So you're saying that if Walt was alive today he'd continue to do everything exactly the way he did it in the 50s even though society and technology has gone through significant changes?
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Bob Chapek Confirms Disney Will Overhaul Epcot
- Thread starter Bacon
- Start date
So you're saying that if Walt was alive today he'd continue to do everything exactly the way he did it in the 50s even though society and technology has gone through significant changes?
Goofyernmost
Well-Known Member
I don't think that dead Walt even gives a damn if you show up anymore. We really need to stop dropping his name when we don't have a clue about what he would be thinking were he alive today. He isn't, so it is a moot point.
Tony the Tigger
Well-Known Member
Right. So some of you hang on his every imagined word when it suits your argument, and other times just dismiss him completely.
But we are supposed to just assume now that in the digital age, he would change his mantra from riding the movies to we are sick of the movies, let's do something different.
All these non-experts presenting opinions as facts.
And no one can really be proven right or wrong because he's dead.
You guys may actually get me back into politics.
But we are supposed to just assume now that in the digital age, he would change his mantra from riding the movies to we are sick of the movies, let's do something different.
All these non-experts presenting opinions as facts.
And no one can really be proven right or wrong because he's dead.
You guys may actually get me back into politics.
Earl Sweatpants
Well-Known Member
Hey man, to be fair, you brought dead Walt into this discussion.
All I'm trying to communicate is that I believe there is merit to them getting away from the same "condensed movie" ride format when they add new IPs into the parks.
Fox&Hound
Well-Known Member
Yep. That's exactly right
It actually makes sense though if you really think about it.
Folks back in the 50s went to the theatre, saw a great movie and then if they wanted to continue that experience they basically had to go back to the theatre again. But along comes Disneyland and hey, there's a ride based on that movie I love! It features cherry-picked "moments" from the film that helps me enjoy the movie once it stops running. In many ways, it was a very smart approach.
Now contrast that with today. DVD, blu-ray, soundtracks etc all help you "experience" the film anytime you want. What purpose does a newly created "movie highlights" dark ride serve? Take the Little Mermaid ride. I'll be honest here...its pretty pointless. Now before you start saying "well then we should just bulldoze old fantasy-land since we all have the blu-rays"...no. I'm NOT suggesting that because there is history and they're great for what they are. But why is it so hard to create something unique with beloved characters? I would highly doubt that anyone who rides the Little Mermaid is unfamiliar with its story. So why just re-tell it to them? Take us on a new undersea adventure!
I agree and disagree! Yes, I think imagineers should strive to create new expereinces but also must cater to moments that guests would love to experience. Imaginie a new Mermaid ride without "Under the Sea" or "Part of Your World"?!? I think that is why I enjoyed FEA so much, - new experience with nods to songs everyone knows. In the end, it felt fresh and nostalgic.
RoysCabin
Well-Known Member
@MisterPenguin, fair point on FEA, but I do disagree to a certain extent; while a few words are altered and whatnot, speaking purely from personal opinion I still feel it doesn't do much to give itself a hook beyond "you'll see the movie's characters"; heck, a main scene in the ride feels like some of them just basically standing there (I exaggerate for effect), and while the AA's are pretty impressive when fully operating I just feel like there are tons of concepts that could've been made into a better theme park attraction given the source material, maybe having to do with sliding on ice through the castle, or being on a sleigh moving through a darkened snowy wood, etc.
Granted, a lot of that is constrained by the location of the ride, given that it has to fit into a building that utilizes a boat and a pretty short track, and I fully acknowledge that my feelings on it are subjective, certainly don't expect everyone to agree.
You, uh...didn't actually read my post, did you? Sorry to hear that.
Granted, a lot of that is constrained by the location of the ride, given that it has to fit into a building that utilizes a boat and a pretty short track, and I fully acknowledge that my feelings on it are subjective, certainly don't expect everyone to agree.
You, uh...didn't actually read my post, did you? Sorry to hear that.
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
dead walt? or zombie walt?
Cesar R M
Well-Known Member
Cant we just bring some sort of "spirit talker" to communicate with Walt's rotating head? I mean, to settle the issue once and for all?
PorterRedkey
Well-Known Member
I really wish management would recognize this! Epcot Center was not the MK, but it was more than popular. I waited for over an hour to ride UoE in the 90's. UoE! Sure it was the summer time mid-day, but it's huge people eater! Lines for WoM, SSE, JII and even Horizons were equal waits if not longer. It was only later in the day that the lines died off (and there were no pavilions that closed ar 7pm, like today).
Disney has changed Epcot Center into the Epcot - Festival Center. It is not the better for it. I am really hoping that Epcot can become a great park again. Even if that park is not the park I would prefer.
aladdin2007
Well-Known Member
This!! and added to the italics.
Beacon Joe
Well-Known Member
I know the writing's been on the wall with the dumbing down of the park, thematic destruction, and insertion of braindead trash like Frozen, but this truly saddens me.
