Circles of Life: Twenty-Five Years of Epcot Center
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WITH the opening of Test Track in 1999, the singular-focused narrative was to become the way forward away from the linear narrative of multiple elements within a theme. This was further advanced with Mission: SPACE in 2003 and the popular Soarin� in 2005.
�Although Future World still talks about the future, it is more about discovery, getting a better understanding of subjects and experiencing things that most people won�t experience in their lives like driving a test vehicle, launching into space or hang-gliding over the earth. Stories that are easy to relate to that aren�t quite so... fantastical,� Eric explains.
Each overhaul of the pavilions has worked to dramatically shift the overall direction and tone of Future World. I wondered how it felt for Eric having worked on those original environments and still dealing with a theme which means taking into account the march of time and the need to stay one step ahead. �It is a challenge to keep it fresh and contemporary,� Eric acknowledges. �It does give us something to keep thinking about.�
�No.�
EVEN with mention of the WESTCOT project, the once proposed second gate for Anaheim styled after Epcot Center, it was the answer I expected to the final question I put to Marty: �Will we ever see another �Epcot� style park in the Disney universe?�
�You have to have the partnerships to be able to do something like this. Putting together a large group of companies who would be willing to simultaneously participate today in the way they did when we first worked on the park would be very difficult,� Marty concedes. �We have been fortunate to get high profile companies like Siemens and Georgia-Pacific to come in, and there are some like Siemens that have an international stature and can build internal programs as well as marketing programs around their involvement.�
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�I�M NOT DISAPPOINTED AT ALL,� Marty concludes on Epcot�s evolution. �The only thing that I�m sorry for the loss of is the Teacher�s Center [in CommuniCore] which allowed people who were interested to get more information. There was no way we could be the information source for these subjects so the goal was to turn people on � and I use that term all the time � we are doing turn-on�s � getting people excited about wanting to know more. We created brochures which gave people additional sources of information and we listed ten or fifteen sources on each subject and the rule was that we did not list anybody except those that promised that they would respond to the guest within 48 hours � and this was well before email or the internet. It was the old thing that Walt was always trying to do, trying to set an example and we kept that foremost in our minds, so people could learn more, have fun whilst they were doing it, but in the end know more about the subject and how to participate. In some ways it presages the way many things are in the world today.�
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-- Posted March 3, 2008