Another From the MVT Chicken Bag! (Eric)

THIS IS A MUST READ! Proof that Horizons inspired kids.

From, Bob Weekes, "last of the cool people" member:


I was 3 the first time I went to EPCOT Center and my brother was barely 1. I don't have many memories from that visit, but one that stood out was a mysterious ride that took you underwater, into outer space and allowed you to choose one of multiple endings. Oh yea, and it smelled like oranges.

The next time we went to Disney World as a family, I was 8 and my brother was 5. This time, I had grown far more conscious about where we were going and what we were going to experience. More than any other ride, I was fascinated with what I knew then as Horizons. In a Disney high inspired by my previous memories and endless loops of those great old vacation planning videos, I forced my younger brother to participate in "Disney" days. These days would consist of watching Disney planning videos and constructing mini lego and cardboard model Disney ride sets. Horizons was a personal favorite to include. I wish horribly that I had held onto these little creations, but of course I went through that teenage "this is stupid" phase and probably tossed everything.

ANYWAYS, we finally got to Disney World in November of 1994. Looking back, I now realize how damn lucky we were, as we JUST missed the first major closing of Horizons. When we got there, we went straight for EPCOT Center and made a B-line for Horizons. It was the closest thing to a religious experience I had in my childhood. Individuals on this blog have posted many great memories and aspects of this ride that made it so grand, and it does not differ here. The ride expanded what I thought was possible and blew my imagination wide open. I don't know how many times I rode Horizons with my brother that trip, but it probably wasn't enough. I cried when he we had to return to upstate NY after the 11 day trip, but I probably would have had to have been dragged out of the place had I known it would be the last time I would ever ride Horizons again in my life.

When we returned home, I was obsessed. I could not get the ride out of my head. Delusional with love for this ride, I made a pact with my younger brother Jim: we were going to build a replica of Horizons in our backyard.

Now of course even THEN I knew this was absurd, but in a Fitzcarraldo-esque way I thought it was somehow feasible. And after all, the Horizons motto was "If we can dream it, we can do it." Jim and I set out to business. We collected reams of cardboard from Sam's Club (or forced my mom to grab some whenever she went), because of course cardboard is the most reliable building block for a project such as this. We spent our nights fantasizing about how we would portray different scenes; how it would feel to be able to head outside into the backyard after our evening baths and go for a spin on Horizons. Of course, the fact that the Horizons show building took up 3 acres and our background MAYBE encompassed 1/16 of that did not deter us in the least. After all, we had plenty of other issues to deal with. We began drawing up designs for the AA (which would be constructed out of...DUH DUH DUH...CARDBOARD!) and presenting my mother (a seamstress) with designs for the costumes (s
he played along with our little "game" so nicely). We determined that the ride vehicle would be an ingenious cardboard box that would ride on top of my youngest brother's giant toy train along an expanse of plastic tracks (we only had about 10 feet of track, but hey whatever), which some unlucky "worker" would have to push through the ride. The show building would be a giant mold of duct-taped cardboard boxes that would be painted to look like the real Horizons (I don't think we ever considered that upon the first rainfall, or god forbid snowfall, our beloved attraction would look like a melted Jell-O mold).

After we got the basics out of the way, we moved onto the little details. For example, that robot butler with the spinning head: how was his head going to spin!? EASY, we make the head a seperate cardboard piece, attach it to a pole that's in the ground, then lead a piece of string from the head up through the roof where the other end was attached to a pencil would straddle the hole. The wind will take care of the rest. Genius. How are we going to have a working TV singing "It's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" during that scene? Obviously we'd steal the tube TV from the basement and stick it in there. What's that? Electricity? Who needs it!? Oh and the orange smell? Nothing that a ton of car air fresheners couldn't handle.

We had all these details "written" (in whatever scribble short-hand we were using at the time) down on sheets of paper from weeks of idea generating. Again, I wish SO badly that we still had these somewhere, but they're long since gone.

