Wonders of Life?

[marc]

I just heard that MetLife has ended it's involvement with Disney. Has anyone else heard this, and if so what does that mean for The Wonders of Life pavillion?

 

[airlarry!]

I've heard it here, on other boards, and from Jim Hill. Jim is quoted at www.laughingplace.com as saying that he expects the signs to be down within the month.

As for what this means? Hmm.....

 

[Sarangel]

My first guess is that it means that Disney will be looking for another sponsor. The second guess I have is that it may mean the attraction will stagnate even more than it already has & may close down. Neither of these suppositions has any basis in fact, just my guesses.

Sarangel

 

[mudhen]

Nothing that Disney does would surprise or shock me anymore,
but I would be very disappointed to see this pavalion go to
hell or even close due to a lack of sponsership. Body Wars and Cranium Command are very popular attractions at a park that needs all the attractions it can get.

With all the competition in the Orlando area Disney needs
growth by addition, not subtraction.

 

[Peter Pirate]

I somewhat disagree. While we like Cranium Command & the kids like Body Wars, this pavillion has never held much interest to us and its being closed would affect our visits very little (other than putting more people in the TT & Space queue's).

What is starting to concern me withe Disney sponsorship deals (and this is surprising since I have been an Eisner supporter) is the lack of progress, updates or improvements that takes place. Disney doesn't want to pay for "improvements" but the Corprate Sponsors seem unwilling to dig much further than their initial investment either.

So while I still think the basic idea of Corporate involvement to get someone else to foot the construction costs is sound, I believe Disney needs to revisit the issue of keeping the attractions fresh...Otherwise they will all become stale sooner rather than later...

 

[isnkr]

I spoke w/a CM when I was there in May and they said that Met-Life would be out by the end of June (if I remember correctly)

All the signage would be gone but the same costumes would be used. They also told me that the restaurant that is in there would likely close. I rarely venture over there (I didn't even know they had a restaurant)

 

[Another Voice]

It is rather interesting how quickly the sponsorship program at Epcot has fallen apart. The original concept called for each pavilion to be completely redone every ten years in an effort to keep Epcot fresh and “up-to-date”. Even back in ’82 people knew that Future World could turn into a massive-sized Tomorrowland headache. With the exception of the ‘World of Motion’ to ‘Test Track’ rebuild, none of the corporate sponsors has re-signed or put in a significantly different show (I think it’s debatably if ‘Imagination’ was different enough in spirit to qualify). I wonder how much of this is caused by a changing business environment and ho much is do to Disney’s desire for more money. How does a CEO tell his board that he’s willing to drop $150 million to put signage on an amusement park ride? Plus that, I think that being associated with Disney has far less cache now than it did twenty years ago. Perhaps everyone simply got tired of providing capital funding without any return.

As for the ‘Wonders of Life’ – this pavilion suffered two problems. The main attraction is just plain weak and doesn’t serve as a strong enough draw to get people in. ‘Body Wars’ was conceived as a cheaper, more thrilling replacement for ‘The Incredible Journey Within’, instead it came off as a cheap replication of ‘Star Tours’ and the guests have never responded. The second problem was that WDI never had a chance to adjust the interactive elements of the pavilion. When ImageWorks turned out to be so popular, WDI wanted to create a pavilion-sized version of it and they got their chance with ‘Life’. It was a noble goal, but hard to do well. They tried the best they could with some hits and a lot of misses. Unfortunately, there could never go back and fix the ‘misses’ and ‘Goofy About Health’ still runs until today.

 

[larworth]

Companies pony up significant $ all the time to get name exposure and the correct brand association. However, AV you may be right that the economics of the Disney deal may no longer be attractive.

I'm sure there is plenty of data that says what a reasonble spend is to reach x million people today. What do companies pay for naming rights to stadiums and the like? The $ needed for a redo could well exceed these ratios. The number of individuals in their target demongraphic has to be much less than 10 million people.

Maybe these companies have found that while the number of people reached is fine, the association did build the positive brand image they would have hoped.

Any advertising guys out there?


If we assume that the sponsorship model no longer makes sense than does this mean the park would slowly revert back to Disney being the sole funder. This seems like a disaster sceanrio that would strain already scarce investment dollars.

 

[Wes]

The front area of EPCOT is unique among the parks in that certain pavillions are virtually at the end of a long one-way route. You can not just circulate and see all there is to see without back-tracking. In addition, some of them are so well off the beaten path, that you really have to WANT to go there and will not just amble onto it.

