Some of the cargo-hauling concepts in the video are pretty acurate. We already have the standarised cargo containers, and German engineers have designed an automatic transportation system called "cargo cap", where computer-controlled pods drive through a system of underground pipelines to deliver cargo directly to factories. They are planning to build it in the Ruhr area.
I'm surprised they thought we would focus so much on the highways. Instead of improving travel and highways, we have improved telecommunications so as to be anywhere in the world at once, electronically.
Some of these are silly, but I wonder if anyone will watch this in five or seven hundred years and comment at the automated infrastructure autobuilder, because it's very similar in concept to what they use, just as we do on the automatic traffic information service. ;)
We have the means for that last car they showed at 7:07. Somebody made a disk that could do that a few weeks ago. If only oil companies cared more about the future...
@rockdontrun You said "we need to stop listening to what animators and filmmakers say the future is going to be like", but really...
How many scientist are working now trying to get the things they saw in movies or TV shows? Just look how in Japan are working in robots, invisible cloaks like "Ghost in the Shell" (not so old). Maybe cellphones was made by people who liked the bond's devices, and just said "why don't make one like this for us"?
It is really amazing how accurate so many of their predictions for the future are. Ithe interstate network, air ambulance, radaptive cruise control, suburbs, etc. It only took 50 years but we finally got there!
While most of this is ridiculous, some of the stuff is something we should look at. Why can't we just raise safety standards for cars and have better driver training so we can increase speed limits?
@rockdontrun Animators & filmmakers aren't the only ones who have dismal track records predicting the future.Futurists,writers,politicians,even scientists can miss the mark by a country mile.Still,I enjoy seeing what others think the future might hold,even if its only in their dreams.I often wonder just how much further along we'd be in peaceful technology if we didn't devote enormous sums of money to the military industrial complex,wars,governmental/business greed,corruption & stupidity.
@Surricks The lack of people is a product of the modern art style combined with the frugal nature of animation for television. I'd recommend looking at the other programs Disney produced for the Tomorrowland series of TV shows before deriving some sort of social statement.
Passenger trains aren't mentioned because this vision of the future focuses on highways. Airplanes, motorcycles, commuter trains.and a multitude of other methods of transportation also aren't shown.
I'm most impressed by the atomic reactor which melts tunnels through rock, without melting itself, and with the molten rock apparently seeping into its own porous self. Might work on a mountain of pumice!
@rockdontrun The assumption that this was developed merely by "cartoonists" is complete ignorance. Disney hired numerous scientists and futurists to work on the Tomorrowland series of TV shows. Automakers in particular had significant input into the development of this short.
Also, the predictions made in the video were meant to span centuries of development, so it's a bit premature to say they were wrong. As many have noted, a few of the devices and concepts here have already come to pass.
@GreeboWorshipper Um, was it really stated anywhere that the video is supposed to cover next few centuries? Knowing the naive optimism of the era, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out their assumption was "the tame predictions are for 1970, the visionary ones are for 1990".
@kruppenstein The last part of the video at 6:51 shows evolving types of vehicular technologies...which implies several decades (if not centuries) of new developments in technology. They also talk about "such visionary ideas" being commonplace to future generations, as in plural. Not to mention that the entire thing is structured to show the slow evolution of technology.
Do you really think that ALL of the advances shown in this video were intended to cover a span of 32 years?
"Do you really think that ALL of the advances shown in this video were intended to cover a span of 32 years?"
Well, typical 1950's prediction of the future would promise even wackier things in even shorter amount of time, so I guess I just wasn't prepared for realism.
@sw0rdf1sh2326 Please learn to separate the era in which this was made with the actual predictions going on in the video. Most of this technology assumes the use of atomic power or as yet undiscovered energy sources...not fossil fuels.
Did anyone notice that at 3:52 the scene is just like in The Jetsons? I'm assuming the Jetsons was influenced by this and not the other way around. What a quality and well done video this is. It's one of my top ten favorites in all of youtube.
All it takes is one or two people on cell phones to foul up a thirty minute commute. Imagine the snarls that will happen on a transatlantic underwater drive! I suppose we'll all be playing checkers in the back on those drives, though.
@365ral Well some of it is absolutely absurd. We're not going to fucking air condition an enclosed highway system. Because heating and cooling cabins is just so inefficient. Who the hell thinks that it's a good idea?
I love watching these future concept vids..... I mean this was envisioned by Walt Disney and other brilliant minds in the 1950s and look how far we've come. We have highways, GPS, cruise control (setting driving speed), and in some luxury cars there are video screens projecting the rear of the car. Just shows you the imagination of human beings, I love it.
A lot of this is silly, but some is surprisingly accurate. They predicted urban sprawl, the GPS (albeit a primitive form), the RV and the bullet train. Not bad.
Although I think this would've been better if it were narrated by Ludvig Von Drake to Donald Duck.
