I'm not dissing the film, I quite enjoyed it personally. Or even the ride as I've never ridden it, I'm sure it'll be fun. I just think they could have went with some better.
Out of curiosity, what would you envision as ‘something better?’ I’ve ridden the ride and for this day and age, I can’t imagine what something better might be for the French pavilion. You could argue using Beauty and the Beast but other than being set in France, the Disney version(s) really have no more connection to actual France than Ratatouille does. And no one is begging for a Hunchback ride.
So then is your argument that they should have a ride based on France a la Maelstrom? (I liked Maelstrom but it was wildly outdated by the time it went, and therein always lies the problem. I wasn’t sorry to see it go). Because I’m going to be honest, I just can’t see it as a great sell.
I’m a bit nonplussed on the focus of this thread being that Epcot must be ‘edutainment.’ Even in its early years, Epcot always leaned hard on the ‘tainment’ side of things. Having been to many of the real countries [Mexico, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, UK, soon to be Japan] World Showcase features, I’d argue none of them teach you anything of real import. Heck, even the American Adventure is so outdated at this point that you can’t learn much from it. I’ve been to France three times in three different regions and compared to the real country, the France of Epcot is well...Disneyland. Which is fine. It’s a stereotyped fantasy and it serves its purpose well.
Regarding Future World, I’m not sure what I was supposed to learn from Honey I Shrunk the Audience. The original Journey was my family’s favorite ride but I didn’t feel it taught me anything, even as a kid. Spaceship Earth is great but even with it, it was never reviewing something I didn’t feel I’d already learned in school. And as great as some of the long gone rides were, they became outdated fast. But more to the point, they aren’t coming back, despite how much some older members miss them.
FutureWorld needs an update. If that means the theme morphs a bit, I’m ok with that. Change is sometimes necessary and FW is the area most in need of some juice, with the possible exception of Tomorrowland. I spent the least time there every Disney trip. I’m looking forward to seeing what Disney has in store.