Rumor Inside Out to Replace Journey into Imagination with Figment?

[CaliforniaFigmentFan]

Well seeing as this all is a bit much for some folks on this forum.
I’m just gonna try and summarize what *I* believe the *real* plot of these attractions are. This isn’t fact, this is simply my analysis. Take it as you will.
I believe Tiki Room Under New Management is basically “a group of imagineer’s” way of poking fun at current management. With Iago parodying Eisner, Zazu parodying Tony Baxter, and the Tiki Birds and the Tiki Gods acting as the rest of the Imagineers and fans that went and “caused a storm” to convince “Iago” that their way of doing things was better.

Your Imagination not only insults guests’ intelligence at the beginning by telling them they have no imagination (the very opposite of what Dreamfinder’s message was in the original, that imagination belonged to all of us). But I also believe the line, “Well as you can see there’s not much going on upstairs imagination wise. That’s just perfect for our experiments”. Is poking fun at the fact they closed the popular upstairs ImageWorks area.

The With Figment version however seems *very clear* to be mocking Tony Baxter and the Friends of Figment in my mind. The reason I say this is they clearly portray Figment as a constant, upstaging “interference” that “bombards our senses” that’s constantly proving Channing’s way of thinking wrong. Figment’s way of thinking is the non-constrained, “outside the box”, Free thinking way, while Channing’s clearly characterized as the constrained, thinking within the limitations inside the box, corporate way of thinking (also characterized as being through straight up perception (how your mind processes info) rather than creativity (collecting and storing ideas to recombine them in new ways to create something new). The opposite of what Imagination truly is. Google the definitions of both imagination & perception and you’ll see exactly what I mean)
It’s a constant argument between the two. And I can’t help but feel like each lab is mocking some sort of aspect of how Tony and the Friends of Figment complained or “interfered” with “Channing’s” plans. The sound lab seems to be poking fun at the phone calls and feedback they got from the fans. The sight lab seems to be mocking the “Focus Group” tests they had to do, which ultimately made “Your Imagination” disappear. (Hence the butterfly from that version disappearing right after the eye diagram on the right titled “Focus Groups”. With the intials (KM) (try and figure out who’s initials those are). (i’ll give you a hint, it’s in the Orlando sentinel article I linked) And it’s a chart showing how an eye, viewing visual stimuli is supposed to have “captured imagination”, inside the box. In another direction on the chart. It’s labeled “To Small Figment Brain” with no connecting line. (Insulting much?):


Then after that, we go through the smell lab. Channing explains how “research shows smells trigger the imagination, especially when pleasant familiar smells come into play”. (Notice the rose fragrance tank on the side and the white rose that shows up on the screen. That’s a reference to the rose scent that used to be in the old Dreamport and Art scenes) Figment “comes into play”. Tells Channing it’s always a good time to use your imagination, “so let the good times roll”. Which is when we get sprayed with skunk, with Figment responding “the nose knows” and “that’s how you tell a skunk is not a rose”. Yeah.. no kidding! So I think it’s mocking the fact the “Friends of Figment” made a “big stink” about the redo cause of how much the 1st redo “stunk”.
Then, literally right after, you pass by two lab doors. Laugh lab and dream lab. In the laugh lab, you hear laughter coming from inside. In the Dream Lab you can hear snoring. (According to Offhand Disney, they had actually recorded Chuck McCann (the Original voice of Dreamfinder) snoring inside). Which makes me wonder... why would they place that right after that “big stink”?? Oh! Because they were “laughing because they put Dreamfinder to sleep ‘behind closed doors’?” Oh, haha! How funny, right?
So after “that big stink stops Dr. Channing’s tour”.
Figment gets the grand idea to go to “his” open house instead and that it’ll be a lot more fun. Channing tells Figment he’s “turning the entire open house upside down”.
Then Figment responds “That’s the best idea you’ve had all day”. (Then you hear the familiar set of musical notes like when Dreamfinder introduced himself. You remember.. “What delightful melodies those will make!”)
He sings a verse about how “a spark of inspiration made his house an innovation”. “Imagination really clowns around..... ‘What’s downside up is ‘upside down’’.
Then we go through “Figment’s Open House”. With the sign “Welcome Friends of Figment”. Notice now it’s a whole group of Figments doing everything upside down.
Then the whole conversation between Figment & Channing goes along the lines, “So what do you think.. is it me?” “More than you can imagine” “But doc, that’s exactly what I imagined. ‘Imagination is the brain of this open house’”
OHHH Of Course! “Imagination is just “turning your thinking upside down”. (Yeeeeah. See where I’m getting at here. It’s basically saying Tony & the Friends of Figment’s way of thinking is upside down. That there were way more folks like Tony who loved Figment than they could ever imagine).
Then it ends with “Well... if you can’t beat him, join him!”. They sing the song together. And then Figment responds “You see Doc, I knew you’d get it! Cause you’ve got a wonderful imagination!”
Channing then says “Oh, I do?! Why thank you Figment”. “So as you can plainly see ‘Imagination works best when it’s set free’”

