Man in Space

Release Date: March 9, 1955

Watch Date: June 13, 2023

“From the TV series Disneyland, Man in Space was the first of the Tomorrowland specials. Walt Disney introduces this animated look at the history of rocketry and the many challenges of space exploration and travel.”

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    Would you like to see a bunch of former Nazi’s talk about space? Because if so, have I got the movie for you.

    Well, two former Nazi’s and one guy who happened to live in Nazi Germany and reportedly hated the Nazi regime. Still.

    The fact that former Nazi scientists have a huge hand in getting American’s to the moon is just one that we have to accept, just like their inclusion in America’s Nuclear program. The Germans had some smart scientists who weren’t bound by ethics and they were able to make huge leaps and advance science forward exponentially because of it.

    It’s very interesting to watch an entirely theoretical documentary about space flight and future space exploration. This special was released a full six years before Yuri Gagarin was launched into space, and fourteen years before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin would set foot on the moon, so it’s especially interesting to see how close to the real life events these scientists theories really were. It’s a little window into a point in time we’ll never be in again – we live in a world where man has left the confines of Earth. This was filmed before we had.

    Honestly it’s a little cheesy, and in the animation of space flight they say “X minus ten minutes to launch” when I am so, so used to hearing “T minus ten” and that drove me a little bit looney, but it was enjoyable in much the same way all the fake cold war clips from Fallout our.

    And if you were worried our game of ‘spot-the-racism’ was over, never you fear, because while Disney is extremely respectful of ‘the German army’ who invented the V-2 rocket, they’re a little bit less respectful towards the Chinese who invented gunpowder.

    But really, if you’re interested, or enjoy, watching predictions of the future from an incredibly dated and ‘of-its-time’ sort of perspective, you will enjoy this film. And, again, if you want rockets explained to you by former Nazis, this should be high on your list.