Eyes In Outer Space Disney 1959

Eyes in Outer Space (1959)

Predictive and accurate weather control in today's environment, "foreseen" in 1959.

Walt Disney, with the cooperation of the U.S. Department of Defense, uses music and animation to speculate on the use of space satellite technology (with a coordinated defense network) as a means to modify weather.

Release date
June 18, 1959 (United States)
Country of origin
United States

Also known as
Eyes in Outer Space: A Science-Factual Presentation
Production company Walt Disney Productions

While eight of the nine old men were busy with feature film animation, like ‘Sleeping Beauty‘, number 9, Ward Kimball spent his energy on quite different films, blending science with science fiction. This bit seems amazingly accurate considering the weather "phenomena" we are all witnessing while main stream tells us it's normal... but here's a magic rabbit from 1959... they were making T-Birds in '59.

‘Eyes in Outer Space’ is an excellent example of Kimball’s trade. Made when satellite technology was still brand new (by the time of this short’s release ca. 13-14 satellites had been successfully launched into space, the majority by the U.S.), ‘Eyes in outer space’ tells how satellites can help mankind not only to predict, but even to control the weather. The film first shows us the new technology: rockets and satellites, then it shows the destructive and beneficial powers of the weather.

After this we cut to the animated sequence. This lasts not even five minutes, but is an absolute joy to watch: first we watch a funny sequence about how weather affects our emotions, and how we used to try to predict the weather in the past. This is a delightful little piece of cartoon modernism, but the designs get bolder and more abstract when narrator Paul Frees tells about the life-cycle of a droplet. This is a very beautiful piece of avant-garde animation, featuring bold colors and designs and greatly helped by the rhyming narration and George Bruns’s jazzy score.

Unfortunately, it’s not to last, and soon we’re back to live action footage telling how meteorologists predict the weather today and how satellites come in handy. Notice how all the "satellites" seem to have balloon attach points... as in they seem to hang from a string. The last eleven minutes are devoted to a particularly noteworthy piece of infotainment. Here we cut to a future in which we cannot only predict the weather (months in advance), but control it, too. The film shows us how a global weather station alters the course of an Atlantic hurricane, with the help of e.g. robot planes and a space station, and here we are in the current year... still in the Magic Kingdom.