Disneyland's Dirty Secret in 2026

Walt Disney's original kingdom holds a big dirty secret that they don't want let out to the public. It's one that's hidden in most all promotional materials but talked about within the halls of the Company's suits as well as in Imagineering. What is it? The park's Tomorrowland is an embarrassment and no longer worthy of the Disney name. Yes, the land of the future was barely finished in time at opening. Yes, the "new" Tomorrowland of 1998 was not an improvement over the 1967 version, and yes, Disney's been teasing a new entry is coming ever since, well, forever. 

Disneyland may be the original and the one with the most charming Fantasyland as well as a beautiful New Orleans Square and Rivers of America, but on the other side of the park, it's a mess.

The skeleton of the beloved Peoplemover hangs as a grim reminder of previous greatness and innovation. Or if you're younger, it's a reminder of the short lived Rocket Rods, a great attraction killed by budget cuts and short-sightedness. The useless Carousel of Progress building is a huge wasteland. Star Tours belongs somewhere else- if only they had a land dedicated to the Star Wars franchise. The centerpiece  Rocket Jets are uselessly grounded, making Dumbo more appealing. As beautiful as the land's lagoon is, Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage has run its course.

Space Mountain is the land's only redeeming factor. It's time to get ride of everything else and start fresh. Imagineering could have some great ideas. Will we see something at the 2026 D23? I doubt it, but I'd love to be wrong.

(Top photograph from DocumentDisney.)

A Great Attraction Poster for Tomorrowland '98

Bright, colorful, and really well done! This attraction poster (of sorts) for Tomorrowland '98 at Disneyland was everything the actual land was not. Sure, there was Rocket Rods, a pretty thrilling attraction made dull because the money folks and Disneyland leadership under Cynthia Harriss (a pal of Paul Pressler, another Disney executive mistake), wouldn't fund the needed banked turns for the ride, leading to its early demise. (I got exactly one ride on it.) Being hamstrung by limited finances, Imagineering's Tony Baxter did the best he could. But he was stuck with existing buildings and derailed (read expensive) plans that never got approval. Anyway... the above poster by Larry Moore is quite nice! A beautiful reminder of a disaster of a Tomorrowland design that now exists in bits and pieces.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

My Ride on Disneyland's Long Lost Rocket Rods

Growing up in Orange County, California meant Disneyland was a part of my life for as long as I can remember. For better and for worse. I grew up a geek, anticipating every addition to Walt Disney's magic playground. Few construction projects were as highly anticipated as the brand New Tomorrowland of 1998. 

Rocket Rods was the one most everyone looked forward to. The name now represents one of Disney's most high profile failures, right alongside Light Magic, California Adventure 1.0, and Superstar Limo. Bargain Basement Imagineered and poorly engineered because of a minuscule budget, Rocket Rods was long long for this earth..  

Visiting the family at the right time, I was at Disneyland within the first few weeks of the opening. My first stop was to be expected. I happily jumped into the lengthy queue. The beautifully re purposed America the Beautiful building showcased blueprint type art and vintage Tomorrowland graphics. Getting to the old Peoplemover platform involved a bit of Disney engineering magic bringing guests upstairs in a very clever way. Soon enough, I was high above Tomorrowland waiting for my one and only ride on the attraction's futuristic sleds.

As everyone knows, the ride itself was a constant stop and go experience. At full speed, it was great fun! Cruising above the land was just so classic Disney with a twist. A roller coaster of sorts fully outdoors but also in theme. When we had to slow down for those pesky unbanked curves, it was a step backwards in what should have been another must-do in the park.

Imagineer Tony Baxter lead the Tomorrowland project and took a fair share of the blame for its failure. Of course, I debate that view. The suits and Michael Eisner's cold feet were the real culprits. I make my case for the excellence of Tony Baxter's work here in part one and part two of this very popular series of articles. 

As things worked out, it was my one and only ride. I planned to get back into line but there was still the rest of Tomorrowland '98 waiting  to see. My next trip out would be in 2001 for California Adventure, and the once promising Rocket Rods were now a piece of Disneyland history.

(Top photo from Yesterland. Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

Bronzed Submarine Voyage Attraction Poster

This Disneyland's Submarine Voyage poster has a very unique look! With its burnished bronzes and olive toned greens, it certainly has the right look for Disneyland's Tomorrowland 1998 or even Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland. Think about the transformation of California's iconic Space Mountain. Gleaming white gave way to Jules Verne-is tones associated with steampunk...then back again. Where can you find this attraction poster? Chances are you have it in your bank of images. Just open it and invert the colors! I stumbled upon it by chance and loved the result!

