All EPCOT Center, All the Time- Part II

[EPCOT Explorer]

You'd like my idea for Test Track. I've posted the rough outline on here but haven't thought up the details yet. But with 4900 posts left in this thread I guess there is no hurry.

LOVED your ideas for TT.


When you post up, maybe I'll put up some of mine, too.

 

[HMF]

Dench is teh ebols. Now, shouldn't we have a Judi Dench Photoshop contest? It'd be great!

You guys know tha Judi did not write the script' Right?

 

[SirNim]

You guys know tha Judi did not write the script' Right?

That's true, but she still makes for a most satisfying scapegoat... :lookaroun

 

[Disneyson 1]

i would never wait one hour for that ride. The original, maybe. But not for what it is now.

wins!!!!!

 

[aladdin2007]

I went to Epcot tonight. The entrance bgm was back to normal. The Living Seas theme was included, which I thought someone said had been removed.

There was a light on in the descent of SSE on the floor right before the curtains start. There was also a large chunk of insulation or something hanging from the ceiling during the last stretch. Whether Disney wants to or not, they're going to have to touch the descent to remove this, as it's obvious it's not supposed to be there and is potentially dangerous since it's dangling about two feet down.

Thanks for the update. Interesting about the light on in the floor in that area of the descent, before there were flourescent lights on under the tracks in the cavemen scene. The insulation hanging is nasty and its been that way for a long time, Disney apparently doesnt give a flip and seems to think its cool to leave it this way. Not! :brick: I dont care if were suppose to focus on the cartoon or not, the area was left in a poor manner and now its going to be even longer it sounds like.

 

[Vernonpush]

Thanks for the update. Interesting about the light on in the floor in that area of the descent, before there were flourescent lights on under the tracks in the cavemen scene. The insulation hanging is nasty and its been that way for a long time, Disney apparently doesnt give a flip and seems to think its cool to leave it this way. Not! :brick: I dont care if were suppose to focus on the cartoon or not, the area was left in a poor manner and now its going to be even longer it sounds like.

I told a CM about the hanging insulation this afternoon, after I saw it for my own eyes.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

You guys know tha Judi did not write the script' Right?

She could have used for M voice, though.:lol:

 

[Jasonflz]

She could have used for M voice, though.:lol:

:lol:

"Bond, thank the Romans.
They taught you how to kill."

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

:lol:

"Bond, thank the Romans.
They taught you how to kill."

EXACTLY.

 

[HMF]

. The Living Seas theme was included, which I thought someone said had been removed.
.

I actually said I hope it has not been removed.:animwink:

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

Now we just have to get all the other retro music back in the BGM...

 

[ttalovebug]

I would love a space pavillion around M:S. I actually like the ride, but, it's just a ride. A film and/or small exhibit around it would make for a great pavillion.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

I would love a space pavillion around M:S. I actually like the ride, but, it's just a ride. A film and/or small exhibit around it would make for a great pavillion.

Journeys in Space 1978.

Allyaneedtoknow.

 

[SirGoofy]

They could easily expand the M:S pavilion to accommodate more pavilion-esque attributes.

 

[EPCOT Explorer]

They could easily expand the M:S pavilion to accommodate more pavilion-esque attributes.

*coughWoLPlotcough*

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

Here is a picture of the UoE taken May 31. Remember my idea about how the flowers should also go from yellow to red? They haven't finished it yet, but you can see new ( and different looking flowers ) going from yellow in the back into orange...and should be eventually completed to go to red. :wave:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/moosecollector/3599451764/

 

[SirGoofy]

I love it when they do things like that.

 

[Expo_Seeker40]

sorry, it is done, while more of a burgundy, the color scheme is the same, mirrored on the other side of the water basin. While not my fav shade of red, it is a nice landscape effect. Good job landscaping team! *now just tear down those icky treez*

 

[FigmentJedi]

You know, looking at it from this perspective, I find it easier to forgive the shortcomings of the current Imagination ride.

