🦈🐠🐟RELEASE ANNOUNCEMENT!🦐🐡🪼
Try to imagine, a full recreation of The Living Seas!
With
@SeaBaseAlpha86
's incredible modeling,
@EpcotLegacy
's full recreation of the UT preshow, Hydrolators, Seabase Alpha, the whole thing.
Futureport version 5.3S is out!
Link in first reply.
@brutapologist
@ceggersmidwest
@FOXSports
“From the bottom of my heart, I am so very, very sorry. I pride myself and think of myself as a man of faith—as there's a plane into the..."
Why Communicore Hall is bad, a 🧵
We'll go through the exterior, the interior and its reason for existing to see why it's a total failure, and the perfect example of epcot in 2024.
This is long, sorry.
I will never understand why Disney forbids Imagineering from ever creating new characters.
After Figment, Skippy, Tiki Room, Adventurer's Club, Grant Seeker, etc etc, why are only movie people allowed to create named characters now?
ok I rebuilt the whole thing.
Updated walkthrough of the Rainbow Corridor. Still need to tweak light levels and everything, but it's a massive improvement from the previous.
Who looks at Animal Kingdom and thinks "man I wish there weren't all these animals around"
EPCOT: abandoned original vision to become Magic Kingdom
MGM Studios: abandoned original vision to become Magic Kingdom
Animal Kingdom: on the way to becoming Magic Kingdom
In an interview with
@EW
, Josh D'Amaro talked about the DinoLand U.S.A. concept art (2023 version) and stressed it's not a final piece of concept art - but rather highlights "where our heads are" as Disney continues "dreaming" plans for Animal Kingdom.
I never understood this: every (normal year) Disney shuts down a basically perfect attraction so visitors can't ride for a week, to install a temporary worse version? Why do they do this?
A 🧵on general thoughts from my 3 day Disneyland trip.
Some background: I grew up going to WDW, have been to DL maybe 5 previous trips now, last Sept. we did 3 days at Tokyo, and I've been to Shanghai.
I generally much prefer non-castle parks, like EPCOT or TDS.
How would you feel about the following?
Blue: maintained as is, potentially with a walkway to the island from Frontierland.
Pink: redevelopment as a new land.
Does this maintain the feel? Is the issue the loss of the pink, or the blue?
Disney Sea is not only the best park in the world, it has to be the greatest use of architecture to shape atmosphere.
I'm beyond words. Every corner causes another meltdown. It's everything I ever wanted Imagineering to be but gave up on through lowered expectations.
Journey into Imagination load/unload as well as access point to Imageworks on the second floor of the Imagination pavilion.
This area is now the gift shop at the end of the attraction and the “new” Imageworks location.
Why I think Dreamers Point missed the mark so badly, a 🧵
I realize now that just dumping on it without reasoning isn't doing anyone any good, so I want to discuss what I find great about themed architecture.
I also want to counter some of the arguments I'm seeing.
My favorite photo of The Land. It captures the feel of the original better than any other I've seen.
I also love the MegaBenches against the staircase.
Happy 40th birthday to the wonderful, ambitious, and beautiful Horizons.
I've had few experiences as optimistic and inspirational, which I feel is why it still dominates discussion of classic EPCOT Center.
The D23 announcement is fascinating to see how the US is so dependent and obsessive about cars.
First, replacing a natural, untouched area with a Cars cartoon ride
Second, we're arguing whether the area in aqua (Muppets) should be bulldozed so cars can sit and do nothing (pink)
I know I keep harping on it but this ride is such a total disaster and I love it. It's a tour de force on how to design a ride as poorly as possible.
The least competent people always end up as pilot, nothing is explained, the UX makes no sense, it's all just baffling.
Dumping Rivers of America is the perfect example of IP brainrot I've argued against.
Disney could integrate the existing river and island into a new land that makes sense. But execs told them it has to be Cars Land, so it gets bulldozed.
It's lazy, nonsensical, bad design.
If you're wondering what future expansion plots have actually been used in EPCOT, here's my annotated and highly professional update to the 1982(ish) site plan.
There's uhhhh a lot more of one color than the other color.
Horrendous.
Obviously I'm biased in my likes, but there was not a single moment of inspiration, creativity, or quality.
Nothing but clones and IP. Six Flags comic book schlock and movie rides so every park feels the same.
There is no hope for Disney Parks with these owners.
I am blown away by the new lighting system in Unreal Engine 5 Early Access. With barely any tweaks, Unreal is looking so much better than I've ever seen before.
Here's the Journey into Imagination lobby in the morning and afternoon, controlled with a simple slider. Madness.
I'm not your dad and can't tell you what to do, but my strongest possible recommendation:
Do not support the US parks for a few years.
Come to Japan instead. There is simply no comparison in 2024, having been to every park but HKDL (soon) since January.
Let's 🧵.
I appreciate everyone who "got" what Kevin was going for here, which seems to be the overwhelming majority.
This film captures what makes Future World so important: a sense of optimism that we can solve our collective problems if we work together.
Overall, the WDI refurbishment of the Morocco pavilion has gone well however we have our first misstep and it’s a big one.
The elaborate planters once handcrafted by the King of Morocco’s artisans has been dumbed down using tile which belongs on the restroom floor at DHS.