I have to disagree. This was produced for Disneyland, and therefore was either being used to entertain vacationers (mostly children, the parks main audience) or as an edutainment feature in some primitive form of Epcot. Either way, a bit of humor in the framing would only have enhanced the film itself.
@Manyskins This was shown on the "Disneyland" anthology TV show, *not* the theme park. Though it was eventually played in the queue area for the Rocket Rods attraction in 1998, it was not originally produced for use anywhere in the theme park.
The Tomorrowland series of programs that Disney produced were NOT explicitly produced for children. Many space-age scientists like Wernher von Braun were hired to help depict a realistic view of what early space travel and futuristic design would be like.
Guys, this is 1958, who knew what direction of technology we were going to in the future...... heck, I wish the highway system was just like this..... no traffic... ;)
They nailed it with their prediction of the containerization of freight, among other things already mentioned. For every five or so howlers, there's a pretty darn good prediction in that film.
A lot of thought went into this and if you can forgive the rather rudimentary animation, the ideas behind them are very feasible. Highways we have today are antiquated and are showing its constraints. As the video says, it does seem more fiction than reality but the same can be said about our contemporary skyscrapers and highways in a time when all we had were horse carriages. Hopefully more initiatives will spring up and compliment the hybrids which is already a 15 year old technology.
The sad thing is, this video was basically correct about the urban sprawl and delocalisation of economic activity highways would enable. And the result sucks.
The reason we haven't accomplished much in terms of this video is that before we do pretty much any of the stuff shown here, we need to solve a LOT of energy issues.
Um they already do that it's called civil aviation several hundred thousand people have a pilot's license. NASA has been working on making flying easier with the highway in the sky concept and the FAA made the sport pilot's category to bring personal flight to more people.
As for collisions they'd actually be far less likely then on the ground and you can have things like collision warning systems etc which now can be small and low cost.
@Membrane556 Are you seriously comparing the number of people who fly airplanes vs the amount of people on the road? There are MILLIONS of drivers out there. Old, young, inexperienced.
I can see flying cars that are completely automated and computer controlled, but I can't see the concept of millions of flying automobiles controlled by human beings ever taking off. Too dangerous.
@Levio100 It could also be a very good solution to getting emergency vehicles to where they need to go more quickly...I think we desperately need flying ambulances in New York City.
@Levio100 There is also increasingly limited airspace. Yes, the US is a big place, but the air traffic near airports in big metropolitan areas are extremely crowded.
Funny how @2:50 that city reminds me of Brasília (capital of Brazil), which was planned by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx in 1957, just one year before this show went on air.
Thanks for sharing the wonderful film! Some of the predictions have come true and many will come true in the future. Just look at personal rapid transit and evacuated tube transit, technologies that are being developed today!
@SourAppleKiss Oh no, no - 2000 was just the regular future with luxury vehicles and rear-view cameras. The really good stuff like the atom-car and peace among nations don't come until the future-future.
"Lawyers and politicians will bog down the construction process in 'space court.' After years of litigation, payoffs, and environmental impact statements, roads will be constructed in mere seconds! Welcome to the FUTURE!"
Why do we need all these highways when we have the technology for flying ambulances!? Really, what would happen to all these highways when we could just fly?
Well, if nothing else came of it it was a good paycheck for a production crew, voice actor and musical set. I love the V-shaped motif that dominated industrial design back then.
@will2993 Yeah... this was a time when fuel only used to cost several cents a gallon and when American cars were -THE- only cars worth buying... and practically no pesky competition to speak of. =(
It makes me rage to see the can-do spirit of the 50s and then see the crushing mediocrity of the MTV, Corporations, Health and Safety, Partisan politics, bullshit can't-do society that we have become instead.
Obam isn't helping by canning the return to the moon and telling NASA to make Muslims feel good either.
I always thought it would be so cool to have a detachable mobile pod in a car so people could travel separately and reattach later! I really wish that would happen! As for your lament about "how little we've accomplished on this front," we, uhh... we... sort of have moving sidewalk thingies in airports and we can make video conferences! Yay! Neither of those things have anything to do with transportation... but redesigning the entire transportation system takes more than just dreaming. *sigh*
Upon entering the city, the family separates: the father to his office, mother and son to the shopping plaza lol. They had high technological expectations but narrow-minded societal expectations.
it's a les baxter compilation.funny how you watch this though how people had such hope and confidence that it would all work out.wonder what happened...
@skrag2112 It's a good enough of an idea that patents for Nuclear powered TBM's exist, and in all likelihood have been used in government construction projects.
Also, the word "giant" was never used to describe the nuclear reactor in such a device. In all likelihood you'd be dealing with a pretty small one. I'd recommend actually researching how nuclear energy works before you make kneejerk reactions against it. And get used to seeing more and more of it in the years to come.
