@@justimagine2403 if you're talking about the expansion that seemed to just be forgotten in the old pavilion...(gold dome?) they're pushing forward but not rushing...It was supposed to be a V.R gaming experience with the holodecks...they had promos going for a minute in park near the area but they've vanished since 2017-2018
If any one attraction captured the spirit of EPCOT, this was it. Horizons became my all-time favorite Disney attraction the first time I experienced it in 1985 and remains so to this day.
It was the culmination of everything shown in all the other pavilions as it features: - Future habitats on land formed as a result of our ability to manipulate the environment for our benefit (The Land) - Buildings built both on and underwater not only for living and working, but also as bases for exploring our planet's oceans (The Living Seas) - Seeking new forms of alternative energy, like kelp fuel (The Universe of Energy) - Being able to travel into space and build new habitats for ourselves in the forms of space stations and bases on other worlds (Journeys in Space (unbuilt) /Mission: SPACE) - Advances of communication that allow us to stay in contact with each other, even when we're miles apart (Spaceship Earth) - New means of transportation that allow us to easily travel between places, including maglev trains, underwater transports like the "Seatrain", and even commercial spacecraft (World of Motion) - A look into visions of the future as imagined by people of the past (Journey into Imagination)
Sucks they closed it in 1994 , I rode it a few months before they did in 1994 when i was 14, I had loved that ride every time we went WDW. I heard they opened it a few times here a there for events in the years following it's sudden closer in dec of 94, but they finally tore it down in 2000
As much as I loved the attraction itself from the times I rode it between 1986 to 1999, there is one memory that hits me the strongest. And that is walking around outside the Horizons building at night, close to park closing. It's all lit up and there's hardly anyone around and the Horizons background soundtrack music is playing. That was just magical. I'll never forget that!
You weren't the only one that enjoyed doing that! I have many fond memories of Epcot from its glory years (mid-80s - late 90s) A favorite spot was those sunken alcoves with the bench seating near Horizons and World of Motion. Sit back listen to the background music and wait to watch the next monorail coming in from the TTC. Good times!!
Ahhhh yes...Those were special days and I remember them well.I'm almost 60 now so I don't think I'll see a Disney revival in my lifetime...Unless I live until I'm 150 years old!
@@johnnyd63 I'm only 22, and I dearly hope that in my lifetime I get to see a return to glory for WDW. I'd love to see EPCOT Center for myself, in some form.
“It’s always fun looking back at tomorrow”. ..exactly what we are doing watching this video, about an old ride, about how the future might be. This was my favorite ride.
@@wjsproductions1784 it still is, for most people. Maybe not for the superrich like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or the expats in Dubai, but when's the last time you had the actual, realistic, affordable opportunity to spend a weekend on a space station, or an underwater hotel in a floating city? And I'm sure desert farmers would *love* to have the flying cars demonstrated in this ride, but when's the last time you heard of one that was anywhere within the price range of an "agricultural engineer"?
@@christopherlee7334 Instead of that most of us got a crash course in Zionism, Socialism, Communism at their most extreme for our first two decades of the 21st century. It doesnt look like we will ever see a world like this.
It would be considered racist today, if it was reopened they would have to to make all the characters black, trans and criminal for it to be acceptable.
Watching this is like watching an old video of the one that got away tell you they love you....it makes me happy and breaks my heart at the same time. Rode this many a time and will never forget it. Epcot’s heart and soul
Final tip - If you look closely at the last window in the undersea restaurant, you'll see a hand smudge on the glass. When I was Lead at the attraction, I tried for months to get that smudge removed. Maintenance said it was custodials. Custodial said it was costuming, Consuming said it was maintenance. I finally gave up.
It sounds like custodian you talked to wanted to get out of having to spray some Windex real quick. Why in the world would wiping a smudge be the job of the costume department?!?!
This is just... it's what EPCOT was meant to be. Unfortunately I was born the very year this ride was shut down but I am so thankful people recorded videos so people like me can experience it. Truly, from a future goer himself. I thank you.
It's great how this ride encapsulates ideas from other attractions: Carousel of Progress, The Land, Spaceship Earth, The Living Seas and even a scene that looks like Soarin'!
@@SlipperySoap I think it’s John and his family here too, which given they hardly age o team 80 years it’s possible lol. I’m just happy some props from this show are on display in other parks and even mission space.
When that beautiful music score swells going into the space section my eyes always well up. Disney is a master at using music effectively to manipulate your emotions.
This ride closed only a couple months before I was born. For 21 years I've only imagined what riding this dark ride would be like, you sir gave me the next best thing. Thank you
This is a fantastic video of Horizons. The original videographer as well as those who restored and edited it and updated it with AI all did a great job. It’s so odd that Disney didn’t produce a professional video of Horizons and that we have to rely on home videos to watch it today. You would think that Disney would want to actually document their own rides. I remember that the entire Horizons show building smelled of oranges. This is because the smell of oranges was pumped into the scene of the desert orange grove. This smell in turn permeated through the entire building. To this day, the smell of oranges reminds me of Horizons. Horizons was my late mother’s favorite ride. It wasn’t until years after Horizons was demolished that I realized that Horizons featured the same family from Carousel of Progress, but only a generation older. As both attractions were originally sponsored by GE, this makes sense. I realize that they likely wanted this connection between Horizons and Carousel of Progress to be subtle, but it was too subtle for people like me to even notice it. Disney’s true strength and unique talent is building high quality dark rides, so it’s a shame that they demolished Horizons and replaced it with Mission Space. Amusement parks with thrill rides and screen based rides are a dime a dozen, but Disney and Universal are the only two companies that make excellent dark rides. Disney has moved away from its historical strength of providing quality dark rides, and all their parks, in particular EPCOT, are suffering as a result.
