5.21.2019

Back in February, legendary voice actor Maurice LaMarche discussed playing Orson Welles for the Tomorrowland animated short "The Origins of Plus Ultra" on the Speech Bubble podcast:


LaMarche details the sequence's deletion from the film:
That was supposed to be a thing where Welles, through an animated opening, brings (in) young George Clooney and introduces him to the whole Plus Ultra thing. Miguel (Ferrer) called me from the world premiere ... and said "Dude, you're so fantastic in the beginning of that thing" ... apparently, Brad (Bird) thought it really halted the momentum of the picture. So it got taken out by the time it actually dropped.
While he is correct that the sequence was ultimately deleted from the film, he is conflating two separate instances of its potential life. The first was to be shown as a multimedia "dark ride" experience after young Frank enters the secret room beneath it's a small world and before he reaches the transport platform. Only one image of this sequence being filmed (with the animation projected onto a vapor screen) is known to exist:

The production team attempted to preserve this segment through many iterations of the screenplay, reshoots, and edit, before finally deciding to remove it entirely.

On the eve of the film's release, director Brad Bird got cold feet and decided he wanted to have the short attached to the front of the movie. Despite calling all of the distribution partners, Disney was only able to convince ArcLight Cinemas and their own El Capitan Theatre to attach the short so late in the game.

The home video releases also include an option to play the movie with the short attached.


An unfinished and "redacted" version of this short (*bleeping* out the name "Plus Ultra" from the voiceover) originally debuted during the live-action feature panel at D23 Expo 2013, introduced by director Brad Bird and writer Damon Lindelof as having been found in the mysterious 1952 Box.


The prop disc upon which the animation was supposedly found names the piece "A History of Tomorrow", but was subsequently released in full as "The Origins of Plus Ultra".



0 comments:

Post a Comment