@GreeboWorshipper It was more of a joke I was making than a kneejerk reaction. Believe me, I'm not an anti-nuclear activist. As for the 'giant' part, well, the machine itself did look rather large.
@skrag2112 Didn't mean to sound snippy. Most of the comments here are negative and cynical, and I thought yours was one of those.
And I think the size of the machine in the animation was dictated more by the size of the drill itself, not the size of the reactor used to power it. In the actual patents for these machines that date from the early 70's, the reactor takes up a pretty small part of the device.
@GreeboWorshipper I understand. The drawback to commenting online is that its almost impossible to gauge someones attitude at the time. Because you can't hear their voice or see their face you don't know if they're serious, angry, joking or what ever they're feeling. Many a flame war has started over an innocent comment, believe me.
I still like this film and its hopeful attitude. I'm just wondering if I'll be around to see it happen.
As far-fetched as these 1958 predictions may be,keep this in mind---the computer you're now sitting in front of used to be a massive machine that only a select few could have.
Funny seeing this now I guess, because although the animators used their imagination to predict technological advances they implanted their 1950's social norms into them. Father goes to work, while mother and and son go shopping... and he seems to do all the "machinery" handling
@woodycoat :Anything that it was fiction in the past, could be reality in the future, the only thing you need to do is: check online and you'll find some of the craziest new inventions.
2:45 WHY was that second city considered BETTER?! EW! Thost kinds of cities are depressing to live in and no one walks anywhere because they can't.... It's just awful.
Anyone remember the Rocket Rods attraction at Disneyland? This video used to play in the (long and way too slow) queue line! Thanks for posting this- the Rocket Rods was my favorite Disneyland attraction growing up (I was about 8 or 9 when it opened)! Too bad it was short-lived...
I can't get over their truck-train system, so much more efficient than our current system for transporting industrial goods. Hundreds of thousands of semi trucks driving everywhere all the time? We have to be able to do better than that.
It all seems like a good idea but in retrospect think about how much you will actually physically be doing... hardly any if any at all even. I feel that if things become like this though that obesity will steadily increase due to extreme lack of physical activity.
A lot of them aren't necessary and are impractical. Why zip around the country in a privately owned car when you can pay for high speed plane and train rides for much cheaper costs.
Some of the cargo-hauling concepts in the video are pretty acurate. We already have the standarised cargo containers, and German engineers have designed an automatic transportation system called "cargo cap", where computer-controlled pods drive through a system of underground pipelines to deliver cargo directly to factories. They are planning to build it in the Ruhr area.
Andromedos 1 day ago
They got gps and rearview cameras right!:D
bunnybooties 3 weeks ago
I don't hate these vids, i love them for their novelty value, they were so optimistic back then
bobmarleyt3 2 months ago
I'm surprised they thought we would focus so much on the highways. Instead of improving travel and highways, we have improved telecommunications so as to be anywhere in the world at once, electronically.
tzone92 2 months ago
Well...we do have highways with color coded signs, sort of. There IS Careflight for severe instances. Annnnd GPS navigation.
PhobotechNG 2 months ago
Some of these are silly, but I wonder if anyone will watch this in five or seven hundred years and comment at the automated infrastructure autobuilder, because it's very similar in concept to what they use, just as we do on the automatic traffic information service. ;)
krazislav 3 months ago
Feels like Back to The Past & Away with the Future.
Employerus 3 months ago
We have the means for that last car they showed at 7:07. Somebody made a disk that could do that a few weeks ago. If only oil companies cared more about the future...
zoo1619 3 months ago
@rockdontrun the funny thing is we actually are getting this stufff, just not so zeerust-tic
Jakezing 3 months ago
@rockdontrun You said "we need to stop listening to what animators and filmmakers say the future is going to be like", but really...
How many scientist are working now trying to get the things they saw in movies or TV shows? Just look how in Japan are working in robots, invisible cloaks like "Ghost in the Shell" (not so old). Maybe cellphones was made by people who liked the bond's devices, and just said "why don't make one like this for us"?
pavcueto 3 months ago
It is really amazing how accurate so many of their predictions for the future are. Ithe interstate network, air ambulance, radaptive cruise control, suburbs, etc. It only took 50 years but we finally got there!
gsc2011 3 months ago
who else watches this, and gets angry
IRONJOEPAWLOWSKI 4 months ago
i would love to see that.
hassan559437 4 months ago
All the r&d money for this stuff got pumped into Vietnam and the Great Society.
haupper 5 months ago
Send me a "Farm Produce Unit" please, Thanks.
tetekofa 5 months ago in playlist tetekofa's Favorited Videos
While most of this is ridiculous, some of the stuff is something we should look at. Why can't we just raise safety standards for cars and have better driver training so we can increase speed limits?
Ijustwannacomment122 5 months ago
You'll NEVER have to walk again!
strawberries2442 6 months ago
But - but !!
