EPCOT Figment, well, to be replaced by Figment

[jah4955]

Like you said, nowerdays it would be so easy to do. 5 rooms wouldn’t be an issue. The orignal had a big problem with the projection backdrop - every element was a separate image from a separate projector. Plenty of projectors to maintain x5 and a tendency to overheat. Today it would be one LCD screen or projector per room.

what Disney was able to achieve there in 1982 (opened 1983) is akin to what they were able to achieve with Pinocchio in 1939 (released 1940) [or what Orsen Wells did in Citizen Cane the next year...from what I understand they STILL can't fully explain how he did some of the effects back then].

Imagine if they maintained that degree of being "ahead of the curve" in 2025

BTW: I love all the "history" videos for so many different reasons, but I replay the JII the most by far...if for no other reason than to play that masterful soundtrack compilation in the background while I work

 

[HMF]

what Disney was able to achieve there in 1982 (opened 1983) is akin to what they were able to achieve with Pinocchio in 1939 (released 1940) [or what Orsen Wells did in Citizen Cane the next year...from what I understand they STILL can't fully explain how he did some of the effects back then].

Imagine if they maintained that degree of being "ahead of the curve" in 2025

BTW: I love all the "history" videos for so many different reasons, but I replay the JII the most by far...if for no other reason than to play that masterful soundtrack compilation in the background while I work

Also, Pinocchio and Citizen Kane were considered disappointments when released but became considered classics much later.

 

[HMF]

Well after wasting all that money, they were probably desperate to salvage whatever they could.

Keep in mind also that they didn't just waste their own money. They wasted Kodak's along with it.

 

[FigmentJedi]

It’s especially a timely story & concept too. As it celebrates human imagination, in an age of AI taking over. Not only does the original attraction celebrate this quality perfectly. But ironically, that prequel comic showcases a “Clockwork Control” army that accidentally gets set forth after a stuffy Chairman Illocrant gets their hands on early proto Dream Machine tech Dreamfinder is working on that transports both him & Figment into the realm of imagination, only for Illocrant to try it himself and use it instead for “Control & Order”, only to get “The Singular” Clockwork Control fleet of robots wrecking havoc around the world. LOL! Ultimately, Dreamfinder & Figment and some friends they meet through the realms of imagination, help save the day and restore peace to the world by using & encouraging the use of creativity & ingenuity. I mean.. cmon now.

It's timely in theory, but they were kind of a generic robot army in practice. The Nightmare Nation and all the stuff about fear and doubt breaking one's will and putting you into a depressive creative block were more thematically compelling, have actual roots in the original ride's Literature scene, and can easily be personified into something resembling a more traditional Disney villain as shown with the Doubt parasite in Figment 2.
But I kinda get the feeling that Mexico just made the closest thing we'll get to a good animated Journey into Imagination movie with Frankelda. Like its more Phantom Manor/gothic romance flavored, but it still is a story about a stifled creative in blue and their winged yellow-eyed companion traveling into realms of imagination and being antagonized by some powerful "thinking inside the box" hack wanting to exploit their work.

 

[jah4955]

Also, Pinocchio and Citizen Kane were considered disappointments when released but became considered classics much later.

Universally acknowledged that WWII ended Disney Animations, "Golden Age."

#1 reason: The films were so "over-the-top" expensive, that, it was virtually impossible to turn a profit w/o Europe.
#2 reason: with WWII beginning in Europe just a few months earlier...many even here in the US didn't "feel right" watching a fantasy cartoon, as superb a film as Pinocchio is, (it's one of the few films I'm MORE amazed by every single time I see it).

 

[Cmdr_Crimson]

Sooo...instead of a former football player making this and just used the plot this could literally been a Figment series..

A new show coming to Disney Jr called "Hey Aj" is coming out here's the sypnosis..
Synopsis: Inspired by children’s book author and former Super Bowl champion Martellus Bennett, the upcoming new series Hey A.J.! is a whimsical and music-filled family comedy about an imaginative young girl who, along with her stuffed bunny sidekick Theo, uses her big imagination to make ordinary life moments extraordinary.

They are just dragging on something they can use Figment in for something...

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Sooo...instead of a former football player making this and just used the plot this could literally been a Figment series..

A new show coming to Disney Jr called "Hey Aj" is coming out here's the sypnosis..
Synopsis: Inspired by children’s book author and former Super Bowl champion Martellus Bennett, the upcoming new series Hey A.J.! is a whimsical and music-filled family comedy about an imaginative young girl who, along with her stuffed bunny sidekick Theo, uses her big imagination to make ordinary life moments extraordinary.

They are just dragging on something they can use Figment in for something...

