You deserve to know the truth. Ignore the “Kodak sponsorship/fork the money to be refreshed every so years” reasoning. It’s totally asinine & makes ‘zero’ sense from a thematic theming standpoint (not to mention a merch sales standpoint), considering they were able to follow the sponsorship agreement & thematic integrity with no issues for years. ImageWorks had been updated overtime with new activities that didn’t go against its core theming, Captain EO had gone in after Magic Journey’s run without changing the ride or guest flow. The true reasoning is inner corporate politics is to blame for changing it. Tony Baxter has said this himself. The culture within the company aswell as WDI had shifted for the worst once Frank Wells passed and folks within the company were ride or die in getting promoted and were in essence, willing to do anything they could to do so. What ultimately happened is in ‘94-98, Honey, I Shrunk the Audience opened in the Magic Eye Theatre space after Captain EO closed. Signage, queue ropes, and monorail spiels were changed to put the focus entirely on and to lead directly into Honey I Shrunk the Audience and that it was the must-see/main attraction as opposed to the Journey Into Imagination ride & ImageWorks as it’d been prior. The moment this change happened, attendance numbers to the Imagination ride & ImageWorks artificially dropped. This, along with projected maintenance costs as a whole, would give Disney’s upper management data that “Journey Into Imagination had lost its popularity” and would push the false/ill conceived idea that it should be changed/rethemed. So what did they change it into along with making it cheap to lower projected maintenance costs? A ‘Honey I Shrunk tie in’ themed Imagination Institute ride called Journey Into Your Imagination. Another point I should add.. Eisner also apparently hated Figment & Dreamfinder for whatever nonsensical reason (despite a deal in talks going on around the same time where Disney was going to possibly buy out Lyric Studios from Richard Leach (the father of Sheryl Leach, who created Barney). According to VeggieTales creator, Phil Vischer, who was dealing with Lyric at the time via a video distribution deal at the time, Katzenberg,Eisner & Richard were trying to reach a deal in which Disney would buy them out & afterwards, “push ‘Barney’ to be “as big as Mickey Mouse” (you sick yet?? Knowing what you probably know about the longtime proven appeal & love for Dreamfinder & Figment at that point and the absolute opposite for Barney & Friends when it came to audiences above the age of 5.). Richard ultimately declined as he didn’t want to “sell out”. Yeeeah, imagine that. Ultimately, in the end though Lyric would sell out & be bought by HiT entertainment.. but anyway, the point I’m making is Disney wanted & saw potential in ‘Barney’ , a character almost universally divisive & panned for being pandering & strictly for the preschool crowd, to “be as big as Mickey”, but not ‘Dreamfinder & Figment’, which was beloved & appealing to all ages. Your look of disgust & bewilderment is about the same as mine… heck, how they didn’t see them as viable competition that went above & beyond is beyond me… but I digress)
Getting back to the ride specifically, what happened shortly after the ill-conceived retheme/rehab opened in 99? Millions of complaints that Dreamfinder & Figment/the original Imagination ride was gone. This version of the ride lasted only 2-3 years (til ‘01) the guest complaints were so immense, on top of it, merchandising hated the fact they’d since lost a ton since Figment was a huge merch seller at the time aswell, afterwards this led way to the lame band-aid fix of a ride we’ve had since 02, Journey Into Imagination : With Figment, still currently operating, with Figment lazily shoehorned into the bad Honey I Shrunk IP themed ride/Journey Into Your Imagination rather than just restore it back to the original Journey Into Imagination ride it was with the tech & spfx enhancements it should’ve gotten all those years ago to possibly add the things it could’ve & should’ve had back in 83 but couldn’t due to tech & budget limitations. But yeah, it’s been in that horrible state for literally 21 years now… despite the still present outcry & nostalgia for the original. Only thing I have to say to that is “pathetic”.
Truly, if Disney ever needed any huge burst of goodwill in a time they need it though. Bringing back the original Journey Into Imagination ride would be just the thing to bring a lot of those hardcore fans back aswell as appeal to newbies and maybe give more faith in the future for WDI.
