2. The Tomorrowland that wasn’t meant to be

The Imagineering Story did a great job highlighting how EuroDisney—eventually rebranded as Disneyland Paris—conquered a quintessential problem with Tomorrowland. Both Tomorrowland and Epcot struggled with the same challenge over the years—what do you do when the future becomes today? The concrete and sleek rockets that marked the future in Walt’s day came across as distinctly retro by the time EuroDisney was developed. To solve this issue, Imagineers retooled the Tomorrowland concept into DiscoveryLand—a timeless tribute to futurists of the past like Jules Verne, hued with bronze and copper architecture echoing the steampunk genre. Despite the park’s problems, Discoveryland was a gorgeous success, and Disney started weighing the possibilities to use the concept to revamp the US Tomorrowlands.

The plan was to overhaul both Tomorrowlands into the ultra-futuristic Tomorrowland 2055—an immersive science fiction-centered upgrade calling to mind images from the minds of Isaac Asimov or Ray Bradbury with flying saucers, otherworldly transports, and dazzling lights. The concept for The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter came from this design phase. Despite some potential hiccups, the plans looked great on paper.

Then EuroDisney failed.

We get to see some of this drama play out in The Imagineering Story, but the financial disaster in Paris led Eisner to put a hard halt on all major projects the company was working on. The death of Frank Wells likely had a stifling effect on this season as well. Magic Kingdom’s New Tomorrowland redevelopment was already underway and survived the axe with something-not-entirely-unlike Tomorrowland 2055, albeit a muted version.

Disneyland’s Tomorrowland didn’t make the cut in time, but it still needed something. The best the company was able to come up with was to give the land a vague paint job based on Disneyland Paris. The exterior of Space Mountain was given an oxidized copper overhaul, but the colors just didn’t match the architecture—and to make matters worse, the inside remained unchanged. Other halfway measures only exacerbated the issue—Tomorrowland 1998 was no Discoveryland.

On top of the bad paint job, the overhaul saw the park’s Submarine Voyage close and the beloved Tomorrowland PeopleMover transformed into the disastrous Rocket Rods. To save money, Disney attempted to overhaul the PeopleMover track with Test Track style technology to produce a thrill ride—a terrible idea since nothing about the PeopleMover was designed with high speed in mind. The attraction came across as painfully lame with its bizarre stops and starts, a cringeworthy insult atop the already poorly done renovation. The ride broke down constantly due to mechanical issues.

Ultimately, Disney ended up backtracking on nearly all of the changes made to Tomorrowland in 2005, redoing the paint back to a more familiar science fiction scheme and introducing new attractions like Buzz Lightyear’s Astro Blasters and the Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage. While this chapter in Disney’s history is grim, it would have definitely made for some interesting storytelling within the framework of The Imagineering Story.

3. The downfall of DisneyQuest

In the early 90’s, guests visiting Disney parks may have had the pleasure to participate in quiet demonstrations of virtual reality technology. Thanks to VR, experiences like flying a magic carpet became astonishingly real. In 1998, Disney committed full force to this idea with DisneyQuest-- a digital theme park and mega arcade for the whole family, utilizing cutting edge technology to give guests an interactive experience like no other. At its opening, DisneyQuest was AMAZING. Across the arcade’s five stories, guests could fight off aliens, use a real laser sword, become a human pinball, and even build a digital roller coaster then ride it on Cyberspace Mountain, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Disney intended to cash in on this golden goose across the country and succeeded in opening a second DisneyQuest location in Chicago. Their long term plans included planting DisneyQuest locations throughout North America, even adding a sister location to Downtown Disney in California.

Unfortunately, technology can prove a fickle mistress, and Disney found this out in spades when DisneyQuest Chicago closed after just two years. The technology that made DisneyQuest stand apart in the 90’s aged poorly with each passing decade. The average teenager could find better graphics on a Playstation 2 than anything DisneyQuest had to offer, and Disney quickly realized that the investment required to keep DisneyQuest cutting edge was far higher than they intended.

So, they literally did nothing with it.

It would be one thing if Disney changed course or found a more attainable way to make DisneyQuest work. Instead, they completely dropped the ball and never added anything to the experience. Rides fell into disrepair, clunky VR and blocky graphics aged like souring milk, and some of the cast members working within the structure slowly gained a haunted, distant expression guests couldn’t help but notice. Disney was content to utilize DisneyQuest as an arcade experience and nostalgic throwback, but their lack of investment quickly gave the place a depressing vibe.

I recall on a visit during the digital park’s final weeks seeing a pinball machine smashed to bits by a guest—what the scenario was that led to the shattered glass, we couldn’t guess, but it painted a grave picture that summed up the death of DisneyQuest: a broken machine that Disney preferred to sweep away rather than repair. DisneyQuest finally closed to make way for the not-much-more-popular NBA Experience—no happy endings here yet.