If that was the case, why not spend the relatively-small amount of money to hire Dave Goelz and Eric Idle to record a few new lines of dialogue and replace the skunk smell with something that smells good. They could keep the stuff about Figment acting like he's going to spray something gross and then, when it turns out to be pleasant, he could say something like, "Oh, come on! You really didn't imagine that I would spray you with something gross, did you? Don't be ridiculous!" It would still be stupid, but less-stupid than building up a joke with no pay-off, which is what we have with no skunk smell.
To be fair, nothing makes sense when it comes to this ride. The budget was embarassingly small for versions 2 and 3, so I can't say whether or not they' would spend money on making a new smell when the keyboards over in the create a figment area are broken half the time. Then there is the question of whether Eric Idle wants anything more to do with this ride, or whether it's easy to make him look like he did 15 years ago in a lab coat.
If there's one thing I've learned over the years, Eric Idle is always in the mood to make some money. Makeup and a little digital smoothing can work wonders. It will never happen, as Disney is too cheap and is currently focused on milking the Star Wars and Marvel teats until they run dry.
Also Ratatouille came out during this era, with the internet and social media. Whereas, Imagination was from the 80’s and Epcot theme park’s target audience nowadays, well at least FW’s, only care about the now. I’m all for “Inside Out” replacing this sad remnant.
For this particular pavilion, at least at this juncture, I think you're absolutely right. While I do think the original ride had a timeless quality that could have withstood the decades had a little TLC and technological updates been performed, the time for that passed when they tore out the original ride structure. The folks who designed the original ride are long gone from the company and, even if they were to try and recreate something akin to the original, it would not be the same and would please no one. Inside Out was a great film with memorable characters and has ample creative ideas that fit perfectly with the original theme of the pavilion.
I love (OG) Figment, too, but I just don't see what, if anything, could be done to make anything that will come close to what was accomplished with the original ride. I'm sure Figment will stay around in some capacity, even in an Inside-Out ride. He moves a lot of plush.
I think Kman meant an IP from a Disney Animated or Live-Action Film not counting IP's created for parks only.
