Disney invites fans to celebrate 250 by Soarin' Across America
Who decides to devote space in a theme park to show off other places that their guests could be visiting? Is putting a travelogue in a theme park a sign that its management is confident, or clueless?
When Walt Disney installed “A Tour of the West” in Disneyland in 1955, he may have done so for a third reason – desperation. Disney needed something – anything – to fill his Tomorrowland, and having a studio of filmmakers shooting Real Life Adventure movies, a travelogue worked to provide something for early Disneyland visitors to watch in the least developed section of the park.
It worked. Especially because Walt did not just screen a travel movie that you could see in any old theater or on your television set at home. Walt’s original collaborator, Ub Iwerks – the man who created Mickey Mouse with Walt, developed the Circarama and Circle-Vision 360 film systems, which Disney used to display audience favorite travel films at Disneyland and Walt Disney World.
Travel films filled out several of the national pavilions in World Showcase when EPCOT opened in 1982. While Canada’s and China’s Circle-Vision 360 theaters have hosted multiple productions over the years, it was a non-CircleVision production, Rick Harper’s Impressions de France, produced by Bob Rogers, that has endured as the Guinness World Record holder for longest running daily screening of a film in the same theater. [See Why 'Impressions de France' is the best movie ever made for a theme park.]
In 2001, with the opening of Disney’s California Adventure theme park at the Disneyland Resort in California, Disney took theme park travelogues to the next level. Literally. Soarin’ Over California raised the audience off the theater floor and into the air with the world’s first theme park flying theater attraction.
In 2016, for the opening of Shanghai Disneyland, Disney debuted its second Soarin’ film, Soaring Over the Horizon. (Called Soarin’ Around the World at Disneyland and Walt Disney World and Soarig: Fantastic Flight at Tokyo DisneySea.)
And now, for America’s impending 250th birthday, Disney presents the third film in its Soarin’ trilogy, Soarin’ Across America.
For this installment, which opens May 26 at EPCOT and July 2 at Disney California Adventure, Disney has returned to its roots of showing iconic sights from across the United States. The new film opens with a rocket launch at Cape Canaveral before heading north to New York and the Statue of Liberty. From there, we continue up the coast to Maine before backtracking to the Washington Monument in D.C. and continuing across the country.
Any attempt to curate America's most iconic sites invites dispute. But Disney limits itself here with Soarin's brief, four-minute run time. I get the need to build capacity through tight cycle times. But at some point, a story needs space to breathe. Impressions de France gets over 16 minutes. Is there really four times more stuff to see in France than the United States?
One of the strengths of Impressions de France is its soundtrack. Disney missed an opportunity in SAA to celebrate great American music, instead giving us a rearrangement of the original Soarin' theme. That was a must for this show, but also throwing in a few bars from Appalachian Spring or something by Bernstein would have plussed this film.
Disney also could have engaged in more fan service by giving us more than two metro areas in SAA. (Three, if we count Washington D.C.) Heck, I started to cheer when my hometown of Los Angeles appeared on screen. And SAA continues Soarin' Around the World's bad habit of plussing the scenery with CGI wildlife. It's not as extreme as in World, but a great travelogue tells the story of a place as it is - and not enhanced with digital special effects.
Given the oohs and aahs in the audience from that flying eagle, I know that I am fighting a losing battle here. But that which elicits the loudest cheers today often hears nothing but silence in the future. That's why art endures longer than entertainment.
And theme park attractions can be art. At its best, the original Soarin' Over California approaches that standard, which is why it has endured and inspired a franchise. The original show is playing at DCA all spring, pushing SAA's debut on the west coast to summer.
To me, pecking order of Soarins is clear: California, America, and then the World. Which suggests that a narrow focus is essential given Disney's insistence on a short run time for these films.
Disney concludes each Soarin' with imagery from the Disney resort where that film is playing. It's a confident way of suggesting that, while all these other sites around the state, nation and world might be nice and worth flying over, you're at the right place for your vacation right now.
Replies (9)
It is super awkward to have that LA finale with the Hollywood sign and then head to EPCOT instead of to Disneyland, for which this show was so clearly designed.
The CGI is just so disturbing and off-putting for me, and makes otherwise stunning cinematography look awful. I get that with such slow, swooping camera movements to simulate a hang glider means that images are not that dynamic so it can get boring without something to draw the eyes and create a depth of field. To me, with both this film and the Around the World film, Disney has been trying to recreate the falling skier scene from the OG film, and they just can't find anything that creates the same notes of excitement, thrill, and humor.
I'm also not a fan of the way Disney has color-shifted and color enhanced certain scenes to compensate for imperfect lighting. The shot of the National Mall looks so incredibly fake because they've oversaturated the colors that makes the grass look unnaturally green - yes the grass on the Mall was completely replaced over the past 2-3 years, but it has never looked like it's shown in this film with such even dark green grass from 14th street to 7th street.
I do really like the way they framed the shot of Denali/Mt. McKinley with the slow deliberate pan to accentuate it's massive size and scope, but I feel that the shot of Diamondhead could have been more dynamic with the camera swooping over Waikiki and to the east and over the crater.
How about Soarin' across Florida: scenes of breathtaking parking lots, strip malls, and expensive housing with realistic humidity and mosquitoes released during your four-minute trip.
Throw in the smell of muck fire and you've got a deal!
Robert, I agree that some Copland or Bernstein would certainly add to the show here. Still, I would argue that the Jerry Goldsmith score is its own piece of American musical history and worthy of a reprise. As Jerry is sadly no longer with us, it was arranged by none other than Bruce Broughton, the film composer who brought us the original score to Spaceship Earth. I am biased however, as I had the honor of playing on the soundtrack for this new iteration, fulfilling my childhood dream of “playing viola at Disneyworld.” I am excited to see the finished result in person later this summer!
That's a bummer to hear that they used CGI animals again. They really pull me out of the experience in the Soarin' Over the World show... so much so that while Soarin' Over CA was always a must do for us, Over the World was a once and done. Did they at least use the correct lens on the camera this time Robert?
They should do tours of different park properties around the world. For American Park guests, it could be Soarin’ Across Tokyo Disney and vice versa for the Tokyo audience. And of course, that show would play in rotation with Soarin’ movies about the Paris, Hong Kong, and Shanghai Disney parks. Sweet, sweet corporate synergy baby.
Everyone in my party of 8 thought it was much, much better than the previous verison. 3 of us are APs, the other 5 out of town visitors that do yearly visits. None of us got triggered by the CGI. For the creatives (of which I am one) sure, it is there. But for 99.9% of riders, they look right past it.
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Hey I can see my apartment building!!