Golden Dreams

: "This article is about the film at Disney's California Adventure, for the song "Golden Dream" played in The American Adventure and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln see Golden Dream (song).Infobox Disney ride
name=Golden Dreams


caption="Golden Dreams" facade
designer=Walt Disney Imagineering
park=Disney's California Adventure
land=Golden State (The Bay Area)
designer=
manufacturer=
type=Educational film
soft_opened=
opened=February 8, 2001
closed=September 7, 2008
duration=22
music=Official Album 2001

Golden Dreams a film about the history of California, was a featured attraction at Disney's California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California. It opened with the park on February 8, 2001. It started film actor Whoopi Goldberg as Califia, the Queen of California. The last day of the attraction was September 7th, 2008, when the original Cast Member, "Sarah" hosted the last showing of the film to the public and is scheduled for removal to make way for the "Voyage of the Little Mermaid" dark ride attraction rumored to open in 2011. However, the exterior replica of the Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts is expected to remain.

ynopsis

Guests enter the theater which is a replica of the previously mentioned Bernard Maybeck façade of San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, a famed Bay Area landmark constructed for the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition.

As the show began, two tall art noveau statues of a single goddess-like woman, one on either side of a film projection screen, were bathed in golden light. The statue on the right "comes to life," personified by Ms. Goldberg, through a video of her face, which was projected from the rear into the translucent head of the figure. The statue introduced herself as "Califia, the Queen of California." Califia explains that she is the spirit within California, and an inspiration to many famous Californians. Goldberg appears within some of the filmed sequences which follow as Califia -- in disguise -- to comment or offer encouraging words to various characters who find themselves in challenging situations.

The 70-mm film highlighted admirable and regrettable eras and incidents in the history of California, including vivid picturizations of injustice which do not sanitize reality. Scenes featuring Chumash Indians living a peaceful life on the shore, for example, are followed by the same Indians being held captive by Spanish missionaries and conquistadors.

After the establishment of California, events such as the troubles endured by Chinese laborers working on the railroad and miners during the Gold Rush of 1849 are presented. The immigration issue faced by Japanese women seeking to live in the United States, more specifically California, is also shown. Japanese and many other Asian people were denied entry, although wives of established immigrants were allowed to enter. Many women became "picture brides," agreeing to marriage on the basis of exchanged photographs in order to come to the United States. A powerful dramatization of the crushed hopes of one young picture bride whose husband is far older than represented in the photo he has provided, is particularly affecting. The film continued into the 20th century, with the stories of the famed and infamous water and civil engineer William Mulholland, the hardships of those seeking a new life during the Great Depression, film producers of the 1930s, and women taking over "men's jobs" to achieve victory in World War II. Still photos of the Japanese brides and of impoverished women in a migrant camp in the 1930s are the work of noted photographer, Dorothea Lange.

After the war, thousands of people moved to California to seek good living, sunny weather, and suburban life. The new luxuries of freeways, amusements (more specifically - Disneyland), and easy life are shown. After the 1950s, the turbulent counterculture of the 1960s was depicted. Finally, the technology boom of the later part of the 20th century is featured, with the story of Steve Jobs and the creation of the personal computer.

The film, among the most sophisticated in any of the Disney parks, ended with a montage of notable events and Californians. The montage is reminiscent of a similar finale to the American Adventure film in the U.S.A. Pavilion in the EPCOT Center, World Showcase, in which a cavalcade of fading images of noteworthy Americans and historical incidents is similarly and effectively set to a stirring orchestral score. A concluding salute to discovery, fortitude and imagination is given by Califia. Her eyes then close as her face falls back into statuesque repose, the light within the statue fades, and the house lights come up, and then her face briefly reanimates to remind a lady that she left her purse as guests walk out of the theater.

The 22-minute film was directed by Polish director Agnieszka Holland

Attraction facts

* Seats: 347
* Seating: Theater chairs

External links

*imdb title|0241493