Magic Journeys is a 3D film created by WED Enterprises for presentation at Disney theme parks. It was featured at four different parks over the course of its 11-year run.
On October 1, 1982, Magic Journeys premiered as one of the opening-day attractions at the Journey Into Imagination pavilion in Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center. It was directed by Murray Lerner and featured a song composed by Robert and Richard Sherman. A preshow presentation, anchored by another Sherman Brothers song, "Makin' Memories", played before the film during its EPCOT Center run.
Starting on June 16, 1984, it began a two-year run at Disneyland, first on the outdoor Space Stage and then inside the newly constructed Magic Eye Theater in Tomorrowland.[1] In early 1986, the film was removed from Disneyland and EPCOT Center in order to make way for a new 3-D film, Captain EO.
Magic Journeys looked at the world through the eyes of a child. The film started with children running through a meadow and looking at clouds. Someone blew on a dandelion and the seeds then flew away, turning into stars and then turned into the sun. Next, the kids were seen flying a kite at the beach. The kite then turned into a bird, a fish, a school of fish, a flock of birds, bird wings, a Pegasus, a horse, and then finally into a merry-go-round. While the children rode the carousel, they began reaching for a brass ring spinning next to the carousel; the carousel spun around the moon and bats flew out past the riders. The moon became a witch, a mask, an Olmec head, and more until turning into a cat. A boy reached out to the cat and it turned into the Sphinx, which turned into a lion jumping through a hoop in the circus. Trapeze artists and acrobats flew through the air and several clowns amused the children. The circus then gives way to reveal it as only a miniature with small flying machines coming up through the roof of the room into the stars. The kids move through a room of balloons and encounter a magician. At the end of this act, the room gives way as the kids descend through a starscape and return back to the meadow with the dandelion unblowing itself.
Soundtrack[]
The film's preshow song "Makin' Memories" and the film's theme song "Magic Journeys", can be found on the 1991 CD The Official Album of Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Both songs also appear on the album The Sherman Brothers Songbook. Prior to the Shermans being brought aboard, the Dusty Springfield version of "The Windmills of Your Mind" was used as a temp song to cut the sequence.[3]
Gallery[]
Magic Journeys 2D
Magic Journeys
Donald in a print ad for the show at Disneyland
Goofy on a promotional sticker for the show at Tokyo Disneyland
Entrance to the attraction at the Magic Kingdom
The opening of Magic Journeys at Tokyo Disneyland in 1985