The 60's era Popular Mechanics magazines I read said we would all have flying cars in our driveway by this time.
Hi-ways would not be needed !!
Was it all propaganda ?
agwhitaker 6 months ago in playlist agwhitaker's Favorited Videos
if the world and its people would get their shit together and rely on cooperation rather than competition,we could be this advanced !
darkempire37 6 months ago
@rockdontrun Animators & filmmakers aren't the only ones who have dismal track records predicting the future.Futurists,writers,politicians,even scientists can miss the mark by a country mile.Still,I enjoy seeing what others think the future might hold,even if its only in their dreams.I often wonder just how much further along we'd be in peaceful technology if we didn't devote enormous sums of money to the military industrial complex,wars,governmental/business greed,corruption & stupidity.
theironclads 6 months ago
Not bad on the rear view, actually.
fab006 7 months ago
Oh darn, The father is going to have to WALK to his desk... -___-
kevinalvarez10 7 months ago
@kevinalvarez10
LOL!
neonnoodle2001 6 months ago
A lot of these are actually in use:
-"television" rear view mirror
-super speed trans-continental highway system-80 mph
-fueling in garage (electric vehicles)
-choosing routes by electronics-GPS/experimental self driving machines
-spaced out cities
-business meetings in the car by television-possible but dangerous
-highly specialized pleasure vehicles-RVs
haidend 8 months ago
They seemed to think the world would be mostly depopulated, and that passenger trains would not exist.
Surricks 8 months ago 4
@Surricks The lack of people is a product of the modern art style combined with the frugal nature of animation for television. I'd recommend looking at the other programs Disney produced for the Tomorrowland series of TV shows before deriving some sort of social statement.
Passenger trains aren't mentioned because this vision of the future focuses on highways. Airplanes, motorcycles, commuter trains.and a multitude of other methods of transportation also aren't shown.
GreeboWorshipper 8 months ago 11
They were right about highways leading to decentralization of the pouplation, but wrong about the traffic being light.
Surricks 8 months ago
I'm most impressed by the atomic reactor which melts tunnels through rock, without melting itself, and with the molten rock apparently seeping into its own porous self. Might work on a mountain of pumice!
akdave69 8 months ago
What a vision! We must make all these possiblities.
puffyclouddd1 8 months ago
@rockdontrun The assumption that this was developed merely by "cartoonists" is complete ignorance. Disney hired numerous scientists and futurists to work on the Tomorrowland series of TV shows. Automakers in particular had significant input into the development of this short.
Also, the predictions made in the video were meant to span centuries of development, so it's a bit premature to say they were wrong. As many have noted, a few of the devices and concepts here have already come to pass.
GreeboWorshipper 8 months ago 9
@GreeboWorshipper Um, was it really stated anywhere that the video is supposed to cover next few centuries? Knowing the naive optimism of the era, I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out their assumption was "the tame predictions are for 1970, the visionary ones are for 1990".
kruppenstein 6 months ago
@kruppenstein The last part of the video at 6:51 shows evolving types of vehicular technologies...which implies several decades (if not centuries) of new developments in technology. They also talk about "such visionary ideas" being commonplace to future generations, as in plural. Not to mention that the entire thing is structured to show the slow evolution of technology.
Do you really think that ALL of the advances shown in this video were intended to cover a span of 32 years?
GreeboWorshipper 6 months ago 6
"future generations, as in plural"
Oh, yeah, I haven't noticed. Sorry.
"Do you really think that ALL of the advances shown in this video were intended to cover a span of 32 years?"
Well, typical 1950's prediction of the future would promise even wackier things in even shorter amount of time, so I guess I just wasn't prepared for realism.
kruppenstein 6 months ago
@kruppenstein "Knowing the naive optimism of the era"
You don't
johnspencefareal420 3 months ago
we could of had this 40 years ago but profit got in the way.
TheNamaste2012 8 months ago
Lol, underwater highway....anybody how much the Big Dig cost? Otherwise, not...too off-the-wall predictions.
(and then peak oil hit, and this world was thrown into chaos)
sw0rdf1sh2326 9 months ago
@sw0rdf1sh2326 Please learn to separate the era in which this was made with the actual predictions going on in the video. Most of this technology assumes the use of atomic power or as yet undiscovered energy sources...not fossil fuels.
GreeboWorshipper 9 months ago 7
@sw0rdf1sh2326 It's not a highway, but there exists a railway under the sea between England and france.
bluesmodus 1 month ago
@bluesmodus I know about the Chunnel...I'm just saying that they're talking about these things so casually, as if cost is no option.
sw0rdf1sh2326 1 month ago
i'd be too scared to go to those underwater hotels o.o what if the glass breaks? x.x
religiousguy 9 months ago
@religiousguy totally agree.. and the underwater air pressure isn't really stated, seems irrational lol love the creativity though!
