News New Play Pavilion to replace Epcot's Wonders of Life

DreamfinderGuy

Well-Known Member
I realize this is from 2019, but I don't recall seeing them do this. Did we ever find out why?

They made several grade changes inside the building, I would imagine that required modification of a few exterior bits. The entire Cranium Command wing was gutted to its bare bones.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
They made several grade changes inside the building, I would imagine that required modification of a few exterior bits. The entire Cranium Command wing was gutted to its bare bones.
Remember when EPCOT had animatronic shows like Cranium Command and Kitchen Kabaret, fun people eaters that lasted longer then 3 minutes? Why is it that whenever we hear about how a Disney park needs variety, its always in defense of yet another coaster-in-a-box (or another brief thrill ride) and not about adding one of the types of attractions on which Disney built its reputation?

I really liked Cranium Command.
 

James Alucobond

Well-Known Member
Remember when EPCOT had animatronic shows like Cranium Command and Kitchen Kabaret, fun people eaters that lasted longer then 3 minutes? Why is it that whenever we hear about how a Disney park needs variety, its always in defense of yet another coaster-in-a-box (or another brief thrill ride) and not about adding one of the types of attractions on which Disney built its reputation?

I really liked Cranium Command.
I also really liked Cranium Command and want more non-coaster experiences since I’m not big on coasters in the first place, but I’m not sure CC in particular was absorbing that much more of people’s time. Someone probably has exact figures, but I remember about 5 minutes of pre-show and 15 minutes of actual show. Cosmic Rewind has, like, 6 or so minutes of pre-show and 3.5 minutes of ride time. So, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 versus 20 minutes, plus it will probably be fairly full for the duration of its existence, unlike many theater shows.
 

SteveAZee

Well-Known Member
So, it's been over three years since the Play Pavilion was announced... and for a moment it felt like it must already exist simply because we've been talking about it for so long.
 

cranbiz

Well-Known Member
I also liked Cranium Command. I believe I saw one of it's last showing on New Years Eve back in 2004 (I think). Back when Disney did care about people eating. I was pleasantly surprised that the WOL pavilion was open. Showing Body Wars and Cranium Command. The rest of the pavilion was in rough shape that day but figuring that it was only open to eat people, it wasn't surprising.
 

solidyne

Well-Known Member
Remember when EPCOT had animatronic shows like Cranium Command and Kitchen Kabaret, fun people eaters that lasted longer then 3 minutes? Why is it that whenever we hear about how a Disney park needs variety, its always in defense of yet another coaster-in-a-box (or another brief thrill ride) and not about adding one of the types of attractions on which Disney built its reputation?

I really liked Cranium Command.
Right. It's not enough for attractions to be people eaters. They need to digest people after eating them.

Today's bulimic rides and shows regurgitate guests mere moments after consumption.

If throughput x duration = satiation, I'd say Epcot once had a very hearty appetite!
 

Centauri Space Station

Well-Known Member
Right. It's not enough for attractions to be people eaters. They need to digest people after eating them.

Today's bulimic rides and shows regurgitate guests mere moments after consumption.

If throughput x duration = satiation, I'd say Epcot once had a very hearty appetite!
Epcot has lots of things that are 10 mins or more. Spaceship earth, LWTL, Awesome planet, turtle talk with crush, Pixar Film fest, Canada far and wide, impressions de France, American adventure, Wonders of China.
 

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Epcot has lots of things that are 10 mins or more. Spaceship earth, LWTL, Awesome planet, turtle talk with crush, Pixar Film fest, Canada far and wide, impressions de France, American adventure, Wonders of China.
And with the exception of Turtle Talk (which I really like) all of those are classic EPCOT attractions or updated versions of classic EPCOT attractions. They also happen to be, with the exception of AA and SSE, some of the more lackluster classic EPCOT attractions, which just reinforces the fact that the best bits of classic EPCOT were the first to go, evidence of how absolutely rudderless Disney's approach to the park really was.
 

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
Right. It's not enough for attractions to be people eaters. They need to digest people after eating them.

Today's bulimic rides and shows regurgitate guests mere moments after consumption.

If throughput x duration = satiation, I'd say Epcot once had a very hearty appetite!
As Ive pointed out, its also one of the reasons people feel Future-whatever-its-called-this-week lacked rides. When you have 3 rides that take up more than 90 minutes worth of ride time and replace it with rides that take up 12 minutes of ride time, the in-out-your-done feeling is there.

To equal the ride time they had, just one side of EPCOT would need 4 or 5 more rides.
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
As Ive pointed out, its also one of the reasons people feel Future-whatever-its-called-this-week lacked rides. When you have 3 rides that take up more than 90 minutes worth of ride time and replace it with rides that take up 12 minutes of ride time, the in-out-your-done feeling is there.

To equal the ride time they had, just one side of EPCOT would need 4 or 5 more rides.
And those replacements do not serve a wide audience as the previous either. Mostly thrills and height requirements
 

Rich Brownn

Well-Known Member
And those replacements do not serve a wide audience as the previous either. Mostly thrills and height requirements
True, but even when you count the not-thrill rides its the same (JoI downgraded from 12 to 5, Soaring replacing Food Rocks, and The Seas going from multi-part attraction to just the cab ride)
 

celluloid

Well-Known Member
True, but even when you count the not-thrill rides its the same (JoI downgraded from 12 to 5, Soaring replacing Food Rocks, and The Seas going from multi-part attraction to just the cab ride)

No doubt. I agree there. The neglect to both variety aspects and neglect of time are factors.
 

mergatroid

Well-Known Member
True, but even when you count the not-thrill rides its the same (JoI downgraded from 12 to 5, Soaring replacing Food Rocks, and The Seas going from multi-part attraction to just the cab ride)
The Seas is difficult to judge time-wise I feel because you can spend as long in there as you want looking at the various parts.
 

WondersOfLife

Blink, blink. Breathe, breathe. Day in, day out.
I'm baffled as to why they didn't think re-purposing the Cranium Command theater for an Inside Out themed animatronic show with Cranium Command references wouldn't have been a good idea... Why not open PLAY! with a new animatronic show and simulator ride? Put some attractions in there like before? Put a Wreck-It Ralph attraction in the simulators and Inside Out in Cranium Command. Give us something, man. Utilize those attraction wings. Why NOT? Have a pixar gift shop at the end of CC and a generic Disney animation gift shop at the end of BW.
 

Sir_Cliff

Well-Known Member
I'm baffled as to why they didn't think re-purposing the Cranium Command theater for an Inside Out themed animatronic show with Cranium Command references wouldn't have been a good idea... Why not open PLAY! with a new animatronic show and simulator ride? Put some attractions in there like before? Put a Wreck-It Ralph attraction in the simulators and Inside Out in Cranium Command. Give us something, man. Utilize those attraction wings. Why NOT? Have a pixar gift shop at the end of CC and a generic Disney animation gift shop at the end of BW.
As a genuine question, I wonder whether part of the reason is that Disney sees AA shows as a thing of the past? Up until the 1990s, they used to open them and always propose them for new things. It seems in recent years, though, that they mostly keep the existing ones running and never add new ones when building new lands and parks. Does anyone know when Disney last opened an AA show?
 

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