Was at Tokyo Disneyland waiting in line for The Enchanted Tale of Beauty and the Beast.
Above the pre show doors I saw this gargoyle. I’d it just me, or does it look like Figment? The belly and the proportions look similar. Just need to be “royal purple pigment”
Hey all. I’m working on a project and I’d love to know what your favorite Spaceship Earth looks are. I’m talking about the nighttime looks when she’s all lit up. Please post your favorites with pictures if you have them. I’ve posted one of mine below (not my pic). Thanks!
five hard facts. all verifiable.
fact 1. the carousel of progress family at magic kingdom and the horizons family at EPCOT are canonically the same family across generations. ge sponsored both rides specifically to maintain that continuity. the horizons grandkids who lived in mesa verde, sea castle, and brava centauri are the carousel family’s great-grandchildren.
fact 2. from 1975 to 1993 the magic kingdom carousel used a song called “the best time of your life.” chorus: “now is the time, now is the best time of your life.” its a song about being present. about not waiting for tomorrow. about there being no future coming.
fact 3. in the 93-94 refurb, disney swapped it back to “great big beautiful tomorrow.” a song about waiting for a future supposedly on the way. official explanation: fans wanted the original back.
fact 4. also in 1993, ge ended its sponsorship of horizons. the future pavilion started dying. it closed january 1999. demolished 2003.
fact 5. in 1994, after the song swap, disney updated the carousel final scene for the last time and froze the family at christmas 1999. they have not advanced the scene in 32 years.
now put it together.
the song they put back in the family’s mouth in the 93-94 refurb is describing a future disney had already started demolishing. mesa verde, sea castle, brava centauri are the great big beautiful tomorrow the song is promising. disney was killing all three when they made the family start singing about them.
for 18 years the family had been singing an honest song. “best time of your life. no future coming. live now.” then disney took it out. why?
because the honest song was about to become a eulogy. a guest walks through EPCOT in 97 and watches horizons sitting half-empty, world of motion getting gutted for test track, dreamfinder being pulled out of imagination (and quietly banished to paris, but that’s a different post). communicore turning into innoventions. then they walk into magic kingdom into carousel of progress and the family is sitting there singing “there is no future coming. live now.”
thats a problem. that song in 1997 isnt nostalgia. its commentary.
disney needed the carousel family to keep promising the future they had just decided to stop delivering. so they swapped the song. then they froze the family at christmas 1999, the last year the new song could plausibly be sung without lying.
and the why is just money.
EPCOT was built on corporate sponsorships. by 93 the sponsors were bailing one by one. ge, exxon, kraft, eventually att. nobody was buying a kenmore because they rode carousel of progress. marketing budgets were going to tv and other channels you could actually count.
then frank wells dies in a helicopter crash in april 94. eisner’s business partner. the guy who kept eisners worst instincts in check. with him gone disney pivots hard toward maximum ROI per square foot.
and around the same time disney figures out their own IP is the biggest asset on the books. why build an original ride about an imagined future when you can build a toy story ride that also sells movie tickets and home video and merch. dreamfinder doesnt sell anything. horizons doesnt sell anything. they had to go.
tower of terror is twilight zone IP. test track is chevy IP. rock n roller coaster is aerosmith. mission space is a generic future shell built on top of horizons. the entire 90s buildout pivots from original to licensed.
and you cant tell anyone you stopped building tomorrow. the walt brand is built on optimism. so you keep the songs. you keep the walt quotes. optimism stays on the t-shirts. while the attractions that delivered on it get bulldozed for chevy rides.
the 1993 song change is the moment you can date the pivot from building optimism to selling it. they didnt do it because they hated horizons. they did it because horizons was an unmonetizable promise from an earlier era and they needed the family in magic kingdom to keep singing the promise out loud while they tore the actual thing down to put a chevy showroom in its place.
