Gather, Store, Re-Combine: Part 3

OUR STORY SO FAR… Journey into Imagination, the “Fantasyland of Future World,” is the most popular pavilion in the park. Originally opened on October 1st 1982 with the simultaneously prophetic and fun “Creative Playground of the Future” Image Works then joined 5 days later by the fanciful (albeit trippy) 3D film Magic Journeys, the pavilion was finally “completed” in April of the following year with the opening of the Journey Into Imagination ride. An inherently unique experience that has been largely unduplicated in scope, technological advancement, and eloquence of design, Journey into Imagination truly is the definition of an Instant Classic! In a few short years, the abstract and decidedly psychedelic Magic Journeys would be replaced by a film that, to this day, has been unequaled in collaborative talent. Captain EO becomes the perfect addition to not just the Pavilion, but Future World itself. It is Futuristic, Young, Impressive, and has an Optimistic message – a message that aligns itself perfectly with the goals and vision of the Park. Captain EO and EPCOT are “Here to Change the World!”

(Editor’s Note #1) The twentieth century was a time of extreme changes in pop culture. The changing of each decade saw the rather violent (and some would say artificial) change in entertainment and collective philosophy. What is equally unusual is the consistent distain for those things held most dear from the previous generation. In less than eight years, the spectacular special-effects-heavy Captain EO became perspectively outdated and some of its star players had grown out of favor with the theme park masses. At the same time, EPCOT Center had developed the seemingly undesirable reputation of being the” Experimental Prototype Theme Park for Adults”. To Epcot (and ultimately Walt Disney Company) executives an Adult-oriented theme park was unacceptable as to cut-off the ever lucrative 5 - 24 age demographic. With such a large part of the theme-park-going population seemingly shut-out or off-put by the brand of entertainment available it made good business to diversify the amount of offerings in the now over decade-old futuristic theme park. EPCOT Center, (more specifically Future World) was a park that focused on the not-too-distant future of about 30 years from now. And 30 Years Is a long time for a 5-year-old in the early 1990’s. EPCOT Center’s Futurism was about to give way to Epcot’s here-and-now Discovery Park filled with the newest technologies and trends of today.

Honey, I shrunk the Audience takes place in the fictional Imagination Institute. As its backstory states, The Imagination Institute was established almost a century ago by founder Reginald Channing and is currently run by his son Nigel Channing. The Institute was created to allow inventors, futurists, artists, and other creative individuals a place to innovate and create. The Imagination Institute is closed to the public excluding a single day in which the Institute holds its annual Inventor of the Year Awards show. And that day is today. Continuing the tradition of past inductees like Thomas Edison and Walt Disney, Wayne Szalinski is to become the next honoree for this year’s presentation. The awards ceremony is lead by Imagination Institute Chairman Dr. Channing. And In typical Honey,… Movie fashion, nothing goes according to plan. Among the many accidents that occur, Wayne Szalinski arrives miniaturized in a hummingbird –like craft. From there, the wild exploits of the Szalinski family continues from one misstep to another, and the entire presentation culminates in have the audience itself being shrunk. After returning the audience to normal size, the show ends with the Szalinski’s dog Quark sneezing all over the audience.

Honey, I shrunk the Audience (or HISTA as its referred to by the cast members, and frequent guests) does feature its fair share of technological advancements, most notably the installation of a rising platform which lifts the entire audience to a maximum height of four inches during several key scenes. The presentation also features several other “4-D Effects” including water sprays and under seat high-pressure air cannons to simulate scurrying mice underfoot.

( Editor’s Note #2) Few events in the course of theme park history have stirred such strong emotions as those that encircle the Journey into YOUR Imagination attraction. Researching this event has been extremely difficult. There are very few articles, the coverage of the attraction has been stripped from official online archives and even Disney A to Z - The Official Encyclopedia mentions it in title only. The second version of the Imagination ride has joined the ranks of other infamous works such as the Light Magic parade, or Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration all events that both guests and the company would just assume forget.

