Does horizons fall into the category of absence makes the heart grow fonder?

[LittleBuford]

Those other rides got huge upgrades - their bones just largely stayed the same. There is a reason key figures in pirates were always the cutting edge AAs... and SSE is the same format, but nearly half of its scenes have been changed out from it's prior form. It's been updated, not just refurb'd.

You're really overstating the extent to which Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, and SSE have changed.

 

[flynnibus]

You're really overstating the extent to which Pirates, the Haunted Mansion, and SSE have changed.

Or you're really dismissing details because they don't support your predisposition. I can't help it if you aren't actually versed in the details. Go do your homework and review today's attractions vs the originals.

 

[LittleBuford]

Name any other future-based WDW attraction that went as long without any changes or updates and stayed more popular?

The flaw of the original epcot was Disney's lack of foresight into recognizing how attraction lifecycles would change and the change in the reception of big business to being sponsor partners. EPCOT struggled to fill out it initial sponsor roster but Disney kept the same model.. clinging like Kodak did to their film cartridges. So less than 10 years in, where FutureWorld EPCOT needed serious refreshes, the company was in a strong position to do so.. instead stringing things out hoping for corporate dollars.

Other pavilions would last longer mainly because of their content would not be caught up in the technology explosion that we saw through the last 40 years.

Communicore, SSE's earth station, Horizons, and to a lesser extent.. Seas.. all suffered from being dated by a world racing to bring technology to everyone's fingertips... vs what people knew just 5-10 years prior.

@Goofyernmost already said it: the vision of the future presented by Horizons is still a long way off happening (and is largely fantastic in any case). Last I checked, I don't have the option of living underwater, much as I'd love to.

 

[LittleBuford]

Or you're really dismissing details because they don't support your predisposition. I can't help it if you aren't actually versed in the details. Go do your homework and review today's attractions vs the originals.

I'm good, thanks.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm good, thanks.

"Ignorance is bliss" they say...

 

[TwilightZone]

Name any other future-based WDW attraction that went as long without any changes or updates and stayed more popular?

I'm not sure how old these rides are exactly, but they managed to go fine without the same major updates SSE, pirates, and haunted mansion had.

Splash mountain, most of animal kingdom, space mountain (arguable), most dark rides, etc.

 

[flynnibus]

I'm not sure how old these rides are exactly, but they managed to go fine without the same major updates SSE, pirates, and haunted mansion had.

Splash mountain, most of animal kingdom, space mountain (arguable), most dark rides, etc.

And which one of those is future-based?? None of them - SSE only recently added future to the decent.. and the 180top climax was just a tip of the future.. and that was removed long ago.

SSE was revamped THREE TIMES over Horizon's service life. Horizons received NONE

 

[flynnibus]

I don't understand why people run around and spend energy on "why do people think X?" and spend time telling them they are wrong if they don't even do the simplest of research. Hell @marni1971 does it all for you.. all you gotta do is sit back and watch. Then do your real homework to put things in the context of their era... not what you think it should have been if you saw it today.

 

[TwilightZone]

I don't understand why people run around and spend energy on "why do people think X?" and spend time telling them they are wrong if they don't even do the simplest of research. Hell @marni1971 does it all for you.. all you gotta do is sit back and watch. Then do your real homework to put things in the context of their era... not what you think it should have been if you saw it today.

Or you know sometimes opinions don't need to involve facts.

 

[Centeral]

It's seems 80s' futuristic visions were 'new worlds' with disregard to the past or the (80

 

[MAGICFLOP]

Epcot future world had an educational/futuristic (how we got here and where we are going) theme to it and Horizon hit the theme. Now Epcot is starting to have a movie type theme.. Star wars, Frozen and whatever else they want to push on the people.

 

[Centeral]

It seems the 80's futuristic visions were 'whole new worlds' with disregards to it's prologues, all the way up to the day everything becomes 'futuristic'.
The world torn to pieces seizing geometric plants for the unplanned European, sprawling cities- with no signs of it's roots, just 'the future' & itself.
While the 90's seems to see the future as our world +...
Incorporation, these marvelous technologies coexisting with our world- floating vehicles over the Elizabeth Tower & Big Ben in London, with a old world as we knew it, but twisted. It of course, would be fundamentally different but subtly awareness of the present's futuristic qualities whilst maintaining the normality of life and the present aswell as the past's convictions and perceptions existences about your time's present.
These are fundamentally different and can be conparatively seen in the decline in Horizons and some pavillions of future world and the concepts of the future and their relevancy, even back then......
This comes with very minimal research, possibly even mocking of the search for knowledge calling it 'reaserch' but I believe it is partially true. BTW my precious post was an accident.......