I never got to ride Horizons but this is definitely the next best thing. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this. Quality is excellent.
Yes it was a work of art! This attraction, should never have been shut down. I imagine it was all about operations costs . :-( I fear the day they come after the Haunted Mansion, the Carousel of Progress, or Pirates of the Caribbean.
@@LRIGWAKCarousel of Progress will be gone within the decade, if I had to venture a guess. Unless, that is, Disney figures out a way to turn it into an IP they can market like they did with Pirates and Haunted Mansion.
Of all of the classic rides we've lost, I miss this one the most. Reminds me of being a hopeful 10 year old in 1994. They could have never predicted a future of a world in which people had no attachment to anything but a small screen in their hand and a society that only seems to interact through it. Life was real back then. And I miss it desperately.
When I take over Disney, Horizons is at the top of my laundry list of attractions to restore. I will make EPCOT Center great again and restore it to its former glory.
@@stanfordite I was going for the less formal "Epcot." Or we could go for the full "Make the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow Great Again" but who has the lung capacity for that?
Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it with us. I've always felt EPCOT lost part of it's soul when they closed Horizons. I miss the ride, but what I really miss is it's optimism.
I love the subtle references to Carousel of Progress in this ride. This and MartinsVidsDotNet are the best POV of this ride I've seen. Boy do I miss the 1980s EPCOT Center!
Loved this ride, this reminded me of how because of the way the ride vehicles were set up you felt like it was a personal experience amongst all the crowds. There are only a few rides left like this...
Thanks so much for bringing back such a fantastic memory! My dad passed about 15 years ago but I was instantly transported back to my teens, sitting next to him, riding this over and over. We just loved this ride, thank you again
A view from the other side...I'm a dad and loved riding this with my 10 year old daughter in 1998...Trust me,your dad loved and remembered this as much as you do.
@@johnnyd63 Well…. I think my Dad spoke thru you because today would have been his 91st birthday and he’s been on my mind all day. I can’t tell you how much joy your post brought me! I’m not someone who looks for signs but you commenting on a 2 year old post about my dad, on his birthday, is just too crazy! It’s a coincidence I’m sure, but I’m running with it’s a big hello from Pop. Thank you for taking the time, you made my week! Hugs & greetings from New Jersey 😊
Wow!! Went to Disney World in the 80s. I was a kid, so I don't remember anything from this ride except seeing those stars. Thank you so much for posting this!!
I managed to ride this beautiful attraction four times in my life. Watching this video makes me both very happy and very sad. At the beginning, when the entrance to the building was shown, I could literally smell and taste french fries and coke from the 90s. The hot but humid climate. A big parcel of memories. ❤
This video is great. Thanks for making it. Horizons and Innoventions were my two favorite attractions at Epcot. I have no clue why they got rid of them. Also Off Kilter was great to listen to there. Epcot needs them back.
This is an incredible tribute to one of the best attractions that WDW has ever had in my opinion. It encapsulates the ideals of Epcot Center so well. I realize it was feeling a little outdated, but I think an update could have kept it fresh. I’d love to ride again.
This must be an early run because the dad’s legs on the bike are still working and the crystals still move. This is probably the second best video of horizons I’ve ever seen behind the hoot and chief collection. I’m lucky enough to say I got to ride Horizons. It was truly an immersive ride. I remember actually getting scared at times because it felt so real. Easily the greatest dark ride of all time and nothing came close to the level of planning and immersion until rise of the resistance, which I think is still inferior. If you want to know what truly made horizons great, it’s the fact that it was the last large scale ride to take a risk. The risk of predicting a plausible future. No rides do that any more. Barley any movies or tv shows even dare to do that any more.
RetroWDW is the definitive source in the preservation of Horizons. I suggest listening to all THREE of their podcasts exploring the best dark ride ever created in conjunction with, what is now, the best video online documenting the attraction. Superb work, fellas! Thank you!
My favourite Epcot ride. It was so magical and presented such a hopeful vision of the future. The world has gotten darker since they dismantled this ride.
Back in 1985 my friends and I were blown away by what we saw on this ride, such as the 50' flat screen tvs and the family doing face time calls over their televisions and a ipad like tablet device used for face time calls ! We said to each other after the ride, Why can't we have those televisions and tablets now?!!! We had to wait 20 years but we got our wish !
This video made my year! Horizons was my all time favorite and I must have ridden it a dozen times, starting way back in 1984. I was horrified when they tore it down but your video is the next best thing to going back in time and riding it again. The wide angle view is fantastic, and the amazing clarity and details blew me away. The sound and naration are spot on... One of the biggest deficiencies of other similar videos on RUclips. One the things that I remember was the awe of turning the corner... First into the omnimax... And later when transitioning to space. The massiveness of those scenes just can't be captured on video, you just had to be there. Still, this video exceeded my expectations. I applaud your amazing work on this restoration. It truly is a labor of love and I can't thank you enough!