Is there any plan to somehow address this problem?

 

[F.C. Fan]

I totally agree with you Wes on the out of the way pavillions and the back tracking in Future World ( although Animal Kingdom has some back tracking problems in the front of their park as well).I don't understand why they don't re-open the old side entrance/exit doors in both East and West Innoventions, to get at least some people flowing towards Ellen's Energy Crisis, and The Wonders of Life on that side of the park and The Living Seas and The Land on the other side of the park.

Epcot has gotten very sad in the last couple of years. Alot of "Future World" is unfortunately not ageing too well and with no sponsors to help with the costs of the buildings and what's inside them and to update them it's only going to get worse.

 

[Wes]

F. C. Fan, I'm glad you mentioned Ellen's Energy Crisis ... that remake was frankly a waste of good talent (Ellen and the Science Guy) on trying to paste a new facade onto the same basic ride.

Out of our party of 6, two of us were asleep by the end of it.

The remake at Kodak of course was a total destruction of the most delightful pavilion in the park .... sad

 

[Figaro30]

I'm sure they will just demolish the building and throw up some thrill ride!

(We'll just add it to the pile of lost memories along with Figment, World of Motion, and Horizons!!!)

 

[mudhen]

I doubt we'd even get a thrill ride. Probably just some
spinning midway type gizmo.

Remember folks, we keep paying premium prices for un-Disney
like products (is "un-Disney" a word??).

The mouse won't listen until the cash flow stops flowing.

 

[PlutoPal]

I heard that too, and Disney will probably be looking for another sponser or maybe they will just lose the idea of a sponsor for the Wonders of Life pavilion.

 

[Testtrack321]

Is is just me or does it seem that Disney can hide the pivilion easer than Horizons or many others. Remove the signage and put some plants in and, presto, no pavilion!

 

[Planogirl]

LOL Testtrack321.

I think that the Wonders of Life will continue on for a while without a sponsor but the edges will become a bit frayed. Buzzy's face will start to melt like Jules Verne's did and the films will become increasingly hard to see. Then Disney will discover much to their horror that a giant sinkhole has opened under the pavilion and the only possible solution will be to tear down the current pavilion and build one much heavier in its place. But that will be OK because it will include a spinning ride where guests can ride giant blood cells with 90% of the pavilion devoted to a shop with items showcasing the character Buzzy who will no longer exist except for a brief image on a wall in the queue. There will also be a stand selling Coke, Diet Coke and Sprite and of course, Mickey bars.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Epcot has certainly become a shell of its former self. We just came back and at least the Living Seas appeared to be much nicer than before. But there really isn't that much to do at Epcot any more. Closing the Wonders of Life will just make that problem worse.

 

[Disney Doll]

I have always loved Cranium Command, and really thought it was one of the mst underrated attractions in all of WDW. I hope that the Wonders of Life pavillion keeps hat! The restauarant in there is so-so at best...ate there once, was underwhelmed, never ate there again. Body Wars is getting old...I don't want to replace it with a spinning carnival ride, but something there has to be done!!! I think that in this day and age, the informational stuff in WOL isn;t news to people anymore like it was in the 1980's, when it first opened. We are very in to fitness, gyms, working out etc in this country now, so all that info has become ho-hum.

 

[doubletrouble_vb]

Actually I like the informational stuff.... I hope they replace Body Wars with something interesting... Maybe pick up some ideas from the former Millenium Village...or something along the lines of the Hanna-Barbera ride in Universal.

I think that the problem with Epcot is that since it is supposed to be educational they need to build in an allowance for the fact that after you see something a few times you are now "educated" and need new topics... So what's "hot" these days...cloning... Maybe a moving ride crossed with ideas from the Haunted Mansion and A Bugs Life. So you see various things involving cloning...get a surpise pinch somewhere & then see the results of having been cloned done holographically. Use today's technology to provide a variety of imagery so the rider's dont get bored.

Another hot topic is global warming...this one you could do as a walking tour so that observers could a feel for the possible consequences of global warming.

Space they are doing...I'm hoping it was done well.

 

[Safari Steve]

Many attractions at WDW use different types of film. Because film tends to break and fade, the reels are replaced quite frequently. From the pre-show at Cranium Command to the backgrounds in The American Adventure, to Mme Leota at the Haunted Mansion, if you saw it last year, the reel has been changed since, probably a few times.