News Beauty and the Beast sing-along coming to Epcot's France Pavilion

trainplane3

Well-Known Member
It’s a 20K strategy. Desire to get rid of something that people like? Easy! Limit the hours and accessibility. Then report the numbers of guests visiting being so staggeringly low that there is no point in keeping the attraction open. Then France is about cartoon beast and cartoon rat. NEW EPCOT!!!
That and the Imageworks/Imagination situation. Remove some signage and block a passage off. Next thing you know, "oh attendance is declining for some reason".
 

gustaftp

Well-Known Member
To be fair, Impressions de France is god awful boring. And so many people walk in there disappointed. Whether you're in denial or not, it's true.

Proof, please.

Seems to have withstood the test of time for DECADES. It was the reason middle-school me decided to study French and continued with it for 7 years into University. I've taken multiple trips to France, made some close friends, and even got to live a lifelong dream of exploring the Catacombs earlier this year with my French friends who are also into urban exploration.

One thing I wonder - and I wondered it when Soarin projectors were going through an upgrade. Just based on the shape and size of the screens, neither Soarin nor IDF fit in HD or 4K formats. On screens that large, you would most certainly see pixels, and going to 4K would be a technical downgrade over what is there now. I'd assume that Disney has their own proprietary projection technology that far surpasses 4K and HD.
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
Proof, please.

If IdF was so great and truly could stand the test of time and takes in more numbers than the BATB sing along show, then you can come back to me. But I’m calling it out now that the new BATB Sing along will be immensely more popular.

I’d also like to clarify that IdF is boring, but I ALSO don’t care for the BATB replacement idea. But since I didnt care beforehand, I also don’t care what goes in it’s place.
 

marni1971

Park History nut
Premium Member
If IdF was so great and truly could stand the test of time and takes in more numbers than the BATB sing along show, then you can come back to me. But I’m calling it out now that the new BATB Sing along will be immensely more popular.

I’d also like to clarify that IdF is boring, but I ALSO don’t care for the BATB replacement idea. But since I didnt care beforehand, I also don’t care what goes in it’s place.
Ah. Your opinion. Not everyones. Gotcha.
 
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muddyrivers

Well-Known Member
Absolutely absurd. In fact it seems pathetic and petty by Disney to purposely give IDF such crummy hours and then likely use that as justification to get rid of it. I'm sure our community would not have liked it but would have been more okay if Disney just removed the movie entirely rather than try and use flawed attendance figures to make the decision to cut the movie.
 

CaptainAmerica

Well-Known Member
If this is really just a movie sing along with no live performers this willl be a new low for what Disney can call an attraction along with the new Mickey Mouse shorts theatre.
How is it any "lower" than Impressions de France or any of the other Epcot theater shows? I get people don't like it, but it's the same category of attraction.
 

CaptainAmerica

Well-Known Member
Absolutely absurd. In fact it seems pathetic and petty by Disney to purposely give IDF such crummy hours and then likely use that as justification to get rid of it. I'm sure our community would not have liked it but would have been more okay if Disney just removed the movie entirely rather than try and use flawed attendance figures to make the decision to cut the movie.
Do you really think that's how Disney runs the parks?

1. Why would they care about "justifying" getting rid of it? If they want to get rid of it, they can just get rid of it.

2. What they're doing costs money. It costs more money to run two shows than one show, and it cost money upfront to upgrade the Impressions de France show. You don't invest when your intent is to eliminate the thing you're investing in.

3. Why do people seem to think that Disney deliberately goes against guest feedback? When they decide to close something, it's almost always because guests are saying (via attendance and surveys) "we don't like that thing."

4. Do you think the people in the offices are really that ignorant to evaluate a show that runs 90 minutes a day as if it ought to have full day attendance numbers?

5. The arrangement with multiple movies in the same theater is completely flexible and will allow them to adjust the schedule as necessary.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
If IdF was so great and truly could stand the test of time and takes in more numbers than the BATB sing along show, then you can come back to me. But I’m calling it out now that the new BATB Sing along will be immensely more popular.

I’d also like to clarify that IdF is boring, but I ALSO don’t care for the BATB replacement idea. But since I didnt care beforehand, I also don’t care what goes in it’s place.
It's true. BatB will be packed. IdF will play for near empty theaters. (Disregarding the drunks who really just needed to sit down a bit, i.e., half the theater)

It could possibly have been the reverse if EPCOT had been properly developed. If WDW had been differently developed. But as it stands, after by now 25 years of forever aiming lower at the cultural ladder the audience that would appreciate IdF I think is no longer even aware EPCOT exists. While the MK hordes will descend upon EPCOT like stampeding wildebeest and use it as their overflow park.

