Rumor Is the End of Innoventions Near?

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
Something more than 4 minutes would be nice. But I genuinely believe the average modern guest does not want longer attractions.
Which is why lines at Pirates, Mansion, Splash Mountain, Spaceship Earth, Kilimanjaro, and the Jungle Cruise are so short.

Personally, if I have to wait an hour to get on a ride I'd rather that ride be long enough to justify that wait. Which is why the rumors of Rise of the Resistance being 20+ minutes from Pre-show to Unload is so appealing. And it sounds like it should be epic for every one of those minutes.

If you're entertained the whole time, the length of the ride doesn't matter so much.
 

MuteSuperstar

Well-Known Member
Which is why lines at Pirates, Mansion, Splash Mountain, Spaceship Earth, Kilimanjaro, and the Jungle Cruise are so short.

Personally, if I have to wait an hour to get on a ride I'd rather that ride be long enough to justify that wait. Which is why the rumors of Rise of the Resistance being 20+ minutes from Pre-show to Unload is so appealing. And it sounds like it should be epic for every one of those minutes.

If you're entertained the whole time, the length of the ride doesn't matter so much.

Agreed on all counts, mainly saying the trend for newer attractions seems to be shortening and people mostly seem fine with it. Hopefully the Star Wars stuff gets it right.
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
I think we should make a point to distinguish between what Disney can't keep up with and what they don't keep up with.

They had every resource they needed to keep things like DisneyQuest, Innoventions, and the greater Future World area fresh and interesting. They basically chose not to, and now they're paying for it to varying degrees with each of those areas.
From whom? Again, the corporate sponsorship model is dead. If Disney relied on it to update their attractions, it didn’t work.

EDITED to add: DisneyQuest and Innoventions saw barely any significant investment over the last 20 years aside from the occasional "new toy", which is why I say they didn't keep up with it. It's not like they kept trying to bail water and were overtaken, they let things languish. Future World has at least seen significant investment, but it's been lacking in vision. At opening, Future World had more vision than practically anything the company had ever done, which is why it stings so much that it lacks it so desperately now.

I'll say it again, I'm willing to see them move in a new direction if they feel the need, just as long as that new direction has vision. I won't even ask them to have as much vision for it as they did in 1982, since I know it won't happen, but you have to be trying to do something. Otherwise you're just building rides, which does not a Theme Park make.
DisneyQuest didn’t suffer from corporate sponsorship model, but this attraction was clearly a victim of a smaller customer base that’s willing to enjoy it. Orlando was the last location that had it. It just wasn’t going to survive much longer. I can think of other concepts that relied on many locations to keep it alive like ESPN Zone.

The numerous updates that Future World attractions require is not financially feasible. Technology and Science is a moving target and the audience is indifferent.
 

tirian

Well-Known Member
I agree the theme of Epcot is broken, but with full knowledge that just about everything is replaced. The only original rides is Spaceship Earth, Imagination, and The Land. Spaceship Earth will get another renovation without a sponsor. Imagination is likely to get something new. So whatever theme you think the park is, it isn’t what it was for many years.
Imagination has been getting a re-do for over a decade. Disney keeps canceling the plans.
 

yensidtlaw1969

Well-Known Member
From whom? Again, the corporate sponsorship model is dead. If Disney relied on it to update their attractions, it didn’t work.

From Disney - they should totally have abandoned the Sponsorship model sooner. I think that was part of the problem that sunk Future World in the first place. Both Horizons and the original Imagination in particular seem to have fallen victim to its failings. It's not like Disney didn't have any of their own money from the 90's until now to invest in these things. And as you say, that model certainly hasn't been too much of a thing in Epcot in in the past 10 years, so it's not like they should have been waiting all that time for someone else to spend their money on fixing Future World's lineup.

DisneyQuest didn’t suffer from corporate sponsorship model, but this attraction was clearly a victim of a smaller customer base that’s willing to enjoy it. Orlando was the last location that had it. It just wasn’t going to survive much longer. I can think of other concepts that relied on many locations to keep it alive like ESPN Zone.

I agree that DisneyQuest seemed to have been too little too late - the way it fared in Chicago wasn't a great sign. Seems like the kind of thing that showed up late to it's own party - arcades were already going the way of the dodo by the time it hit the scene, and then it lingered too long in Downtown Disney without anything meaningful being added to bring it new attention. I don't lament its closure, personally, but I won't pretend they shouldn't have invested more in it if they were going to keep it open as long as it did. They let it limp to its death.

The numerous updates that Future World attractions require is not financially feasible. Technology and Science is a moving target and the audience is indifferent.