And Figment ends that with “You said it Doc.. “Imagination is a blast!”. We get blasted with a gust of air
And what’s that?? “The Friends of Figment” are all singing “One Little Spark” “on full blast”. This “one room” is the only scene that resembles the original ride. Almost as if it’s mocking the fact that the imagineers behind this project knew exactly what they meant and that they knew the fans would blindly congratulate them for “Bringing Figment Back”, right? Putting all of us on blast. But it gets even worse

Literally right after we see astronaut Figment gesturing towards.... oh yeah, Dr. Channing as... The Moon From Horizons!! Wow! No kidding, right?? The very thing that seemed to have had a domino effect on this entire situation:



Then once you put everything together that I’ve found and all the other scenes of the ride. Seems to *all* make sense, doesn’t it?? Same goes for the reason why WDI seems to constantly be targeting the Figment character for removal and keep that ride in the terrible state it’s in, when ultimately, he’s still very popular and sells plenty of merch.

Again... take this all for what you will. I just find this to be all WAY too coincidental and strange *not* to believe what’s going on is Infact intentional and an eerie repeating of history atm.
I believe it’s without a doubt the inner politics along with the risk-averse CEOs causing this issue.
Call me crazy, call me over-analytical. But I believe there’s something a lot more sinister about everything that’s going on at WDI with Epcot (and specifically Figment) at the moment and it’s not pretty.

 

[CaliforniaFigmentFan]

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I also want to point out that initially, during the original ride’s run. There was *not* a sign banner that hung above the attraction to indicate the ride was there, nor was there the pavilion map kiosk. This wasn’t added til the Your Imagination years. Possibly a way to cover up or avoid this queue line switch/purposely omitting the ride from park advertising, etc. being accomplished again after the revamp happened. :

 

[MickeyMario]

 

[Phil12]

Dr. Nigel Channing certainly is a fan favorite.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

I also want to point out that initially, during the original ride’s run. There was *not* a sign banner that hung above the attraction to indicate the ride was there, nor was there the pavilion map kiosk. This wasn’t added til the Your Imagination years. Possibly a way to cover up or avoid this queue line switch/purposely omitting the ride from park advertising, etc. being accomplished again after the revamp happened. :
View attachment 380793
View attachment 380794

I liked the paint job in picture one

 

[atighe42]

But......what does an entire comprehensive history of the pavilion have to do with the rumor that Inside Out May replace Figment?

 

[CaliforniaFigmentFan]

But......what does an entire comprehensive history of the pavilion have to do with the rumor that Inside Out May replace Figment?

Because it seems like the same (or atleast similar) steps that were taken to change Imagination to a Honey, I Shrunk the Audience themed ride are now also being taken to turn Imagination into an another Film IP/Inside Out based ride. Not to mention, the *Same* people are involved with pitching these ideas to completely get rid of Figment intentionally again! *That* is the problem! We’re seeing history repeat itself. People kept saying not to worry, Figment wouldn’t be going anywhere/He sells tons of merch. And yet it still happened. Figment’s role was downplayed to a simple cameo and merch only rather than a proper role and proper exposure/utilization within the attraction. People back then also said Figment would have a larger role as a mascot. Ultimately, that's Not what ended up happening. We’ve heard the very same rumors as of recent. That’s why it’s important to know, so we don’t let this same mistake repeat itself!

