Bad News Imagination fans

[DreamfinderFigment]

Guys, Tony Baxter has left Disney Imagineering. You don't know how disappointing this is to me and to us original Imagination fans. Without him we will not be able to have our dream come true. Unfortunately Imagination will always have that awful Nigel Channing and his stupid experiments forever. Well, atleast they kept my other favorite attraction Roger Rabbits's Car Toon Spin at Disneyland. If they ever get rid of that I'd be super pissed off. Well lets just hope Steve Kirk and other imagineers can find out how to have our dreams come true I hope.

[DreamfinderFigment]

Also the nice thing is I got to ride Roger Rabbits's Car Toon Spin in person pretty recently again after a few years and have through out my childhood.

[lazyboy97O]

Steve Kirk? He returned to Walt Disney Imagineering?

[DreamfinderFigment]

Steve Kirk? He returned to Walt Disney Imagineering?

I'm not sure. I'm not a big expert on te imagineers. However I just wanted to address this to the original Imagination fans

[LordVader]

If Baxter were still at Imagineering, Staggs wouldn't let him redo Imagination. Trust me Baxter loathes the current attraction and for good reason.

[sbk1234]

The truth is, there was no guarantee that had Tony baxter remained they would do anything with Imagination at all. If anything is going to be done with it to rework it back to the masterpiece it was in the beginning, it will take a high-up exec with enough clout and desire to make it happen.
As much as I'd LOVE to see the original again, I think the best we could have EVER hoped for would be a new ride in the spirit of the original, but never an actual clone.

[Tomorrowland_1967]

Steve Kirk has his own firm. Hasn't been a part of WDI for quite some time now.

Meet the Team - Kirk design Inc.

[KingEric]

I suggest it is time we all just let go of Dreamfinder.

[Disneytwins]

I think its best that we just allow them get rid of it completely and replace it with something different.

[Tomorrowland_1967]

I suggest it is time we all just let go of Dreamfinder.

That wouldn't be such a bad idea .. except one thing - Disney is not exactly at the top of their game anymore. They are more willing to let their best talents go - in favor of the big "corporate marketing" machine. Be careful what you all wish for - What could eventually replace it .. could be something that could end up - inferior.

[DreamfinderFigment]

Well, I don't want to let to of Dreamfinder and Figment. I would rather see a ride in spirit of the original then nothing at all with Dreamfinder and Figment. I know I may never be able to see the original version like in the sparks I've dreamed up and wouldve been super excited about.atleast if they can have some way to bring back Figment with Dreamfinder. I'm with it. Oh well. Dreamfinder and Figment will always live on for me. Although I'm 14 and have only discovered the original by a video. I still will always be a fan. I've come too far to give up. I'm just going to keep on trying and trying.

[sbk1234]

That wouldn't be such a bad idea .. except one thing - Disney is not exactly at the top of their game anymore. They are more willing to let their best talents go - in favor of the big "corporate marketing" machine. Be careful what you all wish for - What could eventually replace it .. could be something that could end up - inferior.

Very good point.

[KingEric]

My thing is this. The Epcot we all loved is... dead. Plain and simple. Edutainment is not coming back in our lifetime.

The exploring different worlds and true exploration and discovery of our planet is gone.

Think about it

Living Seas - Now Cartoons
Wonders of Life - Closed
Horizons- gone
World of Motion - TRONED
Living with the Land - in the best shape, but long gone are the live tour guides on Living with the Land
SpaceShip Earth - half the ride is an old eSurrance commercial animated fantasy of a jetson like future
Universe of Energy - holding on by a thread
Journey into Imagination - now has more unused space than used space

Just accept that it is gone. Gone forever.

[goofy donald]

My thing is this. The Epcot we all loved is... dead. Plain and simple. Edutainment is not coming back in our lifetime.

The exploring different worlds and true exploration and discovery of our planet is gone.

Think about it

Living Seas - Now Cartoons
Wonders of Life - Closed
Horizons- gone
World of Motion - TRONED
Living with the Land - in the best shape, but long gone are the live tour guides on Living with the Land
SpaceShip Earth - half the ride is an old eSurrance commercial animated fantasy of a jetson like future
Universe of Energy - holding on by a thread
Journey into Imagination - now has more unused space than used space

Just accept that it is gone. Gone forever.

Now this may be controversial but here it goes anyways. while i do agree with you wholeheartedly eric that the great epcot concept of old is currently dead i feel like slowly disney is taking that concept back and with the instillation of new leadership at WDW, i think that change will speed up even more. the edutainment to start has always been and hopefully always will be a part of the WS however i hope it gets a little less dumbed down in some cases but oh well at least the effort is there. moving on to Future world, the new additions to innovations while not AMAZING adds and breathtaking must sees are steps in the right direction back to the concept of 'old' epcot being both engaging active and entertaining while at the same time focusing on this generations youth. then you have mission space which true is an e-ticket at heart but does serve to subtly educate about space and kids are again engaged particularly in the play center area, same can be said about Spaceship earth with communications (come on its not half the ride, its bad but not that bad). there are plenty of bad things still left in future world like imagination being destroyed and WoL empty and Energy rotting but i just think things are on the upturn more then the downturn. honestly i think the only pavilion's future i really worry about is the living seas, it will be really hard to remove pixar from that place now that its been installed there and thats the only thing that will make the pavilion great again, bringing back a new high tech seabase alpha-esque theme.

[godsonsafari]

The exploring different worlds and true exploration and discovery of our planet is gone.

You mean like Animal Kingdom tries to do?

It isn't so much that edutainment is necessarily dead IMO. There's an inherent problem though with the concept in play at a theme park because technology so rapidly changes. I don't think the pace of innovation was ever really understood by the designers back in the original concept of Epcot or by the park heads during those early years.