Still my all time favorite exit queue. As a child I used to stare at the ball of colors til my grandmother would get annoyed and force me to leave. Idk why but it always made my brain feel good.. im a weirdo I guess. Thank you for the video. Made me feel young again.
@@debraschlicher7981 > Hi Debra.... The last day Horizons was open to guests was January 9, 1999. Demolition didn't start until March of 2000 and the ground wasn't clear until September 2000. You didn't miss it by much. Had you visited sometime in 1998 you would've been able to experience it. Sorry.... 😯
This video is magnificent! Thank you! But really, it’s a crime that Disney didn’t produce a professionally filmed version of this before tearing it down, which they could have sold on DVD in the parks. Careless. Criminal.
For years I had a memory of a Disney World ride where at the end of it you got to choose the finale by making a selection on a lap bar. It was only a few years ago I discovered what ride it was. I rode Horizons in 1993, when I was 6. Horizons has left a lasting impression on me.
@ResortTV1 gave you a shout-out earlier this evening as they were streaming rides and suggested that we go and see this awesome version of Horizons. Thanks for this and thanks to the Lake Buena Vista Historical Society. You guys rock!
Thank you so very much for keeping one of my favorite Epcot attractions alive. I get chills every time I watch it. It's sad that there was no HD Video back in the 80's as it was such an amazing voyage, that I'd love to have it preserved as though you were actually there seeing it all. Still, what you have put together warms my heart. A shame the amazing orange scent couldn't be included as a sensory element, as I loved breathing it in so deeply every time we passed into the agricultural portion of Mesa Verde. Oh how I long to be able to time travel and enjoy so many of the elements of fond memories I have. Never got to go into the VIP room there -- back when my stepfather was with us, he worked for GE and had promised to take us in one day, but never did. Anyway, many thanks again. I'm shedding tears of happiness and nostalgia at the same time.
Best ride through of Horizons I’ve ever seen! I never got to ride the ride, but I love everything about it! So this video finally gave me the chance to see what it was actually like to ride the ride (minus the famous orange scent). I could finally see everything in the ride scene. Thank you so much RetroWDW!
This is the ride that inspired my curiosity as a child and led me into a career in education. I really wish Epcot had more of these rides today for my children. Screaming is fun on rides but learning and inspiring is what made Epcot so special.
That was beautiful, thank you. This was my favourite ride from the moment I first rode it at age 6 in the mid-eighties. Seeing it all again reminds me why.
I haven't been to EPCOT since 1992. I have been to Disney World since, but I refuse to go to to Epcot, because I want my memories of it to be from when it was still what it was intended to be. It was inspiring and now it's just another theme park.
The nestalgia hurt with this one. I was instantly taken back to a 10 year old in the 80's riding this for the first and only time remembering how much excitement I had for the future. And now all I have is dread for where we are ending up.
Excellent. This footage brings tears to my eyes every time. I first went on this ride when I was 5, in 89. The future looked positive and beautiful, with clean geometric lines, smooth sides, vidscreens, and spacious living areas, and all that technology and innovations... But now? With all the garbage that have been going on in the past 20 years... I tear up because it PAINS me knowing where we're heading, especially with COVID-19.
16:46 I believe this segment was produced by Magi Synthavision which was a CG studio that Disney did contract to work on a few projects back then including the 1982 Tron movie! :)
I get goosebumps whenever I hear this song. I remember going on this as a kid and my dad would always let me push the button. I hit space every time. Hahaha great memories.
SO COOL that you got all three endings! My brothers would ALWAYS choose the Space ending and I only got my (soon to be) wife to choose Sea one time, but I had never seen the Desert one and always felt disappointed that having ridden several times over many vacations, somehow I'd missed out on that third ending! Excellent in every way! Still the best attraction for what EPCOT promised to mean to the public...
The pinnacle of dark rides was the 80’s and 90’s. So many quality rides throughout the magic kingdom and EPCOT. As a kid who was fortunate enough to vacation at WDW with my family annually from the late 70’s to the early 90’s, these amazing videos bring so much joy to my heart. Thank you so very much! Cheers!
I never experienced this, as it was gone and Mission Space was in its place by the time I got to EPCOT for the first time. Thanks for posting! Looks like it would've been amazing.
Thank you for this. Horizons and CoP are 2 attractions that my family loved. My father and I especially had a special place in our hearts for them. This brings back so many great memories of time spent with my dad at EPCOT.
Thank you for this, I would’ve only been 2 years old when I rode it so without work like yours here I would have no recollection of what it was like, this was high quality and you all should be proud, keep it up!
Someone really should re-build this in VR. Given that WDW is nearly 50 years old now, you have a HUGE fan base that would love to revisit these extinct rides. If you had wings, 20,000 leagues, Mr.Toad, Horizons, just to name a few.
All these videos end up doing is making me think is I belong in the 80s/90s Ive missed the glory days of my favorite park. I thank all of those who have worked on this This is the one epcot attraction Ive never really got to see. Thank you!!!!!
Thanks for this, brings back so many great memories when I took my kids to EPCOT in the 80s and 90s! I really miss the original EPCOT, Imagination, Horizons, Motion, Energy, Space Ship Earth. 🚀 They all gave you such hope and excitement for what to expect in our future! Horizons was the best! 😁
This brings back memories. Thank you for this video. I'm pretty sure I always chose space, as the space scene before the choice always captured my attention in a way the others couldn't.
