1980 EPCOT Preview Film Part 1

[archaea771]

I miss the old Disney. I know things have to change but the original Epcot (Horizons, World of Motion) was so much fun.

[jet4000]

When my partner Gina Rester and I were hired by Disney to do this movie, EPCOT was just a hole in the ground. All we had to work with were renderings, models, and a whole lot of imagination. The plans and pavilions changed as were doing the filming. The final film was our best guess at what the park would finally turn out to be. It is nice to see it shown here. I feared it was dead and buried in the Disney archives. Jim Thompson, Producer/Director, The Dream Called EPCOT.

[yensidnaf]

@jet4000 Jim...Thank you for the clarification. Thank you (and Gina) for the film. I am happy, and honored, to be able to present it here. There are days when I am glad I didn't throw something away and other days when I am upset I did. This is one of the times I am so glad I didn't.

[yensidnaf]

While many things about EPCOT had been set when this film was produced and screened for Walt Disney World guests, things like the opening dates of some pavilions were still being finalized. Sponsorships, critical to helping offset the costs for designing and constructing attractions/pavilions, were still being solicited and deals being made at the time.

[WDI2008]

@yensidnaf Yeah like The Life and Health Pavillion and the Space Pavillion

[yensidnaf]

@WDI2008 Exactly! The opening of Horizons was delayed one year and World Showcase pavilions like Equatorial Africa never happened.

[WDI2008]

Why is The Living Seas included in the preview film because it didnt open until 1986 ?

[Itanium153]

Today Disney has just destroyed Epcot.

Walt Disney's Idea for epcot was completly diffrent than what the park is today. I do believe that epcot should be revamped to walt disney's Expectations.

[louisortiz1992]

@Itanium153 thats not true. Many of the ideas are still in Epcot, except for some of the rides like Soarin and Test Track...

[djthereplay]

@Itanium153

I agree with you whole hardedly. It's a good thing for these imagineers of that time that Walt Disney Himself said that Everything that he had planned at the time for the design of EPCOT could change time and time again as they moved ahead .. and turns out, it did ... to The EPCOT we have today.

Cont`d on my next post.

- Dwight