Happy 40th Anniversary, Horizons!

My favorite extinct Disney attraction debuted on this day in 1983.

October 1 is a big day for anniversaries. NASA began operations on this day in 1958, which is a big deal for a space program nut like me.

But October 1 is an even bigger deal for Disney fans. Walt Disney World opened on October 1, 1971. EPCOT Center (now just Epcot) opened on this day 11 years later.

On EPCOT Center’s first anniversary, the attraction that most captured the spirit of Walt Disney’s EPCOT idea opened. Since Walt’s fantastical futuristic city plans didn’t materialize, this dark ride was the best encapsulation of what I call Walt’s “optimistic futurism.”

“Walt possessed a strong vision for making the future better than the present,” I wrote back in 2013. “He believed that technology and free enterprise held the key to a positive future.”

Here’s a quick summary of the storyline of Horizons:

Over the audio system, a couple (the wonderful voices of Bob Holt and Dena Dietrich) talk about the concept of “the future,” which leads them to look back at concepts of the future, from the dreams of visionaries Jules Verne and Georges Méliès to the wacky visions of the Art Deco era and the crazy ’50s. Guests then feasted their eyes on the two largest movie screens in the world (at the time) put together, showing current technological innovations designed to make life better.

The couple returns to take guests on a tour of a futuristic city, the desert farming colony Mesa Verde, space station Brava Centauri, and ocean research base Sea Castle. Then, guests see them unite with their children and grandchildren using a sort of hologram chat to celebrate one of the grandkids’ birthday.

It was important to the Imagineers for guests to see families experiencing what the future has to offer. What was also important was the exciting “choose your adventure” ending where your party would choose a thrilling tour through Mesa Verde, Brava Centauri, or Sea Castle (I always wanted to choose Brava Centauri).

For an impressionable 10-year-old kid (through a 27-year-old, which I was when Horizons closed), this exciting vision of the future was addictive. I wanted to ride Horizons over and over, and it made me sad when it closed.

Granted, Horizons became dated within a decade of its opening, and it's vision of the future was fairly naïve. But it was still an encouraging and exhilarating idea of what might have been (and what might still can be).

I still miss Horizons, and I’m not alone. As I wrote 10 years ago:

Horizons is gone, but its fans have certainly not forgotten. A sort of cult following surrounding the attraction has sprung up. Fans don’t have to look too hard to find tribute T-shirts or recordings of the ride audio and music — not to mention full ride recordings and videos [these are now available to stream, though I can’t say if you can download any of it]. Tribute sites include a blog recounting one pair’s final ride on Horizons, complete with behind the scenes photos and videos. One fan has put together a CGI reconstruction (or resurrection) of Horizons with continued improvements [it’s now either defunct or has moved]. Disney itself understands the appeal Horizons had and the Imagineers have sprinkled tributes to Horizons throughout Walt Disney World and Tokyo Disneyland.

I watch a ride-through video every so often:

And I listen to George Wilkins’ wonderful attraction score (which includes elements of Richard & Robert Sherman’s “There’s a Great, Big, Beautiful Tomorrow”) all the time — some elements of it nearly every day.

It’s easy for me to geek out on Horizons, partially for the nostalgia and partially as an escape from a 21st century that hasn’t quite turned out the way Walt and the Imagineers envisioned.

Forty years after its opening, I still miss Horizons.

Photo: Sam Howzit, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons