Like the last plan, I will be incorporating the recently announced additions to the park as well as a couple strong rumors and some of my original ideas. I am approaching this with the assumption that everything must have an IP tie in. That's not exactly my preference for the future of the park, but I am going to try to make the best of it though by making sure that any use of characters reflects the theme and message of the pavilion first, and expresses the IP second.
When trying to put together these plans, I tried to put together my overall concept of the park, its meaning, and its organization to help me understand what I wanted to do. It is more applicable in the final dream plan, so I will mention it more then. For this plan, the important part of the concept is the idea that World Showcase highlights human culture and where we come from, while Future World highlights human achievement and where we can go. Everything in the park should align to that big idea in some way.
This plan caries over many elements from the previous realistic plan and adds a lot more on top of it. So check that out first if you have not seen it already.
The south east building however is demolished in this version of the plan for the largest addition to the park: New Horizons, a trackless, choose your own adventure style dark ride through the potential of the future. This is the only addition that is not IP based in this design, so it is kind of out of place in this plan, but I decided for one original element. In plan view, it is a giant gear to continue the EPCOT history of buildings shaped like their concept. The gear shows technological innovation, and is also a bit of a tie into the idea of Horizons being a sequel to Carousel of Progress, another ride with gear motifs.
The decision to redefine the central spine of the park was done not only to make a more organic and freeflowing experience, but to allow for a large addition inside the monorail loop. I like the idea of adding an attraction in this space for logical reasons because its location really reinforces its importance to the theoretical structure of the park. Future World East and West feel like subsets of the central concept, which is best show by the elements in the center of the park. Spaceship Earth, Innovations, and New Horizons are those core themes that the rest of the park revolves around. I think this is a much better placement for a Horizons concept ride than its original location just because it has more weight in its meaning to the overall park.
Past New Horizons and leading towards World Showcase, the path is modified from the last version and the existing version. The water surface is reshaped into overlapping circular ponds and overall grows in area. There are a couple more paths added over the water, all of which branch off of the main spine. The concept is to be like a branching tree, leading from one past to the variety of futures shown in the Future World. The retail buildings at the World Showcase Promenade area are also rebuilt back from the path so that they do not block the panoramic view across the water as you make your way across the bridge.
In Future World East, the elements from the last plan remain plus one new pavilion. Guardians of the Galaxy replaces Universe of Energy, a Jetpack spinner is built in the central open area, the Space Restaurant is added to the right of Mission: Space, and the Test Track Canopy is removed. In this plan, Mission: Space is rethemed so that you are actually in space. I also include in this plan the enclosure of the Test Track rear loop so that it does not look into backstage. Instead, the interior track would continue the high tech, TRON-like style, include an interior cityscape show scene that you speed by, and only open up for the front section around the building.
The new pavilion on this side reuses the Wonders of Life building, but in a way isn't actually a completely new pavilion. It is an expanded Space pavilion that connects, both thematically and physically, the two on either side. Both existing attractions have an exit into this pavilion, which is themed as a space base on Mars. The front entrance of the pavilion resembles the base of a space elevator, and inside there is a preshow entrance room where you are first transported to a space station and then shot to Mars (Image 1). The two existing attractions on either side exit directly into the base because you are already in space. The existing dome structure is perfect to be rethemed as a a dome shelter on Mars (Image 3). Screens on some of the sides show the martian landscape around the base. Inside are two attraction plus interactive space games and a snack location.
The first attraction is a WALL-E dark ride, showcasing the robotics of the future, how useful they can be, and eventually how things can go wrong. The other attraction is something really unique, a mini kuka arm based interactive space walk challenge (Image 2). Pairs of guests strap into a personal space vehicle and go on a spacewalk to try to complete a series of minor challenges as they float along in space. The kuka arm really isn't to move you around much, but just to make you feel like you are in zero-G as you move along a track past minor show scenes.
Future World West also has the same additions as the last plan plus a new pavilion and attraction. The Imagination pavilion gets a new Inside Out darkride and 4D movie featuring Figment, and an aquatopia teacups style ride is built in the center waterway of the land.
The new pavilion on this side mirrors what I did on the east side by connecting the two pavilions on either side with a connecting concept. The Seasons pavilion is formed of a trio of large biodomes with different seasons and locations. The largest is a mountain in the winter, where it is snowing inside, the next is the a forest lake in the fall, and the smallest that connects to the Living Seas exit is the beach in summer. Each have the appropriate temperature and weather elements.
That completes Future World for this version of the plan. Both new pavilions have an IP tie in yet fit in with the concept of the land by reflecting real elements of science and technology.
In World Showcase, there are three new countries plus additions of IP attractions to nearly every existing country. As with the last plan, the idea is that the IP is used to illustrate an element of the real culture or history or landscape of the country.
Starting at Canada, the existing circlerama theater is replaced with a seamless dome movie featuring Brother Bear in a story about the northern lights and the Indigenous peoples of Canada.
The World Showplace gets a new facade, and the UK Pavilion gets a Mary Poppins carousel dark ride, both from the last plan. Ratatouille is built as expected, and Morocco exists without a new attraction because there are no applicable IPs for it.
Next is the first new pavilion, which is probably the most unexpected choice of the plan. I wanted to include something from South America, but resisted just doing Brazil like in previous designs. I instead chose Peru, because of its unique culture and landscape. Plus I could use an IP that seems to be an underrated cult favorite, The Emperor's New Groove. In the pantheon of Disney films that are predominately European, this Peru-set film is a great change of style and theme. It may not have the super popularity to lead to an attraction in real life, but I think it could make something interesting in this hypothetical plan.
