Disney's Magic Highway - 1958

[rejectzombie]

i wish

[Zilch79]

My favorite part is 5:35 when the hydrofoils materialize out of nowhere. Awesome!

[caterham7jpe]

anyone else totally weirded out that 80% of thats already happend? I mean chrysler made a turbine car already, jet cars still roam Bonneville we have tunnels that go underwater etc etc etc

[chuckbflo]

@caterham7jpe : Except for GPS and decentralization, 98% of this *hasn't* happened. Thank God.

[VieVentar]

@caterham7jpe We already had tunnels that go underwater and jet turbine powered cars when this film was made.

[neatoauctions]

A vision of an interesting world - where even road-building equipment has tailfins. What the "imagineers" failed to predict was the obese pork-bellies who would inhabit the sterilized dump. Another failing point of the wizz thinkers was their shortsighted view of fully-enclosed passenger compartments. How could ner’-do-wells possibly fire their automatic weapons into occupied homes or businesses through a glass canopy?

All my rust,

Johnny Witchburner(TM)

[dutchbart]

Incredible! Disney did predict some things, just like Jules Verne, that realy did come true!

Wow! He had a creative mind!

[RedWolfSV]

Insert a punch card in a futuristic car? Guess they hadn't envisioned computer operating systems yet. Some of the rest is amazingly accurate.

[robertwmartens]

Definitely a precursor to General Motors' FUTURAMA at the 1964/65 NY World's Fair. The gigantic highway builder was seen there plowing through the Amazon.

[jhbonarius]

no walking required at all... Man, Americans would become even fatter!!

[Wykletypl]

These ideas kinda remind you of something, don't they? Yes, they must have served as an inspiration for the Jetsons.

[rangeclerk]

How about the colorblind folks! Had an Astronomer Instructor who was also my boss (mid '70s) and he was colorblind and also could not see any star fainter than a +3 apparent mag. He knew is constellations and stuff from his understanding of physics! He still works at Santa Ana College's Tessmann Planetarium CA.

[NitroNorm5688]

At least we know how the jetson's probably got started.

Actually, i think i would have liked to see a small cartoon show based upon documentaries such as this. The art was pretty good and there was plenty of information to start a show.

[RideMyBMW]

Vietnam and Cold War could have financed all of that sh%$ 10 times over... We've dug our own fu%$in graves.

[RayLRiv]

Awesome. A great study in transportation and logistical methods.

[whataboutoddd]

Wow! Disney's Magic Horror!!!

Though stylisticaly, this film is beautiful to the eye, the theme and ideas is pretty scary. Disney's vision of the future (*in 1958) apparently saw millions of miles of open space and the environment not affected at all by the expantion of highways. As a kid watching this, i'd thought this film was amazing. But what was the studio's intentions here? To educate or entertain? Interesting..

[SeniorQuack]

Now go out and invent this stuff kids. As long as gasoline doesn't go much above 25¢/gal we should be able to do all of this bu the far distant future time of 1997!

[Firefox9895]

HIIIIGHWAY TO HELL!!!!

[SirRoxo]

Dear god, good thing this really didnt happen otherwise we'd all look like the people in Wall-e

In any case their "future" year 2009 is here and I hope they enjoy what the highway has done to some perfectly attractive sections of this country.

[dlroworld]

The "after" visions of these cities that they showed kinda reminded me of those commie-block developments in former USSR.

[josseppie]

I want these highways over are so called smart roads...

[Burnoutparade]

And the fact about this was "They were right to a degree"

[K3MBLE]

i think most these ideas for highways are possible, like heated roads and lightened roads but i think they are just impractical and a waste of energy

[zeogeox]

PUNCH CARDS!? When the last time someone used those LOL! Eh what's music on cassette?!?!?!

[jar0fdirt63]

that was awesome

[thaliahelene]

They were right on a couple of things, sort of. First, absolutely correct that highways would depopulate large cities into the urban sprawl today, and that the shape of cities would change.

Second, about the truck trains... we have container trains with truck loads on them right this second, very common... just no elevated tracks, monorails, sliding into stores or rocket launch bays... into freight docks, though...

[shpinserge]

what a waste of everything.

Guys who made this cartoon probably never heard of the second law of thermodynamics.

Can you imagine maintains costs of this fantasy?

[shawntoh]

Seen the troubles and the evils of this world

I've seen the stretches between godliness and sin

I've heard the promise and confessions of good faith

And hypocrisy that always lies within

And they left it for you, all of this for you

[aaronorear]

I don't know what's more appalling - the technological naiveté or the fact that this vision was held up as GOOD, something to be desired. Who in their right mind would want to live on a planet like that?

[dirtyratmiller]

Who's gonna pay for all this crap?

[jaydubb2]

among everything else that has been noted here about this video... where are all the people? it makes it seem like there are only a handful on this planet! this is all just a brainwashing technique so that the next generation would look at the highway system with a twinkle in their eye.

Disney did get a few things right, only they labeled urban sprawl as a wonderful great idea. Another question you might ask, with the population booming, why is everything being automated? Seems redundant.

[jbushkey]

How come mom didn't weigh 600 lbs like in Wall-E since she never has to walk more than 5 feet?

This movie = FAIL unfortunately so does the sprawl we actually bulit

[pompusmaximus1985]

Haha I love 50s futurama. Reminds me of the same people touting the hydrogen car as our saving grace.

