Abandoned - Epcot's Never Built Attractions

[Music] what's up guys my name is Jake welcome to abandoned episode 36 this is the show where we talk about some of the most interesting abandoned places in the world I would like to thank Squarespace for sponsoring this video start your free trial today at squarespace.com slash BSF to get 10% off your first purchase for the longest time Epcot and Walt Disney World has been my favorite theme park in the world with its incredible unique architecture it's fun and interesting attractions and the unmatched atmosphere presents never really gets old for me the development of such a unique massive park brings along its own concepts that never see the light of day millions of people experience the park every year and everything it has to offer but what many may not know is some of the things Disney really had planned for Epcot Center so I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the concepts attractions and pavilions that were planned but ultimately abandoned Epcot Center originated from the concept that Walt Disney had envisioned in the late 60s when the company ultimately decided to turn Epcot into a theme park to continue the Walt Disney World Resort in the 70s ideas went all over the place one of the earlier concepts was to just focus on World Showcase which would be hosted in a circular Plaza building this would have been built just south of the transportation and ticket center but let's talk about the actual finished park and the concepts that were never fulfilled if you don't already know the 400-acre park is divided into two distinct sections there's future world and World Showcase let's start over in future world when Epcot's final design was decided upon in the late 70s some pavilions that did make it to construction were vastly different in their earlier concepts the land being a great example as to one of them the original concept was to build a very futuristic green house that would tower over future worlds in the center of the structure would be an indoor vertical moving observation tower surrounded by sections of glass that would house it's very own ecosystem which would visually demonstrate the different climates and geography of Earth the land would also host a theater and an indoor dark ride as well as an outdoor dining deck while this concept only lasted from 1978 to 1979 I would imagine the feasibility of this pavilion probably exceeding Disney's budget and construction capabilities to other major pavilions for future world had also been planned but never builds first was the movie and film pavilion this was planned after the park opened somewhere in the 1983 to 1985 time range this pavilion would have been placed in between imagination and the land the main attraction would showcase some of Hollywood's most iconic moments and as the idea grew the idea eventually turned into its own theme park called MGM Studios the main attraction was the preliminary idea for what ultimately became the great movie ride the second future rolled pavilion was themed on space back in 1977 while developing Epcot's Disney was working on an attraction that would be built where the Living Seas is right now like the earlier concepts of the land this pavilion would have been extremely ambitious just on how massive it was going to be a huge spherical Space Station show building would have been built just behind another structure that heavily resembled the architecture that was later used in the horizons pavilion it would feature NASA exhibition areas an omni mover ride through simulated space and a massive theater like show that would allow guests to peer down through massive simulated windows into space obviously this pavilion would have been extremely expensive to construct and with no sponsor it was pushed to a later opening date in the 1990s Disney announced that the pavilion would have a refined design and be built in between the land and the Seas however with horizons closing and a sponsor secured for a new space themed attraction Disney ultimately couldn't find a way to repurpose the horizons building like they wanted to and soon after in 2000 horizons had been demolished mission space ultimately opened in 2003 as a pretty watered-down not very fun attraction that basically has no connection to the original concepts developed as the space pavilion finally in futureworld there's the master redevelopment concept known as discovery land in the early 2000s Disney set out to completely overhaul Epcot's future world section with what they called approach Gemini there's a lot to go through in this concept so I think it might be easier to look at Epcot's future world now and the concept known as discovery land allegedly at the cost of five hundred million dollars Disney probably didn't want to sink that much money into a park with attendants dropping and the tourism market taking a big hit though in July of 2017 when Disney unveiled their preliminary intentions for Epcot's future world the blue sky concept art does bear a striking resemblance to the former concept drawn up in the early 2000s okay so let's move on to world showcase and there was a lot plan that never made it past the concept stages I'll start with the pavilions first when Epcot was in its final design stages in construction the vacant lots around World Showcase were considered to be expansion pads for future countries to be added down the line Norway in Morocco being the only countries added after opening day both within the 80s in the opening day souvenir booklet outlining the parks attractions it previewed the upcoming World Showcase pavilions these were known as phase two of World Showcase there was Equatorial Africa Israel and Spain Africa's showcase would be built in between China and Germany this would have featured a massive treehouse which overlooked an animal watering hole live tribal entertainments and a 70 millimeter film because of political tensions and lack of funds the pavilion was just never constructed however bordering the space of where it was supposed to be built there is African theming and shops that aren't attached to any particular country and more representing the culture Israel had their plans drawn up with the country willing to put up millions for the pavilion however Disney ultimately cancelled it themselves due to the problems the pavilion may cause with it's possible implications of bringing religion into the park Spain was another country that at first agreed to provide funds to Disney for their own pavilion but ultimately dropped out after a change of government leadership Venezuela also joined the roster in the early 80s for phase 2 but also had a similar fate in the late 80s and early 90s Disney was still attempting to sign on another country for a new showcase pavilion in 1989 located in between Germany and Italy was going to be Switzerland this Pavillion would have been vastly different from the others solely for one reason and that's its main attraction the Matterhorn mountain so behind a rural Swiss village would sit a 192 foot adaptation of the Matterhorn mountain ride over in Disneyland this version though would actually be 45 feet taller than its California counterpart Disney began negotiