Tomorrowland (2015)

Yesterday, my Timehop reminded me that it had been three years since I had seen this movie in the theaters, so I figured today would be a good day to watch Tomorrowland.

The Movie:

Tomorrowland is a live-action film directed by Brad Bird, probably better known as the writer and director of the Pixar films The Incredibles and Ratatouille (and the non-Disney cult favorite The Iron Giant).  In an era where most of Disney's tent-pole live-action films have been franchise films, sequels, reboots, retellings of animated classics, and occasionally based on a book or inspired by a true story, this movie was a bold risk in that it told a completely originally story.  Unfortunately, in the eyes of Disney, that risk didn't pay off, as Tomorrowland was considered a bomb at the box office.  However, let's give it a look.

The movie first introduces us to Frank.  As a young boy, Frank traveled to the 1964 World's Fair in New York to show his invention, a jet pack, to a judge in an inventor contest.  Since the jet pack didn't completely work, the judge wasn't too impressed, however, Frank does catch the attention of a young girl named Athena.  Athena gives Frank a mysterious pin that allows him access to Tomorrowland, a futuristic city in an alternate dimension.

We then jump to the present day story of a teenage girl named Casey, the optimistic daughter of a NASA engineer.  When Athena gives Casey a pin that shows her a vision of Tomorrowland, it sets them on a journey to restore hope to humanity and save the world.

Maybe it's because I'm a very optimistic person, but I really loved this movie.  Maybe I've watched too much Star Trek and been to Disney World many times, but I always love seeing a vision of the future that is full of hope and wonder, so to me the characters in Tomorrowland that share that hope are very relatable. 

As someone who is a huge fan of the parks, there are a lot of cool connections to them in this movie, which I will get to in the next section.

I mentioned him back in the Inside Out entry, but once again we have a wonderful score by Michael Giacchino.  The score to Tomorrowland sounds like something strait out of either the parks' Tomorrowland or Epcot's Future World.  In fact, if you told me it actually was playing last time I was at Disney World, I would not be surprised.  In my opinion the score sounds similar to the James Horner soundtrack to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, so there's a connection to my favorite optimistic sci-fi franchise and the 1980s aesthetic that was part of the foundation of Epcot.

I'm disappointed that this movie didn't get better reviews.  Maybe the antagonist was right in that our current society has more of a taste for dystopia, but as the heroes say, "dreamers need to stick together."

Presence in the Parks:

Like some of Disney's other recent hit (and miss) movies, most of the connections come from elements of the park being referenced in the movie and not the other way around.  Now, if this movie had been a smash a-la Pirates of the Caribbean, maybe you would have seen new references specifically tied to the film come to the parks.  But in the case of Tomorrowland, I don't see that happening.  (Although, considering the movie opened during the time I was last at Disney World in May 2015, I have may have been there during the only time the movie was being promoted in the park.)

The most obvious connection is the name of the movie, which is derived from the land found in almost every Magic Kingdom-style Disney park.  The movie's Tomorrowland comes from the same futurist inspiration for the park Tomorrowland, as Walt Disney himself was considered a futurist.  (This was also found in his actual plans for an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, the inspiration for the Epcot theme park.)

WDW Tomorrowland, June 1995

However, the very idea of having a Tomorrowland creates what in Disney circles is known as the Tomorrowland problem - eventually tomorrow becomes today.  (The only park not to have this problem is Paris, which instead has a Jules Verne inspired Discoveryland.)  The best solution that seems to currently be in the parks is to have Tomorrowland represent the future as viewed by people like Disney, but not necessarily as the future as it has progressed to be.

WDW Tomorrowland, May 2015

The better parks connection comes through the use of the 1964 World's Fair.  Disney did indeed provide several attractions for the fair, including It's a Small World, Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, the Ford's Magic Skyway, and the Carousel of Progress.  This movie uses the Sherman Brothers song "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" from the Carousel of Progress as Frank walks into the fair, and a ride on It's a Small World serves as a plot point. 

It's a Small World, WDW, May 2015

Small World, Mr. Lincoln, and the Carousel of Progress would all eventually make it to Disneyland.  The Carousel of Progress moved to Walt Disney World's Tomorrowland in 1975.  Florida would also get a clone of It's a Small World and a Hall of Presidents  that was inspired by the Mr. Lincoln attraction.

Hall of Presidents, May 2015

Other park connections in the film:

The film features a Tomorrowland Transit Authority.

Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover, June 1995

Space Mountain appears in the skyline of Tomorrowland.  (Composer Michael Giacchino also wrote the music for the most recent update of the Space Mountain ride.)

Space Mountain, March 2007

The robots in the movie are called audio-animatronics, the name Disney invented for robotic moving figures in the parks, such as those found in The Hall of Presidents.

Though not mentioned in the movie, supplemental materials indicated that Walt Disney himself in this story's world was part of the secret society Plus Ultra, hence his It's a Small World being used as a secret entrance to Tomorrowland.  In this universe, the Disney parks were built to help introduce society to the concept of a place like Tomorrowland, and the public revealing of Tomorrowland that was supposed to happen in 1984 might have taken place in Epcot, at least according to some fan theories.