 

[Centeral]

Epcot future world had an educational/futuristic (how we got here and where we are going) theme to it and Horizon hit the theme. Now Epcot is starting to have a movie type theme.. Star wars, Frozen and whatever else they want to push on the people.

Corporations and green, green, lots of green.

Sorry not sorry but sorrt for the complete generalisation.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

Because like I said... ANY attraction about the future and technology will not age the same as one about the past. That's not Horizons fault, that's the reality of the field itself. That did not diminish what Horizons was in it's target window -- what it means is people who largely only experienced it later or even just online would not connect with it the same. It's like trying to appreciate the advertisements of the 50s and 60s who were trying to be all 'space age', etc.. but 30 years later. It doesn't reach the audience the same because the audience itself is different in what they know and expect.

Those other rides got huge upgrades - their bones just largely stayed the same. There is a reason key figures in pirates were always the cutting edge AAs... and SSE is the same format, but nearly half of its scenes have been changed out from it's prior form. It's been updated, not just refurb'd.

Indeed. In fact, SSE changed its entire subject no less. From Communication to general progress. As if Pirates had changed itself into a Haunted Caribbean Casa.(99 pirate skeletons...but aye, therrr be room for one more!)

Which makes me think that Horizons, in turn, could've followed roughly the reverse route, from presenting futuristic blue sky conceptualisations to Communications. People in space coordinating test results directly with their iPhone to their underwater colleagues, blahblah etc.

In that way, most sets could've remained, while still serving to tell a relevant story. The way SSE's Greek theater is now about mathematics.
It also would've solved the old issue of SSE and Horizons being in each other's place.

 

[OvertheHorizon]

Ah, Horizons... I sure do miss it. Early in this thread, the comparison was made to rides like Pirates and Haunted Mansion, which haven't needed changes to remain popular. Those rides involve telling a specific story. While there have been enhancements, the story is largely the same. In Epcot's Future World - a park designed to showcase the latest technology - it stands to reason that UPDATES will regularly be needed.

A large component of Horizons was devoted to how previous generations viewed the "future." A substantial portion of that ride dealt with "the future from the 50s." When Epcot opened, those who fondly remembered the 50s were age 30 and up... just the right age to be visiting WDW and bringing their families. Now it is only us oldsters who remember the 50s. (An aside: How much longer will Prime Time Cafe maintain its appeal to growing numbers of visitors who don't remember what it was like to sit around a kitchen table watching black and white TV sitcoms?)

As others have noted, our vision of the future is always evolving. That has been the challenge for imagineers to keep Future World relevant in an ever changing world.

If I might toss out another example: I love The American Adventure. However, the final scene involving audioanimatronic figures is devoted to World War 2. When Epcot opened in 1982, WW2 was still within the direct memory of anyone over the age of 45. In 2018, we are 73 years past that war. While the ending film has been updated to incorporate more recent events, I'd like to suggest that events like the moon landing, the dawn of the information age, and advances in medicine would be worthy elements to incorporate into the main portion of the show.

Shifting gears again, I don't mind the injection of Disney IP into Epcot, but I would rather have the Finding Nemo characters used to articulate the wonders and mystery of "The Seas" than to repeat the story of Nemo we can see by watching the DVD of the movie.

 

[LUVofDIS]

Last I checked, I don't have the option of living underwater, much as I'd love to.

There are underwater hotels and underwater homes, so that part did come true. There is farming in the desert so that also came true, in a way. It may not be identical to EPCOT's vision, but its it is close. Finally, there is living in space, not families yet, but small steps right.

 

[LittleBuford]

There are underwater hotels and underwater homes, so that part did come true. There is farming in the desert so that also came true, in a way. It may not be identical to EPCOT's vision, but its it is close. Finally, there is living in space, not families yet, but small steps right.

For most people, such lifestyles continue to be a distant prospect. Horizons' visions of the future were far from a reality when the ride closed, and they remain largely unfulfilled today.