HarleyQuinzelle 9 months ago
Wow, just wow. From this intelligent slice of wonder, to Teenagers laughing at Babies. Disney died.
zoo1619 9 months ago
Did anyone notice that at 3:52 the scene is just like in The Jetsons? I'm assuming the Jetsons was influenced by this and not the other way around. What a quality and well done video this is. It's one of my top ten favorites in all of youtube.
jbjindra 9 months ago
All it takes is one or two people on cell phones to foul up a thirty minute commute. Imagine the snarls that will happen on a transatlantic underwater drive! I suppose we'll all be playing checkers in the back on those drives, though.
WaffleTruck 9 months ago
4:20...From his private parking space, the father will probably have to WALK to his desk. LOL
987Mars 9 months ago
Love this! Classic Kimball and Walt & Co.
35sixer 9 months ago
I like the concept of a safe driving speed for conditions vs an absolute speed limit.
Sometimes it's perfectly safe to drive 90+ while other times it's dangerous to go over 55mph.
They really could implement that now.
Membrane556 10 months ago
It's evident to me they thought that cheap energy and the post-WW2 economic boom would last forever. Rockets and air conditioned highways?
Xzeleous 10 months ago
mother to the shopping centre.......LOL
AndreLeCoz 10 months ago
2:20 Mobile nuclear reactors making molehills out of mountains.
Hey, I want one of those!
agwhitaker 10 months ago
It's funny how we always predict the future to be futuristic, but we STILL haven't had that technology yet.
365ral 10 months ago
@365ral Well some of it is absolutely absurd. We're not going to fucking air condition an enclosed highway system. Because heating and cooling cabins is just so inefficient. Who the hell thinks that it's a good idea?
jrs89 10 months ago
It was held back by the self interest OIL MEN who want to hang onto the flat Earth petrolhead thinking.
kitwann1 11 months ago
7:15 "Monorail Song" FTW!!!!
TheMellowPumpkin 11 months ago
instead of all that... we get ipads... yay
roxonogueira 1 year ago
Boy was this prophetic!!!"
puffyclouddd1 1 year ago
I love watching these future concept vids..... I mean this was envisioned by Walt Disney and other brilliant minds in the 1950s and look how far we've come. We have highways, GPS, cruise control (setting driving speed), and in some luxury cars there are video screens projecting the rear of the car. Just shows you the imagination of human beings, I love it.
DonCorleone87 1 year ago 25
7:11 Minority Report!!!!!
OutlawStar355 1 year ago 3
A lot of this is silly, but some is surprisingly accurate. They predicted urban sprawl, the GPS (albeit a primitive form), the RV and the bullet train. Not bad.
Although I think this would've been better if it were narrated by Ludvig Von Drake to Donald Duck.
Manyskins 1 year ago
@Manyskins Adding Disney comic relief characters would have completely undermined the tone they were trying to set here.
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 10
@GreeboWorshipper
I have to disagree. This was produced for Disneyland, and therefore was either being used to entertain vacationers (mostly children, the parks main audience) or as an edutainment feature in some primitive form of Epcot. Either way, a bit of humor in the framing would only have enhanced the film itself.
Manyskins 1 year ago
@Manyskins This was shown on the "Disneyland" anthology TV show, *not* the theme park. Though it was eventually played in the queue area for the Rocket Rods attraction in 1998, it was not originally produced for use anywhere in the theme park.
The Tomorrowland series of programs that Disney produced were NOT explicitly produced for children. Many space-age scientists like Wernher von Braun were hired to help depict a realistic view of what early space travel and futuristic design would be like.
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 7
some cool ideas
Animeabe 1 year ago
This high tech convenient world would be possible only with real coordination between business, government, and people.
jbjindra 1 year ago
@jbjindra and some complete disregard for safety or the possibility of mechanical failure.I still love stuff like this though
TrollCapAmerica 1 year ago
AH....UTOPIA
HahahaVille 1 year ago
Guys, this is 1958, who knew what direction of technology we were going to in the future...... heck, I wish the highway system was just like this..... no traffic... ;)
KrakatoaCoo 1 year ago 2
They nailed it with their prediction of the containerization of freight, among other things already mentioned. For every five or so howlers, there's a pretty darn good prediction in that film.
pennystinkard 1 year ago
A lot of thought went into this and if you can forgive the rather rudimentary animation, the ideas behind them are very feasible. Highways we have today are antiquated and are showing its constraints. As the video says, it does seem more fiction than reality but the same can be said about our contemporary skyscrapers and highways in a time when all we had were horse carriages. Hopefully more initiatives will spring up and compliment the hybrids which is already a 15 year old technology.
supercooled 1 year ago 3
The sad thing is, this video was basically correct about the urban sprawl and delocalisation of economic activity highways would enable. And the result sucks.
conradvink 1 year ago 2
Man, I wish I had a punch card reader in my car. It would be so keen.
