I'm really looking forward to Disney's ToonEPCOT. All that old depth and thoughtfulness hurts my brain. Bring on the comic book racoon with a machine gun. Whoot!!!!
And thank god they are getting rid of the awful fireworks show. All that blah, blah, blah about humanity and kinship is just dumb. Who cares? All I need is LOTS of 'splosions and toons.
See, this is the kind of reaction that makes me roll my eyes a bit. It's a bit condescending and doesn't really make me sympathetic to the discussion. Be a little less snark, a little more open.
I just can not wrap my head around how to keep the EPCOT Center of 1982 still in spirit in 2019. It's a different time. It's a theme park, not a science museum, which btw are also increasingly outdated. I can't imagine what Innoventions would even be except another CES. (heh CES even had a bizarre Epcot ride) Not to mention people nowadays are more wary to product placement and advertising. Disney IP is more natural since they're at a Disney park.
Be a grump and complain about the dumbing down of culture, sure, but I'm sometimes amazed by the heat that Epcot discussion attracts. I love Epcot from the angle of it being this big, bold, weird-as-hell experiment Disney once tried. I don't think that it was built to last in its original form, though. The only true absolute foolish mistake they really made with the park in my eyes was getting rid of the first JII, which was a timeless attraction and a crime to remove. But there's the fervent rage people get with protecting it, I think mostly because it's extremely unique and there's nothing else like it.
Which I'm not gonna dash on anybody being sad, but furious is a little ridiculous at times. The courtyard was all but abandoned, why are we fuming at its departure exactly? Because it's not the same Main Street you get all across the world? Like I honestly wonder if Westcot was built if that would sully the Epcot 'brand'. Attractions like World of Motion, Kitchen Kabaret, Cranium Command, Universe of Energy, Journey into Imagination, Horizons possibly going elsewhere may have damaged just how weird and surreal they seemed from that perspective, and the anguish that went into preservation.
Now, I'll give you HarminoUS which is IMO disgusting in its "how Disney music inspires cultures around the world" which is 100% Chapek trash and why he should never be given the keys the company bc he might be one of the most corporate and tone deaf ppl in charge at the moment. But at the very least, part of it is trying to pay homage to the weird experiment, and I honestly think some are way, way too paranoid about that SSE art. (I rolled my eyes all the way into the back of my head when Jim Hill said, "Oh and Moana's there!")
Right now the issue is that Epcot was born in the 80s, the age of the corporation, felt the sting of contracted updates that now reluctant corporations shied away from, and now in a time where corporations are bigger than ever ironically finds itself in a time where they don't like to fraternize much unless absorption and Disney being also one of the monolithic giants themselves. I admire what they were trying to do with it but I just don't feel like it's the end of the world either. I agree with some decisions (what they're doing with the core) and don't agree with others (GotG, despite being a good coaster)... I would like if edutainment would be the emphasis again but sadly that doesn't seem to be the point. I'm overall glad they're keeping some of EPCOT's unique and weird qualities in the end, and I'll wait and see on the rest.