Rare Look at Disneyland's Tomorrowland 2055

The Potter and Potter auction on line mentioned by Alain Littaye at the Disney and More blog yields some pretty fantastic pieces of concept art if you dig into its 31 pages. Above is a piece by Imagineer Dan Gooze for the proposed revision to Walt's kingdom, found on the auction site. Dan is also known for his very famous piece of Indiana Jones Adventure art. (Please note that other pieces below are not from that same site.)

Having been fascinated by the Land of the Future, I remained very interested into what it would become, particularly when the iconic and very stunning Tomorrowland 1967 would begin to change. A visit to the park several decades later would bring something unexpected...

The year was 1990, and I was exploring Disneyland one afternoon with my sweet young family. What a great day already! We decided to walk over to Tomorrowland to take in the Autopia and let the kiddos try their hands behind the wheel for the first time. Heading straight into the land, the carousel theater was ahead, but as we got closer, something looked different.

Next to it, once home of the famous Carousel of Progress and patriotic America Sings, was a billboard for a new attraction called Plectu's Intergalactic Revue. For some strange reason I wouldn't understand until much later, I snapped this photo of the concept art... and held on to it for many years.

Back in 2008, when I began the Insights blog, I knew Disney fans would find this piece of unbuilt history of interest. Boy, was I right! Within days of first posting it in March of that year, my humble photograph showed on on blogs and websites all over the world. And it's still be reposted to this day. Glad I took the photo!

The model for the new Carousel building.

Photographer unknown.

As I explored around the web myself, I discovered I was not the only one fascinated by Tomorrowland and especially the unbuilt 2055 version. I cannot tell you who did the artwork for the piece I photographed. I do not know to this day.  There was more concept art for this project floating around and more chem year after year. 

A different park, a different look?

Or was this for Disneyland as well?

Anyway, back to the plans. Much like the two shows before it- expertly designed by Imagineer Marc Davis- Plectu's was to be an Audio-Animatronic comedy musical show and a core but small part of a new alien infested Tomorrowland dubbed Tomorrowland 2055. 

The less friendly Alien Encounter.

In fact, the Magic Kingdom in Florida's beloved (or reviled) Alien Encounter was also planned for the redesign. (And is it just me, or does the top of the building look much like the centerpiece that replaced the Rockets Jets high in the sky in the 1998 version of the Land of the Future?)

Florida's Tomorrowland changed from this...

...to this.

Walt Disney World's Magic Kingdom did get Alien Encounter and some new experiences, but not Plectu's. The fantasy inspired future was well received overall but lost steam over time, as most Tomorrowlands seem to do. (Read about it here.)

Disneyland's redo in 1998.

One of the Plectu characters.

Back to California. Around this time, CEO Michael Eisner and the suits took a very long, hard look at which attractions that were crowd pleasers (and people eaters) and which were not. As a result,  musical talking bears, tikis, and even Mickey Mouse and other Disney characters in Audio-Animatronic form were no longer a big draw. (Expanded history here.) 

Thanks to Mike Cozart from the Tomorrowland67 Lounge for this 2055 piece.

The plans were scrapped. Perhaps not a bad decision as theme park demographics were changing. So, Plectu's and the whole of Tomorrowland 2055 became a piece of Disney lore and history. Its art was delegated to table top books and blog articles. Disneyland's futuristic land remained mostly untouched until 1998 when Imagineer Tony Baxter tried the best he could with a limited budget to reimagine the future. In came the short lived Rocket Rods and some new aesthetics with a few Florida retreads. 

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company. Top photo copyright Mark Taft.)

Observatron Me

Disneyland's Tomorrowland 1998. Supposedly, the new and improved version. Rocket Rods racing high above the ground on an elevated "highway in the sky" (of sorts- it ran on the former Peoplemover track, not the Monorail re: reference I just made) while the "interesting" Observatron presents an evening show against the backdrop of iconic Space Mountain. This was a slice of Imagineer Tony Baxter's vision for a brand new land of the future. 

Naturally, the project was truncated by the suits who doomed it to disaster. By robbing it of funds needed to bank those curves in the track, the Rocket Rods were difficult to maintain, and more importantly, financially impossible to keep running. The Observatron never functioned as planned- nor was it fixed. Problem upon problem. And by placing a retread of Honey, I Shrunk the Audience in the former Captain Eo space along with other budget cutting decisions, the brand new bronze hued Tomorrowland of 1998 became a major disappointment. It was almost as big of a disappointment as the California Adventure park that made its debut a few years later. Almost.

(Thanks to "phruby" on the WDWMagic boards.  Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

Concept Art: Tomorrowland 2055

The year was 1990, and I was strolling Disneyland one afternoon with my young family. We had walked into Tomorrowland to take in the Autopia and let the kiddos try their hands behind the wheel.