Why can't we just have new innovative technology, but maintain good, traditional (non low density suburban) urbanism?

[bronorb]

If you're waiting for technology to save your ass, you're in for a long wait. Give up that line of thinking. There is no technology that will replace oil. It is an amazing substance. Full of potential energy, easy to transport, etc. We will never have anything like it again.

It is time to downsize. Start walking to work. Grow your own food.

[valhala56]

I thought it was pretty funny too. This was 2 years after I was hatched. I can see where I got all the misguided fantasies of the future which is now.

They did guess a few things correctly, ie buiness confernces in the car (internet/cellphones) A kind of mix of GPS technology with traffic directions.

When you try to guess the future you will probaly be 95% wrong.

So who can guess what the next 50 years will bring?

Probaly back to the horse & buggy.

[mishima70]

It takes "conservative" principles and values to see everything on YouTube- especially a whimsical, well over the top piece of cartoon fantasy- as just another opportunity to deliver a dull preachy sermon about how wonderful one's beliefs are. For God's sake, lighten up!

[bronorb]

The one thing that is missing from this video? Where is all that energy going to come from. They (and even people today) assumed that we would have limitless amounts of cheap energy, mainly oil. That is not the case, in fact, we are on the downhill side of energy production. Read about Peak Oil, people.

The other thing that they did not foresee is the detrimental effects of the expanded urban areas, i.e. suburbia. We are feeling that today.

Very interesting video.

Thanks.

[fifthbiz815]

bronorb,.

Did you get to this video via link on James Kuntsler's site?

As Roger Rabbitt said: "Only a 'toon could have dreamed this up!" As I learn more about PO, I see what a gross misallocation of wealth is the society we have built based on the false ASSumption that oil would always be cheap and plentiful. Disney was a perfect example of a dupe (and duper) that put us on this highway to hell. Would that he could see the distopia that has emerged instead of the utopia he animated

[bronorb]

fifthbiz,

Yes, I am a big JHK fan.

I love the Roger Rabbit reference. Strangely truthful movie

[Maplesyrup41]

It's interesting how they viewed highways back in the old days

Now it's not like this

[rktech68fl]

exactly...most modern highways couldn't be less scenic and more visually depressing.

[Maplesyrup41]

yep

[JoninMax]

Most of the people commenting on here are a bunch of people who think they are socially-aware, "enlightened," free thinking individuals. I think the ideas of traditional family roles and innovation are practical and desirable, not characteristics of a plastic, mindless society, but one based on progress and conservatism. There is nothing wrong with cherishing our traditions while living and pursuing the new. Our society is nothing like this one and that's a shame.

[CoryTheRaven]

One of the things that "conservatism" in the American sense has lost is the ethic of conservation, which is closer to the classic definition of a conservative (see Edmund Burke). Nowadays it's hippy liberals who want to do things like not build highways through the Grand Canyon and Pyramids. Traditionally, a conservative might also wonder about the amount of government control required to operate a centrally organized system like this or Disney's original EPCOT.

[tgold1968]

It takes conservative principles and values to see through these ill conceived techno-fantasies; ones that can only be delivered by empowering liberal states to provide the infrastructure for them. This is only progress if you think growing the government is progress.

[slightlydrybeans]

lol. I'm pretty sure Disney's ideas have come true through the ugly filter of reality. Meet suburbia Mr. Disney. Meet the highest diabetes rate, meet grotesque obesity, and unsustainable living. :)

Thanks parents and grandparents for this wonderful legacy.

[ruralbear]

More like "Thanks corporate greed" for the wonderful legacy.

[Micahbedo]

It is interesting to see how our culture has changed, "Father to work... mother and son to shopping center"... and that's assuming every family is made up of a father, mother, and at least one child.

[Micahbedo]

Actually, Walt Disney was a die-hard believer in the Free Market and human ingenuity... hardly sounds "mindless" to me.

[OldsVistaCruiser]

50 years after this video, some of these innovations have become reality.

We have GPS with traffic alerts, cruise control (although the Interstate system predicted here has a max of 80 mph)

[OldsVistaCruiser]

Oops - hit post too soon!

We also have rear-view cameras, machines that roll along guides aside rebar to lay highways and cantilevered bridge construction equipment.

We do have that cantilevered bridge to avoid damaging nature. It's on Grandfather Mtn. in NC along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The "highly-specialized pleasure vehicle" is today's motorcoach-based RV.

Punch cards? How 1950s! Just punch the address into the GPS!

In the Philadelphia area, I-476 is known as the "Blue Route". ;-)

[superadriaan]

Kan ik deze film ergens downloaden? Pleeaase??

[Limeaid33]

Get the FireFox Browser (and add the video download option) and you can "downloaden" it !

[Taeronai]

Disgusting... a soulless plastic society of mindless mass-consumerists, completely dependent on machines. Apart from a few technological details, Walt Disneys view of the future has indeed come true.

[frogspasm2000]

Where's my atomic powered tunnel digger?!?

[timothyfravashi]

These guys were *high*. Definitely *high*.

[darkray00]

What? Only 58 views?? o.O

[timothyfravashi]

Meet George Jetson!

[ThomasD1962]

Great!!

Watched the full 8'48"; it was worth it!