I think that's a bit of a myth -- most of the Future World Pavilions were made up of content that was either a depiction of the past, which were never really any more dated than ones that remain today in Spaceship Earth, or visions of the distant future that haven't miraculously turned into present day as people like to suggest. The visions of the future in Horizons are still ahead of us, the city in World of Motion was abstract enough that you wouldn't feel like we were past it . . . and none of these things were so far gone that they couldn't possibly be salvaged with a little casual updating as any attraction would reasonably warrant after 20 years of operation. The biggest headache would be replacing filmed segments with new ones that don't look like they were shot in the 80's, and even that doesn't seem to be a deal breaker with Disney since examples of these are currently hanging out in China, France, Living with the Land, you could even argue the American Adventure . . . and remember, even Test Track only made it 13 years before getting a total overhaul, and Mission Space even less before adding the new Green show, so it's not like they're replacing these original attractions with things that are set to go for millennia. Communicore/Innoventions would have been the most likely to fall victim to this mentality if that was the criteria for taking things off line, and they kept that on, if half-heartedly, far past most other attractions. But then, it didn't have dozens of expensive Audio Animatronics to maintain, which I think was a bigger issue than "the future is a moving target".
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
When myth hits reality. Your reasoning is certainly reasonable, but it didn’t work out that way. So I don’t quite think it is a myth, just another argument. The argument is that form of entertainment is no longer the direction Disney is willing to support.
 

Dr.GrantSeeker

Well-Known Member
Yep. Central had ground, the pit, the ramp, the preshow level, the main show level plus the balcony exit to the escalator.

Future Choice was multi level. Travel port was sunken. As was Expo and Futurecom, the latter had the balcony video phone operators too.

And of course the basement.

I'd love to see a picture of that. I'm sure you have pictures somewhere? :angelic:
 

DanielBB8

Well-Known Member
Imagination has been getting a re-do for over a decade. Disney keeps canceling the plans.
If it’s an argument that Future World attractions are easily updated and not completely outdated, then the updates are not urgent. Is this true or not? Whenever someone points out Splash Mountain didn’t get an update, it’s always about broken lightbulbs or animatronics. We’re not talking about light bulbs or animatronics here, but storylines and footage. We do this every 10 years or so. It’s financially unfeasible to rebuild attractions that frequently. This is common in Epcot. Or increasingly less common.
 

jt04

Well-Known Member
There is something off with the edutainment angle at theme parks. I never knew how right Lee is until recently.

I think it is the fact that the education portion does not allow for a difference of opinion IMO. It comes of as more a form of indoctrination than entertainment.

Most just want the entertainment not the superficial faux 'education'.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
There is something off with the edutainment angle at theme parks. I never knew how right Lee is until recently.

I think it is the fact that the education portion does not allow for a difference of opinion IMO. It comes of as more a form of indoctrination than entertainment.

Most just want the entertainment not the superficial faux 'education'.
I’ll let him know next time we chat.
 

Bocabear

Well-Known Member
There is something off with the edutainment angle at theme parks. I never knew how right Lee is until recently.

I think it is the fact that the education portion does not allow for a difference of opinion IMO. It comes of as more a form of indoctrination than entertainment.

Most just want the entertainment not the superficial faux 'education'.
The Living Seas pavilion taught how the seas were formed...Based on science, not faux education...the only part that was not scientific was your method of transportation to an imaginary seabase at the bottom of the sea...which was TOTALLY entertaining. It blended the both together beautifully...Now it is a cartoon joke and completely un memorable.
Nothing wrong with learning a little science with your entertainment...
 
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brb1006

Well-Known Member
I remember Communicore in its hey day!

These images of Communicore are the perfect images of Epcot at it's prime.
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us-population-counter-communicore-East-Epcot.jpg

latest


SMRT-1 along with Dreamfinder and Figment we're one of the most iconic characters of Epcot Center of the 80s and 90s.
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Here's rare footage of SMRT-1 interacting with child guests sometime in the 1980s.


And speaking of robots, does anybody remember Gyro who used to be found wandering around Epcot in the 80s and able to interact with guests? Unlike Dreamfinder and Figment, it's difficult to find any videos of Gyro in action.
GYRO_web.jpg
 
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brb1006

Well-Known Member
As a follow up to my comment on SMRT-1 and Gyro. Does anybody remember Gero? It's very difficult to find video footage of this robot that was also seen at the park in the 80s. But here's photos from that period. Gero would usually be seen moving around the park and also be seen talking to guests.

robot-epcot-center-1980s.jpg

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Epcot-1989-17.jpg


This is also the only video I could find of Gyro interacting with guests as seen in this video from 1985.
 

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