News Big changes coming to EPCOT's Future World?

jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
I've just corrected this.

Not to mention half the park was fully immersively themed to the future. From the architecture to the signage, the furniture to the landscaping. And don't forget the ride technology.
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Since the "future" keeps happening exponentially faster, the problem of theming ahead of it becomes too difficult and costly.

If it is still a winning concept for a gated theme park perhaps another enterprise will pick it up. Uni has a nice expansion area.
 
Mike S

Mike S

Well-Known Member
sedati said:
Spaceship Earth, Universe of Energy, World of Motion, Journey Into Imagination- at best they threw a nod to what may come.
Communicore, Living Seas, and Horizons certainly.
Living with the Land and was evenly split, but "Kitchen Kabaret?" "Symbiosis"
Wonders of Life had "Frontiers of Medicine" tucked off into a little nook, but "Body Wars" was more sci-fi than science, and it was really just a creative way to look into a body, none of it really had anything to do with future science which is odd because nano-surgery could someday be a thing. "Goofy About Health?" "Cranium Command?"

I'm not trying to put it down, I absolutely loved Epcot Center. Future World had some incredibly advanced inner workings, but on the surface it looked far more futuristic than the stories it was telling.
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I'm guessing the reasoning for the name Future World was because it was intended to inspire for a better future. Now that everyone lost that collective optimism and just accepts the apocalypse could be any day now I guess it doesn't work anymore but we need it now more than ever.
 
The Empress Lilly

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Some thoughts:

'Future World' is a name, not a program. Chosen as a progression in scale and ambition from Tomorrowland. From limited 'tomorrow' into broad 'future', and from 'land' into 'world' - the same name game they employed a decade earlier to denote the difference in scale and ambition between Disneyland and Disney World. Interesting is that DL and TL are one word, and Future World and Disney World both two.

From my understanding, the naming derives from Walt's description of EPCOT as a 'showcase to the world', inspiring the mid-70s plans of a 'World Showcase' (used for the countries near the TTC, no longer for the EPCOT project), followed by the decision to make this World Showcase part of the EPCOT Center, inspiring the name for the other half of EPCOT, a name which needed to both correspond and contrast to World Showcase: Future World (perhaps as an opposition between what is, and what can be, two aspects of EPCOT that had been present since Walt's days).

One does not set foot in any world of the future, that is not the idea. The whole park is contemporary. Nor is Future World a Future Showcase. It showcases rather the forces that shape our world, hoping to inspire the guest to understand.
There is a heavy emphasis on history, but not history as concluded fact, but as progression. To draw a trend into the future one must start from a point in the past.
 
marni1971

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
The Empress Lilly said:
Some thoughts:

'Future World' is a name, not a program. Chosen as a progression in scale and ambition from Tomorrowland. From limited 'tomorrow' into broad 'future', and from 'land' into 'world' - the same name game they employed a decade earlier to denote the difference in scale and ambition between Disneyland and Disney World. Interesting is that DL and TL are one word, and Future World and Disney World both two.

From my understanding, the naming derives from Walt's description of EPCOT as a 'showcase to the world', inspiring the mid-70s plans of a 'World Showcase' (used for the countries near the TTC, no longer for the EPCOT project), followed by the decision to make this World Showcase part of the EPCOT Center, inspiring the name for the other half of EPCOT, a name which needed to both correspond and contrast to World Showcase: Future World (perhaps as an opposition between what is, and what can be, two aspects of EPCOT that had been present since Walt's days).

One does not set foot in any world of the future, that is not the idea. The whole park is contemporary. Nor is Future World a Future Showcase. It showcases rather the forces that shape our world, hoping to inspire the guest to understand.
There is a heavy emphasis on history, but not history as concluded fact, but as progression. To draw a trend into the future one must start from a point in the past.
Click to expand...
I've traced the name back to circa 1975 as the Future World Theme Center, way before it became part of a theme park. Back then they were still talking about corporations and government bodies getting together to have meaningful dialogue about changing the world through technology. And of course they'd show the public what they were doing.
 
britain

britain

Well-Known Member
In Walt's EPCOT film, first shown right after he died, he said "EPCOT will be a World of the Future that will never be completed... and a Showcase to the World of new technologies and new ideas..."

Clearly, as the theme park was being developed, the Imagineers grabbed these phrases and built on them. But I suppose they aren't sacred. Since EPCOT (the world's fair-type park) was a far cry from EPCOT (the city) anyway, it perhaps would be appropriate to drop the Future World name and aim for more timelessness (like what Westcot was shooting for, I believe).

Having said that, I'm not sure what aliens rocking out to a 70's-80's mix tape has to do with timelessness...
 

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