Californian Controversy
When last we saw Disney California Adventure’s original Soarin’ Over California, it had just gotten a 2015 upgrade by way of Grizzly Peak Airfield. The land’s reimagining didn’t just provide a happier home for the park’s original E-Ticket; it also proved that Disney Imagineers weren’t quite done with Disney California Adventure, and that they wouldn’t abandon the park just because its epic rebirth was technically complete.
But soon after, many fans found themselves wishing they had.
In the wake of the park’s billion-dollar reconstruction, it started with minor attractions themed to California’s history, culture, and industry like Golden Dreams (an educational film about the history of California’s people and culture) and the Bountiful Valley Farm leaving in favor of The Little Mermaid and A Bug’s Life (both upgrades, to be sure). Disney’s worst ride ever – which earned its own Declassified Disasters: Superstar Limo entry – then closed to make way for Monsters Inc. (again, an upgrade).
But eventually, fans started realize there just wasn’t that much California left in California Adventure.
The 2012 park wide redesign did insert the historic 1920s Los Angeles streetscape of Buena Vista Street, though, and it renewed the park’s themed lands to celebrate the idealized, romanticized state’s iconic locales, but the expansion’s true anchor – Cars Land – is decidedly not in California…. not that you’d hear us complaining about it.
And anyway, E-Ticket rides like California Screamin’, The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, and (of course) Soarin’ Over California ensured that the park retained “California” where it counts – in its headlining adventure rides! And that wouldn’t change! ….Right?
Shanghai Disneyland opened on June 16, 2016 with its new Soaring Over the Horizon ride film. That day, both Epcot and Disney California Adventure’s versions of the attraction were closed. When they re-opened the following day – June 17, 2016 – both had installed new worldwide flight plans themselves. Named Soarin’ Around the World, the “upgraded” attractions copied the Over the Horizon visuals but for personalized finales (at Epcot and Disneyland, respectively).
The decision to replace Epcot’s Soarin’ with the global Soarin’ Around the World was a no-brainer – a natural and overdue evolution of the 15-year-old ride (even if the aerial tour of mostly-man-made landmarks technically made it a worse fit in The Land pavilion).
But fans were shocked when it had been announced that Soarin’ Around the World would replace Soarin’ Over California at Disneyland Resort, too. The fan-favorite that launched a generation of “Soarin’” attractions and proved that California Adventure did have a concept worth rallying around would lose its anchor status.
It’s not that Soarin’ Around the World isn’t beautiful and moving and well done – it is! It’s that the original ride film was custom-made for a park dedicated to celebrating California’s stories. Flying over the Great Wall of China and the Eiffel Tower to land back in a High Sierras National Park doesn’t fit, especially given that we know the right fit exists… and used to be there.
Of course, it was just the first in a deeply puzling undoing of the billion-dollars Disney just got done spending to create Californian stories and legends for California Adventure… an odd unraveling of Imagineering’s own work that continued with the closure of the Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror in favor of Guardians of the Galaxy, the awkward reimagining of Paradise Pier as the non-sequitor Pixar Pier, and the opening of Avengers Campus with its eventual E-Ticket ride to the African nation of Wakanda.
The end result is that Disney California Adventure is a park of beautifully decorated themed lands that exude the history and magnificence of California’s story, people, and places… but the attractions in those lands are themed exclusively to Cars, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story, Marvel, Monsters Inc., Frozen, and A Bug’s Life, with the towering Guardians of the Galaxy tower looming over it all where once had been an elegant Hollywood hotel… a fitting visual for the park’s current state.
Soarin’ Around the World at California Adventure & Epcot (2016)
Soarin’ Around the World (like Soaring Over the Horizon) sends guests from Switzerland’s Matterhorn to the icy tundra of Isfjord in Greenland; The Great Wall of China to Neuschwanstein Castle (Walt Disney’s inspiration for Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland) in Germany. The epic ride visits the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, Utah’s Monument Valley National Park, and Mount Kilimanjaro before touching down in Disneyland or Epcot (depending on where you ride).
One surprising switch is the addition of transitions (swooping seaplanes, kites, and sea birds) between scenes… a radical departure from the acclaimed simplicity of the Californian version that merely “jump cut” at each musical crescendo. Given the immense task that filming all of the Californian scenes had been (remember, coordinating with government officials, staging actors, and timing guest appearances), it’s no surprise that Disney leaned into CGI animals and staged natural events to appear and transition between scenes. However, it’s not exactly a fan-favorite element.
What hasn’t changed is that the ride is accentuated by wind and scent and brought to stunning, emotional life via a moving score orchestrated by Bruce Broughton (given that the original composer, Jerry Goldsmith, passed away in 2004) and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. And yes, Broughton’s arrangement is based very closely on Goldsmith’s original with new international flair and pacing appropriate for the new ride film. (Another thing that hasn’t changed? Patrick Warburton’s pre-show, rumored to be lost to the transition, seems to have been intentionally retained as an Easter egg to fans.)
You can watch a gorgeous point-of-view video of the new Soarin’ Around the World at Disney California Adventure here:
Thanks for soarin’ with us
Soarin’ Over California was a landmark ride.
First, it served as the anchor for an otherwise depressed Disney’s California Adventure and provided early evidence that the park could survive off its Californian narrative if executives were willing to take chances in new forms of storytelling and innovative ride systems like Soarin’.
Second, its duplication at Epcot served both as a testament to the varied beauty of California and kick-started a new way of looking at Disney World’s second gate. Like it or not, Soarin’s success meant that Epcot could become a 21st century thrill park, and executives have taken the idea and run with it.
Third (and perhaps most importantly), Soarin’ Over California pioneered a ride system so magnificently versatile and so consistently astounding, it’s now entered the Disney Parks canon and spread around the world. The core technology and experience even evolved at Disney’s Animal Kingdom where AVATAR Flight of Passage is undisputed E-Ticket in the new Pandora – The World of AVATAR.
Around the world, flying theaters (of all shapes, sizes, and price-points) are becoming standard family fare at theme parks, amusement parks, boardwalks, and even shopping malls… and it’s no surprise. Soarin’ Over California showed just how effective, subtle, emotional, impressive, and stunning the feeling of flight can be. And now that we’ve got a taste, we’re thrilled to imagine where this technology could take off next…
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If you enjoyed our in-depth look at the surprising story of Soarin’ Over California, make the jump to our Lost Legends collection to set course for your next closed classic. In the comments below, share your thoughts and stories about Soarin’. Has this tear-jerker ever made you a little misty? How does the “Around the World” version compare with the Californian original? At Epcot? At California Adventure? What should the future hold for this amazing technology? We look forward to hearing your comments. In the meantime, thanks for soarin’ with us.