Respectfully I disagree, keep in mind that Figment isn’t a pre-existing character that through imagination “makes ordinary moments extraordinary”. He’s an actual Figment of Imagination in being a literal creation created by combining “sparks of inspiration (ideas) to create a new thing (Two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow, horns of a steer but a lovable fellow. From head to tail he’s royal purple pigment, and there viola.. you’ve got a Figment!) , the creative process Dreamfinder demonstrates with his flying Dreamcatching machine. Also, Figment is a childlike learner & trier, he isn’t supposed to be the guide. Dreamfinder’s the guide full of wisdom. He’s a guy that deals entirely with ‘dreams & ideas”, by searching the universe for any idea that sparks the imagination. Hence their names… Dreamfinder.. and Figment. They demonstrate the process by coming up with ideas themselves, that provides enough “sparks” (aka ideas) to store in the dreamport where ideas are stored and sorted (somewhat of a whimsical rep of our minds) and then we journey through the realms of art, literature, performing arts, science & technology, and film to see how those sparks/ideas interact within those realms/mediums. Our (Figment’s & ours) guide through it all being the Dreamfinder who’s expertise is ‘the creative process’ and dreams & ideas.
Hate to say it, but the Disney Jr. concept you described sounds more like a description of Barney than anything Dreamfinder & Figment are/were. Barney was a stuffed animal dinosaur friend that “through the power of imagination” (moreso imaginative role play & pretend play) came to life, life-sized & made ordinary moments feel imaginary, basically. Ultimately a blessing in disguise, I’d say. Good that Disney Jr. show is an original idea utilizing its characters the way they were designed and not screwing with Figment & Dreamfinder by not utilizing them correctly (like sadly the 02-current ride is doing now in its bizarre Honey I Shrunk ride that claims to be about the creative process, but isn’t. Where Figment’s now apparently a “discovery” (or is he an invention as described in the queue? His creation sure isn’t showcased anywhere in the current ride for some strange reason.) and an “Interference” to a journey now oddly through an institute sensory lab (not a whimsical journey through the realms of imagination as falsely claimed on the sign outside) and then finally “turning your thinking upside down” through Figment in an upside down house full of multiples of himself that come out of nowhere, then a big blast of a 15 second scene that resembles anything from the original, now with all the Figments altogether as opposed to properly separated throughout the creative realms in the journey, meant to rep the one character’s experience err ‘Journey’ in each realm (rather than weirdly multiple now in one mish-mashed 15 second scene) and then Channing as the moon randomly at the end. It makes no sense. Lol)

 

[Brer Panther]

about an imaginative young girl who, along with her stuffed bunny sidekick Theo, uses her big imagination to make ordinary life moments extraordinary.

Little girl... stuffed bunny... isn't this the premise of Kate and Mim-Mim?

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

Little girl... stuffed bunny... isn't this the premise of Kate and Mim-Mim?

I mean yes, but ultimately, there are ‘many’ stories of a child with a stuffed animal or imaginary friend with them able to do this same kind of thing. Only so many ways you can execute that premise in media.

 

[HMF]

Universally acknowledged that WWII ended Disney Animations, "Golden Age."

#1 reason: The films were so "over-the-top" expensive, that, it was virtually impossible to turn a profit w/o Europe.
#2 reason: with WWII beginning in Europe just a few months earlier...many even here in the US didn't "feel right" watching a fantasy cartoon, as superb a film as Pinocchio is, (it's one of the few films I'm MORE amazed by every single time I see it).

The frustrating thing in retrospect is If Walt had seen WWII coming and not blown all his earnings from Snow White on the Burbank Studio and stayed at Hyperion for a few more years then build the Burbank Lot after the war, He would have had a far easier time in the 1940s and the things that hurt him such as the Animators strike could have been avoided.

 

[jah4955]

The frustrating thing in retrospect is If Walt had seen WWII coming and not blown all his earnings from Snow White on the Burbank Studio and stayed at Hyperion for a few more years then build the Burbank Lot after the war, He would have had a far easier time in the 1940s and the things that hurt him such as the Animators strike could have been avoided.

"Hindsight is 20/20," but his intentions were as noble as could be with his studio move.

His (undisputed by historians) logic:

"If something as magnificent as Snow White can come from the disorganized/chaotic layout of Hyperion (plus about a dozen other small, poorly-retrofitted outlier structures over a several mile radius)...just imagine what could be created in a meticulously-planned organized haven of order and comfort where we all be as one happy family!"

Plus, it seemed he didn't think WWII would happen. I need to re-read Roy's bio, but if memory serves correctly, neither did he.

Again, it's easy to be an "armchair historian," but surely the curtailing they did on multiple projects (from necessity) immediately after the US entered WWII would have been done in 1938/1939 if they saw the start of the war in Europe as immanent (regardless of whether US would be involved--and, until Pearl Harbor, the (super?)majority of the US was staunchly isolationist).

