Bob Chapek Confirms Disney Will Overhaul Epcot

jt04

jt04

Well-Known Member
Cast Member Voice said:
I just said this in another thread:
Disney is at an impasse with Epcot where both sides of the debate what the antithesis of the other side...

the hardcore and loyal Disney World fans want EPCOT to go back to what it was;
dark rides about education,
circle vision films,
original ideas as opposed to IPs,
and true innovation.

the masses of the ticket buying public want the opposite;
marvel attractions,
films being replaced with rides,
familiar characters,
and a more "theme park" type of theme park.

I don't know what direction they should go.
Because I want EPCOT to go back to how it was... but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...

Disney should play to its strengths.
 
CinematicFusion

CinematicFusion

Well-Known Member
Cast Member Voice said:
I just said this in another thread:
Disney is at an impasse with Epcot where both sides of the debate what the antithesis of the other side...

the hardcore and loyal Disney World fans want EPCOT to go back to what it was;
dark rides about education,
circle vision films,
original ideas as opposed to IPs,
and true innovation.

the masses of the ticket buying public want the opposite;
marvel attractions,
films being replaced with rides,
familiar characters,
and a more "theme park" type of theme park.

I don't know what direction they should go.
Because I want EPCOT to go back to how it was... but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...

Excited to see what they do to future world. I only have an emotional attachment for “the golf ball” with horizons and journey into imagination gone (fun fact...the redo has now lasted longer then the original ride with figment and dreamfinder.) This guy hasn’t been in the park for 20 years.
8E3D8E35-5255-4D41-9640-DF0620791268.jpeg
So Disney could get rid of everything in Future world with the exception of Spaceship Earth and it wouldn’t bother me. I have zero emotional attachment to the rest in future world. Make it educational, make it full of IPs.... I don’t care. Just make it good.
World Showcase has and still is one of the better areas in all of DisneyWorld.
Just an opinion. Look forward to seeing what they do.
 
HauntedMansionFLA

HauntedMansionFLA

Well-Known Member
Cast Member Voice said:
I just said this in another thread:
Disney is at an impasse with Epcot where both sides of the debate what the antithesis of the other side...

the hardcore and loyal Disney World fans want EPCOT to go back to what it was;
dark rides about education,
circle vision films,
original ideas as opposed to IPs,
and true innovation.

the masses of the ticket buying public want the opposite;
marvel attractions,
films being replaced with rides,
familiar characters,
and a more "theme park" type of theme park.

I don't know what direction they should go.
Because I want EPCOT to go back to how it was... but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...
The Ticket buying public wins every time.
 
Rich Brownn

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
marni1971 said:
Odd coming from me perhaps, but thank god E.P.C.O.T. never happened.
Click to expand...
Depending on who you talk to, the film that Walt did of EPCOT before he did was simply a showpiece and now real exploration of what would be required was done (basically it was a fluff piece to get the laws they wanted passed). Regardless, In reality, as one of the Imagineers pointed out, as soon as people moved in the E and P would be done. "You cannot experiment with people's lives. What if we installed a prototype kitchen that didn't work?" Indeed many of the initial 'experimental' thing tried at Disney turned out to have unexpected issues (the pneumatic garbage system that often jammed), proved impractical (the modular building of rooms) or overly expensive (monorail). As soon as they actually set down to try and plan the city, too many such roadblocks came to mind. (Plus, those residents could VOTE!) In the end, Celebration was as close as they could come.
 
mikejs78

mikejs78

Premium Member
Cast Member Voice said:
I just said this in another thread:
Disney is at an impasse with Epcot where both sides of the debate what the antithesis of the other side...

the hardcore and loyal Disney World fans want EPCOT to go back to what it was;
dark rides about education,
circle vision films,
original ideas as opposed to IPs,
and true innovation.

the masses of the ticket buying public want the opposite;
marvel attractions,
films being replaced with rides,
familiar characters,
and a more "theme park" type of theme park.

I don't know what direction they should go.
Because I want EPCOT to go back to how it was... but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...
CinematicFusion said:
Excited to see what they do to future world. I only have an emotional attachment for “the golf ball” with horizons and journey into imagination gone (fun fact...the redo has now lasted longer then the original ride with figment and dreamfinder.) This guy hasn’t been in the park for 20 years. View attachment 327475So Disney could get rid of everything in Future world with the exception of Spaceship Earth and it wouldn’t bother me. I have zero emotional attachment to the rest in future world. Make it educational, make it full of IPs.... I don’t care. Just make it good.
World Showcase has and still is one of the better areas in all of DisneyWorld.
Just an opinion. Look forward to seeing what they do.
Click to expand...

There's room to do both, IMO. Keep the mission of Epcot as one of inspiration, but use IPs as the vehicle to provide that inspiration. Make the Nemo ride about using those characters to teach about Marine life. Keep the Land pavillion relatively intact. Make Imagination 4.0 a modern take on the original (Disney could then turn Figment into a more universal IP and symbol of the park - maybe make a Figment series on Disney+. Synergy!).

Turn Innoventions into the Sanfransokyo Expo with Hiro and BayMax. Make the Guardians coaster about travelling the universe to discover different forms of energy. Reimagine WoL with new attractions featuring Joy and Sadness. Update Test Track to have the ride affected by the design - maybe have it hosted by the Cars characters... In World Showcase, for the new films have Mulan host a film about Chinese history and culture; Miguel a boat ride about Mexican culture, etc... This shouldn't be that hard.

