...just a dream away.
It's been a long time since I talked about Disney, even though I had started a few posts to recap some past trips to both Disney World and Disneyland. I don't know if I'll ever complete those because most of them were to discuss certain rides when they were still relatively new and now they really aren't. So I'll probably scrap them.
For now, I want to write about a recent change coming to Walt Disney World. While I haven't talked about some of the other changes (The Muppets 3D ending, Dinosaur closing to be turned into an Indiana Jones ride, the Rock-N-Roller Coaster's retheming), I do have some things to discuss about this one.
The Carousel of Progress.
The classic ride closed July 6th, and will undergo a complete transformation. So I would like to talk about the Carousel of Progress that was and the Carousel of Progress that will be.
For those who have not traveled to Disney World, the Carousel of Progress is located in Tomorrowland between Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin and Space Mountain. It is an attraction that literally revolves around an audio-animatronic family. There are six different theaters and every time the theater revolves, the audience moves to the next vignette while the stage stays put. Here are the vignettes:
Scene One: A welcome giving a short history of the Carousel of Progress and how much Walt Disney loved this ride.
Scene Two: Valentine's Day circa 1904 (there is a line about two brothers working on a flying contraption and the Wright Brothers' first flight was December 1903) where the Progress family shows off the new technology available to them such as the new icebox (forerunner to the refrigerator) that keeps things cold, like milk. Or the new laundry machine Sarah Progress uses that allows her to do laundry in 5 hours rather than 2 days. Grandmother sleeps while listening to the phonograph, much to the consternation of the family parrot, and James is sneaking a look at his father's Stereoscope and a risqué moving image it shows. Meanwhile daughter Patricia is preparing to take a "horseless" trolley to a Valentine's dance. John Progress decides to head out for some sarsaparilla with his friends before remembering it's now called root beer. After he chuckles about progress, the theater moves to the next scene.
Scene Three: Happy 4th of July, 1927! (Based on a comment about an upcoming movie with Al Jolson where he will sing and dance, clearly a reference to the first "talkie" The Jazz Singer, which came out in 1927). Thomas Edison has created several new inventions that have made the Progress family's lives better...except maybe for Jimmy, who has to keep going to change blown fuses. The family now has radio, which tells them that the 4th of July festivities are about to start - much to Patricia's dismay as she's pretty sure her new boyfriend will run away when he sees her as the Statue of Liberty. And Uncle Orville has created "air cooling" by rigging a fan to blow air cooled by a block of ice while he soaks in a cool bath. The family prepares to head to the celebrations as the theater continues its rotation.
Scene Four: Welcome to Halloween in the Fabulous Forties! (It's clearly post-war as there is no mention of the war and it appears Americans have started to migrate away from the cities to the suburbs). John shows off some new technology in the kitchen, such as the dishwasher. Granddad and Grandmom watch people dancing on their new TV set but once she confirms he's asleep, she turns on a boxing match while John has some lofty expectations for television. He also mentions watching John Cameron Swayze deliver the news, which would set this scene somewhere around 1948. (And yes, John Cameron is related to Patrick Swayze - a distant cousin). Neither Jimmy nor Patty have much to offer this time around except for Patty encouraging her friend to attend college. So after poor Sarah suffers a paint-mixing incident while decorating their new rumpus room, John has everyone sing to cheer her up as we move on to the next scene.
Scene Five: It's Christmas in what was supposed to be the distant future, some unknown year in the 21st Century. The family celebrates the holidays, even Uncle Orville! Sarah finishes programming their new voice activation system and John gives it a try with the oven as everyone hopes he doesn't burn the turkey again this year. Jim shows Grandma how to play his new virtual reality game while Trish talks with her grandfather. Unfortunately, technology does get the better of John and he does burn the turkey but the family remains hopeful about the future as we come to the end of our journey.
Scene Six: We return to a scene that looks similar to the first scene - curtains surrounding the ride's logo. A voiceover thanks us for riding and reminds us that tomorrow is just a dream away before the doors open to let us back out into Tomorrowland.
Well, those were the vignettes.