Finally it came time to put our idea in motion. We began construction on the first section. Since this was a time before the internet and the ability to see a detailed ride-through of the attraction, we had to go completely by memory. Since the section we wanted most and stood out to us the most was Brava Centauri, we began construction on outer space. We connected our first few boxes together in the kitchen. We spent days coloring the inside black with Sharpie MARKERS (I'm surprised our brains didn't melt...though that probably explains a lot now). We then poked holes in the sides for the "stars." We then began to hang little models of the space scene from the top of the box. Looking back on it, it really didn't make a half-bad giant diorama of the scene. Even though the reality of this project's futility was sinking in (the space obviously wasn't NEARLY large enough for even a person to walk through, let alone a carboard omnimover to make it through, there was no w
ay we could make the track ride "up-hill" as we had originally planed, and the whole "wow that was a lot of work for so little" was beginning to kick in), but damn if we weren't enthralled with it. That little section stood for a lot. It represented our love and nostalgia for the ride. We would sit in it, play the famous "Space" track from the ancient Disney Park Music album (which I still listen to and tear up at), and pretend that we were there. We realized that this was the sort of thing to leave in the safe hands of Disney. In the end, we were meant to enjoy the ride, not build it, and we would see it again soon enough. In the meantime we enjoyed our little section of our ride.

Fairly soon after that, the "ride" section and the plans were tossed for whatever reason (probably my parents needing their space back). But we waited, hoping to ride Horizons again. Of course, you know the story. When I heard that Horizons was closing for good in 1999, I remember crying my eyes out. It was (and is) so bizarre. So many pieces of my childhood and things that made life special back then, like certain movies, Nintendo games, books...I can pull them out and relive them. That's something that can never happen with Horizons (or the other rides in EPCOT), so when it closed it felt like a part of my childhood died forever. This site is the closest I've been brought back to the "Horizons feeling" since those days, and I thank you for it. Horizons inspired a lot of things in my life. It brought creativity out in me, it inspired me to want to tell stories, it was a motivating factor in wanting to become a Disney Cast Member in the parks for 8 months during a Disney College Internship. Sure it's "only" a ride, but I always feel like Horizons is a part of me.

In 2 days, I'm heading back to WDW for the first time in 3 years. I get to take my girlfriend with me for the first time to Epcot, but I wish I could have shown her EPCOT Center. There will simply be no way to ever convey what it was like in its glory days, or how amazing an experience Horizons was.


That's an amazing story if ever there was one. It inspires me to want to turn my living room into Nova Cite. Get me some card board!

From the MVT mailbag....

This is awesome. It's the FIRST email we've been sent telling about how someone else enjoyed jumping out of a Horizons ride vehicle.

Caroline Hood writes:

It was bound to happen, two bored teenage girls with an Epcot fetish getting stuck on Horizons. I mean it broke down enough in those days, I'd have to guess this was around 1996 or so. Back in the days before the mess that is Mission: Space happened. It was early fall, I'd guess to say about 8pm or so when we where in the middle of enjoying Horizons when the inevitable happened, that fateful E-Stop on the ride. We walked right on the ride, No line and I was fairly sure there couldn't have been more then 25 people total in that entire building. So naturally after sitting for about ten minutes before the bright idea dawned upon on fearless heads, we looked about and saw empty cars so naturally we slipped right out of the car and onto the platform.
Not nearly as brave as Hoot and Company, we only prowled around for about ten minutes before the "Oh SHIT!" moment when the ride restarted. Now there is a drop in Sea Base, we ducked behind the very first surface we saw that could hide to small teens. Slinking around on our bellies in the dust, we peeked around corners wondering what the hell we'd gotten into. After doing our best Bond impressions from spot to spot we began to get highly paranoid, surely the Disney Gods where going to smite us on high for this. Waiting for another dead spot to launch ourselves back into space (or sea) now to two girls this was a task of not only aim but timing a moving ride..
Not even a minute after we managed to scramble back into an empty car without being see, the damned ride E-stopped again!
Go figure.
After a few minutes, I suppose they really did break it this time as the announcement for evacuation came on. After hearing people passing behind our car on their way out from the ride we once again slide over the side and clamly walked right out with the rest of the few souls on Horizons that fateful night without anyone but us knowing what we'd just accomplished.
Oh the good times we had, I just wish we'd had a camera!

Carrie, we'd like to present you with the "Mesa Verde Times Lifetime Achievement Award". This is one bad ass story and you deserve it. Bishop Kyle will bless you at the next get together.

The Little Mermaid

Hey it's Ariel! Even better, it's Spike Tripper but he's just as cute. Spike was interested in seeing the ocean floor so we took him there. Watch out for those tube worms!

As you see it was hard to quickly navigate the rock work and it was dark.

This vacuum cleaner thing works it's way across the bottom collecting little loaves of....something. Seaweed? It doesn't look like kelp but it must be important.

When I was kid we had a thing that looked like that in our pool. It did a great job of clearing our swimming space of loaves of seaweed.