5:39 something about this part in the scene and the music gives me flashbacks to walking around EPCOT at night, hardly anyone there. Pretty much everything was a walk on at this point especially Horizons and WOM
One if the best rides Disney World has ever had. I rode this thing multiple times every time I went to Epcot. I really wish my kids could experience this ride.
This brought back memories like crazy. I remember this from my childhood. Wow. I'd forgotten how extensive and detailed this ride was. Very hefty!!! Thanks for posting.
Thanks for making and sharing this. It brought back a lot of memories. I honestly had completely forgotten that this ride was in some ways a continuation of the COP and other elements of Tomorrow Land. One of many things for us to be wistful for.
Well done, dudes! Horizons closed just before my first trip to WDW. It's nice to see what the hype was about. Love your podcast and what you're doing for Disney history!
I was born in the late 80s and my family couldn't afford to take us to Florida when I was a kid, I'm bummed I missed out on so many classics and didn't even have the ability to truly travel until my mid 20s. I'm very grateful videos like this (and especially the ability to upscale them) exist. I'm blown away by how many classic Epcot attractions have been re themed or just flat out demolished and replaced recently. Disneyland has so many rides that have been around for decades, I don't understand why so many Epcot experiences gotten the axe instead of preserving them and refurbishing them. Now we just get thrill rides, and we can get those anywhere. I love old animatronics and it kills me when they're either destroyed or just tossed in a warehouse somewhere to never be experienced again, but thankfully supposedly a handful of these have been re used elsewhere.
I miss Horizons not only because it was a great ride, but because it promised me a bright future. A future that was stolen from me by the greed of the rich, the stupidity of fanatics, and people who think that their politics are more important than our future. This is where we all should have been, together. Instead, all we have is the video conferencing, crippling debt and a vast hatred of each other. Take it all back.
The kids that were superfans of this ride and spent the whole night in there posted a video. It’s really cool. No idea where they got the balls but they did it!
I looked for the scene of the family talking about farming in the ocean/desert for a long time and just couldn't find it! I never got to ride this but this is exactly my type of ride!
Thanks so much for this. The last time I rode Horizons was when back in 1997 when I was still a kid. They really do not make rides like this anymore. Animatronics are expensive to maintain. Now all they do is cheaply slap up some video screens and have cars go through them.
Epcot was wonderful in the 90s. (When I first visited) Especially when it got dark, it felt like I was visiting the future, with all the illuminated paths and fountains. There was a cohesive theme that felt important back then. That we all had a responsibility to come and work together to make this dream of a future become a reality. Then 9/11 happened, the world got dark, and now Elsa and Marvel characters have invaded Epcot.
I truly believe this would have been Walt’s favorite ride. It was everything he envisioned EPCOT Center to be. Optimistic. Educational. Inspiring. Artfully rendered. A masterpiece. Thanks for putting this video together.
The fact that this masterpiece of attraction design was removed is simply criminal.
Yes, like why couldn't they have just reskinned it... And, what is going on with Wonders of Life?
@@justimagine2403 if you're talking about the expansion that seemed to just be forgotten in the old pavilion...(gold dome?) they're pushing forward but not rushing...It was supposed to be a V.R gaming experience with the holodecks...they had promos going for a minute in park near the area but they've vanished since 2017-2018
If any one attraction captured the spirit of EPCOT, this was it. Horizons became my all-time favorite Disney attraction the first time I experienced it in 1985 and remains so to this day.
It was the culmination of everything shown in all the other pavilions as it features:
- Future habitats on land formed as a result of our ability to manipulate the environment for our benefit (The Land)
- Buildings built both on and underwater not only for living and working, but also as bases for exploring our planet's oceans (The Living Seas)
- Seeking new forms of alternative energy, like kelp fuel (The Universe of Energy)
- Being able to travel into space and build new habitats for ourselves in the forms of space stations and bases on other worlds (Journeys in Space (unbuilt) /Mission: SPACE)
- Advances of communication that allow us to stay in contact with each other, even when we're miles apart (Spaceship Earth)
- New means of transportation that allow us to easily travel between places, including maglev trains, underwater transports like the "Seatrain", and even commercial spacecraft (World of Motion)
- A look into visions of the future as imagined by people of the past (Journey into Imagination)
This has become my favorite attraction too, despite the fact that I first visited Epcot in 2009
Sucks they closed it in 1994 , I rode it a few months before they did in 1994 when i was 14, I had loved that ride every time we went WDW. I heard they opened it a few times here a there for events in the years following it's sudden closer in dec of 94, but they finally tore it down in 2000
As much as I loved the attraction itself from the times I rode it between 1986 to 1999, there is one memory that hits me the strongest. And that is walking around outside the Horizons building at night, close to park closing. It's all lit up and there's hardly anyone around and the Horizons background soundtrack music is playing. That was just magical. I'll never forget that!
You weren't the only one that enjoyed doing that! I have many fond memories of Epcot from its glory years (mid-80s - late 90s) A favorite spot was those sunken alcoves with the bench seating near Horizons and World of Motion. Sit back listen to the background music and wait to watch the next monorail coming in from the TTC. Good times!!
Ahhhh yes...Those were special days and I remember them well.I'm almost 60 now so I don't think I'll see a Disney revival in my lifetime...Unless I live until I'm 150 years old!
@@johnnyd63 I'm only 22, and I dearly hope that in my lifetime I get to see a return to glory for WDW. I'd love to see EPCOT Center for myself, in some form.
