Rumor Inside Out to Replace Journey into Imagination with Figment?

rodserling27

Well-Known Member
JII and indeed Figment have royally sucked for almost 20 years now. That's a whole audience of young adults, teens, preteens, and kids that DID NOT ever ride the original attraction. Hey, many many many of my own 30-something friends who are crazy about WDW like us don't even remember the ride!!! Yes, it's true that WE all know how great it was and we remember and love the OLD Figment. But he is horrid now, and beyond we old school fans, I'm sure plenty of folks don't know who the heck he is, and if they do, they associate him with this wretched joke of a Disney attraction.

Bulldoze the darn ride, I say. Build something amazing and incredible in its place. Hey, if that's a new version of JII with Figment? Awesome. If it's Inside Out or some other film? That's cool too. Because almost anything is better than what's there now. And let's remember our good pal Martin is usually right about these sorts of things. Looks like we are in for a long wait for any sort of change.
 

fgmnt

Well-Known Member
Might I remind everyone who is leading this project incase you've forgotten about D23? Tom Fitzgerald (apologies if the last name is wrong) should know what he is doing in terms of the Imagination! pavilion.

I've always gathered that conventional wisdom is that Tom Fitzgerald passed over Tony Baxter (JII creator) for the position Tom currently holds, effectively unceremoniously getting Tony out of the picture.

Going deeper into fan speculation; Tony's projects always loved to run up a budget to deliver high-quality experiences, from creating Splash Mountain to delivering on a very botched 1998 DL Tomorrowland after massive budgeteering killed off the important features needed to pull off the update. Tom is the polar opposite of Tony Baxter, and that is why a lot of people see Tom as the face of a new Epcot means we will likely see a value-engineered re-tread of the park instead of an honest re-christening of the mission of EPCOT Center.
 

The Empress Lilly

Well-Known Member
Anything you needed to hear about the plans for EPCOT were said at the presentation. They feel the park isn't "Disney" enough and it needs more Disney. So look for IPs to probably show up in every area of the park even if it dosent belong.
So in order to make EPCOT more 'Disney' they would replace a forty year old Disney mascot by a non-Disney product....
 

danlb_2000

Premium Member
Yes, I rode it many times.

It was a nice original concept which is admittedly rare for modern Disney but the ride itself was not that spectacular. Perhaps a slightly better than average dark ride (for its time), but nothing more nothing less. It was filler then and it'd still be filler now. And it certainly didn't do anything to spark any genuine imagination or demonstrate imagination as a concept in an effective way, so the purists have nothing to lose (the new one is even WORSE in that regard).

I will have to disagree with you on this on.

.. Also, try not to remove people's name when you quote their messages.
 

Kman101

Well-Known Member
How many of those Dooney and Bourke bags were made? How many were sold? The existence of a product for enthusiasts has little correlation to the overall popularity of said product. How many Lion King Dooney and Bourke bags are in the parks? Aladdin? Figment is not more popular than either of those IPs yet Figment is in the lead when it comes to handbags.

From what I've seen in the parks Disney seems to transitioning to Remy being the mascot of F&W. I haven't visited the flower and garden festival so I can't speak on its merchandise.

Figment sells a lot of merch. He's more popular than some seem willing to admit. Despite the crappy ride he has now. He's become more heavily featured on flower and garden and festival of the arts merch for a reason. He was never a big component of food and wine, which now uses Remy, a better fit.
 

Ismael Flores

Well-Known Member
So in order to make EPCOT more 'Disney' they would replace a forty year old Disney mascot by a non-Disney product....
Isn't this was has been happening in every Disney park.

Epcot, DCA and TDS were all designed without integrating characters. Epcot and DCA were shunned by people and tv shows as boring or cheap. TDS changed fast when OLC demanded characters and now they seem to be adding them on everything
 

Maeryk

Well-Known Member
Isn't this was has been happening in every Disney park.

Epcot, DCA and TDS were all designed without integrating characters. Epcot and DCA were shunned by people and tv shows as boring or cheap. TDS changed fast when OLC demanded characters and now they seem to be adding them on everything

Disney invented the IP based park concept. It's not surprising once the shine wore off epcot, people, some loudly, wondered why it didn't have any beyond random mickey and co. Sightings.

IP tends to drive the parks. Whether it be snows scary adventures or festival of the lion king.. it's commonly the anchor.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
The problem with this whole situation is that everyone has the "any replacement will be better than what's there now" attitude. Guess what? That's how we got stuck with the crappy version we have today in the first place! The message of Inside Out doesn't fit a dark ride format. There are no antagonists, hell, the journey made is only used to communicate a point. That point is the relationship between the emotions and the human, and how this impacts a human as they grow up and overcome new challenges. What this would fit, however, is a show. Perhaps one in a rehauled Magic Eye theatre? You know what doesn't fit a show? FIGMENT! It would literally just be a movie with little to no emotional attachment from the audience, which they would use as an excuse to get rid of the purple dragon for good. Here's a wild thought. Bulldoze the pavilion, and start from scratch. They have two options from here;

Option A (the one us purists would prefer): Rebuild the pavilion with similar or new design. Make the floors level. Feature a Figment and Dreamfinder E ticket trackless dark ride. This ride can be our equivalent to Mystic Manor (lovable animal that gets into trouble and his owner who is a member of SEA; did I mention Dreamfinder being a member of S.E.A.? This would be a good way to add backstory to the ride, and SEA to have a bigger presence in WDW). Then, build a new Magic Eye theatre (or whatever it's called) and have the Inside Out show there. It can deal with how emotions are related to imagination, and it would feature Bing bong. There, everyone's happy!

