The Problems of Tomorrowland

If some folks get their way, Tomorrowland at Disneyland will look like this again some day.

Now in some ways, I am not against this. But in others…

Sure, I think that the Rocket Jets belong back atop the platform. Silly to block the entrance to this area with them where they are. And I enjoyed a ride or three on the Peoplemover. Heck, even Rocket Rods was fun, too. So putting the track back in service makes some sense to me. Better than providing shade for strollers.

Yet, after having seen what is possible with Buena Vista Street and Cars Land, I have to wonder if given the time and budget, if the folks at Imagineering couldn’t come up with something better.

Tomorrowland has always been a problem. You see, the future keeps catching up with it. So what once was dreamed as things that may come true, often do manage to become today.

Bringing back the things in this Disneyland Panavue slide image? Sure, nice I guess. But even Walt knew that the future should be a challenge, something where dreams soar to lofty heights. Not harken back to a previous time, no matter how well loved.

Nostalgia versus the future? Doesn’t sound like what Tomorrowland should be all about to me.

Fifty plus years ago, the future was uncertain. All those years later, it should be still. Some of the things we looked forward to such as space exploration still tantalize and tease some of us. The dream is not gone, just placed back in line. Yet so much of what we face in the way of challenges may find their answers that way. Everything from food to energy to technology… well, it doesn’t take genius to see how so much of what we thought of as “the future” came from the past, when we looked beyond today.

All the things we loved discovering here in the land of the future? Sure, I enjoy them, too. Yet, I still dream of things unseen; futures yet to be.

That’s the real Tomorrowland.

Can’t wait to see it. And while we’re at it, where’s my flying car?