As I mentioned earlier, the ride is now closed while Imagineers transform it into a new iteration. It will still be the Carousel of Progress but for the first time in its history, all the vignettes will be changing.
At last year's D23 convention, it was first announced that the Carousel would be updated with a new opening vignette. Instead of a voiceover, an audio-animatronic version of Walt Disney would greet guests and explain his concept of the Carousel, likely using audio from one of his old TV shows. This started speculation that Disney was planning to do an overhaul of the Carousel, though it wasn't sure if it would be a complete overhaul or just the final scene (scene 5).
I was okay with them updating the last scene. The Carousel hadn't really been updated since 1994 and the last thing was supposed to be a distant future. However, all the technology is no longer futuristic - it's now commonplace. In many ways, that great big beautiful tomorrow turned into now being the best time of our lives.
It was time for an update.
Then a couple months, Disney announced that they were completely overhauling and updating the Carousel. Even the longstanding scenes from the 1900s, 1920s and 1940s would be gone along with the end scene.
And I'll admit, I was a little apprehensive about that. I'm not the type of Disney fan who is going to be angry over every change Disney makes. That's exhausting and not really the Disney spirit, if you ask me. But the Carousel has been the same for over six decades. Walt himself worked on it. Changing it feels a little sacrilegious. However, it is a ride centered on progress. Perhaps it was time to let it progress as well.
Disney released details about the new vignettes and I'll admit I excited. Here's what the new Carousel will look like when it reopens in 2027:
Scene 1: Walt Disney explains the concept of the Carousel.
Scene 2: July 20, 1969. The Progress family gathers together to watch the moon landing.
Scene 3: Halloween 1985. Disney's description says that for the first time, Sarah will take the lead in this scene while John is stuck on the porch handing out candy to trick or treaters.
Scene 4: New Year's Eve 1999. As the Progress family waits to ring in the new millennium and new century, they reflect on the technology they have now - like internet. I really hope they decide to make Uncle Orville a doomsday prepper who has hunkered down (preferably in a bathroom) to wait for Y2K to destroy life as we know it while the family just chuckles about it.
Scene 5: The distant future, another planet. Unknown if it will be around a holiday. A look at a possible future for humans and the technology we may encounter, including a robot server.
Scene 6: The finale. Not sure what that will look like right now.
I know a lot of people are mourning the loss of the original vignettes. Some may feel like Disney is turning its back on its history. However, based on what they've released so far, I see ways where Disney is still honoring its history.
The original Carousel of Progress debuted in the 1960s. Even if they chose the moon landing, it still feels like a nod to have the new version start in that decade. An updated version of the Carousel had a scene set in the 80s so that feels like another nod.
(I also wonder if someone at Disney was also feeling a little petty by choosing 1985 as that was the year General Electric ended their sponsorship of the attraction).
And as I was writing this, I realized another nod the Imagineers are putting into the ride. It hit me as I was writing about how the distant future scene included a robot server, which was specifically noted in the blog post about the changes. I wondered why Disney would specifically note that before I realized the answer, realized they were honoring another defunct ride that focused on the possible technology we could have in the future. One that was considered by Disney fans to be a successor or sequel to the Carousel of Progress.
Horizons.
I loved this old Epcot ride. You would board an omnimover vehicle (a vehicle that moves along a track and doesn't stop for loading and unloading unless someone needs more time to board like Spaceship Earth) and would see a family in the future. The grandparents lived in an apartment and I think they may have had the robot servant but the ride closed in 1999 so don't quote me on that. One adult child lived on a farm in the desert while her boyfriend was stationed in an underwater sea base and the other adult child lived on a space station with his family. At the end of the ride, riders could choose their own ending - visit the desert farm, visit the sea base or visit the space station - and the appropriate video would play as you headed toward the unloading station. I always chose space while my sister chose the sea so once when my mother rode it by herself, she chose the desert just to see the video.
So, to wrap this up, while I'm sad to see the old Carousel go, I'm excited for the new Carousel.
Because, as Walt Disney himself said, we just need to keep moving forward.
Do you have any thoughts about this change? Let me know in the comments below!
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