ToTBellHop
Well-Known Member
Everything we need is in Mean Girls (2004).
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EPCOT New Play Pavilion to replace Epcot's Wonders of Life
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
danlb_2000
Premium Member
The backlash against Habit Heroes would imply otherwise. I am not sure how anyone who has lived through the past few years can think for a second that health care issues haven't been politized.
DreamfinderGuy
Well-Known Member
The message behind Habit Heroes was to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Wonders’ marquee attractions were a ride where you shrink and zip through the body and a show about the day in the life of a kid that had an underlying message of “Mental health is important”.
Wonders absolutely had elements that would get a Habit Heroes level backlash, but the core of it all is still golden. Body Wars and Cranium Command’s primary focus were not “Here’s what you should do with your body”, but rather “This is how your body works”. Hell, you could lean even further into Cranium Command’s mental health message as this is something that speaks to a younger audience now.
Bocabear
Well-Known Member
Mental Health has become a huge issue lately too...So perhaps having an attraction that had something to do with Menatal Health could actually be a good thing... Which would be the "inside Out" tie in... Baymax would not be political at all either... Everything in the world can inspire false outrage... if we were gong to avoid anything that could be taken the wrong way or offensive, we would have a completely unthemed 6 Flags park with a 32 page disclaimer form to fill out upon arrival... Taking care of yourself, knowing how the body works, knowing how our emotions work...none of these things are political at all....though everything can be politicised.... I don't think that is a real issue.
V_L_Raptor
Well-Known Member
I don't know that Habit Heroes was about politics so much as it was about taking an entirely ignorant perspective on fitness itself and giving it some real estate in Innoventions. There are plenty of people out there who are happy to forego any kind of detail or thoughtful analysis before heading to the drawing board in favor of crapping something out to get visitors, never mind the consequences.
That wasn't politics. It was cruel stupidity.
Pi on my Cake
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
Similarly the recent Baymax Disney+ series was faced with enough backlash for being "political" that the NYPost reported on it. Specifically the IP being discussed here for Wonders has this issue
Not saying that Wonders couldn't work today, it absolutely could. But let's not pretend that basic Health science isn't something a decent sized portion of this country considers political and controversial. Just look at how many cast members have stories of being yelled at about mask rules during the pandemic. Disney would have to be pretty careful in how they approach it OR they'd have to be ok with the likelihood of the NYPost writing articles about it being political
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Castle Cake Apologist
Well-Known Member
Again, one could easily design an attraction that teaches about the human body and basic concepts in regards to how to keep it healthy that would not in any way be political. What was political about Body Wars? Sensory Funhouse? The Wonder Cycles? Even something along the lines of Cranium Command would be unlikely to cause much of a stir.
I think most people would agree that keeping yourself as healthy as possible is important. The simple action of learning about the functions of the body and how they interact with overall health can go a long way toward encouraging a person to care about things that they can do, as an individual, to keep everything running smoothly. There's no reason to dive into things like quality access to healthcare, insurance, or really the medical industry at all, which would be the most likely things to cause controversy among the general public.
For what it's worth... before recently pivoting to education, I spent the better part of my adult career working as a community health advocate with a major healthcare company, specifically servicing disadvantaged populations (Medicaid, Medicare, etc.). I assure you, I'm far from naive when it comes to the minefield that this topic can become.
DreamfinderGuy
Well-Known Member
It just wasn’t relevant really. The volunteer could be anyone and it wouldn’t affect the story whatsoever.
DreamfinderGuy
Well-Known Member
If there was somehow any doubt left, this project is very dead.
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
Good.
It was always going to be a tremendous waste of pavilion space that we would be stuck with for decades; maybe now they'll design something that will actually be worthwhile for the park.
It has gone the way of Hyperion Wharf and David Copperfield Underground. Erased from history.
I think it would actually have been quit a positive for the park. EPCOT is desperate for something to do with younger kids that last more than a few minutes. I think the result now is that the place sits empty, and the guests get nothing.
James Alucobond
Well-Known Member
Eh, having screens in the dome wouldn’t have really precluded bringing the theaters back online at some point.
DreamfinderGuy
Well-Known Member
I had a lot of mixed emotions about it, but as a whole pretty much anything would be a net positive over continuing to leave the building empty. Making everything in Future World East a thrill ride has killed that whole section of the park for lots of families, making Wonders the kids area would have helped at least. It did waste lots of space in the pavilion, but there's nothing saying future developments couldn't have gone into the Body Wars/Cranium sections. Doing nothing is wasting more space than Play would've.
Dragonman
Well-Known Member
In terms of finding the art you could try using the Wayback Machine to look for it.
Gusey
Well-Known Member
Oh, I knew some of the characters from the Character Spot were meant to move to PLAY, just thought it was the Mickey side as his Imagination Pavilion meet and greet always felt temporary
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
It's essentially opportunity cost. The Play! Pavilion was a bad idea from the start and would have been incredibly outdated quickly -- possibly within 5 years of opening. If there was a guarantee Disney would then rework it, maybe it could have been okay, but that's pretty unlikely given their standard MO. It's more probable it would have operated more or less as it did at opening for 15-20 years.
Would EPCOT be better off right now if the Play! Pavilion existed? Sure, because it would have additional capacity. In the long run, though, EPCOT is better off if the pavilion sits empty for another few years and then opens with something that actually offers a full pavilion experience closer to Wonders of Life (not in specific health content; just in terms of attractions, snacks, etc.).
Look at Imagination as an example -- if they'd shut down the second iteration for several years to do a full reworking and open with an actually excellent attraction and side activities, EPCOT would have been worse off for the years it was closed due to a loss of capacity, but would be in much better shape right now.
The only reason it's still a potential negative IMO is that the pavilion has already been empty for well over a decade. It's absolutely possible that Disney just lets it sit empty for another 10+ years, and if that's the case, then obviously the Play! Pavilion would be better than nothing.