Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Wednesday, September 02, 2026
Disneyland is fixing Tomorrowland. Fans are demanding one thing.
www.sfgate.com: Disneyland fans walk underneath the ruined remnants of a long-gone, deeply beloved ride every time they stroll through Tomorrowland. Now, there’s a chance it may come back, as part of a refurbishment of the park’s long-neglected land.
I live very close to Disney World, so I have been going to the parks frequently since I was a child. A lot of my love for technical theatre came from learning about the behind-the-scenes work and details that went into each theme park, which is why I really wanted to read this article. A lot of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland features remnants of Walt’s original design concepts, while Disney World’s Tomorrowland only has one feature that is a Walt original concept: the People Mover. This attraction is exactly what Californian Disney fans are demanding with the rise of a new Tomorrowland. I fully agree with this fan response, because the People Mover has always been a popular ride in the parks as long as I’ve been visiting. Another point to this argument would be the fact that many Californian fans have been complaining about recent updates to the parks because of the changes being “too modern” or “not what Walt would have wanted.” If Imagineers are planning to entirely redo a Walt-original section of the park that is infamous for losing opening-day attractions but still needs to be modern and futuristic, the demand for the People Mover must be met, or fans won’t receive this update as well as Disney hopes they will.
The fact that tomorrow land is the most out of date feature of the park feels both ironic and somewhat fitting. I hope they do bring back the people mover, for no other reason than that I think its a very silly name. Though this article made it sound like that was a bit of an aspirational goal for a company that already seems to have about a million other projects already lined up. It does make me happy that Disney continues to innovate their rides, it would be easy for them to just let the parks sit there stagnant, but they continue to rebuild, and re-design new rides and attractions for the new movies and franchises they acquire. Until reading this article I had no idea that there was gonna be a Coco 2. That movie really felt like a stand alone, but I guess there's a possibility that it won't be terrible.
I’m extremely passionate about Disney, and so is one of my sisters, so when Disneyland announced that it would undergo the very long-awaited transformation, my sister and I were quite happy! Tomorrowland's visual image has always looked a little cluttered, and the theme has been outdated for decades, but there is genuinely nothing more off-putting than the rusting system of tracks from the long-disused PeopleMover, which I can say has troubled many fans for too long. Ever since the PeopleMover was closed, the views of the park were just never the same! It's one of my favorite things about DisneyWorld and I wish when I went to Disneyland it would have been the same story! I think in consensus with many other fans,, if Disney really wishes to improve Tomorrowland, they should absolutely restore the people mover to its former glory! I think it would absolutely do the job in bringing back the magic the land once had/people are looking for.
I’ve seen those tracks above tomorrow land for so long and have never seen them moving. What an unused opportunity. Even if they’d have to close the land to refurbish it they have prime real estate that is untouched at the moment. Standing in line for autotours with its 1970’s future aesthetic with dates that are now modern-day, I longed to know what it must have been like to imagine this future. Tomorrow land has long been an interesting aesthetic: that of an “antique future”. Don’t get me wrong, it's not a bad vibe, but it doesn’t have that same sense of possibility that it must have had for guests back in the day. Get some creatives in there to imagine what OUR tomorrowland looks like. We could all use a future to look forward to right about now. I’m curious how Tomorrowland in Florida compares. Being from socal Disneyland is so convenient to get to. I've only been to Disneyworld once or twice.
4 comments:
I live very close to Disney World, so I have been going to the parks frequently since I was a child. A lot of my love for technical theatre came from learning about the behind-the-scenes work and details that went into each theme park, which is why I really wanted to read this article. A lot of Disneyland’s Tomorrowland features remnants of Walt’s original design concepts, while Disney World’s Tomorrowland only has one feature that is a Walt original concept: the People Mover. This attraction is exactly what Californian Disney fans are demanding with the rise of a new Tomorrowland. I fully agree with this fan response, because the People Mover has always been a popular ride in the parks as long as I’ve been visiting. Another point to this argument would be the fact that many Californian fans have been complaining about recent updates to the parks because of the changes being “too modern” or “not what Walt would have wanted.” If Imagineers are planning to entirely redo a Walt-original section of the park that is infamous for losing opening-day attractions but still needs to be modern and futuristic, the demand for the People Mover must be met, or fans won’t receive this update as well as Disney hopes they will.
The fact that tomorrow land is the most out of date feature of the park feels both ironic and somewhat fitting. I hope they do bring back the people mover, for no other reason than that I think its a very silly name. Though this article made it sound like that was a bit of an aspirational goal for a company that already seems to have about a million other projects already lined up. It does make me happy that Disney continues to innovate their rides, it would be easy for them to just let the parks sit there stagnant, but they continue to rebuild, and re-design new rides and attractions for the new movies and franchises they acquire. Until reading this article I had no idea that there was gonna be a Coco 2. That movie really felt like a stand alone, but I guess there's a possibility that it won't be terrible.
I’m extremely passionate about Disney, and so is one of my sisters, so when Disneyland announced that it would undergo the very long-awaited transformation, my sister and I were quite happy! Tomorrowland's visual image has always looked a little cluttered, and the theme has been outdated for decades, but there is genuinely nothing more off-putting than the rusting system of tracks from the long-disused PeopleMover, which I can say has troubled many fans for too long. Ever since the PeopleMover was closed, the views of the park were just never the same! It's one of my favorite things about DisneyWorld and I wish when I went to Disneyland it would have been the same story! I think in consensus with many other fans,, if Disney really wishes to improve Tomorrowland, they should absolutely restore the people mover to its former glory! I think it would absolutely do the job in bringing back the magic the land once had/people are looking for.
I’ve seen those tracks above tomorrow land for so long and have never seen them moving. What an unused opportunity. Even if they’d have to close the land to refurbish it they have prime real estate that is untouched at the moment. Standing in line for autotours with its 1970’s future aesthetic with dates that are now modern-day, I longed to know what it must have been like to imagine this future. Tomorrow land has long been an interesting aesthetic: that of an “antique future”. Don’t get me wrong, it's not a bad vibe, but it doesn’t have that same sense of possibility that it must have had for guests back in the day. Get some creatives in there to imagine what OUR tomorrowland looks like. We could all use a future to look forward to right about now. I’m curious how Tomorrowland in Florida compares. Being from socal Disneyland is so convenient to get to. I've only been to Disneyworld once or twice.
Post a Comment