EPCOT: A New, Old Vision.

[The Rocketeer]

Good morning ladies and gentlemen boys and girls. All of us at EPCOT Center are glad to have you as our guests today, we welcome you and hope you find your day with us to be a most enjoyable one. Walt Disney was a dreamer and a doer, a man who cared about the world and its problems, he believed that people could develop solutions to problems if equipped with information, technology, optimism, and opportunity. EPCOT Center was created to showcase prototype concepts and technologies that may someday serve people everywhere. This is the essence of EPCOT; a collective endeavor by people, for people in the hope for a better world. Since 1982 our park has inspired countless guests to pursue scientific, technological, and creative and cultural based careers and informed and entertained families, young and old. From all of us here at the Disney Parks family we hope you enjoy your stay and now we ask for your safety and those around you that you walk slowly and carefully to your first destination. Have a great day and welcome to EPCOT Center.



Welcome to my idealized version of my favorite place in the world, EPCOT. I think we should get back to the ideals the park originally had, while still keeping modern day staples around like Soarin’. I also wanted to keep it realistic in some ways. Guardians is happening, for better or for worse, and Test Track will be remaining in the park for the time being, with the idea of it being replaced maybe 5 years into the future after this (dream) overhaul comes to fruition. I know Disney is capable of breathing life back into this park, but it seems apparent, now more than ever, that despite the best intentions of imagineers and even park officials, the higher ups of the company are married to IP. I'm not against IP in any way, but it simply shouldn't be the main focus for every new attraction moving forward.

 

[The Rocketeer]

SPACESHIP EARTH: A Big and Bold World presented by AT&T //

Narrated by James Earl Jones, with a mix of the 1986 version score/Tomorrow’s Child, music from the 1994 version, and a piece of the new EPCOT anthem by Pinar Toprak. Also mixed around the Cronkite, Irons, and Dench scripts to make a new one.

Jones: Like a grand and mircalous spaceship, our planet drifted throughout the universe of time, and for a brief moment we have been its passengers. From the very beginning of humanity, we have always sought to reach out to one another ... to bridge the gaps between us ... to communicate.

Updated Mammoth projections, enter the unchanged cave scene.


Jones: Across the hostile and lonely planet, our early ancestors spread out in search of food and shelter….


Our primal ancestors develop a written language through cave markings. For the first time, we could share and learn from one another. We bonded together in small tribes and prospered. No longer isolated, no longer alone.


Moving into the Egyptian scene

Jones: Ages later, the Egyptians invented the first written communication - a complex language of hieroglyphic pictures and symbols. With the creation of papyrus scrolls, came the world's first piece of paper. Now, without ever leaving their palaces, pharaohs could deliver proclamations and decrees to subjects across Egypt.


Jones: Phoenician merchants established the earliest trading routes, goods and information at distant ports of call. To aid in record keeping, they created the first common alphabet and shared it across the Mediterranean.


Jones: In ancient Greece, the alphabet grows and flowers with new expression and a new stage of storytelling emerges. A stage on which we examine our world and ourselves. Here the Theatre was born.



Jones: The powerful Roman empire bridged multiple continents with a vast system of roads; the fastest information highways the world had ever known. East, west, north, and south - all roads led to Rome.



Jones: Glorious Rome falls victim to the flames of excess. Ages of knowledge have been lost in the ashes. Or so we thought?



Jones: Far across the land, from Cairo to Cordoba, Jewish and Islamic scholars continued the quest for knowledge. In libraries of wisdom, they debated ideas and shared new discoveries with all eager to hear.



Jones: In western abbeys, Monks toil endlessly transcribing ancient writings into hand-penned books of revelation. With the invention of Gutenburg’s movable type printing press Scientists, explorers, and scholars spread their discoveries in books and essays. Poets, musicians, and artists fueled by the passion of the age created timeless works of beauty and majesty.



Jones: On this wave of inspiration, we sailed into a bold, new era of communication bringing an explosion of tools and technologies which would bridge people around the world as never before. And as our appetite for information and knowledge grew, the world began to shrink.



A new scene, smaller scene is added with one girl FaceTiming a family member and a man talking on the phone in a living room. Cell phones have never been shown in the attraction and clearly play an important role in our lives, and have to some degree for over twenty years now.

Jones: Today, we possess the ability to connect with one another instantly anywhere on the planet. In this age of rapidly increasing technological breakthroughs we can learn about virtually anything we desire. But will this power become a flood of electronic technobabble or will we learn to unite ourselves and usher in a new age of understanding on this, our Spaceship Earth.

As the car tilts sideways we see Earth in all her glory.

Male Announcer: Time Travelers, your spaceship is rotating backwards for your descent to Earth. Remain seated, please.

As the descent happens we now have a new scene, the screens no longer function as the ending, only perhaps a tool to express more information about the previous scenes of the attraction. Tomorrow’s Child plays us out, with new projection screens to the side and above the cars similar to the pictures shown in the 1986 version but now actually moving and streamlined, showing the people of the world In harmony. We see projections of Mars, the moon, as the immediate goal for humanity to colonizing those, and then the earth from Saturn's rings, the pale blue dot. We then pan back to our earth while she is dark, the entire world lit up in lights with ships leaving left and right. We can’t predict the future of communication, there’s no reason to instantly date this attraction, so lets look to the far future instead. At the very end of the song we see children of all races hugging each other at a park then we cut into a new version of Progress City or Walt’s original E.P.C.O.T. and fade to black

Note: I didn't want to drive home a message of climate change, that is already tackled over at the Land with Awesome Planet.



