and the Dutch Boy Paint Color Gallery. One of Disney’s only holdouts in the land was a walkthrough display re-using the sets from 1954’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea.
Monsanto’s miracle (1957)
Image: Disney
One of the most memorable, though, was the Monsanto House of the Future, which opened in 1957. The strange, cantilevered, white plastic house built just off the park’s Hub was a veritable icon of Tomorrowland at the time, and a coup for the Monsanto Company.
After all, guests who passed through the home of the future got the chance to view ultra-modern furniture comprised entirely of synthetic materials thanks to Monsanto’s groundbreaking efforts, or the inconceivable flat TV suspended right on the wall of the living room!
Image: Monsanto
The most astounding encounter, though, had to be inside the “Atoms for Living” kitchen, featuring a microwave oven. Sincerely the stuff of scientific progress, the countertop microwave oven wouldn’t be commercially available for a full decade, leaving audiences of the 1950s stunned.
Image: Monsanto
If you asked Imagineers in 1955, they’d tell you that this Tomorrowland and the Monsanto House of the Future were meant to predict the year 1986 – immeasurably far away. (Consider, for example, if today’s Tomorrowland tried to accurately, scientifically predict how the world would look in 2047.) While it might’ve emulated a future as seen from the 1950s, its soaring rocket ships, waving flags, and squared architecture at least gave visitors a sense of what would become Tomorrowland’s core concepts.
Innovating and adding (1959 – 1966)
Still, Walt was never content with this half-hearted display of corporate power and assured his designers that Tomorrowland was not yet complete. His dedication for the land signaled his vision; he called for the land to be “a vista into a world of wondrous ideas, signifying Man’s achievements… A step into the future, with predictions of constructed things to come. Tomorrow offers new frontiers in science, adventure and ideals. The Atomic Age, the challenge of Outer Space and the hope for a peaceful, unified world.”
Image: Disney
Particularly, it was dreams of an Atomic Age and a Space Age that drove Walt’s narrative. An episode of the Disneyland television series hosted by Walt entitled “Our Friend the Atom” aired on January 23, 1957. Nuclear power was the way of the future, and an emerging area of interest with the public. Fittingly, Walt had a plan: “We made plans to build an exhibit at Disneyland to show you atomic energy in action.”
However, the plans to add an atomic attraction to Disneyland fell through due, in large part, to another wild expansion meant to bring Tomorrowland up to snuff.
Image: Disney
In 1959, the park ceremoniously opened three brand new rides: the Matterhorn Bobsleds (the first tubular steel tracked roller coaster), the Submarine Voyage (the world’s largest peacetime submarine fleet), and the Disney-ALWEG Monorail (the first daily-operating monorail system in the Western hemisphere). So grand were these new and groundbreaking rides, they each earned a new designation, requiring the most expensive and limited ride ticket: an E-Ticket.
So just four years after the park opened, Tomorrowland had doubled in size and scope and was well on its way to being the Tomorrowland Walt always hoped for.
Image: disneycartography.com
As the Cold War continued and the Cuban Missile Crisis loomed, the role of atomic power grew and an educational exhibit at Disneyland seemed all the more pressing. Unfortunately, Walt and company were focused elsewhere: the 1964-65 World’s Fair. Designers were working overtime to prepare for the Fair, where Disney had been contracted to provide no less than four headlining attractions for major corporations. Those four attractions would evolve into Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, “it’s a small world,” Carousel of Progress, and the Peoplemover.
And as the Fair closed in 1965, designers were buoyed by the tremendous innovation they’d used to bring those four attractions to life. So impressive were their newest technologies, they warranted a place in Tomorrowland back at Disneyland.
