It has become fairly apparent that Brad Bird’s upcoming Tomorrowland is a love letter to the futuristic esthetic that that Wlat Disney company created back in the 1950s and 1960s. And if you didn’t know it before, the two short animated sequence below should convince you of it.
It was cut from the movie but was intended to give some background to the film’s super secret “Plus Ultra” society founded by Jules Verne, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla and Gustave Eiffel to some of the film’s characters. Animation fans will note that it bares a strongly stylistic similarity to the shorts directed by Ward Kimball for Disney’s Tomorrowland TV specials designed to promote the company’s upcoming theme parks back in the 1950s. (And is that Maurice LaMarche providing the Orson Welles-ish voice-over narration?)
This is a really lovely sequence and I am a bit disappointed that Bird had to cut it from the film. It certainly speaks to the director’s own origins in animation, as well as the attention to detail that he is lavishing on the film. Thankfully, footage was ablet o be presented via the film’s website.
