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From the Disney Parks Blog...

 

 

One film I’m especially excited to see this summer is “TOMORROWLAND,” a movie that was inspired by the futuristic “land” guests can visit at Disney Parks around the world.

 

tomorrowland54fa25d19980e.jpg

 

Supervising Art Director Ramsey Avery has worked with different departments at Disney Parks to “build” a Tomorrowland for the film. He recently stopped by to share his excitement about the movie – and an amazing new trailer!

 

You wanted to see Tomorrowland. Here it comes.

 

https://youtu.be/2k5n2QDZt58

 

How unbelievably exciting is this trailer? Will you see the film when it opens nationwide on May 22? Tell us in the comments section below!

 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/03/tomorrowlands-ramsey-avery-talks-film-shares-new-trailer/

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Fair warning, this article contains what they're calling "minor spoilers".  From Stitch Kingdom...

 

 

Disney’s ‘Tomorrowland’ Character Backstories and Set Details
Posted on April 3, 2015

by Stitch Kingdom

 

Walt Disney Studios has provided us with some additional details regarding the cast and sets of its upcoming film, Tomorrowland (May 22, 2015), some of which you can find summarized below.

 

According to co-writer Damon Lindelof, the main character of Frank Walker was always described as ‘George Clooney-esque.’ ‘Whenever we would talk about actors for Frank, the thinking was: who’s like Clooney?,’ recalls Lindelof. ‘We crossed our fingers and did our best job of writing it, infusing Frank with a curmudgeonly humor and a heroic quality, all of which we think George embodies. And then we sent it off into the universe.’

 

Luckily for them, it paid off. Clooney describes his character as a ‘disenchanted grump who was a bit of a dreamer as a young boy — a smart little scientist kid. Young Frank goes to a place that he thinks is the greatest in the universe and he believes the world is going to be much better off because of it. He finds out that those things were untrue and becomes probably the most cynical person one could be. He isolates himself on his family farm and plans to spend the rest of his life there but is forced to deal with his past because of situations that happen in the film.’

 

For the role of brilliant scientist David Nix, Hugh Laurie was approached for what the producers called the actor’s ‘astonishing intelligence; a little bit of danger undercut by a lot of fun.’ Laurie says he was ‘completely struck by the first conversation I had with Brad [bird] and Damon about the morbid defeatism that has gripped the world. There are benefits beyond number to modern life but they don’t seem to bring us a feeling of satisfaction, triumph or accomplishment. Brad and Damon laid out this extraordinary vision of a future that ran completely counter to all popular ideas about how the world is going, and I was completely taken with it.’

 

Asked about how his character and Clooney’s character play off one another, Laurie says, ‘Frank’s idea was to create things that are fun, that make people’s lives better because they bring pleasure and joy, and express hope. Nix is only interested in the more utilitarian platform of research; life for him is an endless scientific quest because he believes that man was put on this Earth to accumulate and develop knowledge.’

 

Britt Robertson plays Casey Newton, the daughter of a NASA engineer (Tim McGraw) who is about to be laid off now that the space program has been all but shut down. Of Casey, Robertson says, ‘She’s this really smart chick who has always wanted to be an astronaut. It’s her passion and what she and her father have bonded over. Casey has this drive to do big things and change the world; she wants the world to be a place that’s full of hope and inspiration, but she doesn’t know how to make it so.’

 

Those who have seen the Japanese trailer for Tomorrowland already know that Raffey Cassidy’s character, Athena, has already identified Casey as ‘the one’ and she better be right. As Cassidy explains, ‘Athena had been looking for a recruit and she is really hoping that Casey was the right person to choose because that was Athena’s last pin. Casey has courage and determination and hope, and that is what Tomorrowland needs.’

 

Of course what the crew behind Tomorrowland really needed was — well, Tomorrowland. One of ten filming locations, the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia, Spain served as the futuristic location of the other-worldly titular location. Despite looking the part, however, the location would leave something to be desired when it came to accommodating all of Tomorrowland’s treasures.