The Red Head- Final

You longtime readers know that ol' Hoot and Chief are a couple of wild cards. We can't leave anything we're interested in alone and that's why we find ourselves in tight situations. Our desire for knowledge drives us and, once again, it may have drove us too far.

We've known the name of our favorite Horizons actor for many months now after receiving a tip from one of our MVT friends. I went hunting, found her, talked to her on the phone, found out some amazing facts.....etc.

Remember that scene in Jurassic Park where Malcolm is asking the guy "You were so into whether or not you COULD do it that you forgot to ask yourselves if you SHOULD do it" or something like that. I feel that way right now. Not to say that I found something horrible. Don't get me wrong. She was very nice to me on the phone but wanted nothing to do with her 80's film career. I get that so I thanked her for her time and let it be.

But......WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I talked to THE redhead on the phone! Same voice! Ran chills right up my god damned spine!!!!!!!!!!

<------------------------- Life Spoiler Ahead. Think twice before scrolling down--------------->

I was a little sad about the phone call. Why wouldn't she want to celebrate the fact that SHE was the Icon of future cute girls in an attraction that millions of people enjoyed? Right? oh well.

Her name is Corinne Cook. She was an actress in California and appeared in a few movies, two before and two after her role in Horizons.

1. B.O.R.N. (1988) (as Corine Cook) .... Jody
   ... aka "Merchants of Death" - USA (DVD title)
2. Getting Straight (1986) .... Ronnie
3. Malibu Hot Summer (1981) .... At the singing contest
   ... aka "Sizzle Beach, U.S.A." - USA (reissue title)
4. Don't Answer the Phone! (1980) .... Rikki

I guess some people wouldn't be very proud of these films. Personally I'm proud of any crazy shit I've been a part of and would celebrate any of it at the drop of a hat. Some people are different than Hoot Gibson. I've located all of these films on DVD and VCR. Classics! Malibu Hot Summer even features Kevin Costner!

I'm sure that some Disney fan group will contact her and put together a fitting tribute ($29.99 on DVD) in the future. Chief and I, well we don't have the time or patients for people who won't talk to us. There are a lot of people who don't want to talk to us.

This one's for you, boys but mostly for Eric_w:)

YES!

YES!

YES!

YES YES!

WOOOOOOO!

I LOVE PINK SILK!

A few minutes on the phone with Hoot Gibson. Is that such a bad thing?

Today

Images compliments of Celebtna.com

REALLY!?

Come on, Disney! WTF?!

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/os-disney-monorail-electric-shock-20100717,0,156215.story

"To Do" list

Our adventures weren't all unorganized mayhem. Remember, film was a little pricey back in the day and what could have easily been done by a digital camera had to be done with some form of order to save money on film. Chief and I had ongoing lists of things we thought were important to preserve.

The night after every adventure we'd have our pics developed at the Walgreen's one hour photo across the street from Universal. So, we'd drop off the rolls, go home and drink beer, and then go back and collect our hard copy analog shots. The next day we would go to our shitty jobs and spend hours looking for other details we wanted pics of. Our list (an early version below) would change as we deleted the shots we'd covered from the text file.

This version is from pretty early on and features many set pieces and figures that didn't involve being behind the scenes. They were all just a simple jump from our ride vehicle.

It's fun to look back and see that we did a kick ass job of taking care of this laundry list of future goodness:)

Robida

I'm not a big fan of painted flats unless we're talking about Mr Toad's Wild Ride (RIP but you'll see plenty of it on Pirates of the Magic Kingdom).

I thought this Robida scene was somewhat cool though and it did have some neat effects. The music was nothing short of dreamy as well. Let's take a look.

Here's a puzzling scene! This must be where rich old men take their hot young girlfriends for a ride on a blimp! The sequence seems to go: hot girl, old man, hot girl, old man etc.


With a random old bag thrown in to keep this a family attraction.
I saw plenty of pics around of the girl with the huge.....well I'll just say it...CANS!HUGE CANS, folks. I think every Horizons dork from here to Cleveland tried to get a shot of her (I have 47)! If that old man stops walking she'll run him through! Awesome.


Behind the scenes magic. She's in this too. What a coincidence!

Let's catch up

We've awarded a few official positions here at MVT. In the heat of learning and bringing this attraction back to life we understand that we've overlooked a few heroes here. I, Hoot Gibson, will now try to correct and name the OFFICIAL cabinet members of MVT.

- Eric W. Minister of Space Travel affairs

- Kyle. Bishop of Holy Matters regarding the future as it might become religion.

- Menutia Minister of Missing Persons and Submarine rides.