Image: Disney
But even a decade after the park opened, Tomorrowland was faltering. The sincere attempt at forecasting the future from 1955 had been inspiring, but it couldn’t hold up. None of the corporate showcases left in Tomorrowland felt convincingly futuristic by the mid-60s. Microwave ovens were the stuff of science fact, not of futurism, and their place in the Monsanto House of the Future was an eye-rolling reminder of a different time. So if Imagineers wanted Tomorrowland to sincerely represent cutting-edge technologies, everything except the 1959 expansion would need a floor-to-ceiling rebuild from scratch. A great, big, beautiful Tomorrowland was on the way.
New Tomorrowland: A World on the Move (1967)
Image: Disney
Walt didn’t live long enough to see the New Tomorrowland that opened July 2, 1967. He passed away seven months prior due to lung cancer. But Walt’s fingerprints were present in almost every corner of the land – it was exactly as he had envisioned from the start.
Imagineers called this stunning, groundbreaking New Tomorrowland “a world on the move.” And it was. If Frontierland was meant to display the idling speed of the past with its humungous riverboats and stagecoaches, Tomorrowland would be a kinetic paradise of bright colors whizzing past; motion above, below, and before; the sounds of transportation all around.
Indeed, standing at the entrance to this New Tomorrowland, guests would look down an entry corridor not unlike the “old” land. But now, gone were the boxy showbuildings so distinctly of the 1950s. Instead, tall, soaring geometric fins and rounded exteriors of two mirrored showbuildings – one to the north and one to the south – signaled that this land was dynamic and fluid. Gone were the ornamental flags and concrete towers. Instead, this land was white and sleek, packed with Googie architecture – upswept roofs, curves, boomerangs, and parabolas.
Between those mirrored showbuildings, the white, geometric tracks of the Peoplemover whisked guests along the land’s second story in brightly colored trains – a pop of color whizzing past white architecture. The trains of the Peoplemover would glide effortlessly down this central straightaway, beginning and ending their round-trip tour of Tomorrowland from a pedestal at the land’s core.
Image: Disney
There, a red-and-white rocket launch elevator would carry batches of guests up to the third story, where the gleaming white Rocket Jets would await, spiraling guests forty feet above the futuristic land. Just past, the revolving Carousel Theatre played host to the Carousel of Progress rotating theatre show, relocated from the World’s Fair.
Of course, Walt’s staples from 1959 remained, with the cars of the Autopia curving around the caves and waterfalls of the Submarine Voyage chugging through the lagoon below, now joined by the Peoplemover as it zigged and zagged through the Monorail tracks that curved gracefully overhead.
Put simply, this Tomorrowland got it right. Even removed from nostalgia (and the widespread disdain of the half-hearted Tomorrowland that replaced it), New Tomorrowland was exactly what Disneyland needed – a fanciful, clever, bright, kinetic look at the future dedicated to real scientific ideals. The defining ride for this wonderful, optimistic, educational, scientific Tomorrowland resided right at the land’s entry beneath a graceful curve in the track of the Peoplemover – finally, it was Walt’s atomic attraction that would redefine dark rides.
Monsanto
Image: Monsanto
As the story goes, the Monsanto Company who had sponsored the House of the Future and the Hall of Chemicals in the “old” Tomorrowland had grown tired of the outdated confines of their exhibits. Times had changed, and so had Monsanto’s reach. Guests no longer fawned over microwave ovens, and Monsanto had better products to showcase. When Tomorrowland went under the knife for its 1967 rebirth, the Monsanto House of the Future was demolished. (According to Disney legend, the wrecking ball bounced right off of the plastic house, necessitating a week-long demolition done by hand with hacksaws.)
Image: Disney
Monsanto wanted a better showcase of their specialties, and they got their chance when New Tomorrowland debuted a new starring attraction: Adventure Thru Inner Space. Born of the same thoughtful processes that would later give rise to EPCOT Center and its educational, historic, and epic dark rides, Adventure Thru Inner Space was a wonder. It was a high-capacity dark ride in tune with the optimism and wonder that filled audiences of the 1960s as they explored this utopian Tomorrowland that they saw as their very real future.