During the late 1990’s, the Walt Disney Company (thanks to a key executive), was developing a reputation for “not playing well with others”. In addition, the charm and prestige of being a Disney Sponsor was quickly becoming a corporate luxury that many could not afford nor was it as lucrative as it once was. Most recently, the notoriously unreliable and extremely late-coming Test Track strained relations between Disney and GM. Kodak was also growing weary of consistently investing the Imagination pavilion for the name-on-the-door and a substandard VIP lounge. (8) When Kodak voiced their concerns over the decrease in Journey’s Popularity, Disney’s reply was that they could update the attraction, but that it would take a significant contribution of funds for an upgrade. (9) The digital camera era was fastly approaching and Kodak was already facing a financial crisis in a soon-to-be almost filmless world. Nonetheless, they did accept and a pitch was made. At the time, Imagineering was a highly political organization, filled with extremely ambitious and power hungry individuals that cared a lot more about position and prestige than world-class storytelling. As such, Imagination’s creator, Tony Baxter, became a target for multiple reasons. For some, Tony was looked at as “the guy Marc Davis hated” because Tony’s Runaway Mine Car circumvented Marc’s unfinished master piece; Western River Expedition. For most, it was outright jealously of Tony’s position. During this time, it also became a customary practice to undercut a rival Imagineer’s current projects and even better erase their past successes.

This is where Dreamfinder and Figment come in. (Or more accurately do not.) Guest surveys had indicated that the duo had become largely unknown as they were not used in any other medium other than the attraction itself. The new Imagination attraction was pitched as a special effects heavy experience designed to bombard, confuse and challenge your senses. As usual it was also promised to be a “must-see” attraction. As one executive put it… “if you were in that room hearing the pitch you would have been blown away. You'll be in this dark room and not be able to tell up from down. You will be surrounded by sound and not know the direction. It was all amazing, sounded state of the art and more importantly guaranteed to give the guests a terrific experience. We saw this concept art and they spoke so enthusiastically..." One such scene was to feature a fully dimensional set of M.C. Escher Stairs going in every direction. (10) As part of the pitch, it was also stated that because they no longer needed and expositional scene they could forego the troublesome turntable, cut down the ride and create more merchandise space. (11) This very persuasive pitch made by highly skilled politicians (excuse me Imagineers) in which they promised everything including being able to Hear Colors and See Sound. The pitch won-over everyone in the room, and executives from Disney and mostly importantly Kodak green-lit the new attraction.

In order to fully understand the development of any attraction, one must consider the show producer involved and more specifically their prior projects. YOUR Imagination was Show Produced by Orrin Shively. The same Show Producer of Test Track. (12) Knowing this, it becomes exceptionally simple to understand the resulting attraction. Test Track has been a huge guest satisfier for a number of years because of a single ride element; the high-speed victory lap. If this one element was removed from the picture the attraction would go the way of Disneyland’s Rocket Rods. Test Track’s entire experience is completely dependent on the thrill-ride angle. The overall show for attraction is (to put it delicately) Minimalist and subsequently so is the overall experience of YOUR Imagination. From a story perspective, the two attractions are almost completely identical. Both involve tours of seemingly benign facilities where the hosts (or narrators) give you play-by-play preemptive descriptions of every key event experienced in the attraction. Not-so-ironically, both attractions also end in with surprising finale. The crucial difference here is the outcome and reaction to the two scenes. With Test Track you know what’s coming and therefore are pleasantly shocked with a fake barrier test that becomes the victory lap. In YOUR Imagination the exploding brain scan is completely unexpected and usually frightens its target audience of young children.

Time, is an important factor with every Imagineering project. Historically, there was a direct relationship between the length of development and the overall quality of the product. (13) In modern times, development is typically between three to seven years depending on the size and scope of the project. From all accounts, the development and execution of YOUR Imagination took less than two years. Remember, the original Journey took six months just to define the concept of imagination let alone the whole ride philosophy and structure. (14) Another key ingredient is experience or, in this case, a lack of. The imagineers that developed the attraction came from and era were new technologies served as the basis for telling story rather than other way around. (15) It is also important to note that Imagination is really the last attraction to fall under the “gut-everything-and-start-over” philosophy of refurbishments and architecture. Soon after this, Imagineering would evolve into an “enhance-and-continue-what’s-there” ideology. The latter philosophy shift would help control costs and appease traditionalists as well. But for now, the complete overhaul of sets and structure only further added and already less than adequate budget. The budget of any attraction is the most important factor in its overall success. With a few exceptions, the larger the budget the better the attraction will be. Imagineering thrives on blue sky budgets and logistical challenges. The former gives the designers carte blanche to create some truly wonderful things. The latter stretches the mind be finding solutions to problems that didn’t even exist before the design process began. In the case of YOUR Imagination, the project was produced during the final years of the Eisner administration. At this time, the bottom line was everything and a project’s success or failure was determined strictly by how on-time and on-budget it was.