Option B:
Bulldoze pavilion. Rebuild as a giant glass brain and call it the human mind pavilion. Make your Inside Out dark ride. Put Figment in the theatre if you want, I don't really care. At least now it's thematically appropriate without seeming forced.

Those are my two cents :cool:
 

Maeryk

Well-Known Member
We got the ride we have now because Kodak pulled out halfway through rebuilding the ride. Disney had to scramble to get what was left into a workable concept, so you ended up with, roughly, half a ride. The upstairs was closed because it was hard to access.. the stairs weren't very wide (you can still see them as you exit the gift shop), and the elevator was tiny. Plus it was hard to supervise.

The rest of the track is still, apparently, in the building, waiting in case it ever gets redone again, but I'm not holding my breath.
 

Brer Oswald

Well-Known Member
We got the ride we have now because Kodak pulled out halfway through rebuilding the ride. Disney had to scramble to get what was left into a workable concept, so you ended up with, roughly, half a ride. The upstairs was closed because it was hard to access.. the stairs weren't very wide (you can still see them as you exit the gift shop), and the elevator was tiny. Plus it was hard to supervise.

The rest of the track is still, apparently, in the building, waiting in case it ever gets redone again, but I'm not holding my breath.
That's how we got 2.0. We got 3.0 because they had the attitude that anything would be better than 2.0, so anything must be good. Sure it was better, but it still wasn't acceptable because the ride made no sense.
 

phillip9698

Well-Known Member
Figment sells a lot of merch. He's more popular than some seem willing to admit. Despite the crappy ride he has now. He's become more heavily featured on flower and garden and festival of the arts merch for a reason. He was never a big component of food and wine, which now uses Remy, a better fit.

Its not about being more popular than people are willing to admit, its is he more popular than whatever IP Disney is looking to place in that building. Will an updated Figment ride bring more ticket sales than an Inside Out ride or whatever else they choose. IMO it wont. People who tend to be big Figment fans tend to be big Disney fans, aka people who would visit the parks no matter what they put in there. On the other hand if you fill that space with a popular movie based IP like Inside Out you are pulling in kids and families who want to experience a ride based on a movie they loved.

We are planning a Disney trip for our son and when he hears about rides based on Peter Pan, Winnie the Poo, Toy Story, and Nemo he gets super excited because those are properties he is familiar with and we are planning an Epcot day pretty much solely because he wants to see Nemo. He has no reference point for Figment, its not an IP a kid has on their radar if they have not taken a previous trip to Disney. You have to really go out of your way to introduce your child to Figment and get them excited about the ride as opposed to just playing a movie.

Im not here to say a movie IP based ride would be better than a Figment ride, im just looking at it from a financial perspective and a movie IP would bring in more ticket sales.
 

MissM

Well-Known Member
How many of those Dooney and Bourke bags were made? How many were sold? The existence of a product for enthusiasts has little correlation to the overall popularity of said product. How many Lion King Dooney and Bourke bags are in the parks? Aladdin? Figment is not more popular than either of those IPs yet Figment is in the lead when it comes to handbags.

From what I've seen in the parks Disney seems to transitioning to Remy being the mascot of F&W. I haven't visited the flower and garden festival so I can't speak on its merchandise.
At least hundreds of bags made at $250+ per bag. F&G 2016 bags sold out in the first few weeks of the Festival. Even used, they now sell $100+ more over retail and used they tend to sell at or above retail as well. (Link)

Remy has certainly been used in Food & Wine but again, I refer you to the D23 announced line of Figment bags I posted earlier in the thread for this year. They are making three bags in navy, a full character bag, plus an AP exclusive in white.
figment-foodwine17.jpg


There are definitely more movies that have yet to receive a D&B bag, of course. This Saturday, Tiana is getting her first bag for example. They have announced she is part of a new Dream Big, Princess line so people are expecting to see more Princess theme bags forthcoming for example.

It's important to note, I never stated that Inside Out wasn't popular. In fact, I opened by stating it was. I'm just pointing out that Figment moves merchandise. So it's foolish to think Disney is going to eliminate their purple cash cow completely from Epcot. Regardless of what anyone thinks should or should not happen to Imagination Pavilion, the fact is Figment is ALL OVER festival merch the past few years and it's a continuing trend showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.
 

Maeryk

Well-Known Member
Oh good grief. Inside Out was a nicely done movie, but it wouldn't work. Just refurbish the damn ride to something nicer already.

Yeah, I don't get the love for that movie. It was good. It was not great, and it's FAR form Pixar's best work. And if it belongs anywhere.. it's the wonders of life pavilion. The movie was about puberty.. not imagination.
 

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