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May 21, 2015 7:45 PM Subscribe
Tomorrowland: how Walt Disney’s strange utopia shaped the world of tomorrow - cryogenically frozen head not included.
Is this post some sort of weird marketing for the movie? Ugh.
posted by tunewell at 10:35 PM on May 21, 2015
posted by tunewell at 10:35 PM on May 21, 2015
tunewell: "Is this post some sort of weird marketing for the movie? Ugh."
If you actually read the link, it's kind of hard to mistake a Guardian article which is fairly critical of Disney for "marketing for the movie".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:37 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
If you actually read the link, it's kind of hard to mistake a Guardian article which is fairly critical of Disney for "marketing for the movie".
posted by Joakim Ziegler at 10:37 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm not living either on an orbiting ring, or the moon, so "the world of tomorrow" ( today ) is nothing like I was promised.
something something flying cars... get off my damn lawn....
posted by mikelieman at 11:40 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
something something flying cars... get off my damn lawn....
posted by mikelieman at 11:40 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]
Looking forward to seeing this with my kids after I saw the review in my local Dutch paper. The review juxtaposes the optimism of this film with the majority of (American) SF blockbusters, which tend project a rather bleak of not downright Gibsonion dystopian future. Personally, I could do with some optimism about the future, however fictional.
That said, not sure how well they are going to pull off combining a 50s retro-future look with a steampunk one like the trailers showed.
And this is definitely not, "...some sort of weird marketing for the movie" TFA is actually a pretty thoughtful review of how the original Tomorrowland influenced a bunch of things.
posted by digitalprimate at 1:06 AM on May 22, 2015
That said, not sure how well they are going to pull off combining a 50s retro-future look with a steampunk one like the trailers showed.
And this is definitely not, "...some sort of weird marketing for the movie" TFA is actually a pretty thoughtful review of how the original Tomorrowland influenced a bunch of things.
posted by digitalprimate at 1:06 AM on May 22, 2015
I'm mainly worried that the movie will turn out to be Objectivist propaganda.
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:40 AM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by Faint of Butt at 3:40 AM on May 22, 2015 [2 favorites]
Is "Objectivist" referring to Ayn Rand's "philosophy" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Objectivism_(Ayn_Rand) . I'm unfamiliar with anyone treating her writings as a significant, or consistent philosophical argument, but based on Wikipedia I'm not alone in that.
posted by mary8nne at 3:48 AM on May 22, 2015
posted by mary8nne at 3:48 AM on May 22, 2015
Faint of Butt: "I'm mainly worried that the movie will turn out to be Objectivist propaganda."
From Matt Zoller Seitz's reivew:
posted by octothorpe at 4:11 AM on May 22, 2015
From Matt Zoller Seitz's reivew:
He'll get raked over the coals again here, thanks to the future's "Atlas Shrugged"-style origin story: the world's great scientific minds decided they'd had enough of ignorance and apathy and made their own world that's part Shangri-La and part Emerald City of Oz, but functionally Noah's Ark.Your fears seem justified.
posted by octothorpe at 4:11 AM on May 22, 2015
And this is definitely not, "...some sort of weird marketing for the movie" TFA is actually a pretty thoughtful review of how the original Tomorrowland influenced a bunch of things.
And yet, and yet ... here we are, talking about the movie. It's definitely not weird marketing, it's the result of pretty straightforward marketing for the film (and Disneyland and EPCOT).
posted by chavenet at 4:19 AM on May 22, 2015
And yet, and yet ... here we are, talking about the movie. It's definitely not weird marketing, it's the result of pretty straightforward marketing for the film (and Disneyland and EPCOT).
posted by chavenet at 4:19 AM on May 22, 2015
In 1963, Harvard professor James Rouse called it “the greatest piece of urban design in the United States today”.
