Adventure Thru Inner Space - presented by Monsanto

I got together with some friends this week and one of them, Josy, brought some vintage Disney memorabilia for us to look at. Among them was a booklet featuring Adventure Thru Inner Space. She held it up and asked it any of us remembered it. The funny thing is that I had recently been looking at some things on Flickr and found some pictures of it.

So, I decided it might be fun to do a few blog posts about some long lost Disneyland attractions that hold fond memories for me....and apparently for many other people as well.

These are some of the pictures I found on Flickr by ATIS547 and one from Yesterland.com

The Inner Space ride was opened in 1967 then discontinued in 185 and turned into Star Tours. The silver facade to the right of the entrance is still there.



This large projection screen is still in place, but now it show scenes of the many places you can vacation via Star Tours.



You would enter the ride in the lower left corner of this picture. Disney used the same ride design as in the Haunted Mansion but instead of Doombuggies, they were called Atommobiles.


Wikipedia does a great job of giving the narration and synopsis of the ride, but here is a small portion from the beginning:

"The attraction was designed to simulate shrinking to a size smaller than an atom (the "inner space"). As riders wait for their journey into the atom, they were able to see other riders entering one end of the Mighty Microscope. The other end of the Mighty Microscope had a glass tube in which miniaturized riders could be seen moving toward the end of the microscope. The end of the microscope was aimed at a panel beyond which snow could be seen falling.

Upon boarding their 'Atommobiles', riders are greeted by the voice of an unseen scientist (Paul Frees) who explains, "I am the first person to make this fabulous journey. Suspended in the timelessness of inner space are the thoughtwaves of my first impressions. They will be our only source of contact once you have passed beyond the limits of normal Mag-ni-fi-ca-tion."

The Atommobile enters the Mighty Microscope and begins to shake back and forth as the riders enter the darkness.

As their vision returns, the riders see giant snowflakes all around them, some still spinning as they fall. As they continue to shrink, the narrator says, "I am passing beyond the magnification limits of even the most powerful microscopes. These are snowflakes — and yet they seem to grow larger and larger. Or can I be shrinking — shrinking beyond the smallness of a tiny snowflake crystal? Indeed, I am becoming smaller and smaller!"

This giant eye near the end used to scare me. I was so sure I was never going to get big again and was forever consigned to being the size of an atom.




This is the Twinchie (a 2"x 2" square used in card making or scrapbooking) I used foil tape and dry embossed it to mimic the facade near the entrance. Then used a couple of the pictures I found on flickr. I really love it.



I didn't realize until I did a little research that this was a well-beloved ride and that there are websites dedicated to it and even several things posted on YouTube where you can experience the ride.