Circles of Life: Twenty-Five Years of Epcot Center
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AS the first of the second gate designs Epcot Center was undoubtably a more adult-focused experience, most notable in the refinements of dining and culture-driven attractions of World Showcase. Now with the introduction of the Finding Nemo characters into The Seas with Nemo & Friends and the Three Caballeros into Mexico it may appear finally that children have more of an �in� at Epcot.
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Epcot Center was always a good place for new characters that didn�t come from existing brands to shine. Of course there is only one character that has remained since opening that stakes a claim as the most marketable character for the park - everyone�s favorite purple dragon dressed in the sponsors� yellow and red attire: Figment.
Surrounded by linear histories and product centric futures, Figment�s home, Journey Into Imagination was the closest to having its� origins in the Magic Kingdom model, and the most easily accessible pavilion for children. �It definitely was the softest of the concepts for Future World,� Marty admits, �but it was fun in giving us the opportunity to invent new Disney characters in DreamFinder and Figment. When Michael Eisner, Frank Wells and Jeffery Katzenberg came in [1984] they were intrigued by both Figment and the 3D film Magic Journeys,� Marty explains.
Between the Circle-Vision presentations and films such as Magic Journeys and Symbiosis at The Land, Epcot Center was truly the playground for the Theme Park Productions group with over a dozen separate productions around on opening day. Many consultants were brought in to assist with the film productions, from the unique projection treatment during the pre-show of Universe of Energy by Czech Emile Raddoch to inventing cameras. �We invented so many things to achieve what we wanted to do and for Magic Journeys one of the guys here at Imagineering designed the camera to shoot that film and enabled the filmmaker to do things �filmic-ly� that you couldn�t do up to that point.�
Marty assesses that one of Epcot Center�s major achievements was working with people who were doing something beyond what they had ever done before. �Bob Rogers [founder and Chairman of BRC Imagination Arts] started his business because General Motors came to us after we had finished putting in the World of Motion attraction and they wanted us to do all the exhibit areas [known as Transcenter], I said �We don�t have any people left!� Look why don�t you hire Bob Rogers? [Bob did the Impressions de France film]. I went to Bob and said �General Motors has a great opportunity which you would be ideal for � and that was the start of his company.�
On occasions though there was a return to working with people who had stood the company well in the past. For one particular duo of legendary Disney standing, the Sherman brothers would find they had more than just �One little Spark� when it came to the Imagination pavilion. �I always tell Robert and Richard Sherman that my favorite song they ever wrote was �Magic Journeys� and no-one hears that now as it went so early. We had tried to get a song by Alan and Marilyn Bergman, [Barbara Striesand�s writing team] but that didn�t work out... so we got Bob and Dick to write something for us instead!