On the next page, we’re going to step inside of Adventure Thru Inner Space and miniaturize down to the size of an atom. Hold on tight, and read on!
As you step into the magnificent New Tomorrowland, you’re likely to be awe-struck. The Peoplemover glides effortlessly overhead as the towering Rocket Jets spiral in the center of the land. Just beyond, the Carousel Theater gracefully turns, hosting the brand-new, Audio-Animatronics packed Carousel of Progress designed by Walt Disney himself. In the distance, the Monorail glides past the towering Matterhorn Bobsleds as the mysterious Submarine Voyage propels through a crystal-clear lagoon. This is Walt’s “World on the Move” – a genuine, thoughtful look at what the wonders of the Space Age might contain. It’s sleek and white with pops of red and blue and yellow. If we’re lucky, this is what the future will look, sound, and feel like.
And the key to that future is right inside the land, beneath the towering silver fins that mark the land’s grand entry. This is Adventure Thru Inner Space.
You’ve been on Disneyland’s classic dark rides in Fantasyland, like Peter Pan’s Flight and Snow White’s Scary Adventures. But this new ride in Tomorrowland is different. It uses an entirely new ride system unlike anything you’ve seen before.
Image: Disney
Stepping into the spacious lobby of the attraction, something catches your eye: the Mighty Monsanto Microscope towers over the gently winding queue, the Peoplemover gliding behind it. The microscope appears to be focused on a snowflake, its graceful geometric arms broadcast on a massive screen looming overhead. You’ll also notice something else: deep blue, egg-shaped vehicles carrying passengers glide effortlessly into the base of the Mighty Microscope. At the microscope’s end, they exit, but now they’re merely a few inches tall, the vehicles – and the guests inside – completely miniaturized.
If you’re ready to undergo this magnificent shrinking, step onto the continuously-moving pathway that glides alongside a chain of the constantly-moving vehicles. Step right into it as it moves and sit back. You’re about to shrink down to the size of an atom.
The first thing you’ll hear once seated is the voice of Paul Frees (famously the narrator of another Disneyland Omnimover-based attraction: the Ghost Host of the Haunted Mansion). “I am the first person to make this fabulous journey… Suspended in the timelessness of inner space are the thoughtwaves of my first impressions. They will be our only source of contact once you have passed beyond the limits of normal Mag-ni-fi-ca-tion!”
The Atommobile presses forward into the Microscope, shaking lightly as all light fades. Very slowly, small streaks of light appear in the darkness… Snowflakes. They’ll falling and twisting and tumbling through the darkness. And the appear to be getting bigger. “I am passing beyond the magnification limits of even the most powerful microscopes. These are snowflakes – and yet they seem to grow larger and larger. Or can I be shrinking… shrinking beyond the smallness of a tiny snowflake crystal? Indeed, I am becoming smaller and smaller!“
Image: Disney
As guests continue to shrink, a giant wall of geometric patterns comes into view. But wait… this isn’t a wall of ice. It’s a single snowflake, filling up our entire field of vision. “These tiny bits of snowflake crystal tower above me – like an enormous wall of ice. Can I penetrate this gigantic prism?” The answer, of course, is yes. Objects on Earth exist in three states: solid, liquid, or gas. But even solids, on a microscopic level, are made up of molecules arranged in rigid patterns. At this level of magnification, we can see the gaps between those molecules. “And yet, this wall of ice only seems smooth and solid! From this tiny viewpoint, I can see that nothing is solid, no matter how it appears.“
Image: Monsanto / Disney
A great lattice structure comes into view as we see that the “solid” snowflake is indeed made up of spheres lined up in infinite, parallel columns and rows. “What are these strange spheres? Have I reached the universe of the molecule? Yes, these are water molecules – H2O… They vibrate in such an orderly pattern because this is water frozen into the solid state of matter.”
The magnification continues as the infinite lattice gives way to blurry spheres, like great metallic orbs.
