Do you recollect Avatar ? It was released seven age ago as the individual biggest movie of 2009 . But unlike other sci - fi blockbusters with all-inclusive mob appeal , you ’d be hard pressed to observe anyone today beg for a subsequence , let alone clamor for theme parking area rides free-base on the moving picture . But that ’s just what we ’re going to get next summer at Walt Disney World . The troupe announce that Avatar Land will open at Disney ’s Animal Kingdom parkland during thesummer of 2017 . And the fact that it ’s opening long after anyone care about Avatar evince precisely why it ’s so hard to keep Disney ’s Epcot motif Mungo Park “ futurist . ”
My fixation with past visions of the future owes a draw to Epcot . When I was a kid in the 1990s and visiting the Orlando theme common with my kin , something about the park did n’t feel quite right . I absolutely loved it , do n’t get me wrong , but there were a lot of thing about Epcot that did n’t seem very futurist . Many elements of the park wait like how people of the seventies and fourscore might have envisioned the future . Mickey Mouse’ssilvery jumpsuitperhaps comfortably enchant this venous blood vessel of retro - futurism . But there was a good intellect for the parkland ’s dated futurism : It ’s really surd ( not to remark really expensive ) to update a theme park quickly .
The Epcot theme Mungo Park opened in October of 1982 as a shadow of what it was opine to be originally . It was first envisioned by Walt Disney as a functioning experimental metropolis in the mid-1960s , but it open up as a World ’s Fair - themed park in the early 1980s . The park take years to get rolling , and with half of Epcot ’s actual land dedicate to futurism , it was accidentally go under up to be a motionless landmark to yesterday ’s visions of tomorrow .
Avatar Land was dreamed up in 2010 , not long after the movie ’s original theatrical release in December of 2009 . After geezerhood of planning , Disney break ground on the themed area in January of 2014 , and it will finally open up in the summer of 2017 . This flight is completely normal in the theme common business , as it takes a peck of preparation and money to make something like this function properly . But Epcot has always been operating under the same constraints , which keep the park from ever feeling truly “ futurist . ”
Every time Epcot gets an update , there ’s a prominent question about how well a given attraction will age . envisage you were task with build a ride about transportation of the future in Epcot today . What would you include ? Driverless car ? obstetrical delivery drones ? When your ride is n’t move to unfold for 7 or 8 geezerhood , it ’s hard to design for what will still be considered “ futuristic . ” We ’re already seeing elements of these technologies functioning in society today . Would a driverless car drive be laughable by 2025 ? We do n’t recognise . You ’re not just plan for what ’s futuristic today . You ’re planning for what will still be futuristic a decade from now .
The fact that there ’s no material rooter fervor over Avatar is n’t Disney ’s fault . The movie was the biggest hit of 2009 , grossing $ 750 million in the US alone . At the fourth dimension , making a themed land about the moving picture seemed like the safe bet in the public . But it has n’t turned out that way . There ’s virtually nobody beg for an Avatar - theme environment these daytime . And despite promise ofmultiple sequels , there ’s not much stake in James Cameron ’s elephantine smurfs as we draw close 2017 .
Disney will belike be able to weather the violent storm of disinterest around Avatar in the near term , and might even luck out if Cameron releases his Avatar sequels sometime before long . But with the time to come clipping along at a steady footstep , it ’s hard to guess what Epcot might do in an endeavour to become more dynamic and , good case scenario , relevant to futurism for the countless American family unit visit each class .
Correction : This military post in the beginning stated that Epcot spread out in 1983 . It opened in 1982 .
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