That's my memory as well!
“It’s always fun looking back at tomorrow”.
..exactly what we are doing watching this video, about an old ride, about how the future might be.
This was my favorite ride.
:(
We need this ride back again now more than ever.
Without the sinkhole this time.
I mean, we’re kinda in the 21st century now, so sad to say but I don’t think it’s really “futuristic” anymore.
@@wjsproductions1784 it still is, for most people. Maybe not for the superrich like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, or the expats in Dubai, but when's the last time you had the actual, realistic, affordable opportunity to spend a weekend on a space station, or an underwater hotel in a floating city? And I'm sure desert farmers would *love* to have the flying cars demonstrated in this ride, but when's the last time you heard of one that was anywhere within the price range of an "agricultural engineer"?
@@christopherlee7334 Instead of that most of us got a crash course in Zionism, Socialism, Communism at their most extreme for our first two decades of the 21st century. It doesnt look like we will ever see a world like this.
It would be considered racist today, if it was reopened they would have to to make all the characters black, trans and criminal for it to be acceptable.
Watching this is like watching an old video of the one that got away tell you they love you....it makes me happy and breaks my heart at the same time. Rode this many a time and will never forget it. Epcot’s heart and soul
I've never even fully fallen in love, and your words ring true EVEN TO ME!
I feel tearful seeing this :-(
Final tip - If you look closely at the last window in the undersea restaurant, you'll see a hand smudge on the glass. When I was Lead at the attraction, I tried for months to get that smudge removed. Maintenance said it was custodials. Custodial said it was costuming, Consuming said it was maintenance. I finally gave up.
It sounds like custodian you talked to wanted to get out of having to spray some Windex real quick. Why in the world would wiping a smudge be the job of the costume department?!?!
This is just... it's what EPCOT was meant to be. Unfortunately I was born the very year this ride was shut down but I am so thankful people recorded videos so people like me can experience it. Truly, from a future goer himself. I thank you.
It's great how this ride encapsulates ideas from other attractions: Carousel of Progress, The Land, Spaceship Earth, The Living Seas and even a scene that looks like Soarin'!
That would explain why the song from the Carousel of Progress was in Horizons!😊
@@SlipperySoap I think it’s John and his family here too, which given they hardly age o team 80 years it’s possible lol. I’m just happy some props from this show are on display in other parks and even mission space.
When that beautiful music score swells going into the space section my eyes always well up. Disney is a master at using music effectively to manipulate your emotions.
Yesssss! Its overwhelming!
This ride closed only a couple months before I was born. For 21 years I've only imagined what riding this dark ride would be like, you sir gave me the next best thing. Thank you
This is a fantastic video of Horizons. The original videographer as well as those who restored and edited it and updated it with AI all did a great job.
It’s so odd that Disney didn’t produce a professional video of Horizons and that we have to rely on home videos to watch it today. You would think that Disney would want to actually document their own rides.
I remember that the entire Horizons show building smelled of oranges. This is because the smell of oranges was pumped into the scene of the desert orange grove. This smell in turn permeated through the entire building.
To this day, the smell of oranges reminds me of Horizons.
Horizons was my late mother’s favorite ride.
It wasn’t until years after Horizons was demolished that I realized that Horizons featured the same family from Carousel of Progress, but only a generation older. As both attractions were originally sponsored by GE, this makes sense.
I realize that they likely wanted this connection between Horizons and Carousel of Progress to be subtle, but it was too subtle for people like me to even notice it.
Disney’s true strength and unique talent is building high quality dark rides, so it’s a shame that they demolished Horizons and replaced it with Mission Space.
Amusement parks with thrill rides and screen based rides are a dime a dozen, but Disney and Universal are the only two companies that make excellent dark rides.
Disney has moved away from its historical strength of providing quality dark rides, and all their parks, in particular EPCOT, are suffering as a result.
I never got to ride Horizons but this is definitely the next best thing. Thank you so much for the time and effort you put into this. Quality is excellent.
It was more of an Epcot attraction than anything they have to offer now. And was considered to be the successor to the carousel of progress.
I think this video captures it as best it can. I'm sure in 10 years, they'll be a virtual hololens version that will be even MORE realistic!
Optimistic futurism died when this ride was destroyed.
The staging of the sets was a work of art.
Yes it was a work of art! This attraction, should never have been shut down. I imagine it was all about operations costs . :-( I fear the day they come after the Haunted Mansion, the Carousel of Progress, or Pirates of the Caribbean.
@@LRIGWAKCarousel of Progress will be gone within the decade, if I had to venture a guess. Unless, that is, Disney figures out a way to turn it into an IP they can market like they did with Pirates and Haunted Mansion.
Of all of the classic rides we've lost, I miss this one the most. Reminds me of being a hopeful 10 year old in 1994.
They could have never predicted a future of a world in which people had no attachment to anything but a small screen in their hand and a society that only seems to interact through it.
Life was real back then. And I miss it desperately.
this 😞
Me too. The future seemed hopeful and magical.
10:00- I can still smell the oranges.
LOL, I remember loving this ride because of the orange smell.
Yearly pass holders when I was a kid, 84-91 went on this many many times. Brings back great memories!
@@dasparado I do too.
Same here!
I quite like how it opens up with old predictions that never came to be, showing how it's alright to be wrong about the future
When I take over Disney, Horizons is at the top of my laundry list of attractions to restore. I will make EPCOT Center great again and restore it to its former glory.
