Adventure Thru Inner Space
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| Adventure Thru Inner Space | |
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| Locations, openings and status | |
| Disneyland August 5, 1967 | |
| Monsanto Closed - September 2, 1985 |
Adventure Thru Inner Space, presented by Monsanto, was an attraction in Disneyland's Tomorrowland, using Disney's Omnimover.
Adventure Thru Inner Space opened on August 5, 1967 as part of the New Tomorrowland, and closed in 1985 to make way for Disney and George Lucas's new Star Tours attraction, which opened in early 1987. The attraction was narrated by Paul Frees, who also lent his voice to the Haunted Mansion attraction, another Omnimover attraction which is still open to this day.
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[edit] Synopsis
The attraction was designed to simulate shrinking to a size smaller than an atom. As riders wait for their journey into the atom, they were able to see other riders entering one end of the Mighty Microscope. The other end of the Mighty Microscope had a glass tube in which miniaturized riders could be seen moving toward the end of the microscope. The end of the microscope was aimed at a panel beyond which snow could be seen falling.
Upon boarding their 'Atommobiles', riders are greeted by the voice of an unseen scientist who explains that he was the first to make the shrinking journey on which they are about to embark. He further elaborates that once they have been shrunk, they will be out of communication, other than being able to hear the thoughts that he expressed as he made the same journey.
The Atommobile enters the Mighty Microscope and begins to shake back and forth as the riders enter the darkness.
As their vision returns, the riders see giant snowflakes all around them, some still spinning as they fall. As they continue to shrink, the snowflakes take on a crystalline form, eventually becoming large enough to cover the entire field of the riders vision. Approaching the walls of ice crystals, the voice of the unseen scientist marvels at how "Nothing is solid." The ice crystals can be seen to be not solid but a lattice-like structure that the riders pass through.
The scientist explains how he is seeing "strange spheres" which the riders see and soon discover are individual molecules of frozen water with two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The scientist and the riders continue shrinking as they pass through the whirling electrons to pierce the wall of an oxygen atom. A large pulsating red nucleus can be seen inside the atom. The scientist ponders entering the nucleus, but he decides not to press onward for fear of being unable to return to his full size.
The riders begin the return journey to full size, but are soon greeted with the sight of water molecules swirling rapidly. At first confused, the scientist soon realizes that the snowflakes are melting and the molecules are moving faster as their temperature increases.
A new voice is heard by the riders explaining that the snowflakes are indeed melting, but there is no cause for alarm as the riders are being monitored by scientists. The riders can see evidence of the monitoring as they pass under a large microscope through which they can see the giant eye of a scientist.
Having returned to normal size, the riders disembark and pass by displays of Monsanto's advances in material science before exiting the attraction building.
[edit] Miracles from Molecules
Like many of the WED attractions of the 1960s including "It's A Small World", the Carousel of Progress and the Enchanted Tiki Room, Walt Disney assigned his staff songwriters, the Sherman Brothers, the task of writing an opening and closing song for the "Adventure Thru Inner Space" attraction. That song was Miracles from Molecules and bridged the ride message of adventure with the Monsanto company's mission statement.
[edit] Trivia
- The Mighty Microscope can be seen in Star Tours as an homage to Adventure Thru Inner Space
- The Omnimovers used in the attraction were called Atommobiles
- This was the first ride that used the Omnimover system
- The attraction is featured in one of the public rooms in Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom Tomorrowland expansion, including Atom-Mobiles and the Mighty Microscope. The Miracles From Molecules song can be heard in another Inner Space themed area in the Virtual Magic Kingdom.
- As a humorous tribute to ATIS could be heard once at the Innoventions phone booths at Disneyland. The parody to the attraction was meant to briefly inform users about the fiber optic network using Paul Frees' attraction narration. These were recently removed.
- The scientist eye at the end of the attraction was subjected to many acts of deformation by kids, from spitting to throwing garbage at it. After a casing was introduced, the eye didn't take anymore hits from deformation, but rather the casing.
[edit] Attraction facts
- Grand opening: August 5, 1967
- Closing date: September 2, 1985
- Designer: WED Enterprises
- Sponsor: Monsanto
- Previous attractions:
- Monsanto Hall of Chemistry (1955-1966)
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Walk-through (19??-19??)
- Current attraction: Star Tours
- Required Ticket: "C"
- Ride system: Omnimover