WDW guests expect a toon singalong, plus alcohol to sedate daddy. Nobody expects a visual tone poem in a remarkably sophisticated treasure trove of architecture and design. Both the parks and the audience have changed from the latter to the former, in an mutual race to the bottom. They both drag each other down.
 
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muddyrivers

Well-Known Member
Do you really think that's how Disney runs the parks?

1. Why would they care about "justifying" getting rid of it? If they want to get rid of it, they can just get rid of it.

2. What they're doing costs money. It costs more money to run two shows than one show, and it cost money upfront to upgrade the Impressions de France show. You don't invest when your intent is to eliminate the thing you're investing in.

3. Why do people seem to think that Disney deliberately goes against guest feedback? When they decide to close something, it's almost always because guests are saying (via attendance and surveys) "we don't like that thing."

4. Do you think the people in the offices are really that ignorant to evaluate a show that runs 90 minutes a day as if it ought to have full day attendance numbers?

5. The arrangement with multiple movies in the same theater is completely flexible and will allow them to adjust the schedule as necessary.

So the question is, why is Impressions running for only 1.5 hours a day after it had been said it would alternate with the Sing a Long?

As you said, what Disney did cost money so it doesn't make sense for them not to receive a return on their investment by only showing the film for a small portion of the day.

Do I think the people in the offices are that ignorant? Not at all. But I do think they know a 90 minute sampling of Sing a Long attendance will likely rate better than a 90 minute sampling of IDF and it wouldn't be as fair of a comparison unless the films alternated.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Do you really think that's how Disney runs the parks?

1. Why would they care about "justifying" getting rid of it? If they want to get rid of it, they can just get rid of it.

2. What they're doing costs money. It costs more money to run two shows than one show, and it cost money upfront to upgrade the Impressions de France show. You don't invest when your intent is to eliminate the thing you're investing in.

3. Why do people seem to think that Disney deliberately goes against guest feedback? When they decide to close something, it's almost always because guests are saying (via attendance and surveys) "we don't like that thing."

4. Do you think the people in the offices are really that ignorant to evaluate a show that runs 90 minutes a day as if it ought to have full day attendance numbers?

5. The arrangement with multiple movies in the same theater is completely flexible and will allow them to adjust the schedule as necessary.
Two shows for the price of one. Once your cinema is digitalised, costs for swapping movies around are close to zero.

I would still like to understand how the preservation of IdF was achieved. I think that maybe, somewhere, somebody with a love of EPCOT fought to have it preserved. Perhaps with the argument that the EPCOT replacement park has two very visible different demographs: stroller brigade, and boozers. And both can be served this way.

This way, TDO can have its cake and eat it to. EPCOT, like special event park MK, to be filled twice a day. A morning park for families, an evening park for adults.
 

xdan0920

Think for yourselfer
It's true. BatB will be packed. IdF will play for near empty theaters. (Disregarding the drunks who really just need to sit down a bit, i.e., half the theater)

It could be the reverse if EPCOT had been properly developed. If WDW had been differently developed. But as it stands, after by now 25 years of forever aiming lower at the cultural ladder the audience that would appreciate IdF I think is no longer even aware EPCOT exists. While the MK hordes will descend upon EPCOT like stampeding woldebeest and use it as their overflow park.

WDW guests expect a toon singalong, plus alcohol to sedate daddy. Nobody expects a visual tone poem in a remarkably sophisticated treasure trove of architecture and design. Both the parks and the audience have changed from the latter to the former, in an mutual race to the bottom. They both drag each other down.
Listen up nerd. When I family goes to Dizney Werld, I want to see them Dizney caracters. I don't want to do no book learnin.
 

Mickey5150

Well-Known Member
Considering they upgraded Impressions I'm guessing it's not going anywhere. The hours make sense because the sing along is new. Give more hours to the new show in the beginning and as the initial draw starts to fade they balance out the hours of the 2 shows. I won't comment on the sign or the show since neither is operational.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Listen up nerd. When I family goes to Dizney Werld, I want to see them Dizney caracters. I don't want to do no book learnin.
Right? Cassie and me ordered ice cream we were already out of dining plan snacks by two so we paid cash lol them thar hispanics that work in the Beauty and the Beast park in the epcot spoke spanish to us i said this is america speak english
 

BoardwalkGlenn

Well-Known Member
this, flood guest relations, nicely... already sent in a complaint and will also do it in person.

Same here. I just emailed my concern and will follow-up in person next week. I am planning to be in Epcot two nights for my trip which are already booked with dining reservations, Broadway Concerts at 8, and then Epcot Forever. Although maybe after seeing EF once, I'll be good. :D
 

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