RMannc 1 year ago
The reason we haven't accomplished much in terms of this video is that before we do pretty much any of the stuff shown here, we need to solve a LOT of energy issues.
Ethoxyethane 1 year ago
What phenomenal predictions; this is wild! How did they know exactly what the world of today is like?
thisisryanblood 1 year ago
If there's an air-born ambulance vehicle, why are we still driving cars on the ground...
Levio100 1 year ago 4
@Levio100 Have you ever considered the ramifications of giving hundreds of thousands of people the license to fly?
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 22
@GreeboWorshipper Oh yes. Whatever happens, it will be awesome.
Levio100 1 year ago
@GreeboWorshipper
Um they already do that it's called civil aviation several hundred thousand people have a pilot's license. NASA has been working on making flying easier with the highway in the sky concept and the FAA made the sport pilot's category to bring personal flight to more people.
As for collisions they'd actually be far less likely then on the ground and you can have things like collision warning systems etc which now can be small and low cost.
Membrane556 10 months ago
@Membrane556 Are you seriously comparing the number of people who fly airplanes vs the amount of people on the road? There are MILLIONS of drivers out there. Old, young, inexperienced.
I can see flying cars that are completely automated and computer controlled, but I can't see the concept of millions of flying automobiles controlled by human beings ever taking off. Too dangerous.
GreeboWorshipper 10 months ago 3
@Levio100 It could also be a very good solution to getting emergency vehicles to where they need to go more quickly...I think we desperately need flying ambulances in New York City.
KaldeaX 11 months ago
@Levio100 There is also increasingly limited airspace. Yes, the US is a big place, but the air traffic near airports in big metropolitan areas are extremely crowded.
jrs89 10 months ago
its funny to think all this became true
hendy139 1 year ago
I would really like to see a series based on this!
It's like a cooler, better animated version of the Jetsons!
Disney really dropped the ball on this one!
venusian1 1 year ago
what's that thing that lands atop the road builder?
kruppenstein 1 year ago
It sounds ridiculous. And then you realize that correct for terminology, and some of this is actually accurate of what we have today :O
MirrorManification 1 year ago
:O
LobsterPotsticker 1 year ago
Funny how @2:50 that city reminds me of Brasília (capital of Brazil), which was planned by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx in 1957, just one year before this show went on air.
oceifador 1 year ago
cargo rocket ftw
siogyumolcs 1 year ago
In a perfect world...Can't wait for that future to come!
88kellaki 1 year ago
Awesome Music!
The score is responsible for most of the action.
pisspisspiss 1 year ago
If Google was around back in 1958, they would have made all of this happen by now.
tigger2u 1 year ago 7
Better living through drive-istry huh?
No mention of compressed air power.
elpaletonero 1 year ago
Thanks for sharing the wonderful film! Some of the predictions have come true and many will come true in the future. Just look at personal rapid transit and evacuated tube transit, technologies that are being developed today!
eggaweb 1 year ago
Hilarious that the arrows @0:13 look like the Pontiac logo.
Devitron5000 1 year ago
lol , people were expecting too much
KushMonkiezTV 1 year ago
i can only imagine how disappointed my grandmother was when she lived to see the year 2000 and didn't see tubular highways or floating cars
SourAppleKiss 1 year ago
@SourAppleKiss Oh no, no - 2000 was just the regular future with luxury vehicles and rear-view cameras. The really good stuff like the atom-car and peace among nations don't come until the future-future.
johncocktosensen 1 year ago
The cool thing is from 1:06 - 1:29 is actually a reality and comes issued in many cars today.
PSNLanceManley 1 year ago
Aside from the melty heat head on that nuclear TBM that doesn't seem like a bad idea.
Just like a nuclear submarine; all the power you could want.
The dreams of today are nowhere near as epic as the dreams of yesteryear...oh well. *sigh*
RRVCrinale 1 year ago
I love how we have achieved some of these ideas and more. but its still nothing compared to these dreams they had.
chrismandotcom 1 year ago
"Lawyers and politicians will bog down the construction process in 'space court.' After years of litigation, payoffs, and environmental impact statements, roads will be constructed in mere seconds! Welcome to the FUTURE!"
ArsMoriendi411 1 year ago 6
Why do we need all these highways when we have the technology for flying ambulances!? Really, what would happen to all these highways when we could just fly?
googlemeister94 1 year ago 5
Safe driving speed 85, ha, ha, how I wish.
tjttzcspplt 1 year ago
Well, if nothing else came of it it was a good paycheck for a production crew, voice actor and musical set. I love the V-shaped motif that dominated industrial design back then.
modspell 1 year ago
the 50's imagination was just amazing
NickyChanSaying 1 year ago 2
The future already today
lasto4kin 1 year ago
when are we supposed to get this shit?
