News Spaceship Earth Refurb - 2 Year Closure

Mac Tonight

Well-Known Member
My thought was that you enter the scene and the walls and pillars are blank and the then the LED's draw the hieroglyphics before your eyes. Who knows...
that's pretty much my guess...

As we travel through each scene, we'll follow the light as it brings certain elements to life and illuminates our stories throughout history...

Honestly, if Chapek doesn't missappropriate a Mufasa quote at the beginning, I'd be very surprised.
 

brettf22

Premium Member
I had gotten into the habit that if I was going on SSE during daylight hours, to close one eye as I'm getting in the queue (almost always FP, which is almost always available day-of). Then I open it once in the dark tunnel. That way, one eye doesn't have day-blindness and I can see the first scene. I also close my eyes for the photo for the same reason.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who does this. Also helps to see details in HM.
 

Disneyson

Well-Known Member
My unfounded bets:

- The lights will be off until one of the characters “tells a story”, at which point a pulse of light will ripple towards the listener of the story and spill into the scene.

- Light will drip out of the brushes and chisels of the renaissance artists and projection mapping will “animate” the art. It will be extra, but not “bad”. But so many people will complain.

- There will be a controversial scene that takes the place of the movie theatre/radio/telephone operator featuring Walt animating Mickey.

Isn’t it kind of weird that this attraction is encroaching into Figment territory story-wise? With the focus being on the power of art and story, what could a Figment ride be based on?
 

999th Happy Haunt

Well-Known Member
- There will be a controversial scene that takes the place of the movie theatre/radio/telephone operator featuring Walt animating Mickey.
Just occurred to me we’ve never seen a Walt Disney animatronic. Hopefully if they ever do make one and put it into the parks it’s done in a respectful manner like the scene described here, not him talking about the new EPCOT or something.
 

montyz81

Well-Known Member
I had a theory about this:
View attachment 452028
Instead of it looking like the Egyptians invented illuminated hieroglyphics, what if that’s the “story light” and it basically illuminates important objects in a scene like that.
Maybe this where Illuminations is going to resurface and the music will once again be heard inside Epcot.

I know, I don’t think so either.
 

Bender123

Well-Known Member
Isn’t it kind of weird that this attraction is encroaching into Figment territory story-wise? With the focus being on the power of art and story, what could a Figment ride be based on?

Imagination always crossed all the others as a prequel to them, with Horizons as the post. Think on the whole series of pavilions and that Imagination touched on how we use imagination to form arts, natural science, technology, etc...Horizons tied all the discovery together into what the future will look like; future farming, communications and living.

SE was always "stories" for the majority. Story is the basis for where communications come from. Communications is the medium that stories are shared. There will always be overlap.
 

techgeek

Well-Known Member
One of the most amazing aspects of SSE to me is the transformative placemaking. Especially in the first act, through every portal and around every corner we are taken somewhere new in space and time. Blink a little and you can convince yourself you are in ancient Egypt, or on a Industrial revolution era New York street...

This placemaking is literal and real. The time machine is actually taking you places, and there’s no aspect of fantasy depicted while you’re there.

If projection mapping comes in and sprinkles pixie dust everywhere and magically illuminates the actions and scenes, this conceit... a fundamental aspect of EPCOT from the conceptual stages... is toast.

I wonder if who came up with this ‘story light’ ever even read the Bradbury treatment?
 

SplashJacket

Well-Known Member
What if the light is shedding light on different mediums of storytelling.

  1. Humans transmitted stories through generations through speaking.
  2. Humans transmitted stories through generations through cave drawings.
  3. Humans transmitted stories through text (hieroglyphics)
  4. Humans transmitted stories by traveling all over the world.
  5. Humans transmitted stories through theater (Greek plays)
  6. Humans transmitted stories through books (Alexandria)
  7. Michelangelo could be replaced but Humans transmitting stories through paintings is still applicable but similar to cave drawings.
  8. Humans transmitted stories through radio. (Already there)
  9. Humans transmitted stories through cinema. (Already there)
  10. Humans transmitted stories through television (Already there)
  11. Humans transmitted stories through the internet (a new scene in place of Computer scene)
  12. Humans transmit stories through Disney+.
A good thing about the concept is the ride does not need much modification to fit within it. That being said, while I personally do not expect much change early on in the ride, after all, not much is needed at the start. The end portion requires a lot more work.

As storytelling modernizes throughout the ride, Disney can interject more of themselves into the ride. I can easily see a portion dedicated to early fairytales after the mass-production of books. I can easily see the cinema have Snow-White. I can easily see Disney+ be included in the modern era.

My main thing is if there are small nods to Disney it should not be too bad, but having it based around Disney itself would be a regression.
 

CJR

Well-Known Member
The squares of the screens are still there sadly. I'm just hoping they don't use them. It'd be nice to remove them completely instead of covering with a piece of plastic.
Spaceship-Earth_Full_37483.jpg

The squares in the back row seem a bit too low, so they must not be the existing screens. The current screens are near the height of the head rests, almost eye level. If those squares are screens, they're really low compared to the near eye level ones we have now.

The vehicles do look different in the art, with a much larger gap between the back of the seats. Of course, it's just art, but it makes me believe the (new) vehicles must still be in the budget.
 

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
You picked the wrong attraction to criticize on substance. Spaceship Earth is one of the masterpieces of Walt Disney Imagineering and one of the most meaningful attractions ever built. While it has aged over its existence, the themes and settings explored are still super remarkable.


True. The first time I rode it, (and I'd avoided it because I thought it'd be boring), I was amazed at how well-done and effective it was. I love it. My only quibble is the ending and the pseudo-quiz you have to take on the screen. I'd love THAT to change, and nothing else. Oh well, we're not in charge are we...
 

Horizons1

Well-Known Member
One of the most amazing aspects of SSE to me is the transformative placemaking. Especially in the first act, through every portal and around every corner we are taken somewhere new in space and time. Blink a little and you can convince yourself you are in ancient Egypt, or on a Industrial revolution era New York street...

This placemaking is literal and real. The time machine is actually taking you places, and there’s no aspect of fantasy depicted while you’re there.

If projection mapping comes in and sprinkles pixie dust everywhere and magically illuminates the actions and scenes, this conceit... a fundamental aspect of EPCOT from the conceptual stages... is toast.

I wonder if who came up with this ‘story light’ ever even read the Bradbury treatment?
Oh please. The people in charge of this probably have no idea who Bradbury is. “Ray Blueberry? Who’s that?”
 

Exomonia

Member
Also — if you look closely in this concept art, you can see the start of the Phoenician / “Moana” scene from the earlier concept art
 

Dragonman

Well-Known Member
-1 Pharaoh
Queen
Pharaoh’s aide
-1 Pharaoh’s scribe
Papyrus worker
-1 Scaffolding hieroglyphics worker (gone since 1994)

Definitely will feel emptier but I guess they’re going for a less is more method.
 
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