An Experiment Gone Terribly Wrong
Written: Jan 25 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Remaining traces of what used to be someplace different
Cons: Bad decisions; Lackluster attraction “improvements”
The Bottom Line: If EPCOT Center was designed as an experiment, then I’m sorry to say it probably failed.
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| cactus_matt's Full Review: Epcot |
Way back in 1965 Walt Disney spoke of a revolutionary township to house and provide for the employees of his soon-to-be Florida theme park. Dubbed EPCOT, or “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow,” the project was to be a monumental undertaking, bringing forth innovations in the ways people lived, worked, and traveled. Tomorrowland may have been a showcase for the wonders of the future, but EPCOT was where it would all come to fruition.
Walt died roughly a year later, and although his Florida theme park was realized shortly after, EPCOT remained but a dormant idea for some time, staying alive only by means of a large-scale conceptual model stowed away inside the Carousel of Progress. The powers that be did not share Walt’s enthusiasm, but they were still concerned with fulfilling his grand vision. It took some time to mold an impractical idea such as EPCOT into something practical, and once it was done the idea was a bit far removed from how it was originally intended.
Groundbreaking began in 1979 near the Magic Kingdom on what would become EPCOT Center, a world fair of sorts dealing with the wonders of today and the promise of tomorrow. Regardless of what they might have labeled it, the public was generally predisposed to associating Disney with theme parks, and that’s what EPCOT Center might have resulted in had it not been for it’s simultaneous desire to both educate and entertain. As far as high hopes for a futuristic community, however, EPCOT Center was drastically underrealized from the start. Some years later, Disney finally did establish its own town in Florida by the name of “Celebration,” but that proved far from revolutionary and is another story altogether.
EPCOT Center opened in 1982 and was divided into two separate sections: Future World and the World Showcase. Future World was an assortment of dark rides that didn’t achieve a sense of completeness until a year later with the addition of most of its flagship attractions. Each attraction was located inside a pavilion based on things such as communication, imagination, energy, and transportation. The careful layout of Future World did not allow for much expansion, however, which would end up causing trouble in, well, the future.
The World Showcase consisted of pavilions as well, each one based on a different country. The countries allowed visitors to experience a different way of life, including traditions, entertainment, and food, with legitimate attractions few and far between. The greatest problem here was the fact that the countries of the world were constantly changing and would almost inevitably become misrepresented by their pavilions. Other international troubles spelled changes early on and prevented the construction of a few countries’ pavilions altogether. Disney had sailed out of the calm waters of fantasy and into the turbulent seas of the real world.
Collectively, Future World and the World Showcase were home to some of the most beautiful architecture and landscaping yet to be seen at a Disney park. During its initial stages, EPCOT Center was extremely well designed and held strongly together in theme and arrangement. Future World became well known for Spaceship Earth, a colossal geodesic sphere affectionately named “the giant golf ball.” A number of fans fell in love with the attractions housed within the Future World pavilions. The World Showcase, on the other hand, was not as popular with younger visitors, but was an ideal area for adults to enjoy themselves at a slower pace.
EPCOT Center stayed relatively the same for a little over 10 years without any major changes. Attendance had never been outstanding, however, and during this time the newly installed, profit-minded management began looking at what might be done to turn that around. What followed was an overwhelming succession of absent-minded and destructively awkward decisions.
EPCOT Center had, in the beginning, strived to distinguish itself from the Magic Kingdom. Popular Disney characters were absolutely nowhere to be seen. The profit-minded management must have felt that although independence sounded like a nice idea, it wasn’t the sort of idea that would rake in money. Were they so much under the impression that when people came to Disney they were only seeking recognizable licenses and thoughtless stimulation? Apparently so, as EPCOT Center began dropping everything that might have otherwise disassociated it from being labeled a mere theme park.
One of the first things to change was the name. The EPCOT acronym was no longer seen as being of significance, and the denotation of “Center” might have led people to believe that it was somewhat less than an utterly fun-filled getaway. EPCOT Center became simply “Epcot.” What had once held some degree of meaning was now just an unusual moniker. Disney characters began showing their faces, despite having no real connection to the park. Stylization occurred in Future World and a lot of the architecture began to look just plain tacky, most notably by way of placing the word “Epcot” in large italicized letters and a bunch of little red stars atop Spaceship Earth. The once imposing structure and symbol of EPCOT Center had all but gone from a breathtaking piece of modern architecture to a hokey snowglobe lost amongst the Florida horizon.
