Journey into Imagination

My last Epcot attraction from the past.
On
February 19, 2010
Well, this is it, it's taken me so long and to try and wrap up the Future World attractions from the lost Epcot. I can sure say that I'm glad that most of you enjoyed my hard work, whether you liked it or didn't; and now, the last attraction that I've been saving.



Yes, the attraction that is dedicated to the imagination and just as a reminder that one little spark can create ideas and make anything possible.



The whole building sort of resembles the Louvre in Paris, I never thought of that until now recently. The other thing I like is how the water shoots up instead of down. Now that's what I call imagination.



The attraction is hosted by our good friends, the Dreamfinder and his trusty sidekick, Figment. Figment, I would say has always been the icon of Epcot, right up there with Spaceship Earth. I always enjoyed this attraction when I was little and it had a lot of great things for me to do.



We make our way into our vehicles and enter a dark tunnel and to our side is an animated short of the dreamfinder in his dream mobile collecting stars. Now, we meet him up close and personal, along with Figment, who take us all on a journey to see how we use our imaginations.



It's kinda hard for me to know in what order of how I remember what this ride was about. But I'm gonna try and see if I can remember what I can. One thing I remember was Dreamfinder painting a picture on this collage of something. There was an area that was kinda creepy for me; it has this rocky avalanche, which was the only thing I feared when I first rode this.



Here's another thing I remember, it was a series of animated short where Figment would try and make himself somewhat bigger or smaller.



Another thing I remember was an area I called Figment's room, here Figment's in the middle of panoramic movies where he sees himself taking part in numerous activities like weightlifting, sailing, etc.



I definitely remember the finale, Dreamfinder would take a picture of us in our vehicles and before we left the ride, we see ourselves in it. It was a real shame that we never got to buy the pictures, I guess Disney imagineers hadn't thought of that idea yet.



The ride of course got an update in 1999, and Dreamfinder had retired, the attraction changed to Journey into your Imagination, and the ride got a whole new look. The ride was hosted by Dr. Nigel Channing (played by Eric Idle), Figment only had a cameo appearance here and is now an CGI character. Dr. Channing showed us on how our five senses can play apart of our imagination. Some fans were not happy with this version and of course, I was very disappointed myself and did also not like this version.



In 2002, the ride was updated quite a bit and Figment played a huge part in this. As Dr. Channing is taking us through the imagination institute, as the whole area was called, Figment manages to mess around and get screwy with some of the devices.



One area I like is when we reach the smell chamber, and suddenly, we get skunked; I had to hold my breath once that came up. I was somewhat comfortable with this version but as you all know, I still miss the early version.



Other areas inside are the image works, this area serves a playground with numerous activities inside.



This area is called Dreamfinder's school of drama where guests stand behind a blue screen and see themselves in a movie. There were three choices; one was the old west, outer space and knights battling giants, I always got stuck with the giant film. That was my favorite part.


Another great thing was the rainbow tunnel. Here, when you walk through this tunnel, a pattern of light follows you through, I still wonder how that happened.



This was bubble music, where when you push a series of bubbles, music plays with the bubbles that are blown on top of a screen. I think that's kind of like a hippie acid trip. When I went back in 93, it was changed to Figment's coloring book, where we had giant paint brushes and could draw 3d like pictures that filled up with color; kinda reminds me of windows paint shop.



This is also another one of my favorite parts called stepping tones, there are a series of Octagonal light panels on the floor, when you step on them they play music. One time when I went, I saw some guys and they were playing twister, weird I know. Everytime I did this, I always got sweaty a lot.



The whole area was changed and was moved to the first floor. Everything sure has changed and it's not real interesting for me anymore.



Not much interesting here except for the second version of stepping tones and I think it's just for toddlers. And here, you get pictures of the symbols. Not so interesting to me.



Another area was the magic eye theater, the first movie shown here was magic Journeys, I never saw this film and don't know much about it so I don't have any details on it.



The second film was one I sure remember, it was Captain EO, starring the late Michael Jackson, The king of Pop really never looked good as he did when he was filming this. Someone had already posted an article on this so I won't explain it step by step except it was my first 3d film I ever saw.



It did kinda frighten me a little bit, when I saw the supreme leader (played by Angelica Houston). She really freaked me out, she almost resembles the Alien.



The current film playing is Honey, I shrunk the audience. I still get a kick out of this show because it's got a lot of special effects.



Professor Wayne Zalinski is being presented with the inventor of the year award for creating his shrinking machine at the imagination institute; his family is on hand to congratulate him.



One funny part I like is before he can demonstrate the machine, his youngest son, Adam, puts his pet mouse in a cloning machine and a whole lotta mice get into the audience and they start screaming like crazy. I had long discovered that it was just puffs of air shooting from the floor. Then a giant lion appears before us to scare all the mice.



Now, Zalinski shows us how the machine works just as he's activating it, it's aimed straight at us. The whole audience and Zalinski's oldest son, once again, Nick, are shrunk, as Zalinski is fixing the machine, a bunch of blenders happen to us, one is where Adam picks up the theater and Nick's pet snake almost eats us.



As we are returned back to normal size, the family dog, quark, accidentally gets caught in the ray, and at the last part as the curtain closes, Quark's head sticks out and he sneezes on the crowd, I know that's it just water, but it still feels gross to me.

As you can see, another great classic that I wished never had to go. Well, that wraps up my section on Lost Epcot Future world. I sure hope that most of you enjoyed my Future world articles, I'm just glad that I contributed something to Retrojunk and it's what I liked. It's not over for me yet, I may do some World showcase articles only those that have rides and movies and I might do some Future world attractions that have been replaced. Anyway, take care.
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