4. Adventure Thru Inner Space (18 yrs) vs. Star Tours (23 yrs)
Adventure Thru Inner Space: 1967 - 1985 (17 years)
STAR TOURS: 1987 - 2010 (23 years)
Believe it or not, there was a time when Tomorrowland was actually about tomorrow! In fact, the 1967 Tomorrowland overseen by Walt Disney himself was a stunning Space Age future of mid-century modern architecture, upswept roofs, boomerang accents, and the gleaming, authentic optimism of the Space Race. It’s that spectacular Tomorrowland that remains the land’s definitive form (even for those who never saw it!) and its Lost Legends: The Peoplemover and Carousel of Progress remain among Disney’s best-loved classics.
The land’s highlight, though, might have been the Lost Legend: Adventure Thru Inner Space. Disney’s first ever use of the Omnimover ride system, Inner Space was a scientific journey down to the size of an atom (about as small as guests have ever gotten in Disney Parks decades of shrinking them). With a continuously-moving chain of cabs moving into the Mighty Monsanto Microscope and emerging out of the other end as miniatures, the memorable and iconic queue alone is an icon of Imagineering. The ride itself explored chemical organization, molecular structures, and the states of matter in an almost-abstract journey narrated by Paul Frees (later, the “Ghost Host” of the Haunted Mansion) that almost certainly inspired the grand, educational dark rides of EPCOT Center.
When the ride closed in 1985, it was to make way for a ride that changed Disney Parks forever – STAR TOURS. The intergalactic flight through the Star Wars universe not only brought an outside intellectual property into Disney Parks, ignited the “Ride the Movies” era to follow, and kicked off the Rise of the Simulator; it also acted as a turning point for Tomorrowland, shifting its focus from actual predictions of things to come to sci-fi adventures in space. Though the Lost Legend: STAR TOURS was itself replaced (with its own “The Adventures Continue” prequel) in 2010, the original version alone outlasted Inner Space by six years. Both versions of Star Tours, however, feature hidden "Easter eggs" referencing Inner Space for fans who know where to find them...
5. If You Had Wings (17 yrs) vs. Space Ranger Spin (22 yrs)
If You Had Wings: 1972 - 1989 (17 years)
Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin: 1998 - Today (22 years)
When Magic Kingdom opened in 1971, its Tomorrowland was, of course, heavily based on the Space Age one that had been designed for Disneyland just four years earlier. But just as Disneyland itself was a product of the 1950s and its “family road trip” culture, Disney World was made possible by the modernization of commercial air travel. Working off the blueprints of Adventure Thru Inner Space, Magic Kingdom gained the Lost Legend: If You Had Wings – a musical travelogue through destinations served by resort sponsor Eastern Air Lines. (Memorably, Omnimovers on this ride sailed into a massive globe rather than a Mighty Microscope.)
If You Had Wings lasted 17 years before folding. In its place, new sponsor Delta Air Lines was brought in to recraft the ride into Delta Dreamflight in 1989 (renamed Take Flight after Delta’s departure) before Disney gave up on aviation-themed Omnimover rides in 1998. A new (and more lucrative) strategy had presented itself just in time for the new millennium: the "Pixarification" of Disney Parks.
A first step in the early-2000s character infusion of Tomorrowlands, the ride became Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin 1998, equipping riders with laser guns and letting them loose in the outer reaches of toy-sized space. In the two decades since, Buzz has been exported to every Disney Resort on Earth (one of very few attractions to do so). Still, it’s hard to believe that the Magic Kingdom cartoon ride has far outlasted the “classic” attraction that originally occupied the space...
6. Horizons (16 years) vs. Mission: SPACE (17 yrs)
Horizons: 1983 - 1994; 1995 - 1999 (16 years)
Mission: SPACE: 2003 - Today (17 years)
Now this one is painful. When EPCOT Center opened in 1982, its Future World realm was comprised of pavilions, with each dedicated to a specific of science, technology, and industry. At its height, those pavilions represented ocean exploration, agriculture, imagination, transportation, health, energy, communication, and innovation. Then there was the one pavilion that brought them all together.
The Lost Legend: Horizons was the philosophical centerpiece of Future World, demonstrating what could lie ahead for humanity thanks to our collective advances in all the other industries the park studied. An anchor of the park’s original, epic dark rides built on optimism, it was the keystone of the park’s educational philosophy. That made it even stranger when the ride closed in December 1994, then reopened exactly a year later to fill out the park’s lineup while other attractions were being refurbished. Ultimately, Horizons closed forever in January 1999.
Its replacement, Mission: SPACE, was meant to signify the park’s new direction: filled with technological (if brainless) thrill rides that would reposition Epcot as a cool, 21st century, thrilling park of quasi-scientific simulators. It turned out that Mission: SPACE was a little too thrilling, with poor word of mouth cancelling plans to spread it to Tomorrowlands across the globe. Its ultra-intensity even forced Disney to lower its gravity a few years ago. In other words, Mission: SPACE isn’t exactly the hit Disney hoped for… but at this point, it’s unbelievably outlasted the beloved Horizons it replaced.
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Stitch's Great Escape was finally confirmed as officially closed in 2020.