Prior to Monsters Laugh Floor, the building housed the circlevision theater (same technology that is still in China and Canada in EP).
The first tenant of the Philharmagic theater was the “Mickey Mouse Review”, a combined film and AA production. It was closed in the early 80s and moved to Tokyo DL, where I believe it is still playing. After that it was “Magic Journeys”; the original 3D film from Imagination in EP that was removed when they did the “Honey I Shrunk the Audience” makeover. This hung around until the mid-90s when “Legend of the Lion King” (a 15 min retelling of the story of the movie using larger than life puppets and film clips) moved in. Philharmagic replaced it in the early 2000s.
There was nothing in the spot where PoC now stands; it was an undeveloped parcel of land.
So to is the Lights, Motor, Action stunt show, the Backlot Tour, Streets of America.
The Honey I shrunk the kids playground is gone. Part of One Man’s Dream is now given over to meet and greets, and the film show is used for previews of upcoming movies.
For anyone interested in the old rides, like the original Journey into Imagination, Horizons etc, this site has the best videos anywhere. Martin Smith is known in many circles as the “unofficial archivist” of WDW (and the other parks), and Disney uses his videos to train CMs! They’re not just ride-through s, you get the whole history, plans, layouts, and then a complete ride through. Horizons for example has all 3 endings.
Horizons was truly one of the great Disney rides; it had a unique ride system and was an almost perfect blend of sets, AAs, films, and special effects. It’s also one of the very few dark rides that went up and down between levels. It was originally conceived as a “sequel” to the Carousel of Progress; the CoP showed a family going through the decades to the “present” day, and Horizons launched the family into the future of land, undersea, and space. They were both sponsored by GE, so it made sense.
When EPCOT first opened, what we now know as “Innoventions” was call the “Communicore”. As SE was the history of communications, the Communicore showcasd the present new technologies and what the future had in store. EP opened in 1982. “Real” computers still filled rooms and the few PCs that were around had less than 1 MB RAM, no internal hard drives, and had monochrome monitors. The internet didn’t exist. Cell phones didn’t exist. VHS was the emerging technology for home video. Home cable TV was just a few years old… All of these things were explored through a series of shows and interactive kiosks. If I remember correctly, most of this was concentrated on the Energy/Horizons side; the Land/Imagination side was mostly an air conditioned walkway with seating.
I have memory of a building where there were these touch screen computers, and you could “build” a crude roller coaster track which, once done, you could ride. This was of course just wire-frame tracks, nothing like Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc. I was thinking this was in the Imagination building, but perhaps it was the Innoventions/Communicore bujilding.
A few years ago, we did this attraction where you could design a roller coaster or a flight path for a jet, etc, and then you got into this giant robotic arm where you actually got to ride the coaster as you designed, including inversions. I think it was called the Sum of All Thrills. I kind of thought of it as the 21st century version of the initial touch-screen wire-frame roller coaster attraction.
Should probably also add that the Animation Academy (and associated exhibits) has closed and now houses the Star Wars Hanger Bay.
If you haven’t been since 2000, then Toy Story Mania will be new to you. Built in the sound stage that used to house the Millionaire show, it’s s dark ride/shooter game with cool 3D effects. Although personally lukewarm to it myself, it’s one of the most popular rides in WDW.
I loved this kiosk! Imagination had the “ImageWorks” up on the second floor which was a really cool series of interactive areas dealing mostly with color and sound. Another sad loss when they did that dreadful “Honey I Shrunk the Audience” overlay of the entire pavilion.
I am going to have to go watch some of those. Because I really can’t remember names of things. Have I ridden Horizons? I have no idea. But if I watch a video I bet I’ll remember!
I went to Epcot in 1984. Spaceship earth is still running but has been upgraded several times. Journey into imagination is still there but has been redone several times none as good as the original. Living with the land is still running and I’m not sure how much has changed.
This is probably the least changed of the original FW attractions. The first few scenes are different, and they had to change the “Listen to the Land” song when Kraft left as the sponsor. But the jungle. desert, prairie scenes are still the same, and the “meat” of the ride - the greenhouses - are basically the same. But I do miss the original song…
I absolutely LOVED it; it was so much fun. They did an “update” called “Food Rocks”, but it lost all of the charm of the original; that’s an understatement - it was awful. . Closing it to make way for Soarin’ was euthanasia…