January 22, 2010: Honey, I Shrunk the Audience

[Werner Weiss]

Although Disneyland in California was the third Disney park to open Honey, I Shrunk the Audience, it was the first park to close it. After the final showing on January 3, 2010, Disneyland’s Imagination Institute closed its doors—probably forever.

Link to Honey, I Shrunk the Audience (new)

Please discuss it here.

[Disney fan 24]

I argree It was fun the first time but it got boring very quick and should have gone to yesterland a long time ago

[mark]

I could never understand why this attraction was popular mopre than one time through. Magic Journeys was a much better use of 3D and the Imagination pavilion at Epcot was not where Rick Moranis and crew belonged. Nor at Disneyland. The movie was really enjoyable but not worthy of an attraction. Glad to see it o- but thanks for giving me a fresh look at it.

[Yendorb]

I'm not a big EO fan either. I preferred the area when it was the Space Stage.

[SnorkletsMom]

Not a HISTA fan, nor an EO fan.

I'm always glad to see Werner Weiss keeping DL's past alive for the rest of us. Thanks!

[Athlonacon]

I wouldn't mind EO sticking around for a LONG time, provided they upgraded the admittedly dated special effects to the 21st century. Now, I don't remember the Space Stage because it closed when I was too young, but after seeing pictures of the area and hearing people's accounts of it, I would not be opposed to bulldozing the entire theater and returning the Space Stage.

It seems like the stage might have added a LOT of energy and life to that area, and it looks so futuristic, even for today. I know they can't keep updating EO forever, and there is NOTHING in today's society that I would find interesting in 3D or 4D, but the Space Stage, that is a timeless attraction.

Science fiction reached its absolute peak during the late 70's to the mid-80's. There's no way anyone could ever match the feel of the Space Stage or Captain EO, no matter what kind of special effects they threw at you. We live in a society where the future is irrelevant because we can do SO much now, and if there's something we can't do, all you have to do is wait a few years until you can. It's time to consider "retro-future", and I do NOT mean that whole 1800's Jules Verne nonsense, I mean the future through the eyes of a person in the 1970's and 80's. A time when space exploration was maturing and we had movies like Start Wars, Star Trek, The Last Star Fighter, Explorers, SpaceCamp, and Captain EO to show us what an adventure space travel could be.

The 70's and 80's definitely had their downsides, absolutely, but it was also a time of great hope for the future and space exploration. That is one aspect that is *sorely* lacking in our current culture, and I don't think it's possible to create a true Tomorrowland icon like the Space Stage today because people just don't care about that kind of stuff in pop culture anymore. It's time to go back to the well and draw from our past... if there's one thing these "creative" types are good at nowadays, it's recycling old content. They really should start bringing back the Golden Era of science fiction: 1977 to 1987.

[JiminyCricketFan]

One thing I would have added to the great article is Tomorrowland used to have another "shrinking" attraction of Adventure thur Inner Space. Of course that also grew out of date with the new technology. I am not sure that shrinking is that much fun anymore. I hope that other futuristic themes like Space Travel or Time travel get explored more. Something which is a ride. I am tired of Shows, particularly 3D ones. There just have been too many and now even movies are 3D. It just does not seem worthy of an amusement park anymore.

[Werner Weiss]

One thing I would have added to the great article is Tomorrowland used to have another "shrinking" attraction of Adventure thur Inner Space.

The article has a reference (and link) to Adventure Thru Inner Space right after the picture of the people entering the theater.

I guess that Pixie Hollow is now Disneyland's "shrink the guests" attraction.

I am tired of Shows, particularly 3D ones. There just have been too many and now even movies are 3D. It just does not seem worthy of an amusement park anymore.

I agree.

Back in the 1980s, Disney's 3-D technology took 3-D way way beyond the 3-D that guests had seen before. The gimmick of relatively high-quality 3-D was an "attraction" itself. And the movies themselves were clever and entertaining, though not as "repeatable" as the great attractions from Disneyland's first two decades.

But it's now 2010. Film-based 3-D technology from the 1980s doesn't begin to measure up the digital 3-D technology at our local cinemas when we see movies like Up, Avatar, or even Monsters vs. Aliens.

