TOMORROWLAND
The baseball great Yogi Berra once said, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” When it comes to Tomorrowland, this has always been the problem. By the time the Imagineers design and build an immersive environment, tomorrow has become today. That is one reason why Walt postponed the development of this land until the very last minute. In fact, the Imagineers did not even start working on the design for Tomorrowland until six months before the Disneyland opened in 1955. The first version of Tomorrowland was a projection into the far off future of 1986 when Halley’s comet would return.
It wouldn’t be until 1967 when Tomorrowland really hit its stride and became “The World on the Move.” Walt wanted to demonstrate his forward leaning transportation systems (the Monorail and the PeopleMover) that he planned to use for EPCOT, his City of Tomorrow in Florida not the theme park we see today. Even the stage at the Tomorrowland Terrace was on the move, as it would rise up from the ground when the show was about to begin. The architecture was based on a combination of roadside modernism and the US space effort and much of that remains today with a different color scheme and some different details.
Once again time marches on and Tomorrowland was updated in 1998. Originally the new theme was going to be called Tomorrowland 2055. You can still see an example of what the Imagineers were trying to accomplish if you look at the underside of the Tomorrowland Terrace seating area. However, budget cuts forced changes and that concept was scrapped.
So the Imagineers just gave up on figuring out what the future would look like and designed the area in a timeless retro-future based on Jules Verne, HG Wells, and other science fiction influences. This theme was first applied to Discoveryland in Disneyland Paris and then in Tomorrowland at the Magic Kingdom in Florida. A subtle detail is the selection of plant materials. Throughout Tomorrowland are corn, grape vines, lettuce, apple trees, and other edible plants. This is our Agrifuture.
Today, much of what you see throughout Tomorrowland is the infrastructure remnants from that glorious past. That includes the empty PeopleMover/Rocket Rods tracks running overhead the main corridor and the tower where the Astro Orbitor used to be. Today, the Astro Orbitor is right up front and placed in a hole.
Over time, Tomorrowland has slowly begun to transform once again. The gold and bronze paint scheme has started to give way to white, blue, and silver, which reminds visitors of the 1967 classic version. This started in 2005 when Space Mountain was returned to white.
There is one classic Tomorrowland oddity to look for. It is the train depot. It was opened in April 1958 and has not been significantly changed since.
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