- Joe. Surgeon General of anything medical and of flirting with nurses.

- Jennifer. Den mother. "Wendy" to the lost boys who drink too much at Epcot (EPCOT Center) and to the spirit of keeping us "old school".

The honor we've overlooked, and feel horrible for, is the omission of Jamest, who was the FIRST person to comment on this blog....EVER. James T, we bestow upon you the title of.......Captain and chief of the protective forces at Mesa Verde Times. YOU sir will be the first to enter the Hoot and Chief fall out shelter blog, where we will meet in the event of an online disaster such as us having to shut down or being shut down.

Congrats General Jamest

Jennifer is PISSED

From Mesa Verde Times Pal, Jennifer!



That's just the kind of Horizons devotion we love to see:)

Thanks, Jennifer.

Big one coming ...

Another dose of 1983 media coverage is being scanned.

Just a reminder to the last of the cool people. You can now FLY Hoot and Chief to anywhere in the world so you can treat us to lunch in your country! That's right! If you pay for our travel + expenses YOU can enjoy our ridiculous rants IN PERSON while we eat food !!!!!!!!!!!! Is that an amazing deal or what?!!!!!

You can:

1. Feed Hoot and Chief

2. Talk about Horizons

3. Let us tell you bedtime stories about our adventures.

4. Watch us act like assholes in the airport!

5. Watch and giggle as we try to understand your religion!

6. Tell us that Michigan is another country and we'll believe you!

7. Buy us clothes (or white gowns) and see how we sport 'em as only we know how!

8. Shower us with money so you can see just how fast we can waste it and relieve you from those shallow pressures of "want"!

9. Feed Hoot and Chief and end up famous on our blog!

Our cheap 'lil "poll"

I added this cheap "poll" to the blog at the beginning. Where would you live? Well, Nova Cite wins with Mesa Verde second and Brava Centauri third. We didn't see that happening but our readers have decided. Nova Cite it is!!!!

I always liked Mesa Verde, hence the name of the blog, but would I really like to live in the desert? Probably not. Nova Cite may be more appealing to the average person. Sea Castle and Space would have seemed more dangerous to me..........Chief and I aren't about danger:)

The future may start in Nova Cite. OR West Milton Ohio.

Did you say ice cream?

Let's take another look at the voice activated refrigerator. Here again we find "annoying boy of tomorrow" bothering his poor father just like they do back here in the past.

We know that when the brat says a food word the fridge responds by opening the correct drawer. If he were to say "human head" one would hope that nothing would happen. If so...Dad would be going away for long time, Johnny.

Let's take a behind the scenes look at this food drawer.

WHOA! All of this just to open a drawer? No, my friends. There was much more to it than that even if you never noticed it from your ride vehicle. Remember that Horizons was all about the details. I've come up with this handy diagram for you:

1. This little air cylinder would push the drawer out.

2. The light would come on just like refrigerators here in the past.

3. This high tech looking device would shoot a blast of fog out of the drawer.

4. The duct tape would keep this rig working by providing an ultra strong hinge for the red fog hose. (Universal probably uses Scotch Tape)

It's as simple (and cool) as that and that's pic #195 from my collection! There's plenty more trust me.

As for future parenting, why do you suppose that kid is so rotten? They certainly don't spank their kids but I did find something out.

As a disciplinary measure they tie their children to a tri-apple tree. And at night.........

The Road Runners come.......meep.......meeep.....

Under the Sea

Here's a real treat, folks. Chief and I loved these things! They're the "water ripple" projectors that cast those lovely patterns under the sea. The projector in the foreground is angled down, the farther is up a few degrees. The way the ripples crossed over each other was pure magic.

I think these were in the transition from sea to space. LOOK at all of that cool stuff! Hey! There's a disk on the floor!

Sweet! The disks would rotate in front of the projector lens.

That pattern is great. The disks were heavy and probably 1/2 think. Maybe 3/4. Maybe I have no idea what I'm talking about.

"Water Ripple Reflection"

Damn I miss that ride.

More Water Damage

Some of you have asked just how bad the water damage was over the "space" area. The answer is pretty clear in this shot. I was seated in my vehicle when I took this so it was plainly visible to all passengers.




I was trying to get a pic of the airlock door and it wasn't until I got home that I noticed this. Of course, we had to see for ourselves so we made a trip to the catwalk. That's when we discovered the rotten ceiling.

These "skid marks"........ah never mind. I just wanted to say skid marks.

If Disney wasn't willing to fix the show side we new they'd never keep that ride running even with updates.