 

[atighe42]

Because the same steps that were taken to change Imagination to a Honey, I Shrunk the Audience themed ride are also being taken to turn Imagination into an Inside Out/Film IP based ride. Not to mention, the *Same* people are involved with pitching these ideas to completely get rid of Figment intentionally again! *That* is the problem! We’re seeing history repeat itself. People kept saying not to worry, Figment wouldn’t be going anywhere/He sells tons of merch. And yet it still happened. Figment’s role was downplayed to a simple cameo and merch only rather than a proper role and proper exposure/utilization within the attraction. People back then also said Figment would have a larger role as a mascot. Ultimately, that's Not what ended up happening. We’ve heard the very same rumors as of recent. That’s why it’s important to know, so we don’t let this same mistake repeat itself!

With all due respect, the content has veered nearly into conspiracy theory territory. The history of the pavilion can be found in many articles, videos and other outlets. I think all we can do is listen to this forum’s insiders and see what they have to say about it. Things are probably a lot simpler regarding this attraction’s future. It isn’t a government cover up type situation.

 

[Bender123]

Well...my brain hurts.

Here I was thinking that the changes were due to a contractual mess and lack of budget. I wasn't expecting to read that the moon landing was fake and 5G is mind control in a JII thread.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

I also want to point out that initially, during the original ride’s run. There was *not* a sign banner that hung above the attraction to indicate the ride was there, nor was there the pavilion map kiosk. This wasn’t added til the Your Imagination years. Possibly a way to cover up or avoid this queue line switch/purposely omitting the ride from park advertising, etc. being accomplished again after the revamp happened. :
View attachment 380793
View attachment 380794

Sometimes the correct answer is the simplest.

The banners were likely added because it fit the story. No longer were you going on a journey with the dreamfinder inside a magical pyramid thing attached to a large showbuilding, you were being invited to the institute. The institute, which wanted to advertise their new tour to visitors and guests by placing a large, colorful banner across the entrance.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Well seeing as this all is a bit much for some folks on this forum.
I’m just gonna try and summarize what *I* believe the *real* plot of these attractions are. This isn’t fact, this is simply my analysis. Take it as you will.
I believe Tiki Room Under New Management is basically “a group of imagineer’s” way of poking fun at current management. With Iago parodying Eisner, Zazu parodying Tony Baxter, and the Tiki Birds and the Tiki Gods acting as the rest of the Imagineers and fans that went and “caused a storm” to convince “Iago” that their way of doing things was better.

Your Imagination not only insults guests’ intelligence at the beginning by telling them they have no imagination (the very opposite of what Dreamfinder’s message was in the original, that imagination belonged to all of us). But I also believe the line, “Well as you can see there’s not much going on upstairs imagination wise. That’s just perfect for our experiments”. Is poking fun at the fact they closed the popular upstairs ImageWorks area.

The With Figment version however seems *very clear* to be mocking Tony Baxter and the Friends of Figment in my mind. The reason I say this is they clearly portray Figment as a constant, upstaging “interference” that “bombards our senses” that’s constantly proving Channing’s way of thinking wrong. Figment’s way of thinking is the non-constrained, “outside the box”, Free thinking way, while Channing’s clearly characterized as the constrained, thinking within the limitations inside the box, corporate way of thinking (also characterized as being through straight up perception (how your mind processes info) rather than creativity (collecting and storing ideas to recombine them in new ways to create something new). The opposite of what Imagination truly is. Google the definitions of both imagination & perception and you’ll see exactly what I mean)
It’s a constant argument between the two. And I can’t help but feel like each lab is mocking some sort of aspect of how Tony and the Friends of Figment complained or “interfered” with “Channing’s” plans. The sound lab seems to be poking fun at the phone calls and feedback they got from the fans. The sight lab seems to be mocking the “Focus Group” tests they had to do, which ultimately made “Your Imagination” disappear. (Hence the butterfly from that version disappearing right after the eye diagram on the right titled “Focus Groups”. With the intials (KM) (try and figure out who’s initials those are). (i’ll give you a hint, it’s in the Orlando sentinel article I linked) And it’s a chart showing how an eye, viewing visual stimuli is supposed to have “captured imagination”, inside the box. In another direction on the chart. It’s labeled “To Small Figment Brain” with no connecting line. (Insulting much?):
View attachment 380762