#MEGA
@@colormedubious4747 Exactly but technically #MECGA. You forgot the C for EPCOT Center.
@@stanfordite I was going for the less formal "Epcot." Or we could go for the full "Make the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow Great Again" but who has the lung capacity for that?
@@colormedubious4747 MEP-CUT-GAH! MEP-CUT-GAH!
This and Journey Into Imagination would be my highest priorities
Thank you so much for putting this together and sharing it with us. I've always felt EPCOT lost part of it's soul when they closed Horizons. I miss the ride, but what I really miss is it's optimism.
I miss optimism.
Yeah the world had been going to hell in handbasket since around 2000, a year after Horizons closed. Coincidence? I think not
I love the subtle references to Carousel of Progress in this ride. This and MartinsVidsDotNet are the best POV of this ride I've seen. Boy do I miss the 1980s EPCOT Center!
Loved this ride, this reminded me of how because of the way the ride vehicles were set up you felt like it was a personal experience amongst all the crowds. There are only a few rides left like this...
Excellent Restoration! By far the best POV ride-through of our beloved Horizons on the internet. Well done gentlemen. Thanks!
Thanks so much for bringing back such a fantastic memory! My dad passed about 15 years ago but I was instantly transported back to my teens, sitting next to him, riding this over and over. We just loved this ride, thank you again
This is a beautiful memory, I am legit tearing up as I read it :).
777hobo777 Thank you for your kind words, that’s very sweet of you to say😊
@@777hobo777 guess I wasn't alone.
A view from the other side...I'm a dad and loved riding this with my 10 year old daughter in 1998...Trust me,your dad loved and remembered this as much as you do.
@@johnnyd63 Well…. I think my Dad spoke thru you because today would have been his 91st birthday and he’s been on my mind all day. I can’t tell you how much joy your post brought me! I’m not someone who looks for signs but you commenting on a 2 year old post about my dad, on his birthday, is just too crazy! It’s a coincidence I’m sure, but I’m running with it’s a big hello from Pop. Thank you for taking the time, you made my week! Hugs & greetings from New Jersey 😊
The fact that you could pick the ending of the ride was what amazed me the most as a twelve year old.
This restoration is a beautiful achievement, we and future generations all owe you a debt of gratitude!
Wow!! Went to Disney World in the 80s. I was a kid, so I don't remember anything from this ride except seeing those stars. Thank you so much for posting this!!
I managed to ride this beautiful attraction four times in my life. Watching this video makes me both very happy and very sad. At the beginning, when the entrance to the building was shown, I could literally smell and taste french fries and coke from the 90s. The hot but humid climate. A big parcel of memories. ❤
Wonderful homage to Horizons - one of the best Epcot attractions in my opinion. Sound and picture quality are remarkable!
This video is great. Thanks for making it.
Horizons and Innoventions were my two favorite attractions at Epcot. I have no clue why they got rid of them. Also Off Kilter was great to listen to there. Epcot needs them back.
This is an incredible tribute to one of the best attractions that WDW has ever had in my opinion. It encapsulates the ideals of Epcot Center so well. I realize it was feeling a little outdated, but I think an update could have kept it fresh. I’d love to ride again.
This must be an early run because the dad’s legs on the bike are still working and the crystals still move. This is probably the second best video of horizons I’ve ever seen behind the hoot and chief collection. I’m lucky enough to say I got to ride Horizons. It was truly an immersive ride. I remember actually getting scared at times because it felt so real. Easily the greatest dark ride of all time and nothing came close to the level of planning and immersion until rise of the resistance, which I think is still inferior. If you want to know what truly made horizons great, it’s the fact that it was the last large scale ride to take a risk. The risk of predicting a plausible future. No rides do that any more. Barley any movies or tv shows even dare to do that any more.
Incredible. Thank you for this. Horizons was something that will never be replicated. It was an incredible ride.
RetroWDW is the definitive source in the preservation of Horizons. I suggest listening to all THREE of their podcasts exploring the best dark ride ever created in conjunction with, what is now, the best video online documenting the attraction. Superb work, fellas! Thank you!
My favourite Epcot ride. It was so magical and presented such a hopeful vision of the future. The world has gotten darker since they dismantled this ride.
Back in 1985 my friends and I were blown away by what we saw on this ride, such as the 50' flat screen tvs and
the family doing face time calls over their televisions and a ipad like tablet device used for face time calls !
We said to each other after the ride, Why can't we have those televisions and tablets now?!!!
We had to wait 20 years but we got our wish !
This video made my year! Horizons was my all time favorite and I must have ridden it a dozen times, starting way back in 1984. I was horrified when they tore it down but your video is the next best thing to going back in time and riding it again. The wide angle view is fantastic, and the amazing clarity and details blew me away. The sound and naration are spot on... One of the biggest deficiencies of other similar videos on RUclips.
One the things that I remember was the awe of turning the corner... First into the omnimax... And later when transitioning to space. The massiveness of those scenes just can't be captured on video, you just had to be there. Still, this video exceeded my expectations.
I applaud your amazing work on this restoration. It truly is a labor of love and I can't thank you enough!
Still my all time favorite exit queue. As a child I used to stare at the ball of colors til my grandmother would get annoyed and force me to leave. Idk why but it always made my brain feel good.. im a weirdo I guess. Thank you for the video. Made me feel young again.
