MANEATINGWREATH
Well-Known Member
Alright, alright, alright.
First off, I'd like to introduce myself, because there are quite a few faces on here whom I've never met.
My name is MANEATINGWREATH (MEW), and I've been an armchair Imagineer for thirteen years this April. I started with people like @TheOriginalTiki, @monkey92514, and @JokersWild back on a little purple website called Visions Fantastic. I consider myself responsible for creating the term "Open Brainstorming," and consider myself even more responsible for starting more than a handful of dream resort projects on WDWMagic that have never (and probably never will be) been finished. They're pretty cool though, so check 'em out if you'd like.
For over a decade, armchair Imagineering has been a wonderful escape for me and a great way to blow off creative steam. While I have since "retired" and relocated that energy into my Halloween village and LEGO sets, it's always nice to pop in from time to time and see how the current generation of armchair Imagineers are doing. I couldn't be happier to see contests such as SA and SYWTBAI doing better than ever. I was a SYWTBAI co-host for several of its earlier seasons, including Seasons Six, Seven, Eight, and beyond, and the memories from them will last a lifetime.
I took it upon myself to come into my critique of Team Space's project completely blind. I purposely didn't read the prompt (until tonight), and have not checked the work thread at all. I wanted the experience of reading their project to be as if I was experiencing this fictional EPCOT Pavilion as a guest for the first time. Since it seems there is no standard rubric or grading for this particular contest, I'm just going to leave a few italicized bullet points with my feedback. Enjoy!
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- Wow! Project presentations have really come a long way since the early days of SYWTBAI. I'm really impressed with how well formatted and eye-pleasing the "website" is. And the fact that you used Spotify for your BGM was a nice touch. Call me an "Okay Boomer," but this would have received audible ooo's and ahhh's back in my day, with high marks for presentation.
- Love the name "The World Above." Very old school Future World.
- Opening Day: First off, great detail of squeezing "The World Above" into an actual EPCOT map of the time period. Felt like something you'd see on Widen Your World when doing some research. I think what I would have liked to have seen more of in this section was a dedicated history to the design and conception of the Pavilion. Not sure if any of you are familiar with MartinsVids on YouTube, but he does a great job creating video essays that capture the nostalgia of old school WDW, especially Future World pavilions, often providing background to the subject of the video. I think that could have benefited this particular section of the project. I would have loved to have known why the pavilion was created, why it was selected, how did it factor into Horizons with Horizons of course being a snapshot of all Future World's themes in one attraction. Details like that would have made the geek in me...geek out.
Whoever wrote the "Wonderful, Wonderful Weather" song is quite the talented person! Sounded very Sherman Bros.-esque and something I could listen to when walking through Epcot's turnstiles. Likewise, thank you for clarifying If You Had Wings was closed down in this timeline. I love alternate history projects like this, so this hits the right marks for me.
Nice touch having "The Mouse" inside the pavilion.
- 1990s: The 1990s seemed a bit incomplete IMO. There was a lot of thought put into Opening Day, but it seemed the updates from the '90s left more to be desired. And that's not to say what was incorporated in this section was bad, it was good content. I just wish there was more of it. Knowing this was the early era of Eisner and Wells, wouldn't we have seen a thrill ride shoehorned into the pavilion by the late 90s? Or, what if The World Above had plans for a "Disney Decade" expansion that never happened due to the failure of Euro Disney? The '90s were such an odd time for the Disney Parks, especially Epcot, and I think more could have been done here.
- 2000s: Ahhh, that's more like it. The Forecast Follies 2.0 backstory is exactly what I was looking for in the '90s section and in the Opening Day section in regard to "background." The updated Follies is so delightfully cringe that I couldn't imagine it lasting more than a year in operation. A true spiritual successor to Superstar Limo. Thank you for this. Eisner is easily to blame.
Soarin' makes much more sense in The World Above than in The Land, and THANK YOU for doing Soarin' Over America rather than a carbon clone of Soarin' Over California. I'm really not sure why this wasn't done IRL.
The Planes redo of The Mouse is again, so delightfully cringe, and so delightfully Iger. Very accurate and thoughtful work all around in this section.
- 2020s: Boy, that attraction poster is great. You have some really talented artists on this team. I love the design of the pavilion, and the pavilion being squeezed into existing park maps is, again, just great. And the pavilion logo. But hmm... I don't know if The Rocketeer would have been my choice for the 2020s expansion. Were it me, I would have gone with Iron-Man for my IP selection, or even Captain Nemo from the Jules Verne-verse. But I digress. I'm one of those people who has never seen The Rocketeer so I probably don't have much room to talk here. The attraction overall is very well done and I can tell the amount of work that was put into this, so congrats on that. I just don't know if I'm feeling that particular IP in Future World... Though the same could be said for GOTG, and look where we're at with that. Please know I'm just providing personal feedback here and not hate. I'm probably in the minority here anyway haha.
- Overall, you guys did a great job! This project was just the right length to be enjoyable and high quality all around. Were I to give this a grade with a classic SYWTBAI rubric, I would give it an 8.5 out of 10. Great work!
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In all seriousness though, this was my first time really actively following a brainstorming thread from beginning to end this season, and I must say the amount of team work and talent on display here is a force to be reckoned with. I really admired how the final theme you came up with was a mix of some of your best ideas blended together in a natural way. One of the biggest challenges with these games is knowing when and when not to hold on to pet concepts, and the balance was struck here very well.
