Taking The Hammer To Innoventions

Hmm......I went through my Disneyland photo collection this morning looking for an exterior shot of the massive Innoventions building in Tomorrowland. Guess what? Ten years of digital of photos and not one exterior shot of the Innoventions building. That should tell you something. In all of the Disneyland trips that we've made over ten years (which adds up to about 15 trips with each trip being several days long), can you guess how many times Mrs. DisneylandTraveler and I have been in Innoventions? Twice - that's it. Our last visit to Innoventions was in December 2008. On that day, there was an all-day driving rainstorm. It doesn't rain in Innoventions. So that's what the place is reduced to - a refuge to get out of the rain.

Disneyland insider/watchdog Al Lutz from MiceAge/MiceChat again writes last week that Innoventions days may be numbered. With Disneyland's 60th anniversary coming up, it would be nice to have a brand spanking new big-time attraction to feature in the celebration. Once again, the massive but poorly attended Innoventions is a prime target for real estate.  Al has further speculated that the adjoining Autopia and Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage might close with it creating a substantial piece of real estate for big-time development. 

Now the internet rumors are running wild with this. Level Innoventions to the ground and start from scratch or gut the thing and make use of the cavernous space that is inside. I don't know which is true, if anything (there are other places that can be developed in Disneyland beginning with the Festival Arena area in Frontierland) but I, for one wouldn't mind seeing the waste of space that is Innoventions get brought to the ground.

At one time, several years ago, on a Disney forum that no longer exists, I proposed the idea that the loathsome Innoventions could be assisted in its demise by Disneyland providing a couple of swings of a heavy mallet on one of Innoventions walls by fans who want to see the place leveled. They could charge $10 for 3 swings and after you take your whack, you could walk over and pick up a T-Shirt with a picture of Mickey swinging a mallet with some cleaver saying about giving you credit for participating in the destruction. T-Shirt, about $23.95.  It's the Disney way.

That's all a joke up there but Innoventions itself is a joke, an effort in shameless self-promotion by Yamaha, Microsoft, Honda, and HP who pay Disney handsomely for showing off some of their efforts. The only thing, and I mean the only thing, in Innoventions that adds any real value to Disneyland, is the short program that shows off the considerable talents of ASIMO, Honda's amazing robot with a creepy child-like voice.

I don't know if anyone will shed a tear if Innoventions is removed and promptly.  The tears were shed when the Carousel of Progress and America Sings attractions were taken out of the building years ago.