“These fuzzy spheres must be the atoms that make up the molecule – two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom. And I see that it’s the orbiting electrons that give the atom its fuzzy appearance. And still I continue to shrink. Is it possible that I can enter the atom itself?”
Image: Disney
The Atommobile pushed further into the atom itself as the car becomes surrounded in a flurry of falling white lights, darting from all sides. “Electrons are dashing about me – like so many fiery comets! Can I possibly survive?” Somehow, the electrons suddenly disappear, leaving the vehicle to float through an infinite darkess with spheres of light glowing all around – it’s a hypnotic and beautiful sight, as if drifting through an eternal outer space. “I am so infinitely small now that I can see millions of orbiting electrons. They appear like the Milky Way of our own solar system. This vast realm, THIS is the infinite universe within a tiny speck of snowflake crystal.”
If the grand finale of Spaceship Earth at Epcot is intended to make us feel small – to see our own insignificance in the grand scheme of time and space – then this finale does just the opposite: it allows us to see that infinity exists within a snowflake. We’re floating in an endless sea of electrons as vast as outer space, but contained within a microscopic molecule. While it’s difficult to conceptually understand the borderless infinity of the universe, it’s downright impossible to comprehend how, to an atom, a snowflake is an endless universe unto itself!
…Sorry, folks. Lost myself there for a minute. But now, from the darkness, a large red sphere suddenly appears, floating. It’s pulsating with warm light. “And there is the nucleus of the atom! Do I dare explore the vastness of its inner space? No, I dare not go on… I must return to the realm of the molecule, before I go on shrinking…forever!”
Image: Disney
As the riders begin to re-enlarge, humongous water droplets surround the Atommobile. They rise and fall, swirling around. “Ah, how strange! The molecules are so active now! They have become fluid – freed from their frozen state. That can only mean that the snowflake is melting! Yes, the snowflake has melted, but there is no cause for alarm. You are back on visual, and returning to your normal size!” Now, looming overhead was perhaps the ride’s most recognizable feature: a huge eyeball gazing down at the riders as they return to our world. Emerging from the darkness, the Omnimovers pass beneath the Peoplemover yet again and take a leisurely circle around a display area showing Monsanto’s newest innovations.
Image: Monsanto / Disney
“This has been one of many exciting Adventures Thru Inner Space in a never-ending search for new ways to rearrange molecules for the benefit of man-kind. Now, in our display area, you will see modern miracles created by rearranging the molecules of not only water, but air, coal, petroleum, and many other raw materials. This is Monsanto.” Like the EPCOT Center dark rides it would inspire, Adventure Thru Inner Space concludes with a post-show exhibit and Sherman Brothers’ sing-along guests can explore: Miracles from Molecules.
As always, we like to close our Lost Legends ride-throughs with the best point-of-view videos can find. Luckily, we have the Disney History Institute who provided this ride-through video on YouTube – one of the only videos of the ride – from which two of the images on this page were taken.
Because Adventure Thru Inner Space closed in the 1980s, it’s difficult to find any videos that accurately represent the ride experience. Luckily, the ride’s cult-following has allowed for many fans to create ultra-accurate computer-generated recreations of the ride, including this fantastic one by Steve Wesson:
And thus ends one of the greatest educational dark rides Disney ever produced. What became of Adventure Thru Inner Space, and why? Find out the rest of the story on the next page…
Sponsors fall
Image: Disney
In 1977, Monsanto suspended its sponsorship of the attraction.
It wasn’t the first time that a sponsor had opted not to renegotiate their contract with Disney, and it would be far from the last. Just a few years later, Disney would open a radical new kind of park in Florida called EPCOT Center that would rely almost entirely on sponsorship. A sort of “permanent World’s Fair,” Disney hoped that corporations would chomp at the bit to have their brands plastered across a Disney Park, and would in turn pay for upkeep on attractions and keep pre- and post-shows stocked with their newest technologies…
While it must’ve read a win-win on paper, if you ask many Disney Parks fans, the sponsor-based strategy crippled Epcot and lead to the degradation or closure of many fellow Lost Legends: Horizons, Journey into Imagination, BODY WARS, Kitchen Kabaret, and Maelstrom to name just a few. Each languished when its sponsor dropped out.
