I don't understand why that ride gets all the hate it does. It needs some love, sure, but I thought it was a cute, enjoyable ride. Much more so than the Seas with Nemo & Friends.
Why does it seem everyone hates Journey into Imagination?
Because it USED to be
SPECTACULAR!!
Journey into Imagination (first version) was the most-popular, most-loved attraction at Epcot.
Then, something
terrible happened...
Here's some background-
Kodak, the original "Journey Into Imagination" attraction's corporate sponsor since the opening of Epcot, had an agreement with Disney that stated the attraction must be "updated" for the year 2000.
Little did anyone know that the "creative minds" in WDImagineering would not be nearly as creative in 1998 as they had been in 1980!
The new "Journey Into Your Imagination" ride was one of the biggest disappointments in the history of Disney parks. There was NOTHING left of what had made the original ride such a major crowd pleaser (and that also meant that there was
no Figment in that version!)
So, they finally "re-did the re-do" and you now still see the result:
"Journey Into Imagination With Figment."
Its "cute," (and, obviously, Figment is back) but the current ride is nothing but a far too short, sliver of the amazing first version of the ride.
In the grand scheme of these kind of things, re-designing the original ride was a colossal blunder.
There's a saying that goes, "Do you want to trade the devil you KNOW for the devil you DON'T know?"
(Meaning that if you don't like your situation NOW, how do you know that you won't move into a WORSE one by making a change?)
I'll paraphase it in the case of "Imagination" to say to Kodak/Disney...
"Do you want to trade the ANGEL you KNOW for the POSSIBLE devil you DON'T know?"
The original version of this ride is my all-time favorite attraction at Epcot.
It was so RICH in details that I'm sure that I never saw "everything" in it, even after literally dozens of ride-throughs.
The scenes were diverse and always surprising.
The musical arrangements were complex and interesting.
The characters were engaging.
There was even a "ride photo" that displayed as you rode along near the end.
What a tragedy that this was "lost" in an untimely and entirely AVOIDABLE set of missteps.
I'll assume that there was an entire CHAIN of memos and meetings where warnings of
looming problems were ignored (or not spoken strongly enough.)
I have seen so many majorly ill-advised corporate decisions made in all kinds of companies.
So sad that in a "vast bastion of creativity" like Disney, could they make such an unfortunate move as to lose the original artistic creation that was the first version of Journey Into IMAGINATION.
