Bob Chapek Confirms Disney Will Overhaul Epcot

[marni1971]

The ride was good - within reason - given size and budget limitations. The politics and placement were not.

 

[jt04]

The ride was good given size and budget limitations. The politics and placement were not.

Not to be contrary, but guests are voting with their feet. And one day hopefully Frozen will fit into WS like it had been there from day 1.

 

[marni1971]

Not to be contrary, but guests are voting with their feet..

When you post the attendence figures for Epcot 2015-2017 then you'll have something to back up your personal claim.

Happy new year btw.

 

[jt04]

When you post the attendence figures for Epcot 2015-2017 then you'll have something to back up your personal claim.

Happy new year btw.

Thanks and same to you. Waiting for a link to Imagineerings competitor in case you missed that in the other thread.

 

[marni1971]

Thanks and same to you. Waiting for a link to Imagineerings competitor in case you missed that in the other thread.

I've answered it for you out of the kindness of my heart.

 

[Andrew C]

lol.

 

[jt04]

I've answered it for you out of the kindness of my heart.

I only saw you had dodged the request.

 

[marni1971]

I only saw you had dodged the request.

Nope. I don't know of any website that would say what you want to read.

 

[jt04]

Nope. I don't know of any website that would say what you want to read.

Oh well.

 

[MisterPenguin]

It is astonishing that empty rooms with herky jerky animatronics now constitutes great work.

Yeah, our herky jerky animatronics should have a very well themed room!

 

[MisterPenguin]

I can't believe I'm defending this ride, LOL

There's always an extremist to make anyone look like a moderate.

 

[brb1006]

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.

We should at least convince people at Disney to make a JIM movie based on the original attraction with bits from the comics to give more interest to the Imagination Pavilion. I heard people at Disney were surprised with how well the Figment comics sold years ago. If that film becomes a success then Disney could go back to giving the entire pavilion an overhaul.

 

[Kman101]

Well, considering they had comic books that sold surprisingly well, I guess, they missed the boat not doing a Dreamfinder/Figment movie instead of unnecessarily remaking Pete's Dragon. JMO. If they wanted synergy, there you go.

 

[brb1006]

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

The first Olaf AA was good though

 

[Kman101]

The first Olaf AA was good though

All of the animatronics, when working correctly, move very well. They're impressive but yeah, the Olaf one stands out.

 

[Cesar R M]

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....

probably because it isnt? it was just a rehash of the same ride with the high end AAs in current tech.
They certainly didn't aim for the stars.
Certainly the first Olaf was impressive. The others felt static compared to the excellent animations of the ones at the mine train.

 

[DDLand]

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....

This is all about framing the discussion.

You can look at the Epcot rethink in one of two ways. The first is the choice between new IP attractions and nothing. Obviously doing nothing is not an option. Even the most ardent Epcot fans will say outright, investment is needed. This way of thinking makes everything that creates chaos more palatable. The classic "it could be worse."

The second is one based on the idea that instead a choice between nothing and IP, it's a choice between IP and purpose built attractions. Instead of "it could be worse," we contend it could be better.

This makes their moves frustrating.

This ride is definitely not the definition of a reskin. You wanna talk about the definition of reskins, go out to Disneyland in California and ride Hyperspace Mountain

Hyperspace Mountain is a non permanent (hopefully) overlay of an existing attraction; much like holiday editions of several Disney classics. The term "reskin" is quite applicable for Frozen. The ride system and building made it through with extremely minimal changes while all the show components were swapped out.

It's also worth pointing out most probably wouldn't say that reusing attraction infrastructure is inherently a problem. I wouldn't.

It's only when it shows laziness or a lack of care that the term becomes derogatory.

 

[RobidaFlats]

This ride is definitely not the definition of a reskin. You wanna talk about the definition of reskins, go out to Disneyland in California and ride Hyperspace Mountain

It most certainly is a re-skin. So is Hyperspace Mountain. The difference is in degree. One is a more detailed re-skin than the other. For example, if I repaint my car, that's a re-skin. If I repaint the car and also add racing stripes and undercarriage lighting, it's still a re-skin, just a more comprehensive one.

The underlying attraction did not change. The changes were all in the outer presentation, a.k.a., the "skin". The bones and muscles of the attraction building, flume, boats, etc. did not change. This is not to say that a re-skin cannot be impressive, detailed, or any other positive adjective. However, it is still merely a re-skin. This is a not a ground-breaking, amazing build of a new attraction from the ground up that sets a new standard of imagineering excellence. If you want to make the argument that it wasn't a "lazy" re-skin, ok, I suppose Disney has definitely shown that they can do worse. However, re-skins are to some degree inherently lazy and I can't imagine that anyone who is a fan of Frozen would argue that it wouldn't have been better served with a dedicated, ground-up design.

 

[PirateFrank]

Not to be contrary, but guests are voting with their feet. And one day hopefully Frozen will fit into WS like it had been there from day 1.

Can you explain this? I'm not sure how that is possible - unless the remainder of the WS is converted to imaginary countries mined from Disney IP....and if that's your hope, that's terrifying.

 

[Rteetz]

They are thinking about turning the mexico pavilion into a attraction based on Pixars upcoming film "Coco"

Changing that to Coco wouldn't have an affect on World Showcase in the terms of bringing more IP in. Mexican already has an IP based attraction with the three caballeros. Adding a new IP based attraction in say Japan would have that affect.