The IP-ification of Epcot: When Did Disney Stop Dreaming?
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Epcot used to embody and encourage, “We can do this!” Nowadays, it just shrugs and says, “Now streaming on Disney+.”
There was a moment — hopefully you remember it because I was born too late to see it in person — when Epcot wasn’t about characters or synergy or whatever brand alignment some guy in Glendale cooked up during a caffeine spiral.
It was about optimism. Walt’s vision to progress, a place where you could drink Moroccan wine while learning about hydroponics in the same go. A real, tangible, solar-powered, multilingual, culturally literate utopia operating as a permanent World’s Fair. Inspiring children to:
Explore the arts
Experience different cultures
Try out the technologies shaping tomorrow
Dream about becoming a marine biologist or an astronaut
And, “if you can dream it, you really can do it. And, that’s the most exciting part.”
All of which, only Disney could pull off so artfully while also making it entertaining.
Now, the park’s once bleeding-edge geodesic sphere sits like an aging hippie at a TikTok rave — surrounded by shoehorned franchises and mile long lines for the latest popcorn bucket. Unable to recognize the edutaining wonderland she had been calling home since 1982.
There’s a reason now why the grand and miraculous Spaceship Earth stopped singing. The lyrics would be false advertisement considering what the park she still spearheads stands for today.
“Holding the spark, as we embark
On a great journey together we’re learning
To reach for hope and desire
Building a world to inspireTomorrow’s Child
Tomorrow’s Child
Charting a brand new way
For the Future World is born today”
The Mouse evidently believes society today is too superficial for substance. Something they don’t say aloud but instead show through their actions.
Epcot’s ‘transformation’ mirrors Disney’s latest innovation: replacing imagination with algorithms. (IP = merch sales = streaming subscriptions = shareholder glee) The only future here is fiscal.
And this didn’t happen overnight. It began with a subtle shift — a random meet and greet here, a rogue character there... One restaurant left shuttered to rot. Another attraction sealed away. A whole pavilion roped off to do the same…
Then boom. There’s a Guardians of the Galaxy roller coaster parked where an ode to energy once stood. Nemo’s walled off aquarium exhibits. Moana showed up with a splash pad, having gotten lost on the way to Animal Kingdom. And quintessential France turns out to be a rat in the kitchen. (Yes, the rat ride is cute. No, it doesn’t ‘expand our cultural horizons’ unless you count cheese as a philosophy. But if you do, then more power to you!)
Today, walking through Epcot feels like getting caught between a D23 keynote and a marketing deck. Instead of showcasing the boundless possibility of human innovation, we’re handed a tasting flight of Intellectual Properties. The future is now… brought to you by Marvel, Pixar, and the ghost of Bob Iger’s second tenure.
Now, all that to say, I’m not against IP based attractions. Not in the slightest. But when it comes at the cost of creativity — no, originality — and the unique identity of the park, then yes. I question what Donald Duck’s doing running manically about a boat ride dedicated to Mexican culture.
IPs aren’t the villain. At least, not always.
The original Epcot Center had characters, too — they just weren’t lifted from blockbuster films. The story served the theme, not the quarterly earnings.
And while Figment was resurrected as a watered down caricature version of himself, his creator’s grave got an extra layer of concrete poured over top because Epcot’s not interested in dreaming again. No Dreamfinder needed.
An erosion of intent doomed Epcot when the park was still relatively young.
Today’s park aficionados would recognize Magic Kingdom as a place of fantasy, adventure, yesterday, and tomorrow. Its classics are untouchable, nostalgia bulletproof. Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, Jungle Cruise… all cemented in the lineup of the Most Magical Place On Earth.
Epcot Center was recognized for its theme of ambitions, dreams, the world and its cultures. The Community of Tomorrow had its own set of classics in Horizons, Journey Into Imagination, World Of Motion, and Spaceship Earth. But, they weren’t untouchable and neither was Magic Kingdom’s.
MK’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and Snow White’s Scary Adventures shared fates with EC’s Horizons, World Of Motion, and Journey Into Imagination (the real JII).
What was the difference between which cult classics survived past the ‘90s? Quite bluntly — whichever ones either had a third party company sponsoring their bill, were low cost to maintain, or didn’t occupy valuable real estate for a thrill ride (which the CEO’s son wanted to see more of). Popularity didn’t matter whatsoever. Fair shake, I guess.