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-approach.html

II. Past, Present Dialogue

2000 saw the opening of Journey Into YOUR Imagination at EPCOT, a bare bones replacement for the lavish Kodak pavilion of 1983. It closed only two years later to be replaced with yet another attraction due to rampant guest complaints, and it is this second version - Journey Into Your Imagination With Figment - which interests us here. The short lifespan and heated dislike of version 2 of the attraction perched version 3 in the uncommon situation of being both a replacement of and an apology for the second version, and an intriguing dynamic was created.

In the attraction, a scientific research facility known as the "Imagination Institute" - a concept salvaged from a throwaway joke in the nearby "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" - is headed by the stuffy Eric Idle, who is giving a tour which is repeatedly interrupted by carefree Figment. In version 2 of the attraction, Idle's chairman of the institute was the authoritative voice, but here he is constantly sidetracked by Figment, and it is not hard to extend Figment the role of being the literal embodiment of WED designs and EPCOT Center in general. Figment, for example, is associated with the disruption of the weirdly sterile atmosphere of the Institute, which is literally exploded in the finale into a succession of abstract spaces - an orange sunset, a starry night, and finally a room which materializes out of nowhere. WDI designs favor concrete and demonstrable spaces - Harambe, Africa, or the sterility of a Hollywood movie studio - but WED era designs created any old imaginary - often not very well developed - spaces they felt like, in any order they pleased. Figment's explosion of the Institute office corridors into upside down houses and abstract spaces is literally the destruction of Disney's modern concepts of themed design "placemaking".


Besides his inherent historical association with EPCOT, Figment is employed in other ways to subvert Idle, who is essentially filling the role of a modern "creative executive", a placebo for the hundreds of "empty suits" who continue to stifle creativity in WDI. Figment appears in his trademark yellow sweater and watches animation from the 1983 version of his attraction (a sobering contrast to the gaudy 3D animation of Figment seen elsewhere) on an upside down television. He walks on the walls and ceiling around the cars in a clear allusion to the opening of World of Motion. At one point he summons an oncoming train heard in sound effects which "rush through" the audience, a possible allusion to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride. He even actually stops the attraction from continuing and diverts the cars through nonsense space with spinning cutout Figments and lighting effects. So concerned is the attraction with pleasing an audience of hardcore Disney fans that a clever visual reference to The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes is even included. This is in contrast to version 2 of Imagination where a hollow reference to the Haunted Mansion was included, very similar to the perfunctory name dropping of the Mansion in California Adventure's Superstar Limo.

"Angels, execs, producers beyond... give us a sign the Green Light is on."

A fairly subversive quotation, actually, when removed from its' apparent Hollywood context and placed in the similar decision making world of Imagineering.

Journey Into Your Imagination With Figment may be the only Disney attraction currently operating which seeks to create a dialogue between design team and audience, not intended for the millions of tourists who traipse in and out of the building all year mostly unaware of the subtext and history and meaning behind it. And Disney fans have not embraced it either, not only for its' uneasy atmosphere and near constant assault on the senses, but because it is not the beloved original attraction. The final verdict on Journey into YOUR Imagination with Figment may rest on whether this "reading" of the attraction is correct or not. I believe it is, and may therefore actually rank as one of WDI's more subversive achievements, a funny but sad cry of despair from the pit of Disney's darkest era of themed design. It's hard not to hear famous creative executives like Paul Pressler behind lines like:

"I want you out of sight!" "I believe Imagination should be captured and controlled!"

And some beleaguered creative team sticking it to the boss, making themselves into Figment, a blind eye turned to them for the moment under the pressures of time and money:

"Imagination should be set free!"

 

[Thrill Seeker]

You know, looking at it from this perspective, I find it easier to forgive the shortcomings of the current Imagination ride.

http://passport2dreams.blogspot.com/2009/05/new-approach.html

I don't. It still sucks. The current version shouldn't even be compared to the original, because it's not even close. Yeah, it's better than the disaster that was JIYI, but it's still nowhere near as good as the original. If WDI wants to appeal to the hardcore fans, then restore the original track, re-open the upstairs Imageworks and bring some real imagination back into that pavilion.