EPCOT Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

I have this mental image of Journey Into Imagination being replaced with a Barney attraction.

I'm in the minority of folks who don't hate Barney (it's probably just the nostalgia talking, but I don't see what's so horrible about the character, although I'm certainly more of a Bear in the Big Blue House fan), but that would be cringe-worthy.

In all due seriousness, I think less people “hated” Barney and moreso just joked about & were bothered by the fact it lacked the nuance, personality, humor, creativity & depth other, better received children’s shows at the time had then. Whether it be Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, Zaboomafoo, or The Magic Schoolbus. What CocoMelon & Mickey Mouse Clubhouse is now is what Barney & Friends was in the 90s-early 2000s. Very easy to parody & make fun of. Just very bland & generic material overall, and oversaturated in the market which didn’t help matters. But it was perfectly appropriate for its intended age group (toddlers & pre-schoolers). Just not at all something that could be enjoyed by all ages or altogether equally as a family like Dreamfinder & Figment and the original Journey Into Imagination pavilion were.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

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Yeeah, my thoughts exactly. Add Merlin (from Sword in the Stone) to that list too. lol

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Oh dear. I could actually have seen that happening if Disney got ahold of Barney in the late 90s, maybe they would've kept Figment to tie in with an idea of imagination, but still, not a fan of that idea.

Yeah.. and unfortunately.. this is the ‘very’ same idea that’s permeated since ‘02 with it’s Honey I Shrunk IP retheme w a deceptive title (“Journey Into Imagination With Figment” pfft.. yeah right, more like Honey I Shrunk Sensory Lab Tour With Figment Shoehorned In). Like the comparison I’ve made many many times before, Imagine the Haunted Mansion replaced with a High School Musical ride called ‘>SCARY!! Haunted Mansion’ where it’s a permanent Halloween themed High School Musical ride thru of screens, cheap effects and dark rooms that once was full of beautiful sets and detail that fit the context of the ride , and then a couple years later due to guest complaints, shoehorning the ghosts back in to have them interrupt every scene of nearly the same bizarre IP redo that makes no sense and renaming it ‘Haunted Mansion with Ghosts’. I swear that’s exactly what it is. LOL
) and by golly, they tried pulling this very same nonsense again with an Inside Out IP retheme proposal (a film about ‘emotions’ mind you, not creativity) that thankfully Pete Docter rejected (and even commissioned Park surveys at the time to ensure the feedback got back to WDI, yes, folks still love the Figment character). Just not the garbage Honey I Shrunk IP Sensory Lab Tour ride that makes no sense there currently. (Which ‘everybody’ knows except for Disney’s current crop of suits apparently)

Again, they seemingly just don’t get that retheming this to a Movie or TV IP is ‘not’ (and never has been) the answer to fixing this ride. Despite this very same problem permeating this pavilion ‘twice’. Once in ‘99, again in ‘02… still shockingly operating in said crazy state to this day. Insane is the biggest understatement ever to describe this situation.

 

[Brer Panther]

In all due seriousness, I think less people “hated” Barney and moreso just joked about & were bothered by the fact it lacked the nuance, personality, humor, creativity & depth other, better received children’s shows at the time had then. Whether it be Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, Sesame Street, Bear in the Big Blue House, Zaboomafoo, or The Magic Schoolbus.

To be fair, Barney did give us this:

​

You gotta admit that's pretty funny.

Personally, if nothing else I'll gladly take Barney over Teletubbies or Boobah.

Again, they seemingly just don’t get that retheming this to a Movie or TV IP is ‘not’ (and never has been) the answer to fixing this ride.

They don't seem to get that retheming something to a movie or TV IP is not the answer to fixing ANY ride. For instance, putting Lilo and Stitch in Alien Encounter did not fix that attraction.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Anyway, to change the topic regarding Dreamfinder & Figment. Something more positive, Who else would genuinely love to see some new merch celebrating/themed to the OG Realm of Art scene for next year’s Festival of the Arts on merchandise? I know I would. Couple things I’d like to see possibly would be a Dreamfinder artist beret, blue tie, with an attached or included beard piece along with his classic white painter’s outfit. Same goes for Figment’s rainbow apron and a redone Figment head hat with his purple artists’ beret atop it and maybe an included white collar & purple tie. I’d personally love to see some plush toys of both Artist Dreamfinder and Artist Figment too, I (and I honestly think many others) would buy them! Maybe Figment could have light up color changing rainbow paint in his jar w the twinkling instrumental music playing from the scene where he’s by the rainbow pond, and Dreamfinder could have the light up paintbrush w changing colors and sing his verse of the song Mix red & gold from autumn flowers. Purple & blue from twilight hours. Green summer hills and rainbows play a part. *Hehe* A painter’s brush, a work of art!