Then after that, we go through the smell lab. Channing explains how “research shows smells trigger the imagination, especially when pleasant familiar smells come into play”. (Notice the rose fragrance tank on the side and the white rose that shows up on the screen. That’s a reference to the rose scent that used to be in the old Dreamport and Art scenes) Figment “comes into play”. Tells Channing it’s always a good time to use your imagination, “so let the good times roll”. Which is when we get sprayed with skunk, with Figment responding “the nose knows” and “that’s how you tell a skunk is not a rose”. Yeah.. no kidding! So I think it’s mocking the fact the “Friends of Figment” made a “big stink” about the redo cause of how much the 1st redo “stunk”.
Then, literally right after, you pass by two lab doors. Laugh lab and dream lab. In the laugh lab, you hear laughter coming from inside. In the Dream Lab you can hear snoring. (According to Offhand Disney, they had actually recorded Chuck McCann (the Original voice of Dreamfinder) snoring inside). Which makes me wonder... why would they place that right after that “big stink”?? Oh! Because they were “laughing because they put Dreamfinder to sleep ‘behind closed doors’?” Oh, haha! How funny, right?
So after “that big stink stops Dr. Channing’s tour”.
Figment gets the grand idea to go to “his” open house instead and that it’ll be a lot more fun. Channing tells Figment he’s “turning the entire open house upside down”.
Then Figment responds “That’s the best idea you’ve had all day”. (Then you hear the familiar set of musical notes like when Dreamfinder introduced himself. You remember.. “What delightful melodies those will make!”)
He sings a verse about how “a spark of inspiration made his house an innovation”. “Imagination really clowns around..... ‘What’s downside up is ‘upside down’’.
Then we go through “Figment’s Open House”. With the sign “Welcome Friends of Figment”. Notice now it’s a whole group of Figments doing everything upside down.
Then the whole conversation between Figment & Channing goes along the lines, “So what do you think.. is it me?” “More than you can imagine” “But doc, that’s exactly what I imagined. ‘Imagination is the brain of this open house’”
OHHH Of Course! “Imagination is just “turning your thinking upside down”. (Yeeeeah. See where I’m getting at here. It’s basically saying Tony & the Friends of Figment’s way of thinking is upside down. That there were way more folks like Tony who loved Figment than they could ever imagine).
Then it ends with “Well... if you can’t beat him, join him!”. They sing the song together. And then Figment responds “You see Doc, I knew you’d get it! Cause you’ve got a wonderful imagination!”
Channing then says “Oh, I do?! Why thank you Figment”. “So as you can plainly see ‘Imagination works best when it’s set free’”

And Figment ends that with “You said it Doc.. “Imagination is a blast!”. We get blasted with a gust of air
And what’s that?? “The Friends of Figment” are all singing “One Little Spark” “on full blast”. This “one room” is the only scene that resembles the original ride. Almost as if it’s mocking the fact that the imagineers behind this project knew exactly what they meant and that they knew the fans would blindly congratulate them for “Bringing Figment Back”, right? Putting all of us on blast. But it gets even worse

Literally right after we see astronaut Figment gesturing towards.... oh yeah, Dr. Channing as... The Moon From Horizons!! Wow! No kidding, right?? The very thing that seemed to have had a domino effect on this entire situation:
View attachment 380763
View attachment 380764

Then once you put everything together that I’ve found and all the other scenes of the ride. Seems to *all* make sense, doesn’t it?? Same goes for the reason why WDI seems to constantly be targeting the Figment character for removal and keep that ride in the terrible state it’s in, when ultimately, he’s still very popular and sells plenty of merch.

Again... take this all for what you will. I just find this to be all WAY too coincidental and strange *not* to believe what’s going on is Infact intentional and an eerie repeating of history atm.
I believe it’s without a doubt the inner politics along with the risk-averse CEOs causing this issue.
Call me crazy, call me over-analytical. But I believe there’s something a lot more sinister about everything that’s going on at WDI with Epcot (and specifically Figment) at the moment and it’s not pretty.

