Rocket Rods, which opened with the New Tomorrowland on May 22, 1998, was another “transportation of the future” idea, though this one was a bit more fictional than the PeopleMover.

But there is a glaring exception: a ride, dead now for nearly 25 years, that still looms large and ugly above all of Tomorrowland. Rocket Rods was billed as the highlight of Disneyland’s much ...