When did this end I have been coming to Disney since 2000 don't remember seeing this
@@debraschlicher7981 > Hi Debra....
The last day Horizons was open to guests was January 9, 1999.
Demolition didn't start until March of 2000 and the ground wasn't clear until September 2000.
You didn't miss it by much. Had you visited sometime in 1998 you would've been able to experience it.
Sorry.... 😯
Man!!!! Such amazing Memories. My uncle and I would ride that over and over!!!! Thank you for posting this!!!
This video is magnificent! Thank you! But really, it’s a crime that Disney didn’t produce a professionally filmed version of this before tearing it down, which they could have sold on DVD in the parks. Careless. Criminal.
For years I had a memory of a Disney World ride where at the end of it you got to choose the finale by making a selection on a lap bar. It was only a few years ago I discovered what ride it was. I rode Horizons in 1993, when I was 6. Horizons has left a lasting impression on me.
Man so much care and detail made this ride really great! They don't make them like this anymore, so sad!
Awesome!! My brain lights up with recollection from all the years I enjoyed this ride and everything else EPCOT - well done :-)
@ResortTV1 gave you a shout-out earlier this evening as they were streaming rides and suggested that we go and see this awesome version of Horizons. Thanks for this and thanks to the Lake Buena Vista Historical Society. You guys rock!
Thank you so very much for keeping one of my favorite Epcot attractions alive. I get chills every time I watch it. It's sad that there was no HD Video back in the 80's as it was such an amazing voyage, that I'd love to have it preserved as though you were actually there seeing it all. Still, what you have put together warms my heart. A shame the amazing orange scent couldn't be included as a sensory element, as I loved breathing it in so deeply every time we passed into the agricultural portion of Mesa Verde. Oh how I long to be able to time travel and enjoy so many of the elements of fond memories I have. Never got to go into the VIP room there -- back when my stepfather was with us, he worked for GE and had promised to take us in one day, but never did. Anyway, many thanks again. I'm shedding tears of happiness and nostalgia at the same time.
Thanks for watching!!
Thank you so much for this video of Horizons. I brought back some good memories of visiting EPCOT in my younger years.
Best ride through of Horizons I’ve ever seen! I never got to ride the ride, but I love everything about it! So this video finally gave me the chance to see what it was actually like to ride the ride (minus the famous orange scent). I could finally see everything in the ride scene. Thank you so much RetroWDW!
This is the ride that inspired my curiosity as a child and led me into a career in education. I really wish Epcot had more of these rides today for my children. Screaming is fun on rides but learning and inspiring is what made Epcot so special.
Gawd I'm never gonna stop missing this experience.
That was beautiful, thank you. This was my favourite ride from the moment I first rode it at age 6 in the mid-eighties. Seeing it all again reminds me why.
Best attraction in EPCOT by far. I think about what used to be everytime I see Mission Space in the old footprint of Horizons..
Outstanding video capture and re-creation of the Horizons ride experience! Horizons was considered the crown jewel of EPCOT Future World.
I haven't been to EPCOT since 1992. I have been to Disney World since, but I refuse to go to to Epcot, because I want my memories of it to be from when it was still what it was intended to be. It was inspiring and now it's just another theme park.
Amazing restoration, It's like I can smell the oranges again, Thank you!
This was so wonderful and pleasant to see a ride I was never able to ride. Thank you for preserving it!
Thank you for posting this. Epcot in those years was such a great experience.
The nestalgia hurt with this one. I was instantly taken back to a 10 year old in the 80's riding this for the first and only time remembering how much excitement I had for the future. And now all I have is dread for where we are ending up.
...back before "dystopian future" was a given. Bring back the optimistic future!!
Excellent. This footage brings tears to my eyes every time. I first went on this ride when I was 5, in 89. The future looked positive and beautiful, with clean geometric lines, smooth sides, vidscreens, and spacious living areas, and all that technology and innovations...
But now? With all the garbage that have been going on in the past 20 years... I tear up because it PAINS me knowing where we're heading, especially with COVID-19.
I was just brought to this video by Podcast The Ride. Simply amazing.
16:46
I believe this segment was produced by Magi Synthavision which was a CG studio that Disney did contract to work on a few projects back then including the 1982 Tron movie! :)
I get goosebumps whenever I hear this song. I remember going on this as a kid and my dad would always let me push the button. I hit space every time. Hahaha great memories.
SO COOL that you got all three endings! My brothers would ALWAYS choose the Space ending and I only got my (soon to be) wife to choose Sea one time, but I had never seen the Desert one and always felt disappointed that having ridden several times over many vacations, somehow I'd missed out on that third ending! Excellent in every way!
Still the best attraction for what EPCOT promised to mean to the public...
Thank you so much!! I never got to experience this ride as I was born after it closed but this is truly astonishing! 💗
The pinnacle of dark rides was the 80’s and 90’s. So many quality rides throughout the magic kingdom and EPCOT. As a kid who was fortunate enough to vacation at WDW with my family annually from the late 70’s to the early 90’s, these amazing videos bring so much joy to my heart. Thank you so very much! Cheers!
I loved Horizons! Thank you so much for posting this. I’m showing my 12 and 13-year-olds now. They liked it!
I never experienced this, as it was gone and Mission Space was in its place by the time I got to EPCOT for the first time. Thanks for posting! Looks like it would've been amazing.
