Walt Disney's Carousel Of Progress opened in Magic Kingdom in 1975, a couple years after it closed in Disneyland. It isn't an original attraction at Walt Disney World, but it has been among the most iconic of Disney attractions since 1964.

The opening SD video is from July 2000 only lasts the first 11 seconds before fading to the HD version. I stuck it in there because Disney had the nerve to start the show before I was sitting down and the camera set up in 2010, lol.

The SD video does server a higher purpose though. The attraction soundtracks from 2000 and 2010 are identical. My 2010 audio had a crying child. Four amazingly loud eruptions at various points during the show. Also amazingly (well, it is Magic Kingdom, where you can always hear a kid cry), the audio from 2000 also had a crying child. One crying episode from each child overlaps, so about three minutes in you'll get some crying, because couple of kids a decade apart had to cry at the same point in the show.

Anyway, the audio flips several times between the 2000 and 2010 audio tracks. If you listen, it's not hard to tell where, but it's better than listening to a crying kid, lol...

Some history:
This attraction's roots go back the the General Electric pavilion at the 1964 World's Fair. After the fair closed, it was moved to Disneyland, where it was named "Carousel Of Progress" and operated from 1967-1973. The "Walt Disney's" was added when it was moved to Magic Kingdom.

It might be billed as Walt's idea, but it was "the boys", the Sherman Brothers, that kept people humming after they left the attraction. Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow was replaced during GE's sponsorship, but even the replacement was a Sherman Brothers tune.

If you ever have the chance, I *highly* recommend watching the documentary, "the boys, the sherman brothers' story". It's on Disney+ if you have an account there. It's one of the most fascinating and tragic stories of one of the greatest songwriting duos.

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This attraction did have an impact on me, it's one of attractions I remember from my 1969 trip to Disneyland. And I can't tell you how many brain cells I've killed since then.

About the attraction:
It has a unique ride system. The theater is circular, and is sliced in 6, sixty degree segments. The animatronic stages in the center remain in place, and the entire outer ring where the audience sits rotates around the center. There are four animatronic stage segments, and a load and an unload segment. It takes about 45 seconds to rotate the audience from one segment to another, and each segment lasts about 4 minutes.

In the end, it is like most other animatronic attractions, where a ride vehicle takes you from one stage to another. WED did do a more traditional animatronic stage show in Epcot (American Adventure), but I understand the machinery involved in moving the components around is massive. And dangerous.

Finally, like many other original, animatronic attractions, Carousel Of Progress is a product of its time. The four segments (in 1964) was the 1900's, the 1920's, the 1940's and of course, the 1960's. The first three segments still represent those time frames, but in the 60 years the attraction has been running, the last stage has been updated several times to keep the attraction fresh and somewhat relevant. At least they tried...

But honestly, Carousel of Progress is not about relevancy, it's about nostalgia.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:50 The 1900's
06:32 The 1920's
11:13 The 1940's
15:56 The Present
20:37 Ending

And remember, tomorrow is just a dream away!

My Magic Kingdom page:
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My trip report on Richard Sherman at the Walt Disney World 40th:
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My (not quite done) Video Summary Page:
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