SuperOxideDimutase 1 year ago
We could have had all this had Reagen never been elected.
southparkfan2717 1 year ago
The future is a series of tubes? ;)
Winstonsicle 1 year ago 3
@will2993 Yeah... this was a time when fuel only used to cost several cents a gallon and when American cars were -THE- only cars worth buying... and practically no pesky competition to speak of. =(
rkmugen 1 year ago
I'm still waiting for all that leisure time!
revnstpaul 1 year ago 6
@revnstpaul no flying car yet neither. =\
rkmugen 1 year ago
I bet kids who saw this in 1958 are damn disappointed now....
Dan4157 1 year ago 9
@Dan4157 I saw this today.... and for me being born in the 1980's, even i'm disappointed!
rkmugen 1 year ago
That's the most bad-ass ambulance ever. I would get hurt on purpose to ride in that thing.
Aahlookoutbehindyou 1 year ago 8
by the way, has anyone else noticed that one of the maglev cars sticks to the wall despite apparently having its super electro suspension turned off?
kruppenstein 1 year ago
It makes me rage to see the can-do spirit of the 50s and then see the crushing mediocrity of the MTV, Corporations, Health and Safety, Partisan politics, bullshit can't-do society that we have become instead.
Obam isn't helping by canning the return to the moon and telling NASA to make Muslims feel good either.
Bloodgod40 1 year ago 5
"The father goes to work and the mother goes to the shopping center."
xmnemonic 1 year ago 73
Oh, how I miss the retro-future. Everything was going to be so cool.
mshades 1 year ago 6
OMG, I remember seeing this as a kid. Way cool
MrDanlj 1 year ago
They expected major physical advancements, but instead, we went digital. Sorry 1950s.
AwesomeReo 1 year ago 4
When we actually set out to accomplish our fantasies, we find out very quickly why they are fantastical in the first place.
HaoWenXiang 1 year ago
Well they sure got the suburban sprawl part right!
notalott 1 year ago 5
There was more to this film. Featuring Walt Disney talking about the merits of America's highways. Showing city planning. How highways are built.
This portion was offered as "what the future could look like."
IdeaSandbox 1 year ago
I always thought it would be so cool to have a detachable mobile pod in a car so people could travel separately and reattach later! I really wish that would happen! As for your lament about "how little we've accomplished on this front," we, uhh... we... sort of have moving sidewalk thingies in airports and we can make video conferences! Yay! Neither of those things have anything to do with transportation... but redesigning the entire transportation system takes more than just dreaming. *sigh*
lonelyingorgeous 1 year ago 3
@lonelyingorgeous Oh how useless and terrible those moving sidewalks in airports are.
Ne0nie 1 year ago
"Dad I'm bored we've been playing checkers for the past 4 hours now on our way to Canada."
"This is family time damnit. You're gonna play checkers and enjoy it."
SandraBullcocked 1 year ago 8
Walt Disney really does inspire me with his thoughts of progress in improving the world, pitty that we arnt even close
caitlinflute 1 year ago 4
Upon entering the city, the family separates: the father to his office, mother and son to the shopping plaza lol. They had high technological expectations but narrow-minded societal expectations.
WalkThePath87 1 year ago 7
@WalkThePath87 They had realistic, rather than politically correct, societal expectations.
CatapultYourMom 1 year ago
@CatapultYourMom Balls. I think WalkThePath hit the nail on the head. This was 1958, not 12BC.
Unlixes 1 year ago
reminds me of :
"Space Escapades"
it's a les baxter compilation.funny how you watch this though how people had such hope and confidence that it would all work out.wonder what happened...
kikddabottle 1 year ago
@kikddabottle Also "I.G.Y." and "New Frontier" on Donald Fagen's THE NIGHTFLY. "What a beautiful world it will be..."
princeminski47 1 year ago
Wow, we really went in the complete opposite direction with this.........
Caliente1593 1 year ago 3
A giat mobile atomic reactor that can melt tunnels straight through mountains.
Yeah. THATS a good idea!
skrag2112 1 year ago 11
@skrag2112 It's a good enough of an idea that patents for Nuclear powered TBM's exist, and in all likelihood have been used in government construction projects.
Also, the word "giant" was never used to describe the nuclear reactor in such a device. In all likelihood you'd be dealing with a pretty small one. I'd recommend actually researching how nuclear energy works before you make kneejerk reactions against it. And get used to seeing more and more of it in the years to come.
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 14
@GreeboWorshipper It was more of a joke I was making than a kneejerk reaction. Believe me, I'm not an anti-nuclear activist. As for the 'giant' part, well, the machine itself did look rather large.
skrag2112 1 year ago 2
@skrag2112 Didn't mean to sound snippy. Most of the comments here are negative and cynical, and I thought yours was one of those.
