My Ideal Disneyland Part 5

Okay, time for the Buzz Lightyear AstroBlasters and the last part of the Tland series! This is another ride I have never been on. This space in Tland was originally occupied by Circarama, which opened with the park in 1955. It was a circular theater where guests stood in the middle and where able to have a 360 degree view of a projected image. The show changed a few times but the show "America the Beautiful" was there mostly from 1956 until 1984. The attraction closed in '97 for the '98 redo when the space was replaced with "The American Space Experience" exhibit which was reminiscent of the early sponsored exhibits that Tland used to be riddled with. It was part of the ride queue for Rocket Rods (has pics of the sign conversion to Buzz after RRs) I think for a brief time and then the AstroBlasters came in 2003.

I'm gonna go off on a bit of a tangent here, while I'm on the sponsored exhibits of early Tland. Apparently when Tland first opened, Disney was kind of poor and didn't have money for many rides in Tland. So, they had a butt load of sponsored exhibits. There was the Kaiser Aluminum exhibit, and the Monsanto Hall of Chemistry, which both opened in 1955, the Richfield "World Beneath Us" exhibit, the "Our Future in Color" gallery by Dutch Boy, the "Bathroom of Tomorrow" by Crane (which is something I think should be put into Innoventions btw) and "Fashions and Fabrics Through the Ages" by Monsanto. There were probably even more. The Monsanto House of the Future was really like one huge exhibit. When Disneyland first opened, it was like everything was sponsored! I mean, Monsanto was huge, Richfield Oil was in there for a while (Autopia and others), The Bell System, AT&T (Circarama/CircleVision), General Electric (Carousel of Progress), TWA (Rocket to the Moon), Coca Cola (BTW, that link is has a bunch of great pics showing how the Coca Cola Stage/Terrace has changed through the years), ALWEG (monorail), and Goodyear (PeopleMover). All of these were in Tland and probably more. But while I'm talking about it, I'll mention some sponsored stuff in other areas of the park. Dole has sponsored the Tiki Room since it opened and still does. The Tahitian Terrace was Stouffer's. Kodak is found here and there throughout the park with the Photopass stuff and Autopia is sponsored by Chevron now. Innoventions has like a million different sponsors in it. I read on MiceChat that Village Haus in Fantasyland is sponsored by Minute Maid and the Rancho del Zacalo in Fronteirland is (or was/ now is La Victoria?) by Ortega, Big Thunder Ranch is Brawny, Coca Cola is all over the place, and there are probably more. I look at old pics of dland and see these signs all over the place that have nothing to do with dland and are outside companies and I'm glad most of them are gone now. I like to feel completely immersed in disneyland while I'm there and outside advertising really takes away from it for me.

So that's that. Back to Buzz. Again, I've never been on it. I've heard it's like Midway Mania in DCA (which I've also never been on) but not quite as good. It's not the most popular but it gets traffic. I can't say much about it since I've never been on it but it doesn't sound that great. Also, as I mentioned with Nemo, I don't really enjoy Pixar being in dland because it doesn't feel like it entirely belongs there for some reason. I don't know...Tland isn't really supposed to be movie themed, or wasn't intended to be that way. Really, only Fantasyland was supposed to be like that. In my ideal dland, I think I would put something else in that space only I don't know what. I think having something like the old "Adventure thru Inner Space"might be cool, especially with the new technologies that we have today.

So that's it for this land but really, it won't be because it's always changing. And who knows what the future will hold for Tomorrowland? See you in Fantasyland for my next installation of the series!

My Ideal Disneyland Part 1

Okay, so welcome to All Things Disney. Last night unfortunately was one of those nights where I just couldn't get to sleep and I had a horrible headache. So, I had a LOT of time just lying in bed thinking about stuff and because I have recently been in "Disneymode" I of course thought about dland. So this may be a really long entry...sorry. I'll try to spice it up with some pics or links. Okay, so I've been studying the past of disney in depth on various blogs and websites and find it fascinating. I'm gonna go counterclockwise around dland and just tell you my thoughts and opinions on it. P.S. I think I'm gonna have to do this in sections. I'm starting with...