There is a lot of history and culture to draw from in Peru, so I tried to include a variety of elements. The front of the pavilion includes a set of giant stone walls from the ruins of Saqsaywaman, the ancient Incan capital (Image 1), and a church on a hill, formed of ancient stone wall terraces. This is based on the Jardin Sagrado at the base of Iglesia de Santa Domingo, which was built on top of exposed Incan ruins (Image 2). The path leads to a courtyard next to the church, surrounded by town square buildings (Image 4). A feature element of the pavilion that sits off this courtyard is a force perspective hilly street that disappears around a bend, making the pavilion seem like it keeps on going (Image 3). On the church square is retail, a table service restaurant and snack stand locations, and the entrance to the attraction. A mining company shop leads to a trip through the Incan ruins of a lost kingdom before accidentally discovering Yzma's lair and her wild coaster through the palace.
Next, in Japan, there is a Big Hero 6 flying simulator added in the existing show building. This is not perfect because I already used this IP in Tomorrowland, and Big Hero 6 is not actually set in Japan, but a fictional Japanese influenced culture. But its the most viable IP option for the pavilion, and fits just as well as Frozen in Norway, so I went with it. The attraction would be a flight over and through a Japanese city and landscape along with Hiro, Baymax, and the rest of the group.
The USA pavilion gets the same food service additions as the last plan.
In Italy, there is a classic Fantasyland style dark ride for Pinocchio built on the west side of the plaza, themed as a puppet workshop. This is an Italian story that fits well here.
Germany gets a large Snow White boat ride through the Bavarian Forest, passing the cottage, the dark forest, and the castle. It could use the Shanghai Pirates ride system to make a more engaging journey through the forest. The settings would show the reality of the German landscape but with Snow White elements added in.
The Saudi Arabia pavilion with its Aladdin attraction from the last plan is next. This is the exact same in both versions.
The other new pavilion of this plan is not a new concept. I decided to resurrect one of the original EPCOT pavilions that never came to be and include an Equatorial Africa pavilion with something close to the original design (Image 2). The main element is a large tree house at the front of the pavilion and then a series of smaller tribal hut buildings in the forest make up the rest of the pavilion (Image 1). These include retail and a counter service location. The attraction at the rear of the pavilion is a Tarzan musical acrobatics show with African puppetry, storytelling, and music.
In China, the film is updated with elements from Mulan. And Mexico gets the Coco dark ride and expanded pavilion from the last plan.
That brings an IP based attraction to 12 of the 14 pavilions including 8 new attractions. And in my option, they all reflect the countries culture as well as possible.
And that is my attempt at a character based ambitious plan for EPCOT. The goal was to add new pavilions and attractions that are based on IPs while still feeling like a version of what EPCOT should be. I actually really like what I was able to do for the two Future World pavilions, and I they could be viable ideas in a non-IP plan with some modifications. I hope that the park still feels true to EPCOT to you. And if not, don't worry because next week's full dream plan is definitely full on classic EPCOT.
Check back next Monday for the last part of this series. I'll actually be posting it live from EPCOT, which is pretty cool.
Speaking of that, follow me on Twitter for a lot of pictures and videos live from the parks during the week. I'll try to share a lot of cool stuff.
Thanks for reading and leave a comment below with what you like!
Speaking of that, follow me on Twitter for a lot of pictures and videos live from the parks during the week. I'll try to share a lot of cool stuff.
Thanks for reading and leave a comment below with what you like!
Image Credits
EPCOT Hotel
Future World
4. Disney concept art
World Showcase
3. Disney concept art
Peru Pavilion
4. Google Maps
Saudi Arabia Pavilion
Equatorial Africa
Double points for incorporating Brother Bear and Kuzco into Epcot. As for your third design, make sure you keep your library ride in there!
ReplyDeleteHa glad you appreciate the films I put in. Though my ideal view is to leave out the IPs, I at the least wanted to include appropriate and unique stuff that you wouldn't see already in the other parks.
DeleteI didn't actually include the Library attraction in this time just because I like to not repeat if possible, but it would definitely still be a possible alternate. I'll include a link to it in the post and mention it!
If you say Classic EPCOT then i had some ideas well not a lot of ideas but maybe one. One is when the Magic Eye Theater brings back Magic Journeys since they had that in 1982 then removed that attraction in 1986 when Captain EO comes. i was thinking about the remake of Magic Journeys with new effects and new version of the Magic Journeys theme song and i know that song was by The Sherman Brothers.
ReplyDeleteAlso after the third EPCOT Dream Plan which was the Classic EPCOT i thinking about an DHS Realistic Version & Dream Plan projects in April or May and thinking of that park has more lands for a DHS Dream plan like Muppet Studios, an MARVEL Themed Land & an Animation Courtyard getting Animator's Palate. Also a renamed of DHS and called it Disney's Hollywood Adventure because we feel now is not a studio anymore. But still movies & tv shows but not a studio at all.
I really enjoyed this design. As design minded people we would be drawn into a well designed park for the park itself. It's good to keep in mind that the general crowd doesn't operate this way and references to IPs draws them in. I remember back to when I was a kid going to Epcot and the thing I was most excited about was following Kim Possible's clues on her international mission through the World Showcase. Along the way I learned about new cultures without realizing it. I think this park concept does a great job having the well known characters keep the spirit of the why Epcot was built: to educate in a fun, engaging way. Well Done and looking forward to future posts!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Yeah hate to say it, but the use of IPs probably does help the average guest get interested in the parks in a valuable way, even if that's not why I like the parks. Just have to make sure the characters don't overpower the theme, and that's a tricky balance. Not all that sure how well Frozen does there or how well Ratatouille will do it. But have to be hopeful.
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