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Golden Dreams

Golden Dreams
P2130126GoldenDreams wb.jpg
Disney California Adventure
Area Golden State
Status Removed
Opening date February 8, 2001 (2001-02-08)
Closing date September 7, 2008 (2008-09-07)
Replaced by The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure
General statistics
Attraction type Film presentation
Duration 25:00
Hosted by Califia (Whoopi Goldberg)
Single rider line available
Handicapped/disabled access Wheelchair accessible
Assistive listening icon.svg Assistive listening available
Closed captioning available
Golden Dreams
Directed by Agnieszka Holland
Written by Tom Fitzgerald (Disney Imagineering executive)
Starring Whoopi Goldberg
Yasuko Takahara
Richard Balin
Eric Matheny
Mark Neveldine
Narrated by Whoopi Goldberg
Music by Walter Afanasieff (song)
Cinematography Jack N. Green
Edited by Erica Mireles Folsey and Benjamin Rawls (assistant editors)
Production
company
Golden Dreams Productions
Walt Disney Pictures
Distributed by Disneyland Resort
Release date
  • February 8, 2001 (2001-02-08) (Anaheim, California)
Running time
22
Country United States
Language English

Golden Dreams was a film about the history of California. It was a featured attraction at Disney California Adventure Park at the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, opening with the park on February 8, 2001. It starred Whoopi Goldberg as Califia, the Queen of California. On September 7, 2008 the last showing of the film to the public was made. The theater was razed in July 2009 and was replaced by The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Undersea Adventure. However, the exterior replica of the Bernard Maybeck's Palace of Fine Arts remained. The final showing took place as a private showing for cast members on March 26, 2009.

Guests entered the theater, a replica of the 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 deco 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 Goldberg, through a video of her face, which was projected from the rear onto 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 in some of the filmed sequences that 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 illustrations of injustice. 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.


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