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One of the greatest and most inexplicable mistakes in the annals of Disney management and Imagineering was the truly terrible, late-90s refurbishment of EPCOT’s Journey into Imagination pavilion. This wonderful attraction, full of artistry and atmosphere, was stripped down and repurposed into what became one of Disney’s all-time least popular attractions. One result of [...] One of the first attractions to begin construction at EPCOT Center was the Universe of Energy. Exxon had been one of the first sponsors to sign on for Future World, and so the design of the pavilion had been locked fairly quickly. Renderings from 1977 show a concept fairly similar to the building’s final [...] Herb Ryman at work on EPCOT Center’s Mexico pavilion Herb Ryman’s work on EPCOT City for Walt Disney ended well before Walt Disney World’s debut in 1971. Ryman departed WED Enterprises that year, and set off on another round of world travels. He returned to the halls of Imagineering in 1976, though, in order [...] Michael Eisner didn’t get EPCOT. He didn’t understand it, he didn’t like it. He wanted to make it more “exciting.” And so, when he arrived at Walt Disney Productions in 1984, those grand expansion plans for the park were all put away, never to be seen again. Instead, EPCOT would begin to see a [...] EPCOT Center’s path from concept to execution was, in so many ways, far more tortured than most Disney fans know. Far from a merely difficult transition from Walt’s concept for a futuristic city to a permanent World’s Fair (or, as modern revisionists would have it, a straight shot from Walt’s mind to the park [...] |
 
Essays about the first forty years of Walt Disney World, including two pieces by yours truly. Available in print and for Kindle. |
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