I know, right? A "Future World" that contains attractions having nothing to do with the future (SSE, Figment, Soarin) and when it does, the exhibitions become outdated within half a decade and linger on for years like some joke. Or a pavilion whose message is dictated by its Big Oil sponsor to include false science to make their industry seem 'cool.' Or even the fact that there are corporate sponsors diluting the purity of the theme park and having an affect on whether a pavilion stays or goes. Or the immaturity of the use of puns for their food and merch services. Or all those mini-kiosks of hands-on future-tech demonstrations that had a ridiculously low guest capacity leaving thousands of children frustrated daily that they can't get their turn.
Oh, the indignities of what had once been perfect... on the drawing board and in the memories clouded by nostalgia.
Meh, that's just poor online Disney warrioring: the parks must be defended online at all costs. Unless they change. Then the bit that's being changed has always been rubbish.
You can do better than that. You're good with keeping track of new projects. But you seldom show an understanding of vintage EPCOT. Turn your gaze around, EPCOT has been such an interesting project! As its pavilions showed, history is the key to understanding the present.
- Future World is a name. Not a setting. All of FW is set in the present day.
FW as name echoes Disney World, World Showcase. It means that the park reflects on the themes and issues that create the world of tomorrow.
- Imagination is very much a resource to be harnessed to create progress and a better future world for our children. What has ever been more Disney than this very realisation!?
- Soarin' is not vintage EPCOT. It is a slightly ill-fitting newish addition. Good ride, but doesn't drive EPCOT forward.
- The exhibitions are meant to be replaced every few years. That's built into their design. Blank temporary exhibition spaces with little expensive infrastructure.
- Corporate sponsorship. Yes, but for better or for worse, this has always been the nature of the beast. Walt's showcase of American Industry. Take it up with old Republican uncle Walt.
The very idea of EPCOT, as community or as park, was to address its central themes in close conjunction with experts from the different fields it presented, including industry sponsors. How else would it have been? TWDC, quite logically, understood nor professed to have any intimate understanding of energy, communication or transport. Just of presenting these topics through various media. From informational films to attractions.
Personally, it did bother even my young teenage self. I realised that I was imprinting on what also functioned as corporate advertisements. But such was EPCOT. An exercise in American capitalism. Crass commercialism, but also the very point.
- CommuniCore was vast and had countless displays. Ranging from the visual, artistic, informative to hands-on. There was plenty to go around for everybody.
Then add in that Motion, Seas and Imageworks had numerous hands-on exhibits too. Like its people-eating rides, EPCOT's exhibits had immense capacity. A Disney park that had solved crowding with huge hourly capacity and wide (then uncluttered) pathways, imagine that.
As always: there are two kinds of WDW fans, those who know EPCOT Center, and those who don't. Through simple passage of time, the former are in ever decreasing number. Not to mention, largely driven away to more dignified pursuits than crass and sorry modern WDW. We realise this is no longer our park and that likewise we are no longer the audience TWDC is interested in. EPCOT, Disney's most daring and greatest park ever, is death. To applause from modern WDW fans. But the brilliance of EPCOT can't be erased from the history books.
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