eXo
Devil's Advocate
- Joined
- Sep 19, 2014
Here we go with the Epcot thing again. I first hit these boards around the time the Frozen ride was announced for Norway.
As you can see, now that it has been opened a few years it was the total end to everything you once loved about Epcot. It destroyed the educational context of the world pavilion and now Epcot is desolate because of this.
Wait a second.... how can this be? Epcot is still standing? People still go? There are very very long lines for this Frozen ride? My god... the sky didn't fall afterall!
I get there are still hard feelings with some people on that ride, but that is more because some folks don't like change and others simply hated to see a ride they enjoyed go away. But to hide behind arguments like "that is not what Epcot was intended to be" and "it goes against the meaning of Epcot!" are straight out ridiculous.
Epcot as it opened in 1982 isn't even what Epcot was meant to be. It has always been a mish-mash of some of the ideas Walt had, some of the ideas Roy had, and a bunch of other crap thrown in to actually make people want to buy a ticket. The truth is, you have no idea what the point of Epcot was, because neither did they.
I don't see anyone bemoaning the fact that Tomorrowland jumped the shark when it got rid of the Monsanto House of the Future or the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow. Surprise surprise, Tomorrowland was primarily a huge corporate sponsored look into how a few brands were going to change your life in the next 20-30 years. And that was actually under the supervision of Walt. So I do know what the actual intention of Tomorrowland was, because unlike Epcot, Walt defined it explicitly. So where are the champions that we return to a commercialized propaganda Tomorrowland? "Shut those rides down and show me some poster boards about vacuum cleaners Uncle Walt!". Yea... I didn't think so.
This is Disney people. You know, one of the biggest corporations full of the most intellectual properties in the world. They would be STUPID not to leverage that, whether it jives with your personal definition of Epcot or not. The Disney parks are not time capsules. Epcot is only what it is because it couldn't be what Walt wanted. Next time you or someone else says, "This isn't what Epcot was intended to be" you need to stop and remind yourself that Epcot was never *intended* to be a theme park at all.
The irony is, the biggest criticism of Epcot is that they don't spend any money on it. Yet when they do make changes to it, it seems there is a large contingent of folks who only want them to recreate things from the past or attractions that closely mimic how things used to be. How many times do you re-tread Figment before you move on? The character is cute. The ride.... at best is a relic from the 90's.
The hard truth is, Norway's pavilion is just as "educational" now as it was before. The ride full of nords and trolls has been replaced by....... a ride full of nords and trolls. Astounding.
And for those of you who think Guardians isn't a kids movie..... it is plain that you don't have kids. My 4 year old is glued to the Starlord "mp3 player" shaped like a cassette deck that can store 3 minutes of recorded audio. He brought it to me and asked me to "put that star lord song on there", by which I found through trial and error he meant M r. Blue Sky by E.L.O.
When I play Lego Marvel 2 with him, he picks Starlord and found very quickly that if he held the action button down he would put his headphones on and start dancing around. So that is what he does. For hours. On end. Looping the same handful of songs.... incessantly....
So good riddance Ellen. Hasta la vista bad Circle of Life movie. Bring on Star Lord and Elsa and other things that actually make my kids want me to take them to the park where I can eat good food and have a stiff drink and no longer follow that up with a 45 minute ride through Ellen being a petty human who hates her old roomate for being <gasp>... smart!
As you can see, now that it has been opened a few years it was the total end to everything you once loved about Epcot. It destroyed the educational context of the world pavilion and now Epcot is desolate because of this.
Wait a second.... how can this be? Epcot is still standing? People still go? There are very very long lines for this Frozen ride? My god... the sky didn't fall afterall!
I get there are still hard feelings with some people on that ride, but that is more because some folks don't like change and others simply hated to see a ride they enjoyed go away. But to hide behind arguments like "that is not what Epcot was intended to be" and "it goes against the meaning of Epcot!" are straight out ridiculous.
Epcot as it opened in 1982 isn't even what Epcot was meant to be. It has always been a mish-mash of some of the ideas Walt had, some of the ideas Roy had, and a bunch of other crap thrown in to actually make people want to buy a ticket. The truth is, you have no idea what the point of Epcot was, because neither did they.
I don't see anyone bemoaning the fact that Tomorrowland jumped the shark when it got rid of the Monsanto House of the Future or the Crane Bathroom of Tomorrow. Surprise surprise, Tomorrowland was primarily a huge corporate sponsored look into how a few brands were going to change your life in the next 20-30 years. And that was actually under the supervision of Walt. So I do know what the actual intention of Tomorrowland was, because unlike Epcot, Walt defined it explicitly. So where are the champions that we return to a commercialized propaganda Tomorrowland? "Shut those rides down and show me some poster boards about vacuum cleaners Uncle Walt!". Yea... I didn't think so.
This is Disney people. You know, one of the biggest corporations full of the most intellectual properties in the world. They would be STUPID not to leverage that, whether it jives with your personal definition of Epcot or not. The Disney parks are not time capsules. Epcot is only what it is because it couldn't be what Walt wanted. Next time you or someone else says, "This isn't what Epcot was intended to be" you need to stop and remind yourself that Epcot was never *intended* to be a theme park at all.
The irony is, the biggest criticism of Epcot is that they don't spend any money on it. Yet when they do make changes to it, it seems there is a large contingent of folks who only want them to recreate things from the past or attractions that closely mimic how things used to be. How many times do you re-tread Figment before you move on? The character is cute. The ride.... at best is a relic from the 90's.
The hard truth is, Norway's pavilion is just as "educational" now as it was before. The ride full of nords and trolls has been replaced by....... a ride full of nords and trolls. Astounding.
And for those of you who think Guardians isn't a kids movie..... it is plain that you don't have kids. My 4 year old is glued to the Starlord "mp3 player" shaped like a cassette deck that can store 3 minutes of recorded audio. He brought it to me and asked me to "put that star lord song on there", by which I found through trial and error he meant M r. Blue Sky by E.L.O.
When I play Lego Marvel 2 with him, he picks Starlord and found very quickly that if he held the action button down he would put his headphones on and start dancing around. So that is what he does. For hours. On end. Looping the same handful of songs.... incessantly....
So good riddance Ellen. Hasta la vista bad Circle of Life movie. Bring on Star Lord and Elsa and other things that actually make my kids want me to take them to the park where I can eat good food and have a stiff drink and no longer follow that up with a 45 minute ride through Ellen being a petty human who hates her old roomate for being <gasp>... smart!
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