Are you OK man? I legitimately think you may want to talk to a professional.

 

[CaliforniaFigmentFan]

Are you OK man? I legitimately think you may want to talk to a professional.

Perfectly Okay. But somehow no one seems to understand that Imagineers tend to think “outside the box” when planning attractions. You seriously have to wonder why on earth, despite contractural or financial limitations. Would they choose to make Figment a constant “interference”, bombarding our senses out of all things (which has nothing to do with creativity, rather perception), that makes a “big stink” before showing us that his “upside down way of thinking” is “imagination being set free” Rather then it actually being a tour through each creative realms that inspires imagination and creating things with Figment being the childlike, innocent, lovable character we all identified with in the original. Not to mention, if the very last scene could get the vibe/feel of the original attraction right. Why not the rest?? Seems there’s no excuse for that, right? That would be purely a creative decision.
I dunno.. Like I said, take my observations as you will. Just seems really bizarre that what seems to be the same imagineers that worked on these last 2 versions of the ride, who are currently working on the overhaul of Epcot, seem to be so hellbent on getting rid of Figment entirely when he’s still a very popular character. That’s really my main point. Make what you will of the rest.

 

[CaliforniaFigmentFan]

And why choose to keep Dr. Channing or the Honey, I Shrunk the Audience Institute setting entirely when it was deemed so unpopular? They very easily could’ve utilized Dreamfinder and atleast tried to bring the original spirit back when Figment was initially planned to return. Keep in mind, most of the show scenes *were* changed from what they were in Your Imagination, with the main exception being the gravity lab/Upside Down House. Besides that, everything was changed. So I wouldn’t necessarily blame budget on that. That’s a creative decision, and a terrible one at that.

 

[larryz]

Perfectly Okay. But somehow no one seems to understand that Imagineers tend to think “outside the box” when planning attractions. You seriously have to wonder why on earth, despite contractural or financial limitations. Would they choose to make Figment a constant “interference” that makes a “big stink” before showing us that his “upside down way of thinking” is “imagination being set free” Rather then it actually being a tour through each creative genre that inspires creativity with Figment being the childlike, innocent, lovable characterwe all identified with in the original. Not to mention, if the very last scene could get the vibe/feel of the whole attraction right. Why not the rest?? Seems there’s no excuse for that, right? That would be purely a creative decision.
I dunno.. Like I said, take my observations as you will. Just seems really bizarre that what seems to be the same imagineers that worked on these last 2 versions of the ride, who are currently working on the overhaul of Epcot, seem to be so hellbent on getting rid of Figment entirely when he’s still a very popular character. That’s really my main point. Make what you will of the rest.

Well, you had me going until you forgot to mention the Paul/Faul McCartney connection. I mean, why else would John sign the dissolution papers at WDW?

 

[Wngo905]

Well, you had me going until you forgot to mention the Paul/Faul McCartney connection. I mean, why else would John sign the dissolution papers at WDW?

All indications from every Beatles albums from St. Pepper's on is that Paul is dead. The person playing Paul McCartney is "the one and only Billy Shears" They gave over 100 references to Paul dying, come on man don't you understand what the Beatles were clearly saying?!?! lol

 

[GhostlyGoofy]

Hmmm. I will say it is odd you can meet wreck it Ralph but not figment at Image Works.

I don't doubt there were personal politics / grudges trying to out Figment and now making him look like a bootleg Nintendo 64 character for nearly 20 years.

 

[GlacierGlacier]

Perfectly Okay. But somehow no one seems to understand that Imagineers tend to think “outside the box” when planning attractions. You seriously have to wonder why on earth, despite contractural or financial limitations. Would they choose to make Figment a constant “interference” that makes a “big stink” before showing us that his “upside down way of thinking” is “imagination being set free” Rather then it actually being a tour through each creative genre that inspires creativity with Figment being the childlike, innocent, lovable characterwe all identified with in the original. Not to mention, if the very last scene could get the vibe/feel of the whole attraction right. Why not the rest?? Seems there’s no excuse for that, right? That would be purely a creative decision.
I dunno.. Like I said, take my observations as you will. Just seems really bizarre that what seems to be the same imagineers that worked on these last 2 versions of the ride, who are currently working on the overhaul of Epcot, seem to be so hellbent on getting rid of Figment entirely when he’s still a very popular character. That’s really my main point. Make what you will of the rest.

