Looking back on The Future
May. 2nd, 2005 11:58 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalSo, Friday my copy of Disney's Tomorrowland: Space and Beyond arrived from the E-bay auction I had won. I was looking forward to this just because it featured one of the most odd pairing you're likely to see, master showman Walt Disney working hand-in-hand with Werner von Braun, Willy Ley, and others to present a plausible (for 1955) version of space exploration. Emphasis on "for 1955."
Going down the list featured shows:
Man in Space: The first show, and perhaps the most mundane. It introduces our team of Werner and Willy, showing off their marvelous re-usable Earth orbital rocket (at least the Collier's version of it: http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/vonbraun.htm), and the construction of Station 1, their rotating, inflatable space station, complete with atomic reactor for power, and telescopes for observing Earth's weather (and Earth's military, though no mentions such things on the program). For the most part this is the most factual episode, concentrating on the basics of spaceflight and the challenges of escaping Earth's gravity and surviving Out There, though it goes on rather melodramiticaly about the dangers of Space Adaptation Syndrome (not called that yet, of course). Most of it is talking heads and pretty pictures, though the bit with the SAS syndrome is in an extended cartoon exploring that and other hazards spacemen must face, done in a style wildly different from what we expect is the "standard" realistic Disney work. It's also decidedly non-PC, especially when it shows a pair of grinning Chinese mandrians firing increasingly large fireworks at each other. The second animated sequence, covering the first launch and recovered of a manned shuttle, is done in a very expressive, almost Soviet Realism style. The animation is limited, but it has utterly marvelous useage of light and shadow in showing the prep and launch of the rocket and it's shuttle.
Man and the Moon is the third episode. The first bit is an animated exploration of the history of Man's fascination with Moon, and covers a suprisingly large number of myths, not just the standard Classical Greek stuff. Next we have Werner again, describing a scenario for the first circumnavigation of the Moon (similar to Apollo 8's mission, though it's just a slingshot, not an orbit). Here we've got our happy German rocketeer at his most megalomanic. Not only is his ship carrying four guys (pilot/captain, co-pilot/navigator, flight engineer, and sensor operator), it's carrying it's own *workpod* and nuclear reactor for power. No fooling around with spacesuits and fuel cells for these guys. If they have to do an emergency EVA, it's gonna be in a little mini-spaceship like from 2001 (but fortunately without a HAL to really screw things up.) I can only imagine what kind of weight penalty that put on the ship. Once we get the scenario laid out for the audience, it's then portrayed by live actors, in a nice little bit that has some suprisingly sophisticated model work for a mid-fifties TV show. The flight is made, a little in-flight metor impact requires that pod be used, and they circle around the back side of the moon (much like the front side, so Werner assures incorrectly). The nicest bit in that sequence is the launching of flares down into the shaded side, and the suggestion of alien ruins on the Moon's surface, the shock of which is nicely underplayed by the actors.
Mars and Beyond is the most fanciful of the three episodes. Since not a whole lot was known of Mar's true surface conditions at the time, much of the show was fanciful speculation. Extremely fanciful, compared to the previous episodes, especially when dreaming about Martian biology. But again it does have a nice animated sequence at the start covered various myths of the planets, and the history of their discovery and observation by astronomers. The spaceflight portion of the program is one of Werner's dream's again, featuring six atomic powered ships with Cesium motors, taking a leisurely four months just to accelrate out of Earth's gravity, and then another nine to fly to and come into orbit around Mars. Not the best of the lot, but a nice coda.
The second disc contains more Tomorrowland features, with one theatrical short.
Eyes in Space was made in 1962, when space satellites were no longer science fiction but reality. It covers the very useful feature of using satellites for weather prediction. Unfortunately it veers quickly into an absolutely silly (if barely plausible) use of a grand Weather Observation Headquarters to not only observe, but direct a hurricane away from the East Coast of the US. Including blythe observations of cloud seeding to encourage high-pressure systems on the East Coast which also off-handedly cause major flooding in Kansas. Never mind the poor sods in Greenland who now have a hurricane hurtling towards them...
Our Friend the Atom has to have one of the most ridiculed titles of any Disney feature. For the record, it actually does feature a pretty good history of man's theories on how atomic theory came about, going from Greek philosophy to present day. But the sheer unadulturated cheerfulness of the thing, ignorant of modern concerns about nuclear fuel waste and old reactor designs, makes this seem like more of a product of an alternate universe than anything concerning Werner von Braun's space program.
