Then: Journey Into Imagination was a beautifully themed, detailed, original, unique, high quality, timeless classic attraction about the creative process along with a tour through all the mediums you can explore your creative talents to their highest potential, with Dreamfinder & Figment as our guides. Dreamfinder being the wise Walt Disney characature & mentor that taught *both* Figment and us guests about the importance of Imagination and that it’s something that belongs to all of us.
Now: Journey Into Imagination With Figment is a poorly thought out, mixed up, confusing, hodge-podge of an attraction that barely makes any sense... especially to newcomers that aren’t familiar with either the original attraction or the version in-between. It’s a rushed after-thought that was created shortly after the huge outcry of complaints caused by the short-lived Journey Into Your Imagination attraction. Basically, the only huge difference with the current one is that Figment was carelessly shoehorned into it as a cheap fix. The biggest problem with the current ride is the fact that it really *isn’t* a “Journey into Imagination”, nor is it truly a ride *about* Figment at all. What it really is, is it’s a bizarre, dated, and completely unfitting “Honey, I Shrunk the Audience” IP based ride with a badly written, “tongue in cheek” story that only fans of the original who hated the version in-between would completely understand. The whole story being that Figment’s getting payback on stuck-up, condescending, egotist Dr. Channing for screwing up the ride in the previous incarnation. He does this by causing various mischief in Channing’s Institute tour, trying to prove to the doctor that Imagination should be set free. A story that completely goes over most average guests’ heads.
There are many, many more problems I’ve picked up on within the current attraction though, the more and more I’ve analyzed it.:
For one, the current ride is about perception, not Imagination. Imagination is supposed to be the creative process. The original got it right. Dreamfinder & Figment flew around the universe, collecting sparks (abstract thoughts) and then recombined them to create new things. The whole analogy to that being that no idea is truly “new” or “original” in a sense. Every idea and thought, at the heart, is inspired by something. Hence the lyrics, “One Little Spark of *inspiration* is at the heart of all creation”.
The current ride *completely* throws that concept out the window. While yes, the senses definitely help your mind perceive things around you. That’s not what truly inspires your creativity or imagination. I think Tony Baxter explained it best in a recent Ride Rehab podcast interview, “If you could explain to me what an upside down toilet on the ceiling and learning how a skunk smells improves your imagination. That’d help me a lot, as I for one can’t figure it out.”
I mean honestly... how in the world are a bunch of dark, barren, sparsely themed “sensory labs” with charts, doors, tables, and whatever else supposed to capture my imagination? I don’t get it. The original was chock-full of detail and all those mediums it took you through truly *did* capture your imagination; Art, Literature, Performing Arts, Science, and Technology. Every scene of that original attraction had things that inspired your creativity.. wether it be beautiful works of art made with paper machette and rainbow paint, a bunch of words that can really make a story captivating and compelling , theatre set pieces that make environments truly comes to life.... every single thing in that ride was something that could truly make an impact on you. It also had that distinct classic Disney touch you saw in a lot of the well-known darkrides, like Haunted Mansion, It’s a Small World, and Pirates of the Caribbean for instance.
Another one of the largest problems with the current ride is the way Figment is performed, animated and introduced in the current ride. In the original he was intended to be a representation of not only a *literal* figment of Dreamfinder’s imagination, made up of various abstract animal parts to create the iconic purple dragon design we know and love; but he’s also supposed to represent the purity, innocence, and large sense of curiosity we all had at one point during childhood. Couple that with Billy Barty’s wonderful vocal performance. To me, the best way I could describe it would be, “If Piglet was a lot more optimistic and enthusiastic”. That’s what made that character so identifiable and charming. In the current ride, he’s barely introduced. He basically just comes out of nowhere. The animation looks like it came straight out of an early-mid 90s PC game.. poorly rendered, off- model, and not at all up to Disney standards. Add that with Dave Goelz’s forced performance. He sounds like he’s shouting everything he says as opposed to just talking casually like Billy Barty did. Add the poorly written tongue-in-cheek story to mix, and people unfamiliar with Figment think he’s causing mischief for no reason, making him seem like a loud, obnoxious, and mischievous character.
It’s *really* sad. The best analogy I can make to this would be if they changed something like Haunted Mansion, Made it a Chicken Little ride. People complain to bring back the “Hitchhiking Ghosts ride”, and instead of restoring it back to the old experience, they just hamfist the ghosts into the Chicken Little attraction with a tongue-in cheek story of them causing hijinks throughout the ride to “fix” it. It’s horrible and completely illogical. I just wish Disney would make the right decision and restore it back to the original ride with technology and effect upgrades, along with new animatronics and traditional animation brought into the finale as originally planned . (Similar to what Disneyland’s done with their Fantasyland rides and Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln). Or atleast bring in a new ride that brings back the original concept, but executes it in a new, exciting way, perhaps with expanded mediums we can explore.. maybe video/computer games and film production for instance. Anyway... we’ll see what happens.
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