Disney is changing the end film on The American Adventure

February 9, 2018, 11:10 AM · Well, it's about time.

Walt Disney World announced today that it is changing the film montage that concludes The American Adventure show in Epcot's World Showcase. Even Disney Imagineers have criticized how out-of-date the montage has become in recent years, as it lionizes once-admired and now-disgraced American icons such as Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods.

Now that Disney is converting The American Adventure theater to a new digital projection system, the company has approved going ahead with a new film to show off that system. The updated finale now will include Academy Award winning composer John Williams, astrophysicist and science advocate Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and ballerina Misty Copeland, according to Disney. (No word on who is out, but I think it's more likely that the new show will feature Universal's Minions than Lance Armstrong.)

Disney also has re-recorded a new orchestration of the attraction's theme song, "Golden Dream." (I'm guessing to work better with the new film.) You can see the changes to The American Adventure when the show returns from its refurbishment later this month.

Replies (20)

February 9, 2018 at 11:28 AM · FINALLY. Long past time for an update given the last few years (saw it in 2012 and bizarre to see Woods and Armstrong but not the first black President among others). Good to see this and hope this pushes them to update it a bit more often.
February 9, 2018 at 11:36 AM · The show's creator says that Disney should change the finale montage about every 10 years. (See the link in the story.) But it's been nearly 20 years now since Disney has made a change.
February 9, 2018 at 11:56 AM · Isn't the montage famous Americans who are dead?
February 9, 2018 at 12:39 PM · Being digital now, future changes should be simple, like a special fourth of July add on or such.
February 9, 2018 at 1:08 PM ·
.......next up surely must be Carousel of Progress.
February 9, 2018 at 1:15 PM · Odd choices and awfully political.
February 9, 2018 at 2:13 PM · What on Earth could be even remotely political about a composer, an astronomer and a ballerina? (Unless you are politically opposed to anything that sounds like the set-up to a "walk into a bar..." joke.)
February 9, 2018 at 3:10 PM · Come on, Robert. I need a punchline for that.
February 9, 2018 at 4:20 PM · John Williams cross promotes Disney. Tyson is not a non-partisan observer of politics. As for the ballerina, “first African-American performer to be appointed a principal dancer at American Ballet Theatre” And she’s only 35 so she still has a long way to go with her career.

So that’s how they are picked. Seems more like the selection process is political.

February 9, 2018 at 4:11 PM · @ Robert & Brian,

Wow I actually that that was the joke.....a pretty clever one because they all incorporate "a bar" :-).
They all "walk into a bar"!!

Composer....A "BAR" of music...
Astronomy... A "BAR" is a unit of measure for atmospheric pressure
Ballerina..."BARRE"....that horizontal bar used for stretching

February 9, 2018 at 4:26 PM · Yeah, I'm not a fan Neil De Grasse Tyson... he's very left leaning politically, spiritually etc. I don't think left leaning Disney realizes that he's a divisive character. They most likely saw an intelligent person that could bring diversity to their finale.
February 9, 2018 at 4:56 PM · "...science advocate Neil DeGrasse Tyson..." I wish they wouldn't. This clown is far too political.
February 9, 2018 at 5:15 PM · +1 for Jay R.'s comment. Yeah, I meant to do that. ;^)
February 10, 2018 at 1:01 AM · American Adventure is a great animatronics show.
February 10, 2018 at 9:06 AM · I agree that the appointment of someone who uses ‘scientifically proven facts’ is WAY TOO POLITICAL.

The American public strongly embraces “Alternative Facts”, questioning the accuracy of previously recorded/printed/broadcast live statements and dismissing ‘scientifically proven facts’ as the new norm.

CELEBRATE THE NEW NORM!

February 10, 2018 at 3:26 PM · Only in a dumbed-down Trump society would Tyson be seen as divisive. Where are the creationists for these flat-Earthers?
February 10, 2018 at 5:39 PM · Tyson is too political? Um, about 70 percent of the people shown in previous versions are political one way or another.
February 12, 2018 at 6:13 AM · I'd posit that the "American spirit" is different than "American success." Some would say that only the BEST ballerina should be featured, and other factors are unwelcome "politics." I think the show's point is subtly different.
Americanism, as the show presents it is about messy progress (aka Adventure). Is Misty Copeland the best American ballerina? Maybe, maybe not. But her career represents that messy progress, and therefore the message of the show.
February 12, 2018 at 9:18 AM · I don't know anyone who isn't a "non-partisan observer of politics" in some fashion. Plus, Dr. Tyson is a scientist... a perfect representative of part of Epcot's original (and future, one would hope) mission of scientific discovery.
February 12, 2018 at 2:15 PM · I hope they take the animated Tinkerbell out of the ending montage. I love Tinkerbell anywhere else, but I found her jarringly out of place in that particular attraction.

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