The last bit is a short featuring Walt boostering his vision of the original EPCOT, which has nothing to do with the park that is there today. I'll have more on that when I watch it...
Going down the list featured shows:
Man in Space: The first show, and perhaps the most mundane. It introduces our team of Werner and Willy, showing off their marvelous re-usable Earth orbital rocket (at least the Collier's version of it: http://www.astronautix.com/lvfam/vonbraun.htm), and the construction of Station 1, their rotating, inflatable space station, complete with atomic reactor for power, and telescopes for observing Earth's weather (and Earth's military, though no mentions such things on the program). For the most part this is the most factual episode, concentrating on the basics of spaceflight and the challenges of escaping Earth's gravity and surviving Out There, though it goes on rather melodramiticaly about the dangers of Space Adaptation Syndrome (not called that yet, of course). Most of it is talking heads and pretty pictures, though the bit with the SAS syndrome is in an extended cartoon exploring that and other hazards spacemen must face, done in a style wildly different from what we expect is the "standard" realistic Disney work. It's also decidedly non-PC, especially when it shows a pair of grinning Chinese mandrians firing increasingly large fireworks at each other. The second animated sequence, covering the first launch and recovered of a manned shuttle, is done in a very expressive, almost Soviet Realism style. The animation is limited, but it has utterly marvelous useage of light and shadow in showing the prep and launch of the rocket and it's shuttle.
Man and the Moon is the third episode. The first bit is an animated exploration of the history of Man's fascination with Moon, and covers a suprisingly large number of myths, not just the standard Classical Greek stuff. Next we have Werner again, describing a scenario for the first circumnavigation of the Moon (similar to Apollo 8's mission, though it's just a slingshot, not an orbit). Here we've got our happy German rocketeer at his most megalomanic. Not only is his ship carrying four guys (pilot/captain, co-pilot/navigator, flight engineer, and sensor operator), it's carrying it's own *workpod* and nuclear reactor for power. No fooling around with spacesuits and fuel cells for these guys. If they have to do an emergency EVA, it's gonna be in a little mini-spaceship like from 2001 (but fortunately without a HAL to really screw things up.) I can only imagine what kind of weight penalty that put on the ship. Once we get the scenario laid out for the audience, it's then portrayed by live actors, in a nice little bit that has some suprisingly sophisticated model work for a mid-fifties TV show. The flight is made, a little in-flight metor impact requires that pod be used, and they circle around the back side of the moon (much like the front side, so Werner assures incorrectly). The nicest bit in that sequence is the launching of flares down into the shaded side, and the suggestion of alien ruins on the Moon's surface, the shock of which is nicely underplayed by the actors.
Mars and Beyond is the most fanciful of the three episodes. Since not a whole lot was known of Mar's true surface conditions at the time, much of the show was fanciful speculation. Extremely fanciful, compared to the previous episodes, especially when dreaming about Martian biology. But again it does have a nice animated sequence at the start covered various myths of the planets, and the history of their discovery and observation by astronomers. The spaceflight portion of the program is one of Werner's dream's again, featuring six atomic powered ships with Cesium motors, taking a leisurely four months just to accelrate out of Earth's gravity, and then another nine to fly to and come into orbit around Mars. Not the best of the lot, but a nice coda.
The second disc contains more Tomorrowland features, with one theatrical short.
Eyes in Space was made in 1962, when space satellites were no longer science fiction but reality. It covers the very useful feature of using satellites for weather prediction. Unfortunately it veers quickly into an absolutely silly (if barely plausible) use of a grand Weather Observation Headquarters to not only observe, but direct a hurricane away from the East Coast of the US. Including blythe observations of cloud seeding to encourage high-pressure systems on the East Coast which also off-handedly cause major flooding in Kansas. Never mind the poor sods in Greenland who now have a hurricane hurtling towards them...
Our Friend the Atom has to have one of the most ridiculed titles of any Disney feature. For the record, it actually does feature a pretty good history of man's theories on how atomic theory came about, going from Greek philosophy to present day. But the sheer unadulturated cheerfulness of the thing, ignorant of modern concerns about nuclear fuel waste and old reactor designs, makes this seem like more of a product of an alternate universe than anything concerning Werner von Braun's space program.
The last bit is a short featuring Walt boostering his vision of the original EPCOT, which has nothing to do with the park that is there today. I'll have more on that when I watch it...