Female Announcer: AT&T thanks you for traveling into the future with us. On behave of all us at EPCOT Center we hope you enjoy your day.

Male Announcer: Watch your step as you exit your time machine. Please join us at our Global Neighborhood to learn how we are taking advantage of new technology to make connecting with each other easier than ever.

 

[The Rocketeer]

S T A R G A T E P L A Z A

Right behind Spaceship Earth: A Big and Bold World we have what is currently... well, a big pile of dirt: Innoventions Plaza.

I wanted to take the best of all three major interpretations of this area. the last being the proposed updated area that was originally considered before they gutted this for Journey of Water with Moana. (Hopefully that doesn't happen irl ) see below

The iconic reflection pools are back! That extra space was not being utilized in the best way and really never was, so it made sense to return this area to its former glory. During the fountain show, jets on either side of the reflection pools will shoot off during dramatic moments of the music you are hearing, whether it be Yanni or the theme from The Rocketeer, or new additions to the various shows. At the end of each show the jets retract. They will not be intense enough to get guests on the walkways wet, though on a windy day perhaps a light misting; however, outside patrons at the now sit down restaurant, Stargate Taverne, will have dinner and a show!

A staple of this park since opening in 1982 is the aforementioned Fountain of Nations, now rebuilt since the change of plans due to budgeting after the loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic that is now well passed us. The fountain is now known as Celebration Fountain. It is more circular than it's predecessor and it does not feature a stage of any sort so guests have a great view back of the fountain and Spaceship Earth together from world showcase again, an uninterrupted vantage point for the first time without the Pin Central shade structure since 1999. Be sure to take pictures and just wait until you walk back to the entrance at night, it's even better!


C O M M U N I C O R E

On either side of the kinetic water features we find a return of a classic name and logo, CommuniCore. I love the idea of a "Community Core" so I decided to return to that concept but update it for the 21st Century. These four buildings include a table service and quick service restaurants, technology exhibits, hands on interactive edutainment stations for kids, a great multilevel gift shop, an EPCOT "museum" walkthrough, water bottle refill stations and restrooms on each side of the plaza, and small theatre in-the-round show with a human named Tom Morrow as our host. He tells us all about recent discoveries in various fields of energy, space travel and car production *insert Elon Musk here*, and agriculture and marine biology. He encourages us to learn more at each of the pavilions around Future World.
Just outside CommuniCore West you can find a quaint outdoor Starbucks nook to grab the essentials during a busy day or stop over at Joffrey's Coffee Stand in Future World East for all your refueling needs. You might even find a group of musical custodial CM's over there!

That's it for now, we will go over specific details and the general layout for this updated spine of EPCOT Center in the next post!

 

[The Rocketeer]

Please excuse the crudity of this drawing, I didn’t have time to build it to scale or paint it..

This is the general layout of the design. I wanted to give the green spaces a more park like setting with winding paths, this is just a basic depiction of what I was thinking. As you can see, not too much has changed, I went ahead and took away the covered walkways, but they could be added back at any time, I just like the look. I also wanted more walking room around the buildings for ease of entry and exit. Playing outside and inside Communicore is the current iconic background loop that plays till this day. This loop, which features new age songs like "Papillon: On the Wing of the Butterfly" by David Arkenstone will stick around so guests can continue to enjoy them for years to come!

Natural lighting will be plentiful inside as the glass panes will be unobstructed once again on both sides of the respective spaces.
in the north quadrant CommuniCore West we find a showcase of innovative, green businesses and their products, like an E3 if you will. Companies can sponsor floor space for 1, 3, 6, or 12 months at a time. Here you can learn hands on about what goes into the products we use in our daily lives in an aesthetically pleasing and minimalistic design. Picture a photo opportunity with a blue sky concept with a representative there to talk about said product. Even when a rep is not available, there will be plaques explaining the product you’re seeing and how they can make our lives better.

As mentioned before, the space that currently is home to the Electric Umbrella will now become the Stargate Tavern Restaurant. The space that has been Fountain View Ice Cream and Starbucks will now become the Fountain View café, a great place to pick up a morning biscuit or Danish, come back in the afternoon for an infamous handwhich – available in chile con carne, ham and cheese, turkey, blt, and a vegetable option.

In the same quadrant as Stargate we find several exhibits including Colortopia and a Robotics “lab” with real robotic arms hosted by Big Hero 6’s Alester Krei of Krei Tech industries explaining how we use robots on a daily basis from building cars to attractions right here at EPCOT Center. You can even showcase video of robotic prosthetic limbs that are being developed.

Other features of CommuniCore East include “Energy: You Make the World Go Round” about current green energy methods and The Magic of Disney Music & Sound, narrated by Lin Manuel Miranda and Robert Sherman, discusses how Disney uses music and sound to stir emotion or transport you to another time or place.

Next up we have the Centorium Gift shop. This updated ultra modern shop will borrow the multi-level design of the original Future World store, while containing all the modern convinces of contemporary shopping – with merch from each pavilion and a mix of related Disney IP plush and gifts as well.

Well that’s about it for CommuniCore. Things will change as this project is more fleshed out. Next up we have one of my favorites, The Living Seas!