OK, while a few people in this thread may know the actual Guardians storyline for the attraction, I'm interested in how to make Epcot actually work. The originally concept of Epcot isn't happening. We're not going to see exclusively educational attractions. Not to say that Epcot wasn't also about entertainment at the outset, but in never had the intellectual property tie ins with their attractions. As a point of reference, here's the dedication plaque for EPCOT Center:
Epcot
To all who come to this Place of Joy, Hope and Friendship
Welcome
Epcot is inspired by Walt Disney's creative vision. Here, human achievements are celebrated through imagination, wonders of enterprise and concepts of a future that promises new and exciting benefits for all.
May EPCOT Center entertain, inform and inspire and above all, may it instill a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.
E. Cardon Walker
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Walt Disney Productions
October 24, 1982
So there are a few options here:
- To hell with theme and cohesion. We no longer need to inform, inspire or instill a sense of belief in our ability to shape the world. Entertainment was listed first for a reason, all else be damned.
- Establish a unifying direction for the park that better explains the use of intellectual property based attractions.
I would expect #1 is more likely and they will go about this piecemeal. Guardians in Future World, Coco and Ratatouille in World Showcase. Big Hero 6 in Innoventions, any of that is possible.
So the question then becomes, how to make a Guardians attraction work. It's Space themed, so perhaps Future World East is all about Sci-fi Space stuff, not sure where Test Track fits in there, but whatever. Part of the problem is that Disney World has both a Tomorrowland and a Future World and the lines of what fits where have been blurred. Is Tomorrowland supposed to be grounded more in animated fantasy? Do things like Space Mountain and Carousel of Progress better fit Future World's reality that is/was grounded in science and reality? Personally, that's the line that I would draw. Make Tomorrowland about futuristic movies and Future World should continue to be grounded in Epcot's dedication plaque, "entertain, inform and inspire and above all, may it install a new sense of belief and pride in man's ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere."
I'll preface this by saying, Ellen's Energy Adventure needs to be replaced. Having said that, from a strictly thematic standpoint, I would rather see Space Mountain replaced with a Guardians attraction than Ellen's Energy Adventure. Since I like to relocate attraction out of Magic Kingdom and into Epcot, allow me to be the first one to suggest a brand new Space Mountain, built from the ground up on the UoE footprint. The coaster needs to be rebuilt anyway and probably needs to be done before the 50th. Why not do this correctly?
The last alternative here would be something super meta. I don't think it's unreasonable at all to say that Peter Quill could have been a fan of EPCOT Center as a kid. He was taken from Earth in 1988, I would totally buy an attraction that is self referential to the original Universe of Energy, perhaps involves some sort of time travel and includes Peter Quill traveling back to Earth looking for what he remembered from Epcot as a child.
