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Thoughts on restoring Disney's most unique, most daring theme park.
About Me
- Epcot82
- If we can dream it, then we can do it.
Related Blogs Worth Reading
- 2719 Hyperion
- All Things WDW Blog
- Spaceship Earth: Project Tomorrow
- Official Epcot Site (Disney.com)
- DisneyReport.com
- Diz Trading Pins
- Future Probe
- Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow
- Horizons Cam
- Horizons: A Tribute Site
- Imagineer For a Day
- ImagiNERDing
- Intercot: EPCOT Center
- Living in WDW
- Lost EPCOT
- Miceage
- Mouseplanet
- News Plus Notes: Amusement Industry News Blog
- Passport to Dreams Old and New (a beautifully written site!)
- Project X-Anonymouse
- Walt Dated World (Gone-But-Not-Forgotten Attractions)
- Re-Imagineering
- Retro EPCOT Center T-Shirts
- Sensible Orlando Vacations
- The Sound of Music -- EPCOT Center Music
- Universe of Energy Companion Site (a must visit!)
- Waltopia - EPCOT Center Tribute Site
- WDW Central
- Yesterland: A Theme Park on the Web
28 comments:
Awww...Eager for your return!
Thanks -- dealing with unexpected malfunctions. ;-)
This blog is stuck in 1982. All the posts are about how Epcot was better then. What a complainer.
Captain EO wasn't there in 1982 so there... HA!
Is there anything analog to love from our present time? If all we trying is capture an non-existing anymore past, then we are doomed. Hey, let's make your own creative pavillon along with the imageneers then. Oh but this blog sticks treating logically and capturing information for the sole sake to point out where harmony is discordful with our old connected pleasure origins for edit managing and development, nothing related to generate. Confronting mindsets from different timelapse is a complete waste of time, as you mean to show everything the way things were to keep them alive the way you'd love to talk about it in its original inspiring context. Or while it gets depressing and nostalgic, this won't ever be accepted until the whole spirit is killed by observations of this kind. Be happy when talking about EPCOT, even if some new managers destroyed the so-loved pavillons from 1982. This is all I have to say.
Anonymous, although some of your post is written in English (I think), I can rest fairly easily knowing that you haven't actually read most of the blog. You are making some assumptions that you know what it's about based on a few posts. In fact, I've long maintained that EPCOT needed to and should have changed -- even more often than it did! I would hate for EPCOT to have turned into a museum that froze everything in the mid-1980s. The problem is, those things weren't replaced with BETTER things ... they were replaced with more "commercial" things. Ideas were replaced with "Disney synergy." Daring was replaced with cartoon characters. Innovation was replaced with mediocrity.
Had EPCOT fulfilled the promise shown for the first 14 years or so of its existence, it would have been a truly remarkable place.
And, perhaps more importantly, through EPCOT Central I'm hoping to stoke the fires, small and dying though they may be, of EPCOT's innovation. It could STILL become an amazing place. Not just another place to hawk Disney merchandise and see cute characters. It could move the world, not just promote Disney.
They replaced a dark ride with an advertisement for "Finding Nemo"...
They replaced arguably the most well-regarded dark ride in the entire theme park for a centrifugal ride (that kills people, nonetheless)...
They replaced another dark ride with a weak roller coaster (who's sponsor is on the verge of bankruptcy & actually KILLED a very futuristic project the moment a certain American state was forced to relax it's car emission standards... Not very futuristic for a sponsor of a "Future World" pavilion, now is it?)...
They took another dark ride's original characters away until an unusually large protest got one of them back (Because we all know how much Figment & Dreamfinder detracted from THAT pavilion) but, in revenge, shortened the ride...
They took down the theme-breaking magic wand from another dark ride ONLY because the sponsor paying for that dark ride didn't want it there; Otherwise, we'd still be seeing a huge magic wand when walking into the theme park...
One dark ride now sits as nothing but a hollow shell of what it used to be BECAUSE DISNEY WANTS IT THAT WAY...
But, you know, let's talk about the positives of "Epcot"... They've got a 'real nifty' "Kim Possible" feature that has nothing to do with the theme of the theme park (imagine that!) & Donald Duck can now be seen in the Mexico Pavilion.
Way to go, Disney!
I am all for rides...don't get me wrong, and EPCOT is still one of my favorite places on earth. But now, I usually feel a bit empty (unless I catch Illuminations) when I leave. I used to walk out having learned something. No it's just memories (although good, it would be nice to go back that 'learning')
Exactly the way that I feel. Horizons, World of Motion, could have all been "plussed" as Walt would say. Scenes could have been changed to reflect new advancements in all of these areas without discarding the entire attraction. That is what made those attractions as unique as they were and have people longing for their return. It was the nostalgia of what was and the possibility of what might be in the future. Its what got your creative imagination in gear. While I still love EPCOT, that "spark" is missing. I think we could all use that spark of possibility in our lives right now. Lets get it back imagineering.
The first couple of times I went to Epcot I walked out with my spirit soaring, having been thoroughy entertained by the rides, amused by the sideshows, well fed at decent restaurants, and had my imagination stimualted by an ingenious world's fair.
The last time Iw ent there, I was stunned by how little had been updated or changed for the better, and by how much had actually gotten worse. A 20 year old movie in France, a rip-off Norway, a Space ride I can't go on, an interactive cartoon thingy that was too smart for the small children and too silly for the older ones, it goes on and on.
