All aboard the hype train for Disney's new Soarin' film
One of the staple attractions at Disney theme parks over the years has been travelogues with a twist. In the early years, Disney wowed fans with Circarama and then CircleVision 360 movies. Films such as A Tour of the West, America the Beautiful, and American Journeys took fans on immersive tours of iconic landmarks from around the country.
In 2001, Disney introduced the flying theater to theme park fans with Soarin' Over California. That film focused on The Walt Disney Company's home state, before its successor Soarin' Around the World debuted in 2016. That film now plays at Disney theme parks in California, Orlando, Shanghai, and Tokyo. This summer, Disney will bring Soarin' back to the company's roots in American travelogues with a new film to celebrate America's Semiquincentennial. (That's the fancy word for 250th birthday. You also could use "quarter millennial," if you would like.)
Soarin' Across America will debut in May at Walt Disney World' EPCOT and in July in Disneyland's Disney California Adventure. The film will include aerial views of notable American landmarks, filmed by Disney in anticipation of the nation's milestone birthday this year.
"Our goal was to offer guests a sampling of the diversity of America’s beauty and urban wonders with the hope it would paint an emotional portrait for the nation’s Semiquincentennial celebration," Walt Disney Imagineering Portfolio Executive Creative Director and Chief Storytelling Executive Tom Fitzgerald said.
Bernice Howes, Executive Creative Media Producer for Walt Disney Imagineering, explained what Imagineers were looking for in the new film: "Contrasting shots of different American locales — scenic wonders, amazing cities, and the beauty of the coasts. The use of the physical landscape of the United States as a unifying element," she said. "Then, using continuous camera movement to smoothly transition between these scenes, linking them together to show the geographical ‘whole’ of the nation, from natural locations to large cities to national monuments that represent America the beautiful."
The show will run in the U.S. Soarin' locations for a limited time, with an end date to be announced.
Disney at the Rose Parade, too
Disney will kick off its Semiquincentennial celebration with an entry in this week's Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. Mickey Mouse will lead more than 50 U.S. military veteran who now work as Disney cast members, along with their families. Disney also is making a $2.5 million donation to Blue Star Families to mark the occasion.
"The Walt Disney Company is proud to participate in the 2026 Tournament of Roses Parade as part of our ‘Disney Celebrates America’ initiative honoring our nation’s 250th anniversary," Disney CEO Bob Iger saod. "Both Disney and the Tournament of Roses Parade have long celebrated the spirit of America and the people who make it extraordinary — including our service members, veterans, and their families. By featuring our own veteran cast members, we’re excited to kick off the year at this iconic event and share the Disney magic that connects generations."
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Replies (6)
"... an insult to genius of their motion theater."?
Over the top, much?
Over the past year, I re-read James Stewart's book 'Disney Wars'. I was struck by Stewart's report about Michael Eisner's early days as CEO when he advocated a business strategy labeled "singles and doubles". The idea that the company could achieve success and staying power by tempering any overly ambitious inclinations. Disney didn't have to swing for the fence to maintain (and expand) its market share.
To put it another way, they didn't need to build an entire theme park to be competitive in Central Florida.
Recently it seems as if the company has revisited this approach at its Orlando parks -- adding relatively minor new attractions and features to sustain its audience (attendance). The Villains show. The new version of Test Track (is it really new?). The night time parade. Zootopia at DAK. TRON Areas at MKP. There was help from mother nature (Bakso) and John Stamos (Beach Boys). There was the continued popularity of unaffiliated grassroots organic growth (Disney Day Drinkers -- 135,000 members strong). Now there's a new take on Soarin'. Soon there will be the Muppets coaster and a newly painted castle. And Smuggler's Run will change. And the new animation courtyard thing will open.
And after that the big stuff will drop at DAK, DHS and MKP.
And I have a suspicion that they will be followed by a marquee addition to EPCOT. Keep an eye on the old Wonders of Life dome. Disney already has a roof and conditioned space. They could install a decent attraction in that building for pennies ... relatively speaking.
It strikes me that five or six years from now, the standings in Central Florida pseudo "theme park war" won't change very much.
@TH - I don't think that's harsh at all. Soarin' existed in its original form for 15 years before Disney finally filmed the "Around the World" alternate, which let's be honest, has been the subject of more memes than praise as evidenced by Disney's proud public declaration that they fixed the bent Eifel Tower this year. You note the idea of "singles and doubles", and I tend to agree that the notion that Disney doesn't have build a Galaxy's Edge, Cars Land, or PtWoA every 2-3 years to draw guests back to their parks and that smaller, subtle changes and improvements to attractions that are widely publicized can be far more cost effective in growing their products than massive E/F-tickets and new lands. For me it doesn't make sense why it took Disney nearly 15 years before they recognized the power and versatility of this attraction to hit "singles and doubles" at a relatively low cost that's entirely within Disney wheelbase of creating filmed content. Other parks and independent locations with motion theaters and similar theater and motion-sim based attractions are constantly promoting new movies (the Volatarium at Europa Park and the FlyOver attraction at Vegas that I've experienced in the past year and a half both have more than a half-dozen different films each) On the other side of EPCOT, TestTrack, an attraction with far less flexibility, is already on its third iteration in just over 25 years. While you could consider the reimaginings of TestTrack as "doubles", the cost for those renovations/reskinnings were almost certainly an order of magnitude more expensive than what it took to create Soarin' Around the World or the yet to debut Soarin' Across America.
I didn't say your post was "harsh". I said calling it ""... an insult to genius of their motion theater" was over the top.
Perhaps it's a bit hyperbolic, but Disney has what I would call the "gold standard" of this type of attraction, and other operators have developed lots of content for similar flying theaters, so I do think WDI has done a disserve to their fans and the power of the attraction by not creating more content for Soarin'. I know Disney probably has a higher bar for their attractions than one-off operators like "FlyOver", but it can't be that expensive even at Disney standards to film new scenes for Soarin', particularly given modern technology like drones, steadycams, and other advances in photography and video editing. When Disney completed the digital upgrade to the projectors when they debuted "Around the World" in 2016, they should have put the wheels in motion to generate new content every 2-3 years to hit those "singles and doubles" just as they've done for Star Tours and now MFSR. It shouldn't have taken the country's semiquincentennial to create new scenes for Soarin'.
I think there is a big difference between updating something like Star Tours and updating Soarin. Star Tours scenes are entirely CG, so it is relatively easy to have animators create new worlds. Soarin scenes are real places, and require filming with special cameras aboard a helicopter. I am sure that also involves getting special permits to film and fly above national monuments or protected natural areas. Meaning the cost, timing, and procedures involved in filming new footage for Soarin make that a lot less efficient to update than Star Tours.
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I'm moderately interested in this, but feel this is something Disney should have done a long time ago. Frankly, the Soarin' attractions should be treated similar to Star Tours (and MFSR) with variable scenes/movies that provide a unique experience every time (and to a lesser extent ToT with its variable drop sequences). For me, it's a no brainer that Disney should have been showing different scenes on Soarin' for over a decade now. The fact that it took 15 years before they created Soarin' Around the World is an insult to genius of their motion theater.