[SpcMtn77]

I'm not sad that HISTA is going away (hopefully forever), I just wish I had been able to take my 5 year old to see it once before it left. He would have loved it

[Disneykin Kid]

I seem to be the first one here to really have enjoyed HISTA and I thought it was brilliant. Especially the part where the audience shrinks and the whole room shakes and reverberates, it was really convincing. You may think it was dated and boring after the first time, but I think the mark of a great attraction is how convincingly it transports you into that fantasy, HISTA does a great job, and to me it was worth experiencing over again.

The way I thought it could be improved - When you see the people on the podium like Nigel Channing, they look blurry and washed out because there is a spot light on small figures, that's what happens with conventional film. They should refilm that part maybe with digital technology or CGI so that every figure is in crisp focus. Then the trickery that you are seeing live people on stage would be more convincing. They probably won't do it, because the original film is considered to be out of date, but maybe they could come up with a whole new idea that also includes a shrinking theater, filmed in CGI. It might be hard to come up with a similar but different concept though, because I thought the idea tied to the original Honey I Shrunk the Kids movie was pretty clever.

If they want to make Captain Eo more long lasting, again they should improve the special effects. The asteroid that is blasted in the beginning always looked like a piece of soap. The planet corridors that they fly through looked like a Star Wars ripoff. The transformation of the robots was a cheap looking claymation that could be awesome if redone in CGI. Also, one question, why do all the zombies turn back into people, but the whip warriors don't? The story is kind of dumb (We lost the map!) and the acting not great, but I think improving the special effects would definitely make it less dated and possibly last much longer. Just my 2 cents.

[triesch]

I can't believe I never noticed this in all the years it was there. Usually, Disneyland's sign department is top-notch, but someone really dropped the ball on HISTA's warning sign. From the second picture in the article, I quote:

"Be a part of a scientific demonstration
this surprising and thrilling 3-D theatrical
misadventure, which includes encounters
with 'snakes,' 'mice,' loud noises and
'things' that go bump in the dark."

Taken all together, it doesn't quite make sense. At first, I thought they just left a period off at the end of the first line, and it was acutally meant to be two separate sentences. But if that's the case, the second part is not a complete sentence. I wonder if they accidentally left an entire line off the sign following "demonstration"? Perhaps it was supposed to be something like:

"Be a part of a scientific demonstration
today. You'll witness science history in
this surprising and thrilling..." etc.

Funny that no one seems to have noticed this during the last 11+ years!

-Jon

[Werner Weiss]

I can't believe I never noticed this in all the years it was there. Usually, Disneyland's sign department is top-notch, but someone really dropped the ball on HISTA's warning sign.

The only word that's missing is "in" at the end of the first line.

Here's the warning sign with the missing word:


(Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009)

I even zoomed in on my full-size photo to see if someone had scratched or painted over the missing word. As far as I can tell, the word was never there on this sign. There's no sign of scarring, bumpiness, or paint.

Disneyland had the same warnings by the turnstile, but without the missing word:


(Photo by Werner Weiss, 2009)

Here's the Epcot version of the warning sign:


(Photo by Allen Huffman, 2006)

Funny that no one seems to have noticed this during the last 11+ years!

The missing word could be more recent. I assume signs are replaced periodically, as signs fade in the sun or are damaged through vandalism or normal wear and tear.

[triesch]

Thanks for the additional photos and explanation, Werner--you've restored my faith in the Disneyland sign department!

-Jon

[Lux1972]

I enjoyed HISTA although I only went about once every other time rather than every time I visited. It will be interesting to see Captain EO again since I've only seen it once back in '93.

I agree that 3D is common enough nowadays that whatever replaces Captain EO should be something revolutionary.... something I couldn't go down to my local theater and experience.

However, 3D isn't dead and I can think of at least one attraction that would have benefitted fom it. Soarin' Over California is great but think how much better it would be in 3D!

[wumbology]

Werner- if and when Honey, I Shrunk the Audience gets removed from Epcot, will you be adding an article to Yestercot or just redirect people to the DL edition?