Days were young enough yet that the C-Suite didn’t see the fleet of hallmark attractions as legacy yet.
So heads rolled at random.
In truth, reality’s proven that it’s always been Epcot’s destiny to be caught in the melee of its current corporate’s vices, as it was plagued by such obstacles since its inception.
The spreadsheet. The fine print in contracts and earnings reports. What began as a love letter to curiosity slowly became a business memo marked ‘return to sender.’
Creativity, originality, and identity brought about masterpieces like the aforementioned Horizons and Journey Into Imagination in Epcot’s early days. Simultaneously, those steely company factors shelved promising experiences like the German River Cruise and Venetian Gondolas until later… and later… and later... and oh? No more mentions of them. Now dust on the shelves. Them and the PeopleMover, Meet The World, Matterhorn, Bullet Train, Mt. Fuji and-
This article is not long enough.
Pour one out.
So, it could be argued that it was only inevitable that similar corporate turmoil started the unraveling of the park just a decade after it opened. The reason? The dismal opening of Disneyland Paris. And that’s the dawn of that subtle shift of Epcot into what ended up as IPcot.
Communicore? Bye. Energy? Sleepy. World Of Motion? Slow. Imagination? Lobotomized.
Welcome to the 21st Century, where Epcot is:
Abandoned restaurants
Abandoned pavilions
Half abandoned pavilions
Abandoned show buildings
Half abandoned show buildings
— now some variety —
Ellen DeGeneres
Donald Duck
Nemo (the fish, not captain)
Diet Journey Into Imagination
A too intense carnival ride that’s as polarizing as politics
Mind you, the downgrading of JII turned out so poorly that it closed within two years so that they could tack in the ghost of Figment and salvage what they could.
And then came the proper IP-ocalypse.
Future World was chopped up, renamed, and rearranged. Wonders of Life was promised new life, then ghosted again. Half of Communicore/Innoventions got leveled and rebuilt after more plans got canceled. What was once a time capsule of potential turned into a weird ongoing identity crisis.
All during which, leadership treated original ideas like expired park tickets — void after one use.
The classic attractions that made Epcot unique were nipped in the bud. If you imagined Magic Kingdom facing a similar fate: Haunted Mansion gutted in ‘84. Hitchhiking ghosts evicted. The Bride and the ballroom scenes, gone. Ride shortened by half. Pirates razed in ‘89 for an overzealous one trick pony. Forget entirely about a pirate’s life.
Ironically, Epcot’s old crown jewel, Horizons, still has a cult following. Decades later. Referenced daily:
“If you can dream it, you can do it.”
That wasn’t Walt Disney, that was Horizons.
Journey Into Imagination is in the same ballpark, with people still petitioning Disney to bring back the Dreamfinder. But corporate doesn’t dream. It calculates.
Just as with cinema — where folks have begged for more quality, original concepts and not another live action, sequel, or remake — park fans' appeals for new non-IP attractions have fallen on deliberately deaf ears. All for the company to wonder why their latest live action remake bombed or IP attraction opened to heavy backlash.
By current company logic, synergy, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Jungle Cruise, It's A Small World, Big Thunder Mountain, Space Mountain, PeopleMover, and Carousel of Progress would never have been built. (There are a lot more too, but let’s keep the list brief.)
Moreover, Pirates of the Caribbean would’ve never gone on to become a blockbuster IP franchise.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Western River Expedition can both be shiny new E-tickets at Magic Kingdom. Gran Fiesta Tour: Coco Edition and German River Cruise can both have a home on the World Showcase.
IP is okay… in tandem with original concepts. Not solely in place of them.
Disney used to create captivating attractions that we didn’t know we wanted to see, themed lands and pavilions we didn’t know we wanted to explore.
Magic Kingdom has always pulled that off. Hollywood Studios too.
So, why would Epcot be any different?
What happened to creativity? What made Disney, Disney. And Epcot, Epcot. Built on vision. Imagination.
Until such a comeback, we’re left to keep dreaming of a future that Disney forgot.
Commendable piece! While we are huge Disney fans, seeing a shift from innovation to re-creation is a bit disheartening.