In theaters at the end of next month, Walt Disney Pictures will release Tomorrowland. There is little known about the story of the film, but a recent video has given insight into the Tomorrowland's style, as well as its roots with Walt Disney himself. This is what we know about the release date, story, and cast of Tomorrowland.
According to Paleofuture, Walt Disney Pictures has released a short video that shows off the retrofuturistic look of the technology in its upcoming movie Tomorrowland. Retrofuturistic is a term used to describe the look of science fiction from old science fiction films that were supposed to show what the future, our present, is supposed to look like.
The trailer for Tomorrowland shows Walt Disney's vision for the future as a very bright place with monorails and Mars colonies. There would also be the Experimental Prototype City of Tomorrow which eventually became a theme park of its own in Florida known as EPCOT, located near Walt Disney World.
The footage from the preview is also found on a DVD set known as Walt Disney Treasures, Tomorrow Land: Disney In Space and Beyond. It was a 2-disc package released in 2004 as part of the Walt Disney Treasures Collection that is no longer available for sale.
It was clear from the commentary by the director Brad Bird that Tomorrowland and its now considered retrofuturistic vision inspired his film. In addition to Tomorrowland, Brad Bird has directed other classic animated films with a distinct style ranging from The Incredibles to The Iron Giant. It also clearly inspired another one of the film's writers, Damon Lindelof, who helped write many movies like Prometheus and TV series such as Lost.
As far as what the film is actually about, the trailer doesn't reveal anything but a young girl who is transported to another world after touching a strange button of some kind. The official imdb description reads: "Bound by a shared destiny, a teen bursting with scientific curiosity and a former boy-genius inventor embark on a mission to unearth the secrets of a place somewhere in time and space that exists in their collective memory". What I'm hoping to see is a film about how we have the potential to create our own future, and perhaps we can achieve a future as beautiful as Tomorrowland with massive buildings, flying cars, and jetpacks.
It is not known what role that George Clooney plays in the film, but he is very clearly there for the adults. Even a film targeted to younger audiences needs a star with a big box-office draw, and Clooney certainly fits that bill with his track record of successes.
The Tomorrowland film is planned for release on May 22, 2015. No doubt it will follow-up another hit for Disney as Marvel's The Avengers: Age of Ultron will have already been released at the beginning of that month. On a somewhat related note, Disney's other property, Star Wars, has just released a new trailer for the highly anticipated Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens today.
