Epcot, or Epcot Center as it was known in 1982 is perhaps the most interesting theme park ever constructed. If you want to brush up your Epcot history, or you just want a good read here are my things you should know about Epcot especially since the 35th anniversary is upon us.
E.P.C.O.T was Walt Disney's original dream for the "Florida Project" as Walt referred to it as.
Yes there was always going to be a theme park in Florida, but the main "most exciting part of the Florida Project...is the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow"or as we know it today (although in a different form) Epcot. E.P.C.O.T was going to be just that, a groundbreaking city that would have been more advanced and sophisticated than anything we had seen up to that point, and probably would still be, but ironically I think Walt Disney World Resort has taken that honor, so in a way it did happen, just not how Walt originally envisioned.
Epcot Center was originally going to be either Future World or World Showcase.
When it came time to decide what the final plans for the park would become, Marty Sklar who was Vice President of Planning at the time said, why not both? He shoved both the Future World and World Showcase models together and the rest is history.
Future World and it's attraction's reflected the ideals of E.P.C.O.T and the innovations that have and will shape our world in the years to come.
Energy, Communication, The Land, The Seas, The Human Body, Transportation, Technology, Imagination and The Future of Mankind. Each one of these subjects would have it's own pavilion and rides dedicated to it. In fact to decide on what the themes should be used, Epcot Forums were created as sort of a town hall. Ray Bradbury (Author of Fahrenheit 451, Something Wicked This Way Comes) attended more than one and even spoke at one. I was surprised to hear he was actually a contributor to the ride Spaceship Earth.
A grandiose Space pavilion was originally planned and announced for Epcot Center, but Disney was unable to find a corporate sponsor who would back such a project, also much of the technology for such a pavilion would have had to be invented which takes time and money. A form of the Space pavilion was realized with Mission: Space, however it had replaced what many consider the greatest ride ever created, Horizons which already touched on life in outer space.
Also a Movies/Film pavilion was talked about and had renders done of where it would have been located (by the bathrooms to the right of imagination and in between the land) but that was the inspiration for building its own park, the Disney MGM Studios!
