Figment's Fun Facts #4 - Epic Energy

This figure does not even account for the eight-minute preshow which brings the attraction to an impressive 45-minute running time! Not even the Epic American Adventure even comes close in overall length. This expansive length attraction was due to multiple factors, not the least of which is the complex story of energy in all its forms and uses. In the Mid-1990s, Tony Baxter was prophesying the evolution of feature-length attractions unfortunately a number of uninspired events lead to dead halt of state-side Imagineering’s creativity. (A condition WDI has only recently recovered from.) Nonetheless, three decades ago EPCOT Center, featured more lengthy attractions than any other theme park ever created, (A record that is still unmatched by any subsequent park).   

The runner-up in this category is another guidewire driven attraction The Great Movie Ride (at 22 minutes) and in third place (at 15 minutes) the Audio-Animatronics tour-de-force World of Motion. All of these have (had) low wait times with high degree of guest satisfaction. (One might assume that there’s a connection;)

In a world of FastPass, perpetually long lines, interactive queues, and now advanced bookings via Fastpass+, it becomes apparent that the theme park experience has changed dramatically over a relative short period of time, and not necessarily for the better. How did this happen? What can be done to alleviate the stress?  And why was the story of energy so complicated?

All these questions and more to be answered soon here at
E82 – The Epcot Legacy!                           

Figment Fact #3 - Seeing Green

It never surprises me just how off-the-wall sponsors can be when raising concerns about an Imagineering project. For all the complaints about highly-themed “golden arched” carts, product placement was never “worse” than in the good-old-days. From Ford convertibles in the Magic Skyway to Monsanto’s House of the Future, the further back you go in time the more obvious the corporate involvement becomes in Disney’s parks.
It’s also hysterical how such real world concerns can leak into the Disney world. This fact reminds me of the time Harry Truman refused to ride Dumbo – The Flying Elephant because of the Republican symbolism!
But, seriously its facts like this that make me thankful for sponsors like Kodak. Can you image if Figment was always green!? There’s nothing futuristic about green dragons! As a result, I’m not one to get upset about sponsor presence large or small. So the next time you leave Epcot and see the Siemens logo lasered across the back of Spaceship Earth, Celebrate It, after all they made sure the “Icon” became what it was supposed to be – TEMPORARY!

E @ 28

Greetings Fellow Futurists,
Epcot is 28 Years Old Today! So it seems only fitting that the next “season” of The E82 Project should begin again today. (1) In addition, it’s also Friday so why not start things off with a Figment’s Fun Fact...

No other project in the history of Walt Disney Productions received so much world-wide attention as Walt’s last dream, one reason is its’ astronomical budget. (2) To put this into perspective, if adjusted for inflation EPCOT Center would cost between $2.67 Billion (3) to $5.26 Billion (4) in 2010 dollars.

 

Figment’s Fun Fact Follow-up

There was quite a response to the first of Figment’s Fun Facts. After more research I discovered that there were a lot more than 200 Special Effects at the opening of EPCOT Center; 274 to be exact. More than five times the number in the Magic Kingdom!

Side Notes
(1)Yes, I’m treating the blog like a TV series. Although considering my history, the first few months seem more like a mid-season replacement that took-off. But this whole analogy is silly enough to begin with
(2)A budget that, might I add, was created during the largest energy crisis in US history.
(3)Based on Consumer Price Index
(4)Based on Relative Share of GDP

Figment's Fun Facts Friday