Tomorrowland

It has changed so much! Tomorrowland has been through more incarnations than any other lands in dland. Here are some really early pics of Tland over at Disneyland Nomanclature taken in 1963. Here are some earlier ones from the same site. So some of the earliest rides were Autopia, Rocket to the Moon, Astro Jets, and The Flying Saucers. Tomorrowland looked sort of like a bunch of circus rings with rides in them. Than came the "New Tomorrowland Project" in 1967, then another revamp in '98. I personally think that it looked the most "put together" and cohesive before the '98 redo. Here's info. on what changed and when. So there's a bit of history for you. Now for my opinions haha.

I'll start with Star Tours. This attraction used to be The Hall of Chemistry, Then Adventure Through Inner Space, Then Mission to Mars (I could be wrong on the chronology of this or even the rides that were in that building so correct me if I'm wrong but I am sure that Adventure thru inner space was in there). It is now Star Tours. In my ideal Disneyland, this attraction wouldn't be there. Star Wars does not belong in dland. It is also a boring and outdated ride. However, it is a very popular attraction for the little ones and Star Wars fans and although I don't believe it belongs in dland, it does belong in Tland, if that makes any sense. Like if Star Wars were a disney movie/production, it would belong in dland but it's not. But whatever. In my ideal Disneyland hypothetical revamp, I would end up leaving Star Tours there, although I might update some stuff...

Next is the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Theater (Magic Eye Theater?) and Space Mountain. I believe that space used to be occupied by the Flying Saucers and was then The Tomorrowland Stage. Then came Space Mountain and the "Space Stage" was sort of built under it during the period of the 1st Tland revamp. Here are some great pics over at Disney on Parole of SM when it first opened. You can see the "hole" with the open air Space Stage below it. Also the moving ramps in the front gave it a great futuristic look. Here's another pic. (Notice People Mover still in use!) I personally love the look of it and am really sad it went when they installed the Magic Eye Theater with the retarded '98 revamp. They closed the "hole," put an indoor theater in there, and took out the ramps, sort of ruining the awesome presence of the whole area. Here are some pics of the destruction of the ramps :(. This is the top of the closed "hole" It just looks like a pointless fake helipad area. I think they should just put some entertainment up there for the people waiting in line haha. Heaven knows the line's long enough! So here is what it looks like today. Pretty lame compared to the old one huh? I certainly think so. Ugh. :( Oh look! It's a spinning orb of uselessness! The only thing I liked about the '98 revamp was the paint scheme. Although I think the original sleek futuristic white looks great too. So, in my ideal dland, the ramps would have stayed along with the theater and the "Golden Eye" would never have been put in. However, now that the eye is in and was "Captain EO", it is currently "Honey I Shrunk the Kids," which is INSANELY outdated and needs to be updated. My opinion (an idea from mollymouse) is that they should do a Wall-E 3D show in there. They may also want to put the ramps back in and put a theater space up on that helipad space that is up there doing absolutely nothing. So that's my opinion on The Golden Eye Theater and Space Mountain in My Ideal Dland. :)