Even without Monsanto footing the bill, Disney made a few simple edits to the attractions’ narration and signage and Adventure Thru Inner Space continued on for years.
Finally, on September 2, 1985, Adventure Thru Inner Space closed forever.
New directions
Adventure Thru Inner Space might’ve been one of the last holdouts of Tomorrowland’s initial ideology: to sincerely educate and entertain by predicting how scientific advancement might create a better world. If its closure signaled the end of an era, then its replacement was equally important in signaling the land’s new direction, and the new path forward for Disney Parks.
Image: Disney
In January 1987, Star Tours took over the south showbuilding along Tomorrowland’s entry. Under the guidance of then-new CEO Michael Eisner, Disney would radically transform. Eisner would use all that he’d learned as CEO of Paramount Pictures to oversee the rejuvenation of the company’s film studio, animation division, and theme parks. It was Eisner’s assertion that Disneyland would be a place where guests could “ride the movies.” Trouble is, Disney wasn’t making many good movies at the time, so Eisner partnered with George Lucas to bring Star Wars into the parks. We told the full, behind-the-scenes story of the unprecedented collaboration in its own Lost Legends: Star Tours feature that’s a must read, but you know how the story ends…
Obviously, Star Tours was a hit, though it’s an obvious pivot point. Before Star Tours, Disney had been in the ceaseless, endless race to keep Tomorrowland futuristic. Every few years, new exhibits, new stories, and new technologies had to be funded to keep “tomorrow” from becoming “today.” But with Star Tours, it became conceivable to Imagineers that Tomorrowland could be built in a way that would be timeless. Forget science; a science fiction land wouldn’t have to try to keep up with real emerging technologies! It wouldn’t even try to predict a real future, instead bringing to life fantastical ones.
Currently, Tomorrowlands across the globe represent a golden seaside port rooted in the literary works of European thinkers (Paris), a sci-fi alien city as envisioned by early 20th century serial comics (Orlando), a glass and metal plaza that has no root in time or place (Shanghai), and an unfortunate mix of them all (California), each smartly (and for many, sadly) avoiding any semblance of what the real future might actually look like. Of course, while they might be creatively dressed and smartly designed on the outside, most of those Tomorrowlands are unfortunately and frustratingly populated by rides based on Monsters Inc., Finding Nemo, Lilo and Stitch, and Toy Story.
The takeaway? Tomorrowland’s very foundation shifted, and Adventure Thru Inner Space would be one of the last great sincere scientific attractions at a Disneyland-style park; a sort of precursor to the grand, revered dark rides that would open at EPCOT Center decades later. Inner Space would’ve felt right at home alongside World of Motion, Spaceship Earth, or Universe of Energy, and that is very high praise indeed.
Image: Disney
Tomorrowland today has very little interest in actually predicting what tomorrow may bring, and even less interest in smartly presenting any kind of content. We traced that steep decline in its own in-depth feature perfect for Disney Parks history fans – Lost Legends: The Peoplemover and the Fall of Walt’s Tomorrowland.
Of course, the world in 2016 is quite different from the world in 1967. Would today’s guests even bother to ride Adventure Thru Inner Space? Or would they overwhelmingly prefer Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters given the choice? Speaking of which, Adventure Thru Inner Space survives even today in some very unique ways… Read on to find out where this classic Tomorrowland ride’s DNA ended up.
Adventure Thru Inner Space closed more than three decades ago, but it lives on in a number of astounding ways.
