Unannounced on an early evening in March of
1995, Disney aired possibly one of their weirdest,
strangest, and most controversial specials
ever produced by the company.
Odds are you’ve never even heard of it because
the special only managed to air in 5 major
cities across America before it was banned
and pulled from the airwaves.
What was this special about, and why was it
quickly pulled from nationwide release later
that same evening?
Well, it’s a long story.
So join me as I investigate Alien Encounters
From New Tomorrowland, the banned Disney documentary
about UFOs and alien abduction.
INTRO
Imagine sitting down with your family to watch
yet another Disney Special on TV.
Most of these special presentations were loosely
framed documentaries that highlighted what
they were working on at the time.
Like the animals that inspired the designs
of The Lion King or the brand new computer
modeling techniques behind Pixar's first feature
film, Toy Story.
Light breezy stuff that anyone from one to
one hundred could enjoy together.
And after Michael Eisner’s goofy intro with
some armed guards, this is what you first
see.
“Scientific verification of extraterrestrial
life forms routinely arriving on Earth.
Top secret reports from ongoing military investigations.
Compelling home videos of alien craft captured
within the past few months.
World figures who have gone public with their
extraterrestrial experiences.
The shocking history of government misinformation
programs designed to prevent widespread panic.
And personal accounts from those whom have
been abducted and studied against their will!
“It’s happened to me.
It’s happened to my sister.
And I believe my mother.”
“My son looks me straight in the eyes and
he says, ‘They took blood out of you, Mama.’”
“They don’t ask permission.
They take you!”
“But it’s such an incredible secret, nobody
wants to believe it.”
“There is valuable scientific data that
would prove once and for all that Planet Earth
is being visited by highly evolved intelligence…
that is not from this world.”
With no warning, the documentary launches
into a very frightening subjective viewpoint.
Reports of UFOs and Alien Abductions are 100%
real, and the US Government doesn’t want
you to know.
“From beyond the boundaries of our perceptions,
intelligent beings are becoming mankind to
join the galactic community.
It’s an invitation that’s both wondrous
and terrifying.
This is the nature of alien encounters.”
This, from a company that just last week showed
you how cute baby Simba is, was now telling
you in no uncertain terms that Alien contact
is not only real, but inevitable and dangerous,
and those who dispute these facts are wrong
or lying to you.
“Now as we approach the new millennium,
mankind is in the midst of the most profound
event in history…
actual contact with intelligent life from
other planets!
For nearly fifty years officials have been
documenting routine alien encounters here
on Earth.
And thousands of people have seen or experienced
this alien presence.
Yet many others still refuse to acknowledge
the obvious evidence all around them.”
So what the hell was going on?
The short story is that in 1995, Disney was
in the latter stages of a major overhaul of
its theme parks, specifically its oldest two:
Disneyland and Disneyworld.
Both were a little rough around the edges
- but were doing a little better thanks to
a first-of-its-kind deal with George Lucas,
who brought both Star Wars and Indiana Jones
to the Disney Parks.
What does this have to do with a TV special
on UFOs?
Well, as with every Disney Special, this all
ties back to what they’re working on at
the time.
“What is it like to be confronted by a creature
whose intelligence and skill is far beyond
the comprehension of mankind?
Would it be enlightening?
Would it be an exercise in terror?
Or… perhaps both?
Here in the New Tomorrowland at the Walt Disney
World Resort near Orlando, Florida, these
concepts are brought to life as guests experience
their own Alien Encounter.
A sensory thriller from Disney and George
Lucas.
We’ll give you a sneak preview after the
show.”
So granted, this special tips it’s hat early
on by teasing footage that will appear the
end of the special from its newest attraction,
The ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter - but
the problem is that from here on out the special
takes itself way too seriously.
“This isn’t right to do the ridicule.
I mean, a lot of people suffer.”
“Retired Army Officer, Clifford Stone, certainly
suffered.
After he began private research into the UFO
phenomena while still in the service.”
“Well, I was given a lawful order while
I was in the military to back off.
I refused that lawful order.
That resulted in me having to be psychoanalyzed.
Which kind of backfired on my command, but
I was actually given a lawful order not to
write to members of congress without first
getting it approved through my command, and
not to talk to members of the media.
Of course I went out and violated all those
directives simply because I felt they had
no right.
That I had a right.”
“He also has determination.
This collection of classified government documents
represents years of determined effort by Stone
to open the UFO files, and offer fresh leads
to investigators on the trail to the truth.
It is not surprising that this book is making
top military officials very uncomfortable.”
Rather than fully script out their special
in a way that helps paint the exaggerated
world their new ride takes place in, complete
with actors and enough winks to the camera
that even the youngest viewers could tell
this special was just for fun, the producers
Jeff Scheftel and Andrew Thomas, played everything
horrifyingly straight.
“Anytime a technologically superior civilization
comes in contact with a technologically inferior
civilization, the technologically inferior
civilization ceases to exist.
Not necessarily through conflict.
Not necessarily through invasion - but because
the technology changes the underlying social
structure of that civilization, and it disintegrates.”
“Those fears are reflected in a 1960 federally
funded study by the Brookings Institution,
which warned that public knowledge of alien
life could cause civilization to collapse.”
It becomes deeply unnerving as Alien Encounters
From New Tomorrowland interviews some the
biggest names in UFOlogy.
Doctor Kevin Randle, Retired Sergeant Clifford
Stone, co-director of the Center for UFO Studies
in Chicago Don Schmitt, and prominent figure
in Alien Abduction Phenomena Budd Hopkins.