1993 = ge pulls horizons. 93-94 = song swap. 1994 = wells dies, eisner unchecked, final scene frozen. 1999 = horizons closes. 2003 = horizons demolished. 27 years of no updates since. thats not random.
sherman brothers wrote both songs. robert died 2012. richard died 2024. neither lived to see “best time of your life” come back. both died with the family still singing the future song over a future that got demolished. that part bothers me more than the rest of it.
ride it next time. listen to what theyre singing. theyre promising somewhere that doesnt exist anymore. has been for 27 years. disney could fix it any time. they havent.
four hard facts. all verifiable.
fact 1. the Mayor of Phantom Canyon, the malevolent animatronic figure who presides over the haunted town in Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, uses the exact Dreamfinder face mold. confirmed by imagineers. documented on Disney parks wiki. the casting is not in dispute.
fact 2. Phantom Manor opened in April 1992. the Mayor was installed then. Dreamfinder was still actively operating at EPCOT in 1992. so the duplicate face existed in Paris while the original was still in Florida. six years before the original was retired.
fact 3. Dreamfinder was abruptly removed from Journey Into Imagination in October 1998. Disney has never given a meaningful public explanation. fans revolted. the replacement ride was so disastrous it had to be redone within two years. and yet Dreamfinder still never came back.
fact 4. the Mayor of Phantom Canyon presides over a town full of trapped souls who can’t move on. people frozen in place forever in a cursed waiting room. that is Phantom Manor’s entire premise.
now put it together.
Dreamfinder’s original job at EPCOT was collecting children’s dreams and storing them in the Dreamport. he was a literal collector of trapped imagination, kept in a pavilion you couldn’t leave without exiting through a gift shop.
the Mayor of Phantom Canyon’s job is presiding over the souls of trapped townspeople who can’t move on.
it’s the same job. one is the optimistic version. one is the cursed version.
Disney didn’t kill Dreamfinder. they cursed him. they built his replacement in Paris in 1992, a darker, malevolent, ghost-town version of him, and waited six years until they could quietly retire the original. now if you want to see Dreamfinder’s face still moving, still speaking, still operating, you have to fly to Paris and ride a ride about being trapped forever in a haunted town.
the Dream-Catching Machine is in the Disney Archives.
the man who operated it is in Phantom Canyon.
his only friend, Figment, is in a literal prison cell in Mission Breakout at California Adventure.
three pieces of the same character. three different parks. each preserved in a context slightly off from how they originally existed. like Disney needed to dissolve the original carefully, piece by piece, so nobody noticed the body was missing.
next time you fly through CDG, take the RER to Marne-la-Vallée. ride Phantom Manor. look at the Mayor’s face.
that’s Dreamfinder. that’s where he went. that’s what he is now.
I always wondered if the producers of the film, when it was picked up for distribution by Disney, had the kids wear Disney t-shirts to promote their parks...
Hi, I have been staying in the boardwalk (just outside of Epcot in FL.) Every night, right after the fireworks, this fire turns on. What is it? We are behind France and the UK.
hey everyone! i have a bit of a strange question, but i hope y'all can help me out. i'm a bit of a skincare and body care fanatic and love trying new soaps. does anyone know which shops in epcot's world showcase sell soaps or bath products? i usually go to mitsukoshi in the japan pavilion which has some but i want to make sure i'm not missing anything else, because it would be so fun to pick up products from the different countries. thanks so much!
(please, nothing out of epcot! i know all about the places to get soaps at springs + grand floridian.)
Good morning from the UK!
Hope everyone is well.
My dear sister is getting married at the Grand Floridian next February, and lots of us family are travelling from the UK. As a family we've always loved disney, went a few times when we were all younger, and I completed the Cultural Representatives Program working in the UK pavilion, so we're not totally clueless with the things that are available.
However, i haven't been myself in 7 years, will be 8 by the time the wedding rolls around.
What I'm looking for is any and all suggestions for a joint bachelor/ bachelorette (hen & stag in the uk!) party my sister would like to have at epcot about 3 days before the big day. Obviously there is drinking around the world, but we're a little more sensible these days with drinking so I wanted to think of other things to do.
I also don't want to attract unwarranted attention from security/ do anything too rowdy or whatever, so I welcome any and aaallll ideas! Challenges for the Bride or Groom? Or wedding party? Scavenger hunt ideas? Currently not sure how many of us there will be, but there should be at least 9 or 10 of us, may or may not include the parents of the bride and groom.
My sister went out of her way/ above and beyond to make my hen/ bachelorette at dosneyland paris so extra special, so I'd love to try and do the same for her!
Thank you in advance, hope you all have magical days ✨️
I took these pictures last year and I love them. some are bad but I personally still love them.
Haven’t been to Teppan Edo in forever, not since being diagnosed with celiac disease. How are they with allergies (specifically gluten?) what was it like and would you recommend it to someone who misses hibachi?