The worst changes, though, were those that occurred with the attractions housed in the Future World pavilions. By this time, most of the attractions admittedly needed updating, as the late seventies/early eighties décor and music used in many just wasn’t going to cut it in the next millennium. In the end, most of them had received more than just a mere makeover. The changes in the attractions were what truly began Epcot’s downward spiral, and a few examples stand out high above the rest…
The World of Motion
One of the first steps in transforming Epcot into a full-fledged theme park was the insertion of a high-profile thrill ride, which was where the aforementioned layout problem of Future World first came into play. With no room to build a new pavilion and with little desire to preserve the older ones, something had to be evicted. The World of Motion was eyed as the number one candidate. It had a considerable cult following as far as diehard fans were concerned, but it was easily the most expendable attraction in the park. Epcot was about to lose one of its first major residents.
The World of Motion closed forever in 1996. The General Motors Test Track, the World of Motion’s proposed replacement, actually didn’t seem like that bad of a new ride concept, as at the very least it maintained the technological theme once so prevalent in Future World. The misfortune laid in how shortsighted management was when they failed to perceive the effects that a large thrill ride would have on crowd control. Drawing in younger, hipper patrons is fine, but when you’ve only got one attraction of interest to them, things there become a bit congested. Lines for the Test Track stretched upwards of 90 minutes when it first opened in 1999 and haven’t significantly receded a day since. “Fastpasses” tend to be sold out for the entire day within hours of the park’s opening. And not to mention the nearly routine breakdowns occurring roughly by the hour.
Is it a good ride, though? I honestly couldn’t tell you, as I try my best not to judge attractions before having experienced them myself. Even as a weathered Disney theme park veteran I’ve never been able to make it through that ridiculous wait without something preventing me from finally boarding. It is my opinion, however, that only total euphoria could ever warrant me spending half my day standing in line for a single ride.
The Universe of Energy
Another casualty of 1996 was the Universe of Energy, a dull, uninteresting ridethrough Exxon propaganda film whose appeal rested solely on its questionable inclusion of animatronic dinosaurs. Sounds as if they could do just about anything to fix it, right? Well, “just about anything” doesn’t include everything, and part of everything that wasn’t included in “just about anything” was the installation of a mediocre television sitcom star as the attraction’s spokesperson.
Giving Ellen DeGeneres her own “Energy Adventure” may have seemed like a good idea at the time (although I’m not sure to who), but it wasn’t the sort of decision that would preserve the dignity or design of the park for years to come. Ellen publicly announced her sexuality a year later and more or less disappeared from the spotlight, leaving Disney red-faced and stuck with a considerably large attraction named after her.
Now, I realize that it seems I’m being a bit tough on ol’ Ellen and her Energy Adventure, and I certainly don’t have anything against her, but it helps to try and see that what was done to the Universe of Energy only helped Epcot take another step away from the solid presentation it was once endowed with. Sure, it helped to make the attraction more upbeat, but the park had found ways to do that before they began to rely on cutesy names and gimmicks.
If you’d like to see a more in-depth version of my thoughts on Ellen’s Energy Adventure and how it relates to the status of Epcot, check out my Epinion of it at
http://www.epinions.com/content_36238102148
Ironically, only days after having written that article I saw an advertisement for a new Ellen sitcom on television. Whether or not she’s back to stay has yet to be seen.
Journey Into Imagination
The aforementioned decision by management that EPCOT Center couldn’t conceivably stay afloat without the aid of marketable characters signaled the end of the reign of Figment the purple dragon as the park’s unofficial mascot. Figment, star of an attraction entitled Journey Into Imagination, had at one time been the only “talking animal” that EPCOT Center could boast, which was a beneficial situation considering it distinguished the park from the Magic Kingdom and allowed it to establish its own separate purpose and identity. Once Mickey Mouse and friends began showing up, Figment became lost in the shuffle and so did a great deal of EPCOT Center’s distinction as something different.
Journey Into Imagination, the attraction itself, had always been one of the park’s most popular, but as the years passed management began to fear it was becoming outdated and simply couldn’t draw the crowds they were looking for. Sadly, Disney has recently had an unfortunate habit of acting on these assumptions without bringing into consideration how the fans might really feel. This time it finally came back and bit them.
Instead of updating the attraction with a similar theme, Journey Into Imagination was closed in 1998 and completely redesigned as Journey Into YOUR Imagination, perhaps one of the saddest acts ever perpetrated by modern day “Imagineering.” Journey Into YOUR Imagination skewed the original’s theme into something meaningless and nonsensical; everything that had made Journey Into Imagination special had been cast aside to show off a few forgettable special effects. Although Figment was retained for the sake of recognition, his role was so minor and so absolutely pointless that he could just as well have not been there at all.
