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EPCOT Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

HMF

Well-Known Member
Which again, begs the question, ‘why’ did they make the baffling creative decisions they specifically made with these last 2 redos. What was the thought process behind them.
To be fair the thought process for the second one was a unified theme for the pavilion, it's just that the ride sucked. The current version is basically the quickest and most awkward band-aid they could throw on it. On a personal note, a succesful re-do of Imagination with Figment and Dreamfinder is probably the ONLY thing that would even tempt me to return to EPCOT or really the whole resort after killing Reflections of Earth.
 

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
The only way I can see Iger racing to change anything at the park in any way you have to find something offensive with it. I know we are all offended by the existence of the current version, but it doesn't have anything personally or culturally insensitive as far as I know.
Does the “Small Figment Brain - No Connection” Focus Group chart in the Sight Lab count? I personally found that insensitive to us guests who actually know what the definition of imagination means, riding. Lol
 

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
To be fair the thought process for the second one was a unified theme for the pavilion, it's just that the ride sucked. The current version is basically the quickest and most awkward band-aid they could throw on it.
But yet.. that final scene that resembles anything from the original exists for 15 seconds. And the other scenes are changed considerably enough from the middle version (namely the Sight Lab, Smell Lab, and Touch & Taste (lack therof, two doors and a ledge) scenes, where you wonder.. what were they thinking? This couldn’t possibly be the best they could do with what they had
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
I recall Josh Gad also said before Frozen Ever After opened that, even though he knew the ride would be great, he was still upset that they closed Maelstrom.

Incidentally, didn't Frozen Ever After steal the budget for a fourth Journey Into Imagination?
At this point I would think that every project done at EPCOT in the past 23 years has probably stolen the budget for Imagination 4.
 

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
But yet.. that final scene that resembles anything from the original exists for 15 seconds. And the other scenes are changed considerably enough from the middle version (namely the Sight Lab, Smell Lab, and Touch & Taste (lack therof, two doors and a ledge) scenes, where you wonder.. what were they thinking? This couldn’t possibly be the best they could do with what they had
Those were once.. a magnifying glass magnifying a room (or is it?), a brick crashing through a glass table referencing common sense being shattered, a shelf with a small household aquarium with a fish floating in & out of it representing illusions, a bunch of screens displaying nothing but colors with crazy sounds coming out of it representing how color apparently effects the imagination. star constellations representing connections, and an upside down mirror representing “looking at things from a different angle”
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
But yet.. that final scene that resembles anything from the original exists for 15 seconds. And the other scenes are changed considerably enough from the middle version (namely the Sight Lab, Smell Lab, and Touch & Taste (lack therof, two doors and a ledge) scenes, where you wonder.. what were they thinking? This couldn’t possibly be the best they could do with what they had
You do have to keep in mind that they were bleeding revenue at that time since it was almost immediately post 9/11. Everyone was afraid to fly Also, Kodak wisely (for them) decided not to lend any financial support.
 

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
You do have to keep in mind that they were bleeding revenue at that time since it was almost immediately post 9/11.
Yet Disneyland’s Winnie the Pooh ride turned out the way it did. That ride actually made sense. Budget is no excuse for replacing a brick crashing through a glass table with.. an eye chart and a table of more office equipment/supplies?? as a “fix”, as a “return of the original ride’s spirit”, when that was originally a whimsical carousel of origami animals with a rainbow of colors in a Realm of Art. I swear. And again, not like it wasn’t possible to create better scenes. That final scene is composed mainly of painted flats and static figures
 
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FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
For those that haven’t seen the first controversial, short-lived redo /the one in-between, here you go. I swear, every scene I described above, is there. No exaggeration:
 
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HMF

Well-Known Member
Yet Disneyland’s Winnie the Pooh ride turned out the way it did. That ride actually made sense. Budget is no excuse for replacing a brick crashing through a glass table with.. an eye chart and a table of more office equipment/supplies?? as a “fix”. And again, not like it wasn’t possible to create better scenes. That final scene is composed mainly of painted flats and static figures
Disneyland was starting to slowly rebound from the disaster that was the Pressler/Harris era at that time so i guess corporate thought that needed the money more. It's no secret that Burbank has an obvious pro-Disneyland bias since most of the people working there are California kids who grew up with Disneyland whereas WDW is mostly run by Business School graduates who consider working for Disney as just another accomplishment on their resume on their way to higher paying positions, elsewhere.
 

FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
The only scenes they kept the same from the first ill-conceived Honey I Shrunk retheme for the 02-current “With Figment” version are the butterfly in a birdcage illusion and the Upside Down house (just repainted neon with more static (newly fabricated, I might add, not reused, as falsely claimed) figures of Figment. So yeah, pretty Weird, no?
 
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FigmentsBrightIdeas

Well-Known Member
Disneyland was starting to slowly rebound from the disaster that was the Pressler/Harris era at that time so i guess corporate thought that needed the money more. It's no secret that Burbank has an obvious pro-Disneyland bias since most of the people working there are California kids who grew up with Disneyland whereas WDW is mostly run by Business School graduates who consider working for Disney as just another accomplishment on their resume on their way to higher paying positions, elsewhere.
You still honestly think it was budget that made them think an eye chart and smell slot machine that sprays skunk was the best improvement that fit Figment & “Whimsical Realms of Imagination” over a glass table & brick and a bunch of color screens making random crazy sounds?, that was originally an elaborate realm of art with color & origami sculptures, literature with words and various things from literature to represent how words create different ideas?… no man, something else happened here.
 
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Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
For those that haven’t seen the first controversial, short-lived redo /the one in-between, here you go. I swear, every scene I described above, is there. No exaggeration:

It’s awful, but I don’t think it’s particularly worse than the current version. The modern ride’s Figment is just a deeply unappealing figure with little meaningful similarity to the original.
 

HMF

Well-Known Member
You still honestly think it was budget that made them think an eye chart and smell slot machine that sprays skunk was the best improvement that fit Figment & “Whimsical Realms of Imagination” over a glass table & brick and a bunch of color screens making random crazy sounds?… no man, something else happened here.
Well, it's not like it's a multi-billion-dollar company or anything.
 

Rhinocerous

Premium Member
I recall Josh Gad also said before Frozen Ever After opened that, even though he knew the ride would be great, he was still upset that they closed Maelstrom.

Incidentally, didn't Frozen Ever After steal the budget for a fourth Journey Into Imagination?
If Olaf wasn't so endearing, Frozen wouldn't have been such a runaway success and we wouldn't be in this mess. Josh Gad really has no one to blame but himself.
 

jah4955

Well-Known Member
Interesting thing, according to Jim Hill, and something that makes total sense. The reason why Honey, I Shrunk the Kids was as financially successful as it was at the time, was not due to the film but due to the Roger Rabbit short placed before it, “Tummy Trouble”. Infact, this was such a high selling reason for the movie that the VHS release took the time to include the short and advertise it on the VHS cover. :
View attachment 894254View attachment 894255

Granted, I can say, I think a lot of us can say we had a bit of a soft spot for these kitchsey sci-fi flicks on their own.. but I doubt anyone can say with a straight face, that they genuinely think retheming the Journey Into Imagination ride to be dedicated to these was a great idea.
You may have something there. Roger Rabbit was HUGE. I was in a packed theater in 1988 (& it was a matinee...#1 film of 1988). I remember it still going strong on Pay-per-view in early 1990....about a year and a half after it's release (and this was the all-time peak of "PPV"). But I did enjoy Tummy Trouble more than the film (don't get me wrong, the film's very good...especially for the cast..but never felt I had to see it more than once).

I was in EPCOT about 24-28 (about twice a year for its years of operation) times during "Audience's" run, yet I only "did" it once.
 
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jah4955

Well-Known Member
It’s awful, but I don’t think it’s particularly worse than the current version. The modern ride’s Figment is just a deeply unappealing figure with little meaningful similarity to the original.
I also only rode 2.0 once. Like most attractions that only have "camcorder-like" archives...nothing can do justice to actually experiencing it.

It was realllllly bad. I was so insulted on so many simultaneous levels (the least of which was the literal insult at the start).

Imo the main ("only?") way 3.0 is, technically, better is that it's not 2.0.
 

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