And now we know better. I don't know if that is weird or it's progress or it's irony or it's all three. Except we do not all know better. About a year ago an aquaintance of mine said she took her two kids to Disneyland and stayed at the hotel and I have never been to either because my mom could not afford Disneyland and I thought Hmm, she is above my pay grade. And then a couple months ago she said something about not being able to afford something which is a friggin' necessity and I realized people borrow money to visit Disneyland in 2015 and it's almost always sold out and the wealth is distributed more narrowly than ever. I bet that a very large fraction of the people at Disneyland and Disney World are borrowing the money. And you may think what for but nobody is holding a gun to their heads.
posted by bukvich at 5:07 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
And now we know better. I don't know if that is weird or it's progress or it's irony or it's all three. Except we do not all know better. About a year ago an aquaintance of mine said she took her two kids to Disneyland and stayed at the hotel and I have never been to either because my mom could not afford Disneyland and I thought Hmm, she is above my pay grade. And then a couple months ago she said something about not being able to afford something which is a friggin' necessity and I realized people borrow money to visit Disneyland in 2015 and it's almost always sold out and the wealth is distributed more narrowly than ever. I bet that a very large fraction of the people at Disneyland and Disney World are borrowing the money. And you may think what for but nobody is holding a gun to their heads.
posted by bukvich at 5:07 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
When I was a kid we used to go to WDW or EPCOT a couple of times a year, but I lived a 3 hour drive away and we had ticket discounts for being Florida residents (and ocasionaly bigger discounts via the county school board, which my mom worked for). Most of the time it was a day trip, and those few times we did stay overnight, it was in one of the many cheap motels off Disney property.
posted by Foosnark at 5:53 AM on May 22, 2015
posted by Foosnark at 5:53 AM on May 22, 2015
I grew up an hour away from Disneyland and we would go about once every couple of years as a kid. It was the 70s and my brain was thoroughly awash in a Disney brine. Rather than being jaded though, I actually still love the park. It brings back fond memories and today, as I live less than a mile from the Imagineering studios in Burbank, I am still living in a quite Disneyfied world. There is a Walt Disney Elementary school in my neighborhood and many of the public services (libraries, bus shelters) are given an extra boost by the Disney dollar. The weird thing is, I don't mind at all.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:49 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by Sophie1 at 6:49 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
I'm mainly worried that the movie will turn out to be Objectivist propaganda.
As I recall, there were a few internet critics that pointed out an Objectivist streak in Brad Bird's The Incredibles as well.
posted by FJT at 9:16 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
As I recall, there were a few internet critics that pointed out an Objectivist streak in Brad Bird's The Incredibles as well.
posted by FJT at 9:16 AM on May 22, 2015 [1 favorite]
the avclub review by a.a. dowd makes the connection: "the film feels equally animated by the fixations of its star, George Clooney, who seems to genuinely believe in the ability of Hollywood cinema to change the world, and the obsessions of director Brad Bird, offering another vaguely Randian ode to 'special people.' "
posted by kliuless at 4:59 PM on May 22, 2015
posted by kliuless at 4:59 PM on May 22, 2015
I saw a special preview of this on Tuesday, and it's pretty, but the back half falls super flat. It's really, really hard for me to connect the movie's "we can do anything as long as we put our mind to it" morality tale with the fact that is was all paid for by one of the largest corporations on the planet. I think part of the reason we have a more complex future than sixty years ago is because we know science brings its own problems with it. Nothing is a magic bullet, and as we've gained a more nuanced understanding of this, you've seen our depictions of the future change. We don't have the Jetsons as a future anymore because our society, to a certain degree, no longer trusts science to rescue us.
posted by clockbound at 7:14 PM on May 22, 2015
posted by clockbound at 7:14 PM on May 22, 2015
‘Tomorrowland’ Disney History: Traveling Through The Theme Parks Past For A Glimpse Into The Future
posted by Artw at 8:52 PM on May 22, 2015
posted by Artw at 8:52 PM on May 22, 2015
how furry road debunks tomorrowland: "the future is never about the future. It's always about today..."
posted by kliuless at 9:15 AM on May 23, 2015
posted by kliuless at 9:15 AM on May 23, 2015
obsessions of director Brad Bird, offering another vaguely Randian ode to 'special people.' "
Just saw this, but the specialness of the main character is her optimism and enthusiasm about the possibilities of the future/science, not some sort of X-factor you-were-born-for-this type.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 12:40 PM on June 1, 2015
Just saw this, but the specialness of the main character is her optimism and enthusiasm about the possibilities of the future/science, not some sort of X-factor you-were-born-for-this type.
posted by Lord Chancellor at 12:40 PM on June 1, 2015
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posted by TheHungryArtist at 9:30 PM on May 21, 2015 [1 favorite]