1. The Omnimover
Image: Disney
Believe it or not, Adventure Thru Inner Space was the first ride to use Disney’s patented Omnimover ride system when it opened in 1967, predating what might be its most famous application in Disney’s own Haunted Mansion in 1969. And it wasn’t done there – the Omnimover would go on to star in many of Epcot’s classic dark rides like World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination, Horizons, Spaceship Earth, and the Living Seas. The still-revolutionary design was even taken out of the mothballs and used as the ride system in the two 21st century dark rides based on The Little Mermaid that opened at Disney California Adventure and Magic Kingdom in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
The ingenious and groundbreaking ride system is comprised of a continuously moving chain of ride vehicles that guests board from a moving walkway. Because they’re continuously moving and constantly loading, Omnimover ride systems have exceptionally high capacities and tremendous hourly throughput. Many rides using the system direct the vehicles to turn and pivot at precise moments along the leisurely course, directing riders’ attention exactly where designers want, giving Imagineers the real-world power of a movie camera.
Image: Disney
In a most unusual twist of fate, the Omnimover lives on in Tomorrowland, too. Adventure Thru Inner Space closed in 1985 in Tomorrowland’s south showbuilding. Almost two decades later, the mirror-image north showbuilding along Tomorrowland’s entry (formerly home to Circlevision 360 and, later, to a Disaster File: Rocket Rods), opened with Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters. On board, guests join Star Command from Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 2 and take flight aboard a continuous chain of constantly-moving intergalactic space ships… An Omnimover alive in Tomorrowland just a few dozen feet from where the technology was first pioneered.
From under the sea to the dreamy clouds of imagination; the atomic inner world to the farthest reaches of toy-sized space, the Omnimover can do it all. So renowned and versatile is the Omnimover ride system, it scored among our list of the Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World, and it all debuted in Tomorrowland’s Adventure Thru Inner Space!
2. Star Tours
Image: Disney
There’s no denying that in terms of guest satisfaction, Star Tours is a very worthy replacement for Adventure Thru Inner Space.
The storyline for Star Tours is a brilliant one: that here in our world, we have airports and airlines that carry us off to exotic destinations, and likewise, the Star Wars universe has its own intergalactic transportation company – Star Tours – offering trips to the farthest reaches of the galaxy. As would-be passengers entering the Earth terminal of this interstellar transit system, we see that it’s very much rooted in reality: there’s an arrivals / departures board, a host of aliens paging passengers over an intercom, a security checkpoint, a luggage scan… It’s a humorous look at how even the Star Wars universe has its mundane elements, and their public transportation is really quite like our own.
Image: Disney
But to those who experienced Adventure Thru Inner Space, the terminal concourse of Star Wars looks very familiar. The winding, descending path toward the parked Star Speeder is actually a very in-tact remnant of the Inner Space queue, right down to the lighting. Of course, back then, that parked Star Speeder was instead the Mighty Monsanto Microscope with the continuously moving chain of Omnimovers advancing into it. Yes, this first room of Star Tours’ queue is where riders boarded their Atommobile and were miniaturized.
Image: Disney
Because Star Tours requires so much less room than the more elaborate dark ride of old, parts of the dark ride were reconfigured into the rest of Star Tours’ elaborate queue, space for the four military-grade motion-simulators that Star Tours takes place in, and the Star Traders gift shop it exits into, all of which was formerly space taken up by the dark ride itself. (Click and expand the blueprint above to see a detailed comparison of the two rides side-to-side.)
It’s strange-but-true to consider that, in a way, Adventure Thru Inner Space lives on even in parks where it next existed: when Star Tours was cloned at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris, the original queue at Disneyland was copied, too, bringing the iconic queue of Inner Space to Florida, Japan, and France. Even though those three parks never had Adventure Thru Inner Space, they all have a very obvious piece of its DNA!