And I think the size of the machine in the animation was dictated more by the size of the drill itself, not the size of the reactor used to power it. In the actual patents for these machines that date from the early 70's, the reactor takes up a pretty small part of the device.
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 2
@GreeboWorshipper I understand. The drawback to commenting online is that its almost impossible to gauge someones attitude at the time. Because you can't hear their voice or see their face you don't know if they're serious, angry, joking or what ever they're feeling. Many a flame war has started over an innocent comment, believe me.
I still like this film and its hopeful attitude. I'm just wondering if I'll be around to see it happen.
skrag2112 1 year ago
"to keep pace with america's economy"
if they only new...
kruppenstein 1 year ago 3
As far-fetched as these 1958 predictions may be,keep this in mind---the computer you're now sitting in front of used to be a massive machine that only a select few could have.
ctdsnark 1 year ago 3
I guess that's how they built roads in Fallout....
DrOktobermensch 1 year ago 4
Funny seeing this now I guess, because although the animators used their imagination to predict technological advances they implanted their 1950's social norms into them. Father goes to work, while mother and and son go shopping... and he seems to do all the "machinery" handling
very good to see nonetheless
deeyaya 1 year ago
Hm, interesting. quite a positive look on the future. Now all we need is someone who is willing to do all this.
Cloud198422 1 year ago
The father has to walk to his desk, poor man
majora2206 1 year ago
The future isn't what it used to be....
cathrynm 1 year ago 4
How hopeful they were......too bad JFK Nixon and Reagan destroyed any hope we had of such achievements.
AntiChristAntiFail 1 year ago
The moral is Disney animators used to do a LOT of drugs!
woodycoat 1 year ago
@woodycoat
A) No they didn't...it's called imagination and good design.
B) I'd prefer something that looks like the work of someone on drugs to the prosaic imagery of today's CG "masterpieces".
GreeboWorshipper 1 year ago 35
@GreeboWorshipper i agree with point A, but point B is a bit presumptious. not all animation today is crap (although most of it is).
but aside from that, awesome post. i love the old disney stuff. it amazes me the way those guys could look forward and imagine what was to come.
ateknogod 1 year ago
@GreeboWorshipper I think its great u correct ppl who make fun of this video whitout any knowledge of what they r talking about.
Its a cool video even though most stuff seems unecessary energy demanding.
Uuuurk 1 year ago
@woodycoat :Anything that it was fiction in the past, could be reality in the future, the only thing you need to do is: check online and you'll find some of the craziest new inventions.
LittleBigKRATOS 1 year ago
i wish that was true
GDon141 1 year ago
2:45 WHY was that second city considered BETTER?! EW! Thost kinds of cities are depressing to live in and no one walks anywhere because they can't.... It's just awful.
jeffsandychelsea 1 year ago 5
They got the backup camera part right.
kritty180 1 year ago 4
one of the msot fantastic videos i've seen in... forever?
matizzay 1 year ago
Skyways built by hanging onto the sides of canyon walls looks really awesome, but is a bad idea because the rock erodes.
GlennMagusHarvey 1 year ago 3
So many advances, and yet Father still chooses the route. ;-)
troatie 1 year ago 5
Anyone remember the Rocket Rods attraction at Disneyland? This video used to play in the (long and way too slow) queue line! Thanks for posting this- the Rocket Rods was my favorite Disneyland attraction growing up (I was about 8 or 9 when it opened)! Too bad it was short-lived...
Disneycoasterfan 1 year ago
I can't get over their truck-train system, so much more efficient than our current system for transporting industrial goods. Hundreds of thousands of semi trucks driving everywhere all the time? We have to be able to do better than that.
troodon311 1 year ago 3
What's this liquid spilled all over the highway at 1:34? Is the radiant heat not working? God help us all!
butth0Ie 1 year ago 3
lol may in 100 years hehehehe
Foleyfatz 1 year ago
Just brilliant! :)
tombuli 1 year ago
What a world of optimism, anything was possible..
Blokkhedtwo 2 years ago 5
It all seems like a good idea but in retrospect think about how much you will actually physically be doing... hardly any if any at all even. I feel that if things become like this though that obesity will steadily increase due to extreme lack of physical activity.
momilam08 2 years ago
Automobiles have been around in one form or another for over a century now. If anything, exercise has become more popular in that time.
IMO, people have a choice whether to remain active and healthy. Technology shouldn't be limited because some people will choose to be fat and lazy.
GreeboWorshipper 2 years ago 2
A lot of them aren't necessary and are impractical. Why zip around the country in a privately owned car when you can pay for high speed plane and train rides for much cheaper costs.
dreammaker182 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
All we need is a plague or large scale man disaster to take care of the problem.
dreammaker182 2 years ago
It's the animation style for christ's sake.
GreeboWorshipper 2 years ago 2