Next is the large spinning building which, as a child, I had no idea what it's use was. In fact, when I was little, we always skipped Tland entirely because it was so lame and I was too small to go on the only good attraction (Space Mountain) and too scared to go on the other pretty good attraction (The Sub Voyage). It was early 90s btw. So it was conceived as the "Carousel of Progress," part of the '67 revamp. Walt was very interested in the future and always changing and moving forward. From what I understand was a sort of animatronic diorama of a man and his family. They would take you from before the invention of electricity and then as the room spun around to different dioramas, they would progressively go further into the future, ending with "Progress City." Apparently Walt was interested in creating an ACTUAL progress city. That man had no boundries haha. The attraction an interesting concept and the unique ride layout had great guest capacity and was pretty efficient. However, obvious problems arose. I'm assuming the Carousel of Progress eventually was taken out because the "future" simply became the present. What was futuristic then became silly to the people of the present. Also, sitting and watching an animatronic guy talking to you for 20 minutes? or so doesn't sound so great. (What is it with animatronic shows? I don't see the appeal.) So then, it became "America Sings," another animatronic show which had NOTHING to do with the future or the theme of tomorrowland. Seriously? Who came up with that. I think it would have sucked. Here's some more pics. Then, the building sat vacant for 10 years and they moved some of the animals over to the new Splash Mountain ride. How utterly said. It is now "Innoventions" though. Here it is with it's '98 revamp paint scheme, which as I said before, I kind of like. They've since gotten rid of most of that color scheme so this is what it looks like now. Back to the crisp, clean, original Tland white. :) I had never been in the building until this summer and I must say it is interesting and a bit confusing. You go on on this cool rotating platform and watch a video (narrated by Nathan Lane, which only a Disney geek like me would notice haha). Then we went in and saw this guy do a "new musical technology" demo and it was confusing because we were still on the spinning part so there's rooms and doors that we are passing by in the middle and it's like "are we supposed to stay here or can we explore or what?" Then, the presentation was over and we stepped into the stationary middle piece where there is a "house of the future," which sort of combines the Monsanto House of the Future concept with the Carousel of Progress concept. Although instead of an animatronic family, it's cast members welcoming you to their house party. You go in and tour there home and look at all of their awesome technology. You can stay in as long as you want and just run free in there. There's a front room with a player piano (not exactly new technology but still cool), a living room where you can watch a movie on the big screen (Cars was playing when we went in), a high tech kitchen (with a sink that doesn't work. RETARDED), a game room with touch screen games and a karaoke stage, the girls room (with some awesome light/music technology) and the boys room (with the same sort of technology and they actually have a GREAT selection of music to choose from). Oddly, the parent's room and a bathroom is missing. Then you go upstairs and find all of these displays of "new technology" and it's basically like a big showroom completely disconnected from the "House of the Future" thing. I found it disjointed and ill-thought out. Better than America Sings but still. Really? So here's my suggestions for "Ideal Disney-fying it." First thing, rename it "House of the Future." Second thing, make it handicap accessible. One major downside to this ride is that the only exit is upstairs. So put an elevator in there people. You'll get more guest capacity that way. Third, take out the confusing exhibits like that music dude. They are just disjointed and confusing for the guests. Maybe you could have a movie or something while you're spinning waiting to enter the house. I don't know. Forth, take out all the crap on the second story and put a parent's room and a bathroom of the future up there. I mean there is some awesome bathroom tech out there. It would be funny and cool. Besides, where is the family supposed to pee? Come on now. You could even have a cool high-tech rotating closet thingy in the parent's room. Also, you could put a "ball room" up there where people can just dance and have fun and there should be a DJ like they have at the Jedi Training place. The family IS supposed to be having a house PARTY after all. Make the whole thing one cohesive attraction, not a jumble of weird ideas. Lastly, I have problems with the karaoke stage in the game room. I like karaoke and I LOVE disney songs. So problems with it are that the song choices suck. There's I Wanna be Like You, The Circle of Life, some HSM songs (UGH) and a couple others I think. And the lame choices they DO have are short versions and the lyrics are different. They even sound different. Also, on the karaoke screen, they shouldn't show little kids jumping around like monkeys during "I Wanna be Like you." They should show the FREAKING MOVIE. You have the rights, Disney YOU MADE THE MOVIE so why the stupid videos behind the words. Also, there are people singing the song with you. Not backup. It's people singing. THE WHOLE POINT OF KARAOKE IS SINGING WITH THE MUSIC WITHOUT THE ORIGINAL SINGER. If it's a sing along they should call it that, geez. It just defeats the purpose and takes all the fun out of it. Make the karaoke better!.....So yup. Those are my suggestions for Innoventions and I thing they are pretty darn good ones too. :) By the way, here is a pic of it when it was gutted after America sings. Here's some more.

So, there's my first entry. Hope you enjoyed the history and my thoughts. It was rather long as I predicted. I'm not even done with Tomorrowland yet. Oh well. More material for later blogs. :) Tell me what you think. I LOVE COMMENTS and spread me to your friends and stuff. To be continued....