3. The Mighty Microscope… in space
While it’s now impossible to see at a Disney Park, the original Star Tours paid tribute to Adventure Thru Inner Space in an exciting way. After Rex’s first faulty maneuver (“Brakes… Brakes! Where are the brakes?!”), the Star Speeder fell down into a Maintenance area and pulled up at the last second, gliding past a Control Booth. Just past the control tower, you could catch a glimpse of the Mighty Microscope jutting out. The Microscope made this cameo appearance (at about :50 in the video embedded below) in all four versions of Star Tours across the globe.
In 2010, Star Tours closed at Disneyland, reopening a year later in June 2011 as Star Tours: The Adventures Continue. The new, HD-3D iteration includes randomized beginnings, middles, and ends, producing dozens and dozens of possible combinations so that your journey is different every time. Amid the chaos of this new iteration, the Mighty Microscope lives on. In one of the three possible endings to your journey, the Star Speeder arrives at an under-construction Death Star orbiting Geonosis. As you escape through a hangar bay filled with Stormtroopers, the Mighty Microscope appears on the left, apparently overtaken by the Empire. (You’ll see it at about 6:20 in the video below.)
Here again, it’s interesting that – because the ride film was cloned to all four Disney Parks where Star Tours (and then, Star Tours: The Adventures Continue) exists, the Mighty Microscope made cameo appearances at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Tokyo Disneyland, and Disneyland Paris.
4. A younger sister
Image: Disney
Claude Coats – the famed Imagineer and Disney Legend responsible for designing Adventure Thru Inner Space – was far from finished. Coates would go on to lead dozens of beloved Imagineering projects including the Haunted Mansion, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, and most of EPCOT Center’s beloved dark rides. However, in designing Magic Kingdom’s Tomorrowland, Coates reached into his own archive and crafted another Omnimover-based ride built off the blueprints for Adventure Thru Inner Space.
Replace the Mighty Monsanto Microscope with a globe and airport terminal and you’ve got the basics for another Lost Legend: If You Had Wings. The aviation-themed dark ride (sponsored by Eastern Air Lines) gave a generation wings to widen their world and set the course for EPCOT Center. We soared into the in-depth story of Coates’ creations in that standalone feature – a must-read for fans of Magic Kingdom’s early years.
Looking Forward and Back
Image: Disney
Adventure Thru Inner Space has been gone for a very long time; so long, in fact, that many Disney fans never got the chance to ride it. But it remains beloved today for another reason: because of what it represented.
It was a holdout of Walt’s Tomorrowland – an optimistic world whose limitless advances in technology signaled a rebirth of culture. Guests were astounded by the hope of atomic energy and in awe of what the future could hold. It was a time when families wanted to come to Disneyland to learn about America’s past, present, and future.
Image: Disney
Maybe if Adventure Thru Inner Space were recreated today, it would be beloved and revered and celebrated as a retrofuturistic spectacle and a grand show of Imagineering’s artistry. Who could say? But take a look at Epcot and you’ll notice that what we want – or at least, what Disney thinks we want – is to leave the real world behind. In their thinking, we don’t want to bother with science or history or learning. We’d rather blast aliens with Buzz than shrink to the size of an atom on a self-serious dark ride that teaches us the structure of atoms. Maybe they’re right.
But Adventure Thru Inner Space will remain a beloved memory of a different time and a different Disneyland. For our part, we do hope that one day, the Omnimover across the way in Tomorrowland gets a nostalgic and classic facelift to become an Adventure Thru Inner Space style exploration of science. But we won’t hold our breath. The continued invasion of Monsters Inc. and Lilo and Stitch seems a more likely – and unfortunate – path for Walt’s vista into wondrous ideas signifying man’s achievements.
Now, head over to our In-Depth Feature Library to set course for another Lost Legend.
But first, it’s your turn. Use the comments below to tell us what you think about Adventure Thru Inner Space. Is it yet another Lost Legend and a painful reminder of the high aspirations Disney once had in Epcot-style learning adventures? Or was it a dated remnant of a Tomorrowland that tried and failed to keep up with real scientific progress? Tell us your stories and thoughts as we keep memories of this lost classic alive.
