| Spaceship Earth |
|
You are here:
Walt Disney World ›› Epcot ›› Spaceship Earth
›› Information |
Capacity: 2,400 per hour
Show Time: 13:26 minutes
Speed: 1.5 fps
Ride System: Omnimover
Dimensions: 180 feet high 165 feet in diameter
Participant: Seimens (previously AT&T)
Description: Inside a 180-foot-high (18 stories) "geosphere," spiral through the dramatic history of human communications -- from the earliest cave drawings to the satellite technology of today and beyond. Then ride through one of the world's largest "star fields" for a fascinating new perspective on the planet we all call "home."
NEW! (Complete
ride through video)
Spaceship Earth 1990
150Mb, WMV9, 35mins,
640x480
• Full ride
• Shot from 2 angles with additions
• Clean live Walter Cronkite Narration (I had a 2nd mic for the Omnimover
speakers)
• Ride version of Tomorrows Child, mixed with studio track
• Earthstation and Worldkey Information system
• Both Communicores including Futurechoice theatre, Energy Exchange, FutureCom,
Expo Robotics and the full Backstage Magic show with Julie and IO.
Many thanks to marni1971 for this wonderful tribute
Scenes of scientific achievements, international fellowships and life in our “Global Neighborhood” add a dramatic new twist to the story of human communications from the beginning of time to the electronic age within Spaceship Earth, the symbol of Epcot at Walt Disney World Resort.
The attraction is Future World’s landmark adventure.
As guests soar through time and space within the famed 180-foot silver geosphere, they see innovative, interactive television and digital communications at work -- bringing life-saving medical technology to wilderness homes, helping archaeologists share distant discoveries with home base instantly or creating electronic bridges that close gaps in human understanding.
In one scene an American boy and a Japanese teen-age girl exchange experiences via video telephone. He shows today’s karate class; she shows video of her home run in last night’s baseball game. With narration featuring the powerful voice of actor Jeremy Irons and an impressive new musical score, the Spaceship Earth production includes dazzling visual effects; floating images of current newscasts on giant screen, super-definition TV; “virtual reality” classrooms of the future; and a breathtaking planetarium visualization of the universe around the “Earth.”
Larry Gertz, show producer for the new production, said major changes were made to humanize the story of communications and to provide a complete storyline with a beginning, middle and end, tracing man’s ability to overcome distance and language barriers through improved communication concepts and new technologies.
First acts of the drama trace development of language and literature from caveman days through Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations to the Renaissance, printing press and industrial and electronic age communication.
Familiar scenes starring Audio-Animatronics® actors have been enhanced with fiber-optic visual effects, new lighting and sound, plus an improved ride system that reduces vehicle noise during the sharp ascent and the precipitous plunge through the new Act III where images seem to float in space.
Global Neighborhood (Now Closed)
At the end of the 14-minute journey through time, AT&T invited guests to sample its Global Neighborhood in an interactive computer-video wonderland. The post-show area included:
- Interactive Wonderland -- guests explore the information
highway with Alice and the Cheshire Cat -- video shopping,
movies-on-demand and film critic reviews, or viewer-choice sporting
event broadcasts and the camera angles for viewing them.
- Communications Breakthrough -- a video-telephone game
played against other guests where players are challenged to knock
glass bricks from a computer-graphic wall with electronic
“paddles” to build a communications link with other
participants.
- What’s in a Word -- guests translate humorous idioms from
one language to another, demonstrating the difficulty and potential
of electronic translation.
- Electronic Finger Paint, Portrait Puzzle and Color Match --
three games illustrating communications which do not depend on
language.
- Story Teller Phones -- guests can phone friends or relatives and choose appropriate sound effects from a video wall to “fool” friends into thinking they are calling from a jungle, a haunted house or a cartoon world.
Spaceship Earth’s 16-million-pound, 180-foot-high geosphere has been recognized as Future World’s dominant landmark since the opening of Epcot in 1982. The attraction helps introduce and complements Innoventions, Epcot’s ever-changing exposition of amazing products for the near future.