Bender123
Well-Known Member
So there is a possibility I can have a talking tree and rabbit? Awesome...
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News Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind attraction confirmed for Epcot
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
So there is a possibility I can have a talking tree and rabbit? Awesome...
geekza
Well-Known Member
To be fair, Mission: Space came into being during the first wave of trying to bury Edutainment in Epcot. Horizons was only kept around long enough to get Test Track open and then *Poof!*. Mission: Space was also designed to be a tie-in with the Mission to Mars film that nobody remembers now because it wasn't any good. It was during the second phase of the Eisner era. Those were dark times. Let us not speak of them as he may hear us and appear.
yensidtlaw1969
Well-Known Member
The Edu part of Edutainment certainly USED to be educative, in the glory days of EPCOT Center - there’s hardly anything in the park today that qualifies for that term, and certainly very little that tries to. The American Adventure is a good example, it entertains while it educates. Mission: Space is pretty far from an Edutainment attraction. Ellen’s Energy Adventure definitely hewed more toward Entertaining than Educating, another poor example.
If it doesn’t Edu while it ‘Tains, it ain’t Edutainment.
geekza
Well-Known Member
The Energy pavilion always had problems. The original had an awesome pre-show (when the motorized screen was working), a decent film in Theatre 1, an incredible (though brief) Dino section, a dull as dishwater film after that, and a super-cool and trippy final film that utilized the mirrored walls to great effect. The problem with it was the long film after the dinos. Talk about anticlimactic. As a kid, once the dinosaurs were finished, I was ready to go.
The Ellen refurb definitely made it more entertaining and still somewhat educational, but it dated very quickly, we lost the rotating screens (which hadn't worked well, if at all, for years), the dino section lost many of it's environmental effects and gained an Ellen figure that was... um... really something, and lost it's cool mirror-walled finale. It was sort of the reverse of the original attraction.
It would have been great had Disney been able to find a happy medium, but it just never happened, sadly.
Incorrect. But good other points. IMHO.
smile
Well-Known Member
pretty sure the rock that burns and the lovely citizens of prudhoe bay, alaska don't appreciate your wanton besmirches...
but, who cares about them, right? they're boring.
AEfx
Well-Known Member
Ah, now that I can handle. Makes me feel so much better about it. Thanks for the clarification!
geekza
Well-Known Member
So, rather than the screens malfunctioning, did they just stop turning them on? I mean, I should have learned not to question seemingly silly decisions by Disney at this point, but just not using them makes no sense. It was a great effect and really made the pre-show something unique.
Bender123
Well-Known Member
The insane super wide ratio space shuttle launch was one of my favorite images of old Epcot...We got two giant shuttle launches back to back when heading to Horizons.
They ran rather reliably from late 1982. Not 100% 100% of the time but nothing third shift couldn’t fix.
Bender123
Well-Known Member
My last memory of the ride was the confusing 1996 half and half version...I wonder if people saw that at the end and are mixing the two up?
That was an odd version to be sure. Glad I have it covered in my Ellen edit
EricsBiscuit
Well-Known Member
My dad said they had trouble with it for a little while after opening. Also, he said they didn't get to ride UoE until about 5 days after opening day because it was broken down so often.
The first time all 100 screens were working at the same time a call went out around the whole park and any free CM went to witness the amazing feat.
Truth be known most of the attractions had issues in the first few months. It really was beyond state of the art. And possibly not quite ready to open.
EricsBiscuit
Well-Known Member
Yeah it was a miracle it opened when it did. I recall reading in Marty Sklar's book that Tishman said something like "October 1st isn't the problem, 1982 is the problem."
lazyboy97o
Well-Known Member
In regards to the technological marvel that was EPCOT Center, I highly recommend Building a Better Mouse by Steve Alcorn.
montyz81
Well-Known Member
Fantastic book. It was truly eye opening to read about the technology challenges they had. But then again, this book reads like they were in collage and living it up at night during those construction years. So how much of EPCOT Center's not being ready was technology trail blazing vs hungover challenged workers.
The alchohol was an aside to be honest.
December 1st 1982 was more realistic for many reasons.
Alcorns book is a must read.
montyz81
Well-Known Member
Especially since they had AA run successfully all the way through just a few days before opening.
But then again, you could say that most theme parks could use more time on opening day. Disneyland could have used a few good months easily.
Magic Journeys was finished and in Orlando less than 24 hours before showtime.