The fans responded accordingly, and Journey Into YOUR Imagination received an unprecedented number of complaints, most of them asking why they’d even bothered to try and change the original attraction in the first place. Regardless, the new version continued operation, despite never catching on, and lines were before long sparser outside than they’d ever been at the original Journey Into Imagination. Maybe it was all the complaints, or maybe Michael Eisner was worrying about his bank account, but Journey Into YOUR Imagination was finally closed in 2001 in favor of restoring Figment to a more significant role, the least that could have been done. We still have to wait a few months to see if the latest version will deliver, but it does give provide one little spark of glimmering hope that the Disney Company is still capable of listening.
Then again, this difficulty could have been avoided completely if they’d initially given more thoughts to their actions. If you want to take a look at my evaluation of Journey Into YOUR Imagination, go to
http://www.epinions.com/content_14903643780
Have mercy on it, though, as it was my very first Epinion.
Horizons
Although Spaceship Earth was the symbol of EPCOT Center, Horizons had been attraction which best embodied its spirit and message of endless potential for the future. Which consequently makes it somewhat ironic to see what eventually became of it, almost a sad allegory for the state of park in general.
Horizons had been a park favorite since early on, and despite having been eyed for change quite often, managed to hold out as one of the last Future World attractions remaining in its original state by the time 1999 rolled around. This was mostly out of necessity, with most of Epcot’s east side dormant due to redevelopment; it might have otherwise been overhauled years prior. Horizons was simply counting the days for the Test Track to open before pulling the plug. The reason they were so anxious to get rid of the attraction? Management provided a hodgepodge of explanations, most notably that Horizons was outdated and that the building in which it was housed had allegedly become structurally unstable. Fair enough, but what probably really did do Horizons in was that it had gone without corporate sponsorship since 1993.
The park’s pavilions had always relied heavily on sponsorship from big companies, and in turn the companies received free advertising and a forum to share their new developments. When a pavilion lost its sponsorship, change was typically not far behind. Horizons got a temporary reprieve given the situation, but its days had been numbered ever since General Electric decided not to renew its contract and backed out of funding. In January of 1999 its days were up, and Horizons unceremoniously shut its doors to the public for the last time. The pavilion remained dormant for an entire year as speculation abounded regarding what was going to happen, until finally they simply begun tearing the building down. A new outer space attraction with an undetermined sponsor was set to be built atop Horizons’ unmarked place of rest.
For a building supposedly so unstable, Horizons certainly took a long time to knock down: destruction took roughly seven months. They set up a wall in front in order to try and create mystique for things to come, but it was far from high enough to hide what was taking place behind it. Slowly Horizons was torn apart in relatively plain view of park visitors. If only I could show pictures here of the gradual debacle. Nevertheless, it goes without saying that it’s not pleasant to see a part of one’s childhood become a pile of twisted wreckage.
The replacement, Mission: Space is already over a year in the making and will likely take at least a few more. Given how few attractions Epcot has to offer and their current state of disrepair, can it really stand the wait? We can only hope that Mission: Space has been worth all this trouble.
In Conclusion…
I hate to say it, but Epcot may just be a lost cause at this stage. In the course of approximately five years EPCOT Center had become “just Epcot” and merely a shadow of its former self. Many of its most beloved attractions had been met with untimely demise and what had come in their place didn’t really hold a candle to their predecessors. The countries of the World Showcase are becoming restless after sitting for years without any sort of fresh representation. The Disney Company just can’t handle all the new complications piling up day after day.
I sincerely believe that Epcot will be without purpose if becomes what management would like it to be, which would be a lesser version of the Magic Kingdom. Epcot being just another theme park would go against the entire point of it having been imagined in the first place. In a piece of Disney literature from early 1982 it was said that EPCOT Center would be “…a blend of advanced technologies and showmanship as far advanced from the Magic Kingdom as Disneyland from the old-fashioned amusement park.” At least, I guess that’s what they’d hoped. Financial difficulties and the sheer magnitude of their aspirations may have proven a bit overwhelming, but I suppose that’s life. It was, after all, an experiment in name.
Coincidentally, October of this year will mark Epcot’s 20th anniversary, an event that may or may not be overshadowed by the current yearlong celebration of Walt Disney’s 100th birthday. I, at least, can look back fondly and celebrate the memories I’ve made at EPCOT Center/Epcot over time. I can only hope that they manage to turn it around so that it might stand a chance at giving us another 20 years worth.
Thanks for reading.
Recommended:
Yes
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cactus_matt
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Location: Florida
Reviews written: 40
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