And keep Spaceship Earth essentially the same, but updated. Do not ruin that attraction.
 
Lucky

Lucky

Well-Known Member
Cast Member Voice said:
but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Think about any sort of business with two types of customers. Typically it’s most profitable to keep both if you can. It’s not like the “masses” will quit going to WDW just because some of the parks aren’t as crammed with Disney characters as MK.
 
PorterRedkey

PorterRedkey

Well-Known Member
HauntedMansionFLA said:
The Ticket buying public wins every time.
Click to expand...
Then why did Epcot have a higher attendance in the 80s than now? The reason for the fall in attendance IMHO is the dismantling of the classic attractions, cheap overlays, lack of ride reburbishments, loss of a cohesive theme, and not added a new pavilion for over 25 years.

I wish that ticket buying public won. Disney used to be about exceeding a guests expectations in their attractions they now it seem they just do the bare minimum (SW:GE being the exception).

Its not what the guests want, it is the cheapest, play-it-safe, thing Disney can put together (see MnGs, cloned rides and festivals) in order to spark an attendance bump.

That’s not very innovative to me, unlike Epcot’s early years.
 
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wdisney9000

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Cast Member Voice said:
I just said this in another thread:
Disney is at an impasse with Epcot where both sides of the debate what the antithesis of the other side...

the hardcore and loyal Disney World fans want EPCOT to go back to what it was;
dark rides about education,
circle vision films,
original ideas as opposed to IPs,
and true innovation.

the masses of the ticket buying public want the opposite;
marvel attractions,
films being replaced with rides,
familiar characters,
and a more "theme park" type of theme park.

I don't know what direction they should go.
Because I want EPCOT to go back to how it was... but I know it's not in the business interests of Disney to do so because the public wants the opposite of what I want.
Click to expand...
There is also a third group. Those who do not want Epcot to go back to what it was nor turn to into MK 2.0 either.

There are those who would like to actually see Epcot evolve and retain its distinctiveness while still promoting the core principals the park was founded on. Sadly, many people believe that those principles were nothing more than "technology" and that since we now have smartphones in our pockets that it would be an act of futility to do anything aside from cramming Wreck it Ralph, Big Hero 6 or Inside Out into every corner o the park.
 
Kman101

Kman101

Well-Known Member
Retro Oswald said:
but the old school fans who say it hasn't been like proper Epcot for years anyway just want it to stay in this horrible limbo that the park is currently in
Click to expand...

If you think that, you won't ever get it. And that's OK.

New and exciting doesn't make something "better" ... "let's just have anything new" is just as dangerous as saying we want it to stay in horrible limbo. No. No we don't.

We want them to care again. We want effort put into attractions. There is no excuse for Nemo to be a "Where's Nemo". That was the perfect opportunity to blend IP and the former pavilion. But nope. They can't do it. So we have no faith in them to. I want them to prove me wrong very wrong. But they've yet to.

When they do something right, I give them credit. I'm good with Rat coming. I have nothing but vague things to go on with Guardians so I have no idea how fitting it will be.

And then we have some vague hope other pavilions get attention. WoL remains a festival pavilion. Coco scrapped for now. UK now a flat ride instead of a dark ride (#presumably)

They still aren't getting it. You still don't understand why some of us are annoyed, to say the least, at the current direction? But yes, they're really improving Epcot with a carousel and two attractions. (yes other things "may" be coming but nothing's concrete yet and since they've pulled the MK theater, dumped the Coco idea, downgraded the UK idea ... I have very little faith in them). It's hard to express disappointment because we're berated for not acknowledging they're spending money. Well, they are. But why do we have to like what they're doing with it?

I'm not meaning this in a dismissive or rude way, but maybe this board just isn't for some of you. Some of you want more out of us than we can give it seems. And some of you are incredibly dismissive. There's a disconnect here.

I've never understood why I should just accept whatever they do and never question it. That's so bizarre to me. I still love a lot of things. I'm not stomping my feet and smoke isn't coming out of my ears when I'm in the parks because they haven't done everything I'd rather see ... I think the negativity argument is tired. We're all passionate about the parks in different ways and some of you need to understand that and chill out on basically telling people to shut up. That's not a discussion.

I mean, Oswald's old. Ew, right? Old means bad, right?
 
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CinematicFusion

CinematicFusion

Well-Known Member
wdisney9000 said:
The "wait and see" approach is downright dangerous at this point.
Click to expand...
True but again I have no control over it. Disney is gonna do what Disney is gonna do. As a fan, all I can do is wait and see. Disney doesn’t listen to this board. If that were the case, Ratatouille and Frozen wouldn’t have been built. There was a huge outcry about those rides.
 
Kman101

Kman101

Well-Known Member
sedati said:
No, Mission Space (orange), Club Cool, and the three-flavor popcorn cart outside of Imagination are the greatest things at current EPCOT.

I am joking, but when I thought about it, they were the places I seemed to visit most on my last trip.
Click to expand...

Maybe because, as much as I'm sort of meh on Mission Space, it actually feels like a last attempt at some effort with Epcot? (and to be fair, it still could have been 'more')
 

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