A few days ago we talked about a leaked photo of a box of stuff with the label “1952″ on it. This turned out to be a bit of viral marketing for a film now being called “Tomorrowland” that will be directed by Brad Bird. Yesterday, the folks at D23 decided to chime in on the Tomorrowland box. In the article, the take an item by item approach to the box (yay!! Just what I was looking for!) and provided their thoughts. After reading the article though, I’m afraid I might have to call shenanigans. Here’s their image.
The Tomorrowland Box
Most of their descriptions are fairly standard. It’s a box. It has 1952 on it. Number 7 is old slides. Number 4 are photos of Walt. That sort of thing. My main beef though is with their descriptions for the first three items.
- From the age, type, and conditions of the items I can see, I feel that the materials in the box were gathered together for a project from the past. Perhaps as research for a science-fiction-themed film, television, or park attraction, or even a futurism project like Walt’s vision of EPCOT.
- It looks like someone reused an old banker’s box from another Disney production. We don’t use this style of boxes anymore at the studio. There is another sticker on the cover of the box, but the text on the picture is obscured.
- Someone put tape over the original production label and hand wrote “1952″ in pen—the brevity of the title and the fact that it’s handwritten sounds to me like it’s probably a working title. Both the studio and WED often used working titles before they came up with a final title of the project. “The Concert Feature” was what they called Fantasia before they decided upon a final name for example.
The authors are talking about the Tomorrowland box as if it were a real thing. Perhaps something Walt, or the studio, were compiling for a film being produced back then. But then in the very next comment, they’re referencing the 1952 label as being a working title. Why would Disney or WED be compiling material for a science fiction production, presumably one set in the future, but give it a working title of 1952?
The obvious answer is that this is a staged photo. It’s a pr0p! Therefore I must call shenanigans on the good people at D23, because they obviously know this too, but are merely playing along with the ruse. I am grateful though for some of the other 
descriptions given in the article. By the way, any description or mention of the grey, metallic piece of machinery (it almost looks like a camera) is conspicuously absent.
So if D23 is participating in the ruse, one must infer that their descriptions and thoughts are a mis-direct. I therefore conclude that we’re looking at a story where the contents of the box, found in present time, lead to the telling of how Disneyland, and Tomorrowland specifically, were involved in some sort of scientific or military cover up back in 1952. More specifically, that the park was built for the specific purpose of covering something up. Hence 1952, when Disneyland was conceived, instead of 1955, when it opened.
Thoughts? Have ventured too far in to geek mode?
