The promise of brighter days

Horizons has meant a lot to many of us out there. It was not just an attraction, though it was many of the readers’ favorite attraction, as I saw time and time again. Horizons inspired whole careers, acted as a pick me up to people who didn’t believe they had a reason to keep moving forward, and housed innumerable memories. As I read about what Horizons meant to all of you, thank you to each and every one of you who opened yourselves up to me by the way, I thought about what Horizons has meant to me as well. The fact that it embodied the multitude of elements available in EPCOT Center’s Future World, the masterful music and narration, and the technologies (both ideological in the story and tangible within the mechanics of the attraction) were continually present in your stories as well as my own, but all of us kept returning to a single thought, the message of hope for all of us and for all of our futures.

This series of articles has been about acknowledging the accomplishments of the Imagineer, George McGinnis, and what he has given to each of us. Now, while I could lecture on all of the various facets that made Horizons a true model of the future, I thought that today I would allow George McGinnis himself to share some memories of his own from his days as Project Show Designer of Horizons. Below are the articles he wrote for Mouse Planet back in 2004. The stories are as relevant today as they were then, and they always bring a smile to my face.

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV

George McGinnis helped to give us dreams for the future with his work within Tomorrowland and EPCOT Center, to give us adventures for Adventureland and Dinoland U.S.A., and he was even able to provide us with some of the most memorable robots this side of a Black Hole. Today, I hope, is the start of a new day where we give something back to this legend of Disney Imagineering. I hope the committee that selects this year’s group of Disney Legends remembers George McGinnis. But even if they don’t, we will all remember and continue to appreciate his hard work, his vision, and the gifts he gave the world that allow each of us to look to a future BEYOND TODAY.