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

And for the ride.. even though they obviously can’t restore it back to the original at the moment. Perhaps they could take off his sweater and put the artist’s beret & bow tie on the Sound Lab Figment for the Festival in the sight lab, and put a recreated rainbow smock/apron on the Detour scene Figment. (That or the classic Film Finale scene short sleeve version of the yellow & red shirt would suffice also). Both of these clothing pieces could be used again for a future restoration back to the original , and simply for future little alterations/overlays for now.

 

[HMF]

They don't seem to get that retheming something to a movie or TV IP is not the answer to fixing ANY ride. For instance, putting Lilo and Stitch in Alien Encounter did not fix that attraction.

Lilo doesn't even enter the equation and they made Stitch as obnoxious as they made Figment and didn't bother making it less dark or scary.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Lilo doesn't even enter the equation and they made Stitch as obnoxious as they made Figment and didn't bother making it less dark or scary.

While true, and though I hate to give much credit to that attraction retheme, they admittedly made a much bigger effort to stay true to the movie there. Atleast the opening scene of the movie where he escapes his Galactic Federation pod. Sure, you could easily argue “hey, doesn’t this retcon the fact Stitch changed by the end of the movie?”. Sure, but again, I get why they did what they did for that redo. Nonetheless though, we can clearly see why it didn’t last long, if the attraction was gonna stay frightening in any way, may aswell have been kept ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

While true, and though I hate to give much credit to that attraction retheme, they admittedly made a much bigger effort to stay true to the movie there. Atleast the opening scene of the movie where he escapes his Galactic Federation pod. Sure, you could easily argue “hey, doesn’t this retcon the fact he changed by the end of the movie?”. Sure, but again, I get why they did what they did for that redo. Nonetheless though, we can clearly see why it didn’t last long, if the attraction was gonna stay frightening in any way, may aswell have been kept ExtraTERRORestrial Alien Encounter

On that note btw (though sorry this probably isn’t the right thread to bring it up), but I think a large part of that attraction’s failure, was honestly the signage.. the biggest thing in bright was ‘Alien Encounter’ , while the other stuff (important stuff I should add) being fairly unnoticeable, making you think it would’ve been a cute type of attraction. And being in the Magic Kingdom w majority family friendly attractions, If they were to redesign the sign and make the Extra-TERROR-estrial part of the title far more prominent & exaggerated looking, to really push the ‘Terror’ aspect, perhaps have it glow red, have the text be harsh or something, and maybe feature a dark silhouette of the alien creature, red eyes beaming bright through the shadow. With that it’d probably run a lot more smoothly these days and not have as many complaints going against it. Also have a fairly ‘large’ print or sign that says this attraction may be frightening to families with young children (and perhaps have an illustration of a group of people screaming in terror on said sign). That’d do the trick

 

[HMF]

On that note btw (though sorry this probably isn’t the right thread to bring it up), but I think a large part of that attraction’s failure, was honestly the signage.. the biggest thing in bright was ‘Alien Encounter’ , while the other stuff (important stuff I should add) being fairly unnoticeable, making you think it would’ve been a cute type of attraction. And being in the Magic Kingdom w majority family friendly attractions, If they were to redesign the sign and make the Extra-TERROR-estrial part of the title far more prominent & exaggerated looking, to really push the ‘Terror’ aspect, perhaps have it glow red, have the text be harsh or something, and maybe feature a dark silhouette of the alien creature, red eyes beaming bright through the shadow. With that it’d probably run a lot more smoothly these days and not have as many complaints going against it. Also have a fairly ‘large’ print or sign that says this attraction may be frightening to families with young children (and perhaps have an illustration of a group of people screaming in terror on said sign). That’d do the trick

Maybe, if I remember correctly there were like four different warning signs in the queue that many parents conveniently ignored.

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Maybe, if I remember correctly there were like four different warning signs in the queue that many parents conveniently ignored.