The very last scene is correct because it's a story. The ride is a story about how the institute is incorrect, their assumption at the beginning, and the slow education of our host by figment that imagination works best when it's set free (final scene).

Figment is constantly interfering with Dr. Channing because he's trying to get him to lighten up, relax about all that analytic senses stuff, and instead have fun and be whymsically creative with an unlimited imagination.

Now, whether that is well executed is up to you. It's a pretty poor attraction in my eyes, but it most certainly does not contain a toxic message, nor an anti-tony anti-figment message, either.

 

[Thingamabob]

In my opinion Figment is still at least in Epcot very popular by the fans. Even if he is no where to be met within the parks there is some merchandise with him on it to be purchased. It would be a shame if the Imagination ride would be revamped totally without him.

 

[trainplane3]

Pop on over to here:
https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/goodbye-to-its-a-small-world.955316/
Oh look, it's the same lady that wrote this article. Is there any truth to it?

Oops, she did it again...

What happened to Micechat, honestly?

MF refers to the Figment article in their post. And then...

I refrained from posting in this topic last week because I wanted to be polite.

But my God, this woman is not intelligent. Or at least she's too intelligent to be doing this kind of work. The Small World thing was beyond the pale, and bordered on just being mean for the sake of a few extra clicks on her silly gossip column. Pretending to have news that Disneyland is going to close It's A Small World on a Disneyland fan website is almost like yelling fire in a crowded theater. It's not nice.

I've seen her online here and there since the late 1990's. She was never an insightful asset to the Disneyland online fan community, aside from her sometimes interesting but always a bit gag-inducing stories of how she would meet famous 20th century Imagineers at a fan event and then fawned all over them. Or how she named her daughter Alice after Alice Davis.

Last week's Small World dumpster fire of fake news she offered, plus today's assemblage of words that say almost nothing except WDI and TDO are trying to decide what to do with the miserably bad Imagination pavilion at Epcot (duh!) and that Pete Docter was in a meeting once about it, has proven to me that she's not only jumped the shark, but that the shark then ate her and won and then did a shark dance.

I saw her in the park once about 15 years ago, just before she went offline for a decade and got really into Korean pop bands instead of Disneyland. I was going to the Harbor Galley to get a Coke, and she was standing there at the Columbia holding court with a gaggle of socially awkward grown men with unkempt beards. This was around '03 or '04, before that neckbeard look was so prevalent among the socially awkward. She was regaling them with stories of the Sailing Ship Columbia and how she once talked to Tony Baxter about the boat at a fan convention or something. I recognized her face instantly from grainy byline photos of that era, and even back then she looked absolutely nothing like her current avatar. I eavesdropped for a minute or two at the Harbor Galley condiment bar, and then shuddered and walked off feeling like I needed to get a new hobby.

I'm really surprised the website editors/owners allow her to get away with what she's been authoring recently. Her current level of work is doing damage not just to her personal brand, but also the website brand.

I'll just assume we shouldn't read into it too much.

 

[Bender123]

The very last scene is correct because it's a story. The ride is a story about how the institute is incorrect, their assumption at the beginning, and the slow education of our host by figment that imagination works best when it's set free (final scene).

Figment is constantly interfering with Dr. Channing because he's trying to get him to lighten up, relax about all that analytic senses stuff, and instead have fun and be whymsically creative with an unlimited imagination.

Now, whether that is well executed is up to you. It's a pretty poor attraction in my eyes, but it most certainly does not contain a toxic message, nor an anti-tony anti-figment message, either.

I love me some Figment, but wow did this escalate quickly...On the plus side of this conspiracy talk, I have a new justification for taking recreational drugs.

"You must be this high to appreciate the JIYI ride experience as a physical embodiment of office politics"