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Photo by Chris Bales, 1998 |
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You’re at Disneyland visiting the New Tomorrowland of 1998 during the first five years after its opening. |
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Take a look at the mural above the entrance to The American Space Experience. At first glance, it’s just an Art Deco design with bold shapes and an unusual color palette. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Above The American Space Experience |
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Look more closely and you’ll see all sorts of Yesterland park attractions, as well as a few attractions that aren’t in Yesterland (yet). |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Left side of the 1998 Tomorrowland Mural |
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Here are the attractions you should have found on the left side of the 1998 Tomorrowland Mural: |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Right side of the 1998 Tomorrowland Mural |
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Here are the attractions you should have found on the right side of the 1998 Tomorrowland Mural:
Want some help? See below. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Left side |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Right side |
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The fountains on either side of the mural were at the entrance to the New Tomorrowland of 1967. The domes above the bow of the 20,000 Leagues submarine were the theaters of Rocket to the Moon. That’s it. Or have you identified more details on the mural? |
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The 1998 Tomorrowland Mural premiered at Disneyland as part of the New Tomorrowland of that year. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2000 Entrance to the New Tomorrowland of 1998 |
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Working on a tight budget, the Imagineers had added Rocket Rods, The American Space Experience, Innoventions, Astro Orbiter, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, Redd Rockett’s Pizza Port, Cosmic Waves, edible landscaping, and faux columnar basalt rocks (resembling french fries) at the entrance. To give everything a new look, existing structures were repainted in a paint scheme of bronze, copper, and brown—even Space Mountain. Sadly, one of the victims of this project was a beloved work of art. From 1967 until 1986, Tomorrowland guests had been greeted by two huge ceramic tile murals by artist Mary Blair facing each other. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006 South (Star Tours) mural |
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The south Mary Blair mural, on what had been the Adventure Thru Inner Space building, was already gone. It had been a victim of Star Tours (1987). Large parts of the tile mural are still beneath the newer mural, but many tiles were destroyed in the process. Although it was over three decades old, the north Mary Blair mural on the Circle-Vision 360 building was somehow too modern for the “future as seen from past” style that the designers of the 1998 Tomorrowland redo were trying to achieve. So the north Mary Blair mural became a victim of the 1998 redo. This time Disney was far more careful to preserve Mary Blair’s artwork, entombing it without damage behind the 1998 mural (or so we’ve been told). The 1998 Tomorrowland Mural achieved its goal of helping to erase the old look of Tomorrowland. As a “retro” homage to Tomorrowland’s past, it sent the message that Tomorrowland would no longer try to predict how things would be in the decades ahead. The mural’s caption was “Beyond the greatest star of all lies our future,” but the mural itself didn’t have much of a future. |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2004 Construction wall in 2004 |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2004 Something new underway |
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When Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters went into the CircleVision building in 2005, the north mural became a space-themed companion to the Star Tours (south) mural. The two murals, both with space travel themes and a similar style, go well together. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006 North (Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters) mural |
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Along with the new mural, Tomorrowland’s bronze and brown look gave way to shades of blue, silver, and white. Store Command (a shop) and the FastPass distribution area for Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters replaced the The American Space Experience. Perhaps the unusual flying saucers on the mural look familiar. |
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Photo by Werner Weiss, 2006 Flying saucer detail |
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Photo by Allen Huffman, 2004 Inspiration for the flying saucers |
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The flying saucers are Space Mountain-esque. The space shuttles are reminiscent of Buzz Lightyear’s packaging in the first Disney/Pixar feature, Toy Story (1995). Since 2005, Tomorrowland has had a space mural corridor. It’s not bad… but it lacks the artistry, optimism, and memorability of the Mary Blair tile mural corridor. When the time comes for another New Tomorrowland, wouldn’t it be great if both Mary Blair murals could be uncovered and restored? It would require re-creating some parts of the south mural, but the result would be worth it. |
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© 2020 Werner Weiss — Disclaimers, Copyright, and Trademarks Updated October 30, 2020 |
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