I wonder if simply renaming that to ‘Extra-TERROR-estrial Encounter’ would be the best solution for that attraction if ever considered to be brought back.
Anyway.. back to Journey Into Imagination. Regarding signage.. so, if you remember, back during it’s original incarnation days.. during the days they played Magic Journeys & Captain EO, it used to have the main ‘Journey Into Imagination’ presented by Kodak sign outside. And then have 2 signs to the left and right of it respectively. One to the left pointing to the Magic Eye Theatre, the other pointing to the Journey Into Imagination Ride. Both with a simple icon with a description representing what both experiences entailed. At some point though, I think around ‘95 or so they removed these signs and replaced them with one single sign, closer near the Magic Eye Theatre, kinda similar to the current pole guide map thing there now) that said ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ in big, red text on the top w an arrow pointing left and underneath it, Journey Into Imagination (in white almost translucent pink print I might add, with a black & white (lol, why?) photo of Figment underneath it, on a weirdly more faded looking white square, with an arrow pointing to the right. (I’ll share both here once I find the photos I saved of them).

Edit: Found them! And they can be seen on (for the original era) Jeff Lange’s site: https://jefflangedvd.com/category/photo-memories/page/4/, and the other Cartarsauce Theatre’s EPCOT ‘96 trip video:

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

There was some other fascinating signage changes aswell. There was once a sign upstairs in the glass atrium area that used to have a “Follow Figment To” sign, with the name of the film playing at that time beneath that, with lit showtime counters (I think, in regards to the showtimes element, might be wrong on that, will have to check again). They later changed this to a simple rectangular ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ sign simply with an arrow pointing towards it going down the escalator to head over to the Magic Eye Theatre, which, again, at the time, was not called this anymore once it got changed to HISTA

 

[HMF]

There was some other fascinating signage changes aswell. There was once a sign upstairs in the glass atrium area that used to have a “Follow Figment To” sign, with the name of the film playing at that time beneath that, with lit showtime counters (I think, in regards to the showtimes element, might be wrong on that, will have to check again). They later changed this to a simple rectangular ‘Honey, I Shrunk the Audience’ sign simply with an arrow pointing towards it going down the escalator to head over to the Magic Eye Theatre, which, again, at the time, was not called this anymore once it got changed to HISTA

The name has returned if it ever really left. Not that it can justify it's existence right now.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Anyway, to change the topic regarding Dreamfinder & Figment. Something more positive, Who else would genuinely love to see some new merch celebrating/themed to the OG Realm of Art scene for next year’s Festival of the Arts on merchandise? I know I would. Couple things I’d like to see possibly would be a Dreamfinder artist beret, blue tie, with an attached or included beard piece along with his classic white painter’s outfit. Same goes for Figment’s rainbow apron and a redone Figment head hat with his purple artists’ beret atop it and maybe an included white collar & purple tie. I’d personally love to see some plush toys of both Artist Dreamfinder and Artist Figment too, I (and I honestly think many others) would buy them! Maybe Figment could have light up color changing rainbow paint in his jar w the twinkling instrumental music playing from the scene where he’s by the rainbow pond, and Dreamfinder could have the light up paintbrush w changing colors and sing his verse of the song Mix red & gold from autumn flowers. Purple & blue from twilight hours. Green summer hills and rainbows play a part. *Hehe* A painter’s brush, a work of art! View attachment 891812

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They can just go back and reuse this piece of promo art again..Instead of that weird glitch AI artwork..I find it funny that whomever worked on this felt flag missed his other hand and it looks like a claw glove..

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

They can just go back and reuse this piece of promo art again..Instead of that weird glitch AI artwork..I find it funny that whomever worked on this felt flag missed his other hand and it looks like a claw glove..

Promise you nothing I’ve posted is AI generated except for that “Haunted Mansion With Ghosts” banner I did, but that’s because it’s literal crap and I intended it to look that way to illustrate my point that the idea stinks and stinks as bad (literally) as the 02-current sham of a ride. I’d never use it otherwise. Everything else is legit.
But yeah, this artwork was used on a lot of merch back then. Granted, would be nice to see it properly colored/color corrected to perfectly match his appearance in the attraction and be used again perhaps. But yeah.

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

Oh I just love Figment, and always will love him even with all of the stuff that happened over the last 27 years.

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

This seems pretty accurate..

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

Wheezie loves Figment so much, she wanted to meet him again!

 

[Zak and Wheezie]

You'll have to imagine the audio...

 

[JohnD]

I just bought this shirt in my size from DisneyStore with a very good discount before its gone.