Next to the Carousel Theater, once home of the Carousel of Progress and America Sings, was a billboard for a new attraction called Plectu's Intergalactic Revue. For some strange reason, I snapped this photo of the concept art... and held on to it for many years.

When I began the Insights blog, I knew Disney fans would find this piece of unbuilt history of interest. Boy, was I right! Within days of first posting it in March of 2008, my humble photograph showed on on blogs and websites all over the world. And it's still be reposted to this day. Glad I took the photo!

The model for the new Carousel building.

Photographer unknown.

I cannot tell you who did the artwork. I will say, I have enlarged it and attempted to fix some of the elements to be as close to the imagined piece of art I saw it in my mind to be. Click on it to enlarge it.

Much like the two shows before it- expertly designed by Imagineer Marc Davis- Plectu's was to be an Audio-Animatronic comedy musical show and a core but small part of a new alien infested Tomorrowland dubbed Tomorrowland 2055. 

The less friendly Alien Encounter.

In fact, the Magic Kingdom in Florida's beloved (or reviled) Alien Encounter was also planned for the redesign. (And is it just me, or does the top of the building look much like the centerpiece that replaced the Rockets Jets high in the sky in the 1998 version of the Land of the Future?)

Florida's Tomorrowland changed from this...

...to this.

Disneyland was not so fortunate with their redo in 1998,
when plans for the much more expensive 2055 version were tossed out in favor of this.

One of few pieces of artwork seen for the Plectu characters.

Around this time, Michael Eisner and company took at long, hard look at the attractions that were crowd pleasers, and sad to say, but musical talking bears, tikis, and even Disney characters in robotic form were no longer a big draw. (Expanded history here.) 

Thanks to Mike Cozart from the Tomorrowland67 Lounge for this 2055 piece.

The plans were scrapped. Plectu's became a piece of Disney lore and history, and Tomorrowland stayed as was for almost another full decade as the plans for the 2055 version were shelved.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company. Top photo copyright Mark Taft.)

Disneyland Paris Influences Disneyland California II

Last week, I shared a piece of concept art that displayed the influence of Disneyland Paris' Discoveryland on the remodel of Disneyland's dated Tomorrowland. Here's the California side of the design equation.

The Imagineering team working on the Anaheim project under the direction of master Imagineer Tony Baxter was tasked by Michael Eisner with a fairly minimal budget (which became the derailment of the short lived Peoplemover replacement Rocket Rods) as well as an odd concept of an "agricultural futuristic" view for the land. When tossed in with attractions with seemingly no connection in theme (Star Wars to the old America Sings / Carousel of Progress),  it seemed to be an impossible task. The Autopia (above) would get a quick remodel of the buildings to fit in as best as possible. The kid favorite would not be on the chopping block for various reasons. 

By comparing this piece with the one for Discoveryland, it's easy to see where one strongly influenced the other. If you view images of the copper tinged Space Mountain of Disneyland circa 1998 with the beautiful Jules Verne styled one in Paris, the similarities are even more noticeable.

Count me in as one who would like to see a total start over for the Land of the Future. Scrap it all and build new. But if Mickey's Toontown really does become the rumored location for Star Wars Land, two lands themed to outer space (one strongly, one vaguely) may be too much.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)

Disneyland's Rocket Rods

Rocket Rods. The name conjures up so many reactions. Failure. Short-lived. Poorly engineered. Perhaps all these descriptions are true. But there is another adjective I apply to this now defunct attraction from Tomorrowland '98: fun.

I happened to be at Disneyland within the first few weeks of the opening. Without hesitation, I gladly endured the lengthy queue for a chance to cruise the Land of the Future aboard the sleds of Tomorrow. The saving grace of it all was a beautifully re purposed America the Beautiful building showcasing blueprint type art and vintage Tomorrowland graphics and memorabilia in a cool, dimly lit environment. Getting to the old Peoplemover platform involved a bit of Disney engineering magic!

The ride itself was a stop and go affair. At full speed, it was a blast cruising above the land with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face. When it had to slow down for those pesky unbanked curves, it was a bit jerky, to say the least. Yet, the views were terrific even if the duration much too short.

I planned to get back into line for another ride, but after the lengthy wait, there was still the rest of Imagineer Tony Baxter's Tomorrowland '98 to explore. (Count me in as one who loved the copper version of Space Mountain!) Unfortunately, time got the better of me. My next trip out would be in 2001 for California Adventure, and the dazzling Rocket Rods were history.

(Art copyright The Walt Disney Company.)