These well published men, who are not actors
- nor do they read visually as actors - add
an additional layer of verisimilitude to the
narrative the special tries to paint.
Couple this with the painstakingly researched
footage, which repeatedly highlights actual
archived UFO evidence.
From shakey home video, to blurry photographs,
to news footage, to actual pulls from declassified
government documents from Project Bluebook,
So what starts as a hokey fake documentary
about an upcoming theme park ride turns on
its heels and starts becoming chillingly real,
as it’s blended with actual research from
real experts in the field and documented evidence,
all smoothed over by the host, Robert Urich’s,
constant narrative that this is all shockingly
real and you best be prepared for the terrifying
future.
“Indications are that government, military,
and scientific leaders will soon release nearly
a half century of official documentation of
ongoing alien encounters here on Earth.
Perhaps they feel it would be too embarrassing
not to reveal the truth… before the truth
reveals itself!
But these FBI files acquired through the Freedom
of Information Act outline nearly 50 years
of UFO reports investigated by Federal Agents
all across America.
Overwhelming evidence that something sinister
is at work.”
The first half of Alien Encounters From New
Tomorrowland is dedicated to explaining the
many documented and unexplained encounters
with UFOs Earth has had over the years.
From well known pop culture touchstones like
the Roswell crash, to lesser known events.
“I glanced up, and there were three flying
saucers in a V. With what appeared to be a
dome on top with - I can’t be sure - but
I believe I saw the sun glinting off, well,
windows or observation portholes of a sort.”
“I think it was from outer space, but friendly.”
“Army fighter planes are on patrol for flying
saucers!
Cameras installed to photograph them!
Portland, Oregon, from which the first WEIRD
reports.
This flying saucer patrol shows how the Air
Force is, while not putting too much stock
into the mysterious things in the sky, are
investigating!
Control tower is in touch, and on the watch!
So are a lot of people these days.
They’re seeing flying saucers everywhere!
Lots of fantastic disks flying through the
air!”
This is all backed up with the chilling reminders
of Cold War tensions and our troubling history
with nuclear weapons.
“Most alien activity on Earth in this century
seems to have been sparked by the single most
profound technological achievement in human
history.
The atomic bomb did more than wipe out every
conventional notion of combat.
It also saddled mankind with the awesome responsibility
of life and death for the entire planet.
But what the world didn’t know in 1945,
was that the atomic bomb’s brilliant burst
of energy would also be mankind's cosmic calling
card.
Announcing to the universe that a technological
society had evolved on a small blue planet
in the backwaters of the stars.”
Impossibly, the special moves to even darker
and weirder territory in the second half,
as the narrative changes to alien abduction
and first hand accounts from abductees.
“There are some that are very - um - they
talk about - um - the ‘reptilians’ being,
like, sexually aggressive.
And then there’s some that look like praying
mantis that are very mean.
And very violent.”
“It is a violation of your body.
It’s a violation of your space.
They don’t ask permission.
They take you.
On this Earth, when you are raped, when you
are mugged, even if you don’t see that person
that is doing you bodily harm, you have somewhere
to go.
You can go to the police and at least give
a report - whether they do something or not.
You have somewhere to go.
But in this case, you have no one to talk
to.
You have no one to say, ‘this has happened
to me.
I’ve been so violated - you don’t even
know.
And it - you’re not ready.’”
Yeah, I don’t think the audience was quite
ready for frank discussions about rape in
a primetime Disney special theoretically fit
for the whole family.
And it somehow gets even worse from there.
“And it’s terrifying.
It’s not fun.
It ruins your life, because you have nowhere
to go.”
“Twinkle twinkle little star.
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high.
Like a diamond in the sky...
Makes me want to cry.”
“Part of the trauma involved in this is
our government telling us that these objects
don’t exist.
And I seem - and other members of my family,
and other people seem to have these experiences…
It makes you - It makes you doubt your sanity.”
As you can see, the camera lingers on these
people and their anguish.
Even if these first hand abduction accounts
are lead by interviewers, or are partially
scripted, or fully performed by actors, it’s
not presented as such.
This is dark and frightening territory for
a prime time Disney special - with no trigger
warnings or on screen raiting - to explore,
especially when at every turn Robert Urich
is quick to remind you that this is all real,
and it is likely to happen to you.
“But most Americans will likely explore
outer space aboard crafts of alien origin.
Statistics indicate a greater probability
that you will experience extraterrestrial
contact in the next five years than the chances
that you will win a state lottery… but how
do you prepare for such an extraordinary event?”
So what happened when Disney aired the special
early in five cities?
What do you think happened?!
People freaked out!
They called the TV stations and complained,
and threatened, and demanded that they pull
it from the air.
And in turn, the TV stations did just that.
While the special did fully air in those five
cities, everyone else aired a repeat to cover
the dead airtime.
Officially Disney doesn’t acknowledge Alien
Encounters From New Tomorrowland exists.
It was banned from airing ever again on TV,
and the masters have been destroyed.
But thanks to a few stalwart VCR captains
who were able to tape the special, evidence
of its existence still lingers to this very
day.
In fact, you can watch the whole video right
now on YouTube!
I highly recommend you check it out by clicking
the card on your screen, or by clicking the
link in the about section below this video!
Alien Encounters From New Tomorrowland is
one of the weirdest things you can see online,
but the full story behind the making of the
infamous ride it’s attached to is even stranger
and more interesting.
So join me next week as I tell the tale of
Disney World’s ill fated ExtraTERRORestrial
Alien Encounter.
But until then, be sure to share, like, and
subscribe.
Because you’ll always have a ticket for
my next Secret Screening.