This blog features an intelligent and thoughtful debate about what went wrong with this park, and what could be done to make it right. I do not agree with every opinion, but they are all worth reading.
I'm looking forward to your return -- I wrote you a very lengthy and babbling e-mail last week, looking forward to hearing back from you if you end up having the time (and don't think I'm too creepy, lol).
I was thinking of making a trip to EpCoT (how's that for being fair, half uppercase half lower?) for my thirtieth birthday. saddest thing of all is that the most excited I get is thinking about how drunk I can make myself drinking round the world.
I love your blog. It reminds me that I'm not the only crazy person out there who really wishes Disney would do something about ePcOt.
All Best,
d.
Maybe you should do a series in which you actually *do* go into the future, praising the introduction of several new attraction/pavilions of your own imagination - attractions that you believe would benefit EPCOT Center, as well as coincide with Walt's vision. This way, when the naysayers come up and say "You want Epcot to be a museum!", you can reply, "No, I do not think so. Here are some of my ideas regarding attractions that I think would work."
Just a thought.
Foy L.
I agree with the above post. This is the kind of new direction that I would love to read in this blog.
That sounds like a cool idea Foy!
We moved the person that was running Epcot and replaced them with someone else. We've decided that all your points are valid and want to change Epcot. Thanks. http://tinyurl.com/acnuyw
Meg C.? Meg Crofton!? Heh.
If it really is you, can you please explain Mr. Jim MacPhee's new position?
;-)
Can't say exactly, but here is a hint: "23".
I know about 23. ;-)
So will he be in charge of the EPCOT chain of command?
Meg, have you read the theoretical letter to Messrs Iger and Lasseter below? Might be worth reading it to them.
Assuming you really ARE Meg Crofton.
Different people in the company follow different sites. You must understand that no matter good an idea sounds there are reasons decisions are made. Many Disney fans are really passionate about how certain assets of the company are run. We love hearing feedback internally and from the public. Even the best suggestions are weighted against many factors that Disney enthusiasts are not privy to.
I understand you're unhappy about a few things at Epcot, but remember that a good idea lives on forever in one form or another.
I hope you're right, Meg. I really do.
hmmm...
I take that to mean that even if a good idea doesn't make it past the drawing board (or gets removed from the park), it still lives on in our imaginations and on sites like this.
although, I really hope it means that an updated Horizons is coming back to EPCOT in the next year.
"a good idea lives on forever in one form or another", perhaps. but good ideas don't mean anything unless action is taken to implement them.
"but remember that a good idea lives on forever in one form or another."
Of course we understand this, but the form of EPCOT is lacking itself. Where is the Future in Future World? Where is that optimism? Where are our new horizons?
"Old" EPCOT did that. New Epcot...Not really. Now it's just Fantasyland South. Bring the real world back to the park on the real world. We can save the "magic" for Magic Kingdom.
It's one thing to have a great idea, and build upon that idea, creating something completely unique and inspiring to the world that resonnates beyond its walls. It's another thing to start with a good idea and then alter it so drastically through the years, that it loses all site of it's original purpose and becomes unfocused and nearly unrecognizeable 20 years later. I'm glad to hear there are some people in management that are reading this blog and considering it's content important enough to potentially influence their decision making and possibly inspire good maybe even great ideas on their end. I just hope that the reference to a "good idea" doesn't refer to such recent ideas as "The Seas with Nemo and Friends", "Imagination!", the Disney Princess invasion at Restaurant Akershus, or "Gran Fiesta Tour starring The Three Caballeros", but instead refers to the original idea of EPCOT Center that the bloggers on this site have held very true to with all of their carefully thought out yet forward thinking ideas and suggestionsto the Disney company. I think we're on to a good start in repairing some of the "damage" that's been done at Epcot, but I feel it will take a higher number of actual Disney execs to actually be on the same page together with us to really honor what we hope can become a restoration of EPCOT, and truly bring back its intended purpose. In this day and age, an idea like EPCOT Center can have a surprising renaissance and easily be a beacon of light and hope to the world if it's properly and respectfully executed. And unlike 10 years or so ago, EPCOT Center's ideals can be looked at with less cynical eyes these, because actually people want to find answers to the world's problems. And EPCOT can continue to present ideas that are happening in creative centers across the globe. EPCOT will never heal the world, but it can be a place to at least show people ways that we can make things better. And holding true to it's original purpose if executed correctly, can be all that it needs to become restored and experience that renaissance.
Well, I guess that settles that. "Meg C." says that a good idea lives on forever in one form or another. I guess we can all just... Go home now. I'm sure that at any minute, EPCOT Central here will just... Close up shop & we'll just have to find some other blog to air our differences with why EPCOT Center (Sorry! "Epcot") now sucks the brown juices out the posterior of a deceased corpse.
I, for one, would like to thank "Meg C." for nipping our grievances in the bud before they got WAY out of line. I'm sure that without her stepping in we'd all be so embarrassed if we took these clearly irrational opinions to a more broader audience.
Last one to leave can turn off the lights.
^^^^-Heh. Fat chance. Fat chance we will do that and that that was Meg C. If it really is, please...Interact with us more.
And our travels have not resumed "shortly". Hope everything is OK.
I don't think I've EVER EVER EVER been on the Spaceship Earth ride without it breaking down long enough for me to lay back and snooze
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