Ironically (in light of Walt's vision), even his most-prominent animators lamented (but after-the-fact) that some "intangible" critical to the creation process was (unintentionally) lost forever when leaving that hot, cramped, chaotic layout of Hyperion.

BUT....the (HUGE) plus of his '40's doldrums (initiated by strike, WWII, etc) was that Walt channelled his frustrations into miniature railroads, Granny's Cabin, various animatronic precursors....all evolving into what would become Disneyland.

 

[HMF]

"Hindsight is 20/20," but his intentions were as noble as could be with his studio move.

His (undisputed by historians) logic:

"If something as magnificent as Snow White can come from the disorganized/chaotic layout of Hyperion (plus about a dozen other small, poorly-retrofitted outlier structures over a several mile radius)...just imagine what could be created in a meticulously-planned organized haven of order and comfort where we all be as one happy family!"

Plus, it seemed he didn't think WWII would happen. I need to re-read Roy's bio, but if memory serves correctly, neither did he.

Again, it's easy to be an "armchair historian," but surely the curtailing they did on multiple projects (from necessity) immediately after the US entered WWII would have been done in 1938/1939 if they saw the start of the war in Europe as immanent (regardless of whether US would be involved--and, until Pearl Harbor, the (super?)majority of the US was staunchly isolationist).

Ironically (in light of Walt's vision), even his most-prominent animators lamented (but after-the-fact) that some "intangible" critical to the creation process was (unintentionally) lost forever when leaving that hot, cramped, chaotic layout of Hyperion.

BUT....the (HUGE) plus of his '40's doldrums (initiated by strike, WWII, etc) was that Walt channelled his frustrations into miniature railroads, Granny's Cabin, various animatronic precursors....all evolving into what would become Disneyland.

I agree, It's just because of what happened in the 40s is why there are all these myths about Walt floating around and one could argue it made him open the company to outside investors which in my opinion is THE reason for the creative decline of the company we have today.

 

[jah4955]

I agree, It's just because of what happened in the 40s is why there are all these myths about Walt floating around and one could argue it made him open the company to outside investors which in my opinion is THE reason for the creative decline of the company we have today.

Looking at glass half full...at least they survived the 40s....they were on thin ice in many simultaneous ways...so many great things happening thru at least the 90s

 

[jah4955]

I agree, It's just because of what happened in the 40s is why there are all these myths about Walt floating around and one could argue it made him open the company to outside investors which in my opinion is THE reason for the creative decline of the company we have today.

Plus...and we'll never know....but if they never went public it'd be w
Walt and Roy's grandchildren or great grandchildren running the show now...who knows what that'd look like?

 

[ChrisFL]

You have to remember the original turntable sequence was quite elaborate and costly with there being 5 different copies of the scene running at once. It was quite a maintenance headache too.

My father worked at EPCOT Center when it first opened as a computer tech (he could be sometimes seen in the Astuter Computer Revue/Backstage Magic show), and yes, the turntable scene mentioned definitely had a lot of issues....the other one he mentioned was Universe of Energy who had their own full time tech on-site at all times vs. being in the central computer area.

 

[jah4955]

I agree, It's just because of what happened in the 40s is why there are all these myths about Walt floating around and one could argue it made him open the company to outside investors which in my opinion is THE reason for the creative decline of the company we have today.

One last thing lol...Roy worked some magic with stock to finance Wdw phase 1 debt free....it's detailed towards the end of his bio...haven't read that part since it was first published 1998 lol

 

[FigmentsBrightIdeas]

My father worked at EPCOT Center when it first opened as a computer tech (he could be sometimes seen in the Astuter Computer Revue/Backstage Magic show), and yes, the turntable scene mentioned definitely had a lot of issues....the other one he mentioned was Universe of Energy who had their own full time tech on-site at all times vs. being in the central computer area.

Have you ever considered interviewing him and posting it? Sounds like he’d have a lot of fascinating/interesting stories to share.

 

[ChrisFL]

Have you ever considered interviewing him and posting it? Sounds like he’d have a lot of fascinating/interesting stories to share.

I can ask, but doubt he'll say yes He tells me random stories but doesn't go into a lot of detail (he's also nearly 80 years old now, his memory isn't perfect).

 

[HMF]

Plus...and we'll never know....but if they never went public it'd be w
Walt and Roy's grandchildren or great grandchildren running the show now...who knows what that'd look like?

I don't think they could run it any worse than Iger.

 

[AidenRodriguez731]

I don't think they could run it any worse than Iger.

Well I mean, they definitely could. They could bankrupt the company and then we have nothing :/