Thank you for uploading! This brought back so many memories! I used to ride it over and over as a kid.
pure classic disney.. miss this and the world of motion. they could of updated both of them a couple more times before closing them down..
Thank you for this. Horizons and CoP are 2 attractions that my family loved. My father and I especially had a special place in our hearts for them. This brings back so many great memories of time spent with my dad at EPCOT.
Thank you for this, I would’ve only been 2 years old when I rode it so without work like yours here I would have no recollection of what it was like, this was high quality and you all should be proud, keep it up!
I don't think I have ever seen the desert ending before. Thanks for posting!
Someone really should re-build this in VR. Given that WDW is nearly 50 years old now, you have a HUGE fan base that would love to revisit these extinct rides. If you had wings, 20,000 leagues, Mr.Toad, Horizons, just to name a few.
All these videos end up doing is making me think is I belong in the 80s/90s Ive missed the glory days of my favorite park. I thank all of those who have worked on this This is the one epcot attraction Ive never really got to see. Thank you!!!!!
Thanks for this, brings back so many great memories when I took my kids to EPCOT in the 80s and 90s! I really miss the original EPCOT, Imagination, Horizons, Motion, Energy, Space Ship Earth. 🚀 They all gave you such hope and excitement for what to expect in our future! Horizons was the best! 😁
I loved all these old rides. I wish we had modern filming equipment back then. But even in low definition they’re still great.
Changed my life. I'm a Futurist now. Thx for making this :-)
This brings back memories. Thank you for this video. I'm pretty sure I always chose space, as the space scene before the choice always captured my attention in a way the others couldn't.
5:39 something about this part in the scene and the music gives me flashbacks to walking around EPCOT at night, hardly anyone there. Pretty much everything was a walk on at this point especially Horizons and WOM
Sadly, that's probably why they tore it down. If they kept it just a little while longer... It would have become a classic & regained popularity again
Thanks for putting this together and for all the work you do to help folks come as close as possible to experiencing the parks as they once were!
My heart was racing watching this. So many good memories
Went on Horizons at least a dozen times, never saw the other film choices other than the space one. Good catching up.
One if the best rides Disney World has ever had. I rode this thing multiple times every time I went to Epcot. I really wish my kids could experience this ride.
This brought back memories like crazy. I remember this from my childhood. Wow. I'd forgotten how extensive and detailed this ride was. Very hefty!!! Thanks for posting.
Thanks for making and sharing this. It brought back a lot of memories. I honestly had completely forgotten that this ride was in some ways a continuation of the COP and other elements of Tomorrow Land. One of many things for us to be wistful for.
This was fun. Like riding through a piece of my childhood! Thank you for doing this!
Well done, dudes! Horizons closed just before my first trip to WDW. It's nice to see what the hype was about. Love your podcast and what you're doing for Disney history!
Awesome work 🖤🖤🖤 So Much Appreciation 🖤🖤🖤
Rides with non stop vehicles are the best. Horizons, world of motion, spaceship, mansion
I was born in the late 80s and my family couldn't afford to take us to Florida when I was a kid, I'm bummed I missed out on so many classics and didn't even have the ability to truly travel until my mid 20s. I'm very grateful videos like this (and especially the ability to upscale them) exist. I'm blown away by how many classic Epcot attractions have been re themed or just flat out demolished and replaced recently. Disneyland has so many rides that have been around for decades, I don't understand why so many Epcot experiences gotten the axe instead of preserving them and refurbishing them. Now we just get thrill rides, and we can get those anywhere. I love old animatronics and it kills me when they're either destroyed or just tossed in a warehouse somewhere to never be experienced again, but thankfully supposedly a handful of these have been re used elsewhere.
Thank you so much for doing this.
This ride was one of my favorites at EPCOT.
I miss Horizons not only because it was a great ride, but because it promised me a bright future. A future that was stolen from me by the greed of the rich, the stupidity of fanatics, and people who think that their politics are more important than our future. This is where we all should have been, together. Instead, all we have is the video conferencing, crippling debt and a vast hatred of each other. Take it all back.
Wow this is so crisp and clear! Great job on the enhancement!
The kids that were superfans of this ride and spent the whole night in there posted a video. It’s really cool. No idea where they got the balls but they did it!
I looked for the scene of the family talking about farming in the ocean/desert for a long time and just couldn't find it! I never got to ride this but this is exactly my type of ride!
Thanks so much for this. The last time I rode Horizons was when back in 1997 when I was still a kid. They really do not make rides like this anymore. Animatronics are expensive to maintain. Now all they do is cheaply slap up some video screens and have cars go through them.
This was so wonderful to revisit this ride. Thank you so much
Epcot was wonderful in the 90s. (When I first visited) Especially when it got dark, it felt like I was visiting the future, with all the illuminated paths and fountains. There was a cohesive theme that felt important back then. That we all had a responsibility to come and work together to make this dream of a future become a reality. Then 9/11 happened, the world got dark, and now Elsa and Marvel characters have invaded Epcot.
Wow. Excellent job! I never experienced the ride, but I totally get why those who rode it love it (and miss it) so much.
I truly believe this would have been Walt’s favorite ride. It was everything he envisioned EPCOT Center to be. Optimistic. Educational. Inspiring. Artfully rendered. A masterpiece. Thanks for putting this video together.
Thank you for making this. I needed a little bit of a brighter day right now.
Wow. That was great. So many memories. Like I was really there again. Thank you.