Skip to main content

Epcot Center: World of Motion

When you think about 80's Epcot most people go straight for Horizons.  Why not, it was an imagineering marvel, but let's not forget about it's next door neighbor, World of Motion.

It's my understanding that WOM closed because the sponsor wanted something different.  I can understand that, people do not flock to Walt Disney World every year to see hundreds of Audio Animatronics telling you the hilarious history of transportation.  I know that when I drive 15 hours to Florida the first thing I do when I get inside Epcot's gates is think "Boy,  I sure miss sitting in my car."  That's when I run as fast as I can to Test Track where I can experience what it's like to go 60 miles an hour in a car!

There are about a zillion things that made Epcot Center amazing, one of my favorites is the logo's they had for each attraction.  Here is WOM's:


WOM was full of visual gags because it was worked on by Imagineer extraordinaire Marc Davis and my boy Ward Kimball.


I believe this was part of The World's First Traffic Jam.


I read somewhere that these chickens are now in Disneyland's Pirates.



I love how I have pictures taken by my Dad and Uncle on different trips and all of their pictures are taken 10 seconds apart.





This post is heavy on pictures, which I'm sure none of you mind.


This is from an old Epcot Guide Map.  Take a look at the Sea Monster.  Did you know you can walk right up to this guy in Disney's California Adventure?


He's in the Hollywood Backlot area across from Monsters Inc.  Why is he here?  Who's brilliant idea was this?  How did they pitch it?  "Hey you know that empty corner in DCA, how about we put that Sea Monster from World of Motion in that spot?" I do not know the answers to these questions, but I'm glad he's out and about and not collecting dust in a Disney warehouse. 






Comments

  1. The last time I was at California Adventure, all of the WOM props including the sea serpent were gone! "Electronica" takes place in that area, so maybe they were removed because of that....or maybe they moved them to get ready for DCA's revamping. Wherever they are now, I hope Disney is taking good care of them and did not just toss them out!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Blank Check House

After the success of Home Alone movie studios did not waste anytime copying the formula (kid outsmarts bad guys).  While the worst offender was probably Three Ninjas, Disney was also guilty with Blank Check.  They even used it as a selling point! I saw Blank Check in the theater, I remember because it was the only time in my movie going life that the theater manager came out and talked to us about how the movie was filmed in Texas (which is where I live).  So, on a recent trip to Austin, I stopped by the Blank Check house. Here is how it appeared in the film: And today: As you can see, they've done quite a bit of remodeling. Not to mention the heavy plant growth which makes it almost unrecognizable. The old garage door is now a window The original entry way has been completely removed. This is the front door now: I drove around to the side and found the back gate open.  In the film, the back yard had a pool, go cart t

Jumanji Film Locations

While I was in New Hampshire last week, I stopped in Keene to take some Jumanji comparison shots. Let's start at the beginning of the film. In the opening scene Alan Parrish rides his bike past a statue of his ancestor, Angus Parrish.  I had been to Keene once before and knew there was a statue in this square, so I assumed they just attached a fake plaque to it, I was wrong. They  built the prop statue on top of this rock fountain.  Why not just use the existing one? Here's another statue screen shot. It almost looks like they tried to brush out the actual statue in the opening shot from the film. . This Parrish shoes ad can be seen briefly in the film and appears in the back ground of the second statue picture I posted.  Here it is today. Moving onto the stampede scenes. Turns out Frank's Barber Shop is still there too. So is this old coke mural Run Kirsten! Stampede!

Tales From The College Program: Getting Fired. Part 2

Getting my job back: Since Rat Face had gone as high as possible to get me fired, I decided to do the same when trying to get my job back.   Ed Backlor was the VP of Downtown Disney at the time, I decided to email him.   A day later I received an email from Djuan Rivers (who I just discovered is a Disney big shot now ).   Ed was out of town and had forwarded my email to Djuan.   We arranged a time for him to call me the next day.   I was pretty nervous as a sat there staring at my phone waiting for him to call.   I didn’t know where the conversation would go.   Djuan was very friendly, he had read my email and asked me some more questions about the firing.   I left out the part about how everyone eating for free so I wouldn’t get anyone else fired.   He told me the typical “well, I know it’s not a lot of money, but if everyone gave away $3.25 worth of food, it would really hurt the company.”   He said I could reapply with Disney in 6 months and when I did I would most likely be as