Walt Disney's original plan for the place George Clooney's 'Tomorrowland' is based on was a creepy futuristic dystopia

walt disney
Walt Disney's main plan for Florida wasn't Disney World, rather it was a utopian community enclosed from society. Disney

Disney's next big film, "Tomorrowland," starring George Clooney is in theaters Friday.

Advertisement

If you've seen the trailers, it's kind of difficult to decipher what the film is all about. 

A young girl (Britt Robertson) is transported to a mysterious, futuristic world called Tomorrowland, at the touch of a magic pin.

In actuality, the film, named after the futuristic section of the Disneyland theme park, was inspired by Walt Disney's original vision for Epcot.

Check out Disney's original plan for Disney World and Epcot > 

After Disneyland was built in California, Walt had an idea for another Disney project in Florida; however, he passed away in December 1966 before he could see it come to fruition. Before he died, he filmed a video two months earlier expressing these plans in detail. Bits and pieces of it can be seen in trailers and features promoting "Tomorrowland."

Advertisement

Disney produced the nearly half-hour video, found on YouTube, for Florida Legislators to get permission and rights for his project. In it, Disney laid out his big ideas for his massive Florida project. 

epcot project
An original design for EPCOT existed as the Progress City model at the Magic Kingdom in 1975. Disney

Called "Project X," Walt's Florida expansion wasn't about Disney World, though it was a small part of the picture.

Rather, Disney's plan consisted of building his own perfect Utopian city: the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow—Epcot.

While Disney's film brings this vision to life a la Tomorrowland — a place full of hopes and dreams — Disney's original video for Epcot sounded like a scene straight out of Aldous Huxley's "Brave New World," which envisioned a similar world back in 1932.

Advertisement

Located partly in Orange and Osceola Counties, Disney picked the center of the state for his Florida project on purpose, reasoning it would be easy for tourists and residents to arrive by car.

Disney World Epcot original plans
Disney via The Original Epcot

The land was located between Orlando and Kissimmee, a few miles from the crossing point of Interstate 4 and the Sunshine State Parkway (this was before I95 was finished).

tomorrowland walt disney
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

The theme park and all the other tourist facilities—hotels, motels and recreational activities—were meant to fill one small part of Disney's Florida project. This part alone is five times the size of California's Disneyland.

original plan for disney world
Disney via The Original Epcot

The entire plot of land encompasses 27,400 acres. That's 43 square miles, twice the size of the island of Manhattan in New York.

the disney florida project
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

A giant monorail was supposed to connect the length of the land.

disney world monorail disney world
Disney via The Original Epcot

All together, Disney wanted to build five sections consisting of his own airport of tomorrow in Osceola county, an entrance center, an industrial park covering 1000 acres, a theme park (Walt Disney World) and the heart of the Florida project ...

Screen Shot 2015 05 22 at 2.58.55 AM
To Walt Disney's right is what would have been the airport of Tomorrow. Above that would have been an industrial park. Disney
Advertisement

The main point of Walt's Florida project was to focus on his Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow … EPCOT.

walt disney epcot
Disney

Disney describes it as "a community of tomorrow, that will never be completed."

tomorrowland2
Disney/"Tomorrowland"
Advertisement

The city was to be a "planned environment demonstrating to the world what American communities can accomplish through proper control of planning and design."

walt disney
Disney

It was never completed. Rather, EPCOT was to be a "living blueprint" of the future developing solutions to city problems.

epcot florida project
Disney
Advertisement

Nearly 20,000 people were supposed to be selected to live in the prototype city.

tomorrowland
Disney

Inhabitants would live in a 50-acre climate-controlled snow globe where they'd be "protected from rain, heat and cold and humidity."

climate control dome epcot
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

The sphere shaped community would act as a wheel, with the hub of transportation located in the center. Routes branched out from here to all sectors of the city.

epcot plan
Disney via the Original Epcot

The center would consist of business and commerce outlined with high-density apartment housing.

epcot city plan
Disney via the Original Epcot
Advertisement

The majority of the sphere would consist of residential neighborhoods.

disney epcot neighborhood
Disney via The Original Epcot

The epicenter was set to house a cosmopolitan hotel and convention center towering 30 stories …

epcot hotel center
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

… along with shopping areas that recreated the experience of streets of places around the world.

shopping epcot
Disney via The Original Epcot

Epcot would have everything you ever needed including theaters for musical productions and dramas, restaurants, and resorts.

disney epcot plan
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

Here, skyrail systems like the monorail and PeopleMover provide all transportation above ground.

monorail walt disney
Disney

The WEDWay PeopleMover (this is the real name) would also transport people. Today, these are better known as TTA—The Tomorrowland Transit Authority—in Disney's Tomorrowland, Magic Kingdom and Walt Disney World Resort.

peoplemover epcot
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

Motorized vehicles weren't completely banned from the city. Cars and trucks would travel below pedestrian levels, underground on separate roadways.

epcot transportation
Disney

EPCOT's Transportation Lobby to get on and off monorails and Peoplemovers would be housed beneath the town's epicenter. Think of it as similar to an underground subway terminal like NYC's Grand Central.

monorail car system epcot
Disney
Advertisement

A singular road provided access to get out of the city "bubble." However, it was suggested most residents would drive their vehicles only on "weekend pleasure trips" or vacation.

disney epcot plan
Disney via The Original Epcot

As for work, everyone would have a job ... a.k.a. some responsibility to maintain the community. While some could choose to work outside of the EPCOT area, it was encouraged that many work in the town's nearby industrial park's facility centers.

epcot industrial complex
Disney via The Original Epcot
Advertisement

There, Disney staff would "work with individual companies, looking at experimental prototype plans, research and development laboratories and computer centers for major corporations."

disney epcot research laboratories
Disney via The Original Epcot

Near the end of the video, it's suggested this plan could easily work in numerous cities across America.

tomorrowland
DIsney
Advertisement

After Walt's death, the project was deemed impractical and was re-envisioned as a theme park with futuristic architecture and technology.

epcot park 1982
An overlook of Epcot from above in Disney World on July 20, 1982, before its debut. AP Photo/Scott Maclay

Today, EPCOT serves Disney as a walk-through of the world with countries appearing to co-exist peacefully side by side.

spaceship earth epcot
The globe at Epcot known as Spaceship Earth. YouTube
Advertisement

Today, Disney's idea lives on—slightly—in the Utopian community of Celebration located in Osceola County, Florida. The city was designed and planned by the Walt Disney Company in the early '90s.

celebration florida disney
wikicommons / Bobak Ha'Eri

Here's Disney's video in its entirety:

 

Advertisement

"Tomorrowland" is in theaters Friday.

mad max tom hardy
Jasin Boland/Warner Bros.

See what other movies you should check out this summer >

Disney Innovation
Advertisement
Close icon Two crossed lines that form an 'X'. It indicates a way to close an interaction, or dismiss a notification.