Innoventions was a two-story exhibit inTomorrowland atDisneyland inAnaheim,California. Opening on July 3, 1998 as part of the New Tomorrowland, it featured rotating exhibits focusing on near-futuristic technologies.[1] The attraction operated for nearly 17 years, closing on March 31, 2015. It occupied the Carousel Theater, a round two-story building in which the outer half of the first floor rotates. A similarattraction of the same name existed inEpcot at theWalt Disney World Resort until 2019.
From 1967 to 1973, the building housedWalt Disney's Carousel of Progress. This attraction was moved from Disneyland to its current location inMagic Kingdom at the Walt Disney World Resort in 1973, at the request of its sponsor,General Electric.America Sings occupied the building from the following year until 1988.Audio-Animatronics from the show were used in Disneyland'sSplash Mountain. The upper level of the building continued to house theTron SuperSpeed Tunnel segment of thePeopleMover until that attraction eventually closed in 1995. The attraction used the same rotation mechanism built in 1967 for the Carousel of Progress. In the attraction’s early years, the outer portion of the first floor would stop rotating during the evening, but in later years, it stopped rotating altogether and guests enter on the second floor. The attraction closed on March 31, 2015.[2]
The first floor hosted the Dream Home in alliance withMicrosoft,HP, andTaylor Morrison. Keeping with Walt Disney's vision of bringing cutting-edge, inspiring ideas to Tomorrowland, the Innoventions Dream Home introduced Disneyland guests to then-newly available technology from the participating companies that would enhance their lives, while providing them a glimpse of the emerging digital advances they may find in their homes in the future. The attraction provided guests with a "high-tech,high-touch" opportunity to experience technology in an entertaining, low-risk environment showing them how the power of technology could connect them to the people and things they care most about.[citation needed]
Guests who entered the Innoventions building were greeted by Tom Morrow, an Audio-Animatronic voiced byNathan Lane, who was the fictional mayor of Tomorrowland. He explained Innoventions in a comedic style and performed an updated version of theSherman Brothers song "There's a Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow" from the originalCarousel of Progress. In 2012, the Tom Morrow Audio-Animatronic was removed from display and was no longer part of the attraction. From 2013 until its closure, its focus mainly shifted to character meet-and-greets featuring superheroes from theMarvel Cinematic Universe.
The building was redesigned and reopened on November 16, 2015 as theTomorrowland Expo Center.[3] The first floor of the building hostsStar Wars Launch Bay, aStar Wars exhibit featuring peeks behind the scenes and character meet and greets withDarth Vader,Kylo Ren,Boba Fett, andChewbacca.Star Wars Launch Bay was closed on March 13, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic; it reopened sometime prior to May 2025.[citation needed] The second floor hosted Super Hero HQ, featuring meet and greets withMarvel charactersCaptain America,Thor, andSpider-Man and The Iron Man Experience exhibit, featuringIron Man's suits based on the film.[4] Super Hero HQ closed on April 2, 2016.[5]
2005–2015:HondaASIMO theater, a 15-minute presentation on the state-of-the-art ASIMO robot
2007–2015:Siemens AG Project Tomorrow, featuring some of the same games as its counterpart atSpaceship Earth. During its run, Project Tomorrow featured:
Power City, a large digital "shuffleboard-style" game
Body Builder, a 3-D game allowing guests to build a digital human body, featuring the voice ofWallace Shawn as Dr. Bones.
Super Driver, a driving simulation video game featuring vehicle accident and avoidance systems.
A large glass globe with digitally projected images coming from within it. Below it were consoles that took photographs of guests, asked a series of questions about each guest, and superimposed the automatically cropped images of their faces onto an animated vision of the future.
2008–2011: The Neighborhood at Innoventions; guests watched and sometimes participated in live shows aboutTaylor Morrison homes,Yamaha musical instruments,ABC multi-format programming,Honda, orSouthern California Edison.
2008–2015:Taylor Morrison /Microsoft Innoventions Dream Home (sponsored byHP,Microsoft, andTaylor Morrison), a house filled with the latest technology that was either on the market or soon to be available, including:
Wheelchair accessible
Assistive listening available
Closed captioning available