I thought about posting this as a separate thread and maybe I will, eventually, but I'll initially ask these questions in this thread:
How many of us were kids during EPCOT Center's first decade and a half? And how many of us point to EPCOT Center's futurist and educational thrust as being one of the significant things that inspired you as a child or teenager, and drove you to your future career?
I'm an engineer, and work for a large engineering and r&d company... almost universally, people in their late 30s through early 50s loved EPCOT Center and look back fondly on the types of exhibits and activities that used to be there: AT&T's exhibits at FutureCom, the robotics expo, the Computer Central / server room, Horizons' vision of extraplanetary and oceanic colonization, and the Living Seas Sea Base Alpha.
These were things that inspired us as kids, and got some of us really enthusiastic about technology and r&d.
When the modern Disney Company talks about overhauling EPCOT, I sure hope that they are considering reinvigorating the educational or even "edutainment" aspects of the original, instead of chasing temporal box office hits and plush sales. If they want to ride waves of popularity, I sure hope that they consider that kids are embracing technology and STEM... c'mon, Disney, get back on track and help inspire kids to build a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.
I thought about posting this as a separate thread and maybe I will, eventually, but I'll initially ask these questions in this thread:
How many of us were kids during EPCOT Center's first decade and a half? And how many of us point to EPCOT Center's futurist and educational thrust as being one of the significant things that inspired you as a child or teenager, and drove you to your future career?
I'm an engineer, and work for a large engineering and r&d company... almost universally, people in their late 30s through early 50s loved EPCOT Center and look back fondly on the types of exhibits and activities that used to be there: AT&T's exhibits at FutureCom, the robotics expo, the Computer Central / server room, Horizons' vision of extraplanetary and oceanic colonization, and the Living Seas Sea Base Alpha.
These were things that inspired us as kids, and got some of us really enthusiastic about technology and r&d.
When the modern Disney Company talks about overhauling EPCOT, I sure hope that they are considering reinvigorating the educational or even "edutainment" aspects of the original, instead of chasing temporal box office hits and plush sales. If they want to ride waves of popularity, I sure hope that they consider that kids are embracing technology and STEM... c'mon, Disney, get back on track and help inspire kids to build a great, big, beautiful tomorrow.
FigmentJedi
Well-Known Member
It's not much of a new experience so much as it is a ride about the movie's popularity.
It's a ride where after 5 hours of waiting in line, you go up to have an anticlimactic meet and greet with Elsa in her castle, but not before going past a group of snot-nosed troll children demanding their parents to put the Frozen Blu-Ray on again for the 2000th time. And once you hear Elsa sing "Let it Go", which is one of the few reasons people even liked the movie, the ride completely loses all momentum and you awkwardly float past some fireworks and a clumsy singalong to "In Summer"
Haymarket2008
Well-Known Member
Ugh. So real. There is no reason this ride couldn't have been put into Princess Fairytale Hall....albeit not a flume ride. Ah well.....
DDLand
Well-Known Member
No one ever contended that Maelstrom was perfect. Particularly the queue and closing act were dated. The ideas behind the attraction were great in spite of that. "The spirit of Norway," a celebration of a pioneering people's culture and identity would have lent itself to a newly refocused great attraction. Sadly we never got that.
Comparing a decades old attraction to something here and now that received incredible amounts of funding is unfair. I would have liked to see what they could've done with decent budget modernizing Maelstrom.
EPCOT's uniqueness is slipping away.
RobidaFlats
Well-Known Member
Has the bar really been lowered that far? The fact that they didn't use screens and actually built animatronics is a shining example of what Imagineers can create? The ride is still the very definition of a re-skin. The bones of the attraction didn't change at all. They still use the exact same boats for crying out loud.
I can't imagine that a resume that includes Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Tower of Terror would ever treat Frozen Ever After as a positive example of what can be done. I am in no way saying that Frozen Ever After is steaming pile of garbage, but lets keep things in perspective, this is not a groundbreaking achievement.
No need to apologise. You're clearly understood.
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
It is astonishing that empty rooms with herky jerky animatronics now constitutes great work.
Fox&Hound
Well-Known Member
I don't see how anyone can not view FEA as a vastly superior improvement over the lackluster Maelstrom.
Unpopular opinion, but I am excited for the direction Epcot is going in if it means new rides and experiences. I
hope they can strike a balance between old and new but time will tell....
Unpopular opinion, but I am excited for the direction Epcot is going in if it means new rides and experiences. I
hope they can strike a balance between old and new but time will tell....
Fox&Hound
Well-Known Member
Hyperbole, much?!? Did you really dislike the ride that much or are you kidding? I would not wait five hours for it but I would not call it clumsy or anticlimactic. I think given the small space the imagineers did an incredible job making the ride feel unique and special. I loved it and count it as a significant improvement to Epcot.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
Because some still won't give credit when it's due. It doesn't belong there but it doesn't make it a bad ride. IMO. I don't agree that Frozen has "herky jerky" animatronics. Not in the slightest. That doesn't make any sense. I can't believe I'm defending this ride, LOL