 

For that, the crew built their own set known as the Bridgeway Plaza. At nearly half the size of a football field, the enormous set couldn’t be housed in any sound stage that could accommodate not only size but all of the lighting structures and camera work required to produce the aerial shots of the city. The Bridgeway Plaza set took six months to build and consists of the city’s energy sphere, a massive monitor and — naturally — a full size monorail system, known as the levitating elevated vehicle. Sitting atop a track that rises 16 feet in the air, the monorail train weighs a total of approximately 35,000 lbs. With the safety of the cast and filming requirements in mind, the crew managed to devise a system using hydraulic winches that could be shut down very quickly in an emergency and brakes that they could apply whenever they wanted to bring the monorail to a very specific mark to stop and have the doors open automatically.

 

Also seen in the Japanese trailer is the Houston, TX-based sci-fi memorabilia shop, ‘Blast from the Past,’ with the ‘very odd’ Gernsbacks (Keegan-Michael Key and Kathryn Hahn) as proprietors. In the film, Casey finds the shop as a result of a search on the internet in her quest for some answers. The store was actually fully constructed and stocked on a soundstage and the inventory consists of thousands of items: some purchased, some manufactured specifically for the film and some came directly out of director/co-writer Brad Bird’s personal collection.

 

For the farm and its cornfields, the team shot in Alberta and British Columbia, Canada, where crops were grown specifically for filming. The Alberta farmer was even paid to grow a specific winter wheat for its shade of color to suit Bird’s vision for the film.

 

All in all, it’s said there are over 90 combinations of sets and locations used for Tomorrowland including those mentioned above as well as Paris, the Bahamas and Disneyland. Given the content of the film, the crew also managed to shoot at Launch Pad 39 at NASA’s Cape Canaveral.

 

http://www.stitchkingdom.com/disney-disneys-tomorrowland-character-backstories-set-details-minor-spoilers-74849/

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from the Disney Parks Blog...

 

 

Tomorrowland’ Creators Share How Walt’s Vision of the Future Inspired the Film

posted on April 15th, 2015 by Jennifer Fickley-Baker, Social Media Manager

 

Walt Disney’s interest in progress, technology and making strides toward the future has always been something that has shaped Disney Parks, and has inspired new attractions and experiences since day one. During his lifetime, Walt led the charge in developing Audio-Animatronics technology, planned a Tomorrowland for Disneyland park that would allow people to taste what the future may be like, and dreamed of showcasing an “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” in his plans for Epcot.

 

According to “Tomorrowland” Director/Writer Brad Bird and Writer Damon Lindelof, it was Walt’s vision of the future that provided them with a lot of inspiration when creating their “city of tomorrow” for the film. Check out the video below to learn more.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N55OddTt8Z0

 

The film “Tomorrowland,” opens in theaters nationwide on May 22, 2015. (Guests visiting Disneyland park and Epcot will be able to watch an exclusive sneak peek from the film starting this weekend, as well as see props and images from the movie. The Tomorrowland Theater at Disneyland park will host their sneak peek starting Friday, April 17, and the Imagination Pavilion at Epcot will open its doors on Saturday, April 18).

 

http://disneyparks.disney.go.com/blog/2015/04/tomorrowland-creators-share-how-walts-vision-of-the-future-inspired-the-film/

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Saw it over the weekend. I really liked it; some people have said that it's preachy but i thought it sent the right message and was fairly true to Walt's vision for the future. Good action, kids loved it, not a bad way to spend the evening. True Disneyphiles will love to see the backgrounds, especially in Tomorrowland. Many familiar things...

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Can totally see this as a reboot for tomorrowland and future world in EPCOT, but doubt it will ever lead to that. Box office is what drives the parks these days, which is too bad.

 

My kids caught the space mountain cameo in the tomorrowland background, btw. Cool.

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I had a mixed reaction. I liked it, but I thought it could have been better. The story could have been tightened up, less jumpy, more unique.  Why people don't let me preview their movies and give them suggestions is a mystery to me. :lol: .  My 14 year old twin boys thought it was "ok."  

 

I thought the two main young women were great and I liked that they were young women. They made the movie fun to watch. I liked the message. I wish we had seen more of Tomorrowland the place and learned more about it. We had a lot of questions that the movie didn't answer, while it went overboard on some things we got right away.  I'm being analytical here, but I don't want to discourage people from seeing it.  We had been really looking forward to seeing it so our expectations were high. 

 

This review (which I didn't read until after seeing the movie) hits some of the things I had problems with too. (may not want to read before seeing the movie!:  http://www.themarysue.com/review-tomorrowland/ )

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