Tomorrowland (spoilers)

"There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
Shining at the end of every day
There's a great big beautiful tomorrow
And tomorrow is just a dream away ..."

Let's be very clear about this: I would be content to watch George Clooney read a phone book. So any movie starring Clooney is fine with me.

Better still is when the movie is actually enjoyable. And yes, I enjoyed "Tomorrowland", Disney's latest movie based on a theme part attraction.

A bit of background:

I am from the generation that watched "Wonderful World of Disney" every Sunday night. We heard Uncle Walt tell us what a wonderful world we'd have in the future. We saw him talk about EPCOT, which he planned to build in Florida.

And because I grew up on Long Island, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit the New York World's Fair in 1964 and 1965. "it's a Small World", the "Carrousel of Progress", audio animatronics, Disney was a large part of the Fair.

The movie opens with the two main characters, Frank (Clooney) and Casey (Britt Robertson) telling their story. Frank's story begins in 1964, when, as a young boy, he takes the bus to Corona, Queens ... I knew even before I saw the Unisphere... He was headed to the World's Fair. Young Frank is an inventor, and is recruited to travel to Tomorrowland...

Fast forward to the present, where high school student Casey is growing up in Florida. Her father, a NASA engineer, is in charge of dismantling a launching platform. Casey dreams of fixing the world's problems. Casey is given a mysterious pin from the New York World's Fair, which shows her a vision of the future. Chased by audio animatronic soldiers, Casey must seek out Frank and journey to Tomorrowland and (you guessed it) solve the world's problems.

The movie presents a vision of the future full of hope and optimism, consistent with Walt's dream. The villain of the story (Hugh Laurie) isn't a truly evil man, he's just lost the spirit of Tomorrowland.

You can see the effect of the Disney-Lucasfilm merger in the special effects. Nice touch.

And I kept imagining the ride Disney will build for the parks ...

Fun film. Add a star if you're a Disney fan.


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