During the Morgan Stanley teleconference, Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company "could actually build seven new full lands if we wanted to around the world." He also said they have enough land to expand Disneyland Resort by more than 50%.
If they'd just built Western River Expedition:
1. We wouldn't have Splash drama
2. There'd be no WDW Pirates
3. There'd be no WDW BTMRR
And thus all of my MK problems would be solved at once.
It's not too late Disney.
Can Disney Parks please secede from the rest of the company?
I really don't care about anything they do outside of the parks, while the rest of the company makes the parks worse every year.
1. Replacing Dinoland remains a completely braindead idea. Just add to Dinoland, fixing its problems, like the original concepts.
2. Zootopia land is even dumber.
3. Coco, Indy, and Encanto have literally nothing to do with animals/the purpose of this park.
Our next major pavilion is... The Living Seas!
In collaboration with the fantastic
@SeaBaseAlpha86
, Spencer's incredible attention to detail brings Seabase Alpha to life.
I can't believe how many Dino AAs this company is dumping for cheap IP tie-ins.
Dinosaur AAs are so important to Disney's history, from World's Fair to Grand Canyon to UoE to CTX.
Rare and Newly Discovered Video gives us the closest look at Dinosaur’s Animatronics EVER!!! The focus is on the Sauropod and the Styracasaurus. Huge thanks to
@Rocky_ioa
for this great find. Prepare to be amazed at these 1990’s Large Scale Animatronics!
I used to joke that the only acceptable IP I would allow in EPCOT was The Muppets. And then they added the sublime and perfect Rainbow Connection Points of Light show and I'm in love.
She looks so beautiful.
Sound on!
So much World of Motion progress: vehicles in, placed BGM and narration, started adding SFX.
Remember to follow for more World of Motion updates.
Futureport 360º is now live!
This browser-based walkthrough lets you navigate EPCOT Center's Future World as of Opening Day 1982; no fancy hardware required.
It's EPCOT for everyone.
Futureport 360º:
Examples of Eisner Excellence:
- Journey into YOUR Imagination replacing JII
- Mission Space replacing Horizons
- DCA 1.0
- Walt Disney Studios Paris
- Tiki Room Under New Management
- Rocket Rods replacing the Peoplemover
Tokyo Disneyland is lovely, don't get me wrong.
But, if you have 1 day in Tokyo, do DisneySea
If you have 2 days, DisneySea twice
3 days, TDS,TDL,TDS
TDS was the star even before Fantasy Springs. Now it's just not fair.
Futureport's next project is... HORIZONS!
Being built completely from scratch, this is a true passion project for me personally.
If you are a skilled 3d modeler, 2d artist, video editor, etc and want to help, join our discord!
Here's a v. early preview.
Sigh.
I loved DCA in 2012, but now it's appreciably worse in basically every way:
- No Tower
- GoG is the ugliest building Disney ever made
- No Muppetvision
- Paradise Pier's weird IP
- Pacific Wharf's weird IP
- Cheap comic book crap has its own land
Just, why?
Aside from the News Boys (RIP), don’t forget that the Red Car was baked into the DCA 2.0 mythology with “in-universe” ads for shops & dining, plus the CAPTIVATING idea that in the 1920s, the Hollywood Tower Hotel hadn’t built its main, doomed tower yet.
The argument shouldn't be whether this is an improvement over what was there.
The argument should be whether something is as ambitious and creative as EPCOT should be, and this is indistinguishable from the new bbq area they're building at my park up the road.
Horrid.
Shoutout to the 50 people assuming i don't know what OLC is.
"A company with a tiny fraction of Disney's resources built this so it doesn't count" isn't really a counterargument.
Disney should put in an "actually I'd rather leave than be Engineer" door in Smuggler's Run.
It's an embarrassingly poorly designed part of the ride, with nothing to do. Like, imagine if 33% of the time you just turned around before Mara and headed back to the station
Looks like work on a MAJOR Animal Kingdom project will be starting soon. A new SFWMD permit was filed for a 5 acre trailer compound just north of Kali River Rapids with infrastructure improvements along the BOH roadway leading directly to Dinoland.
This remains so completely insane to me. The Peoplemover is the type of ride that Disney parks desperately need now: something to do when you just cannot stomach another 45 minute line or $45 fastpass.
The parks need high capacity, fun rides. The ride mix is all off.
Disneylands abandoned People Mover track hit a big milestone last month. The People Mover track has officially been abandoned (28 years 93 days) longer than it was active as the People Mover (28 years 57 days)
Every land should have as much moving stuff as is feasible. Moving stuff is great.
e.g. Use drones to simulate faraway moving spaceships at night in Galaxy's Edge. Hovering firefly things in Pandora. Peoplemovers.
A complete (?) history of Communicore Plaza, a big 🧵.
(Note that 1979-1982 is my area of focus, so I might miss a few)
Communicore Plaza seems similar to the/an early 1975 plan, between the two semicircles:
This document is INCREDIBLE: the original training manual for EPCOT Center in 1982. Few things better outline the intentions behind the park.
I feel
@WEDreads
could make this a book selection easily. Great work, Disney Docs.
Communicore Hall is the perfect example that WDI and Disney:
1. have no idea what they're doing in the US parks
2. have no plan on how to fix that
3. how little they care about 1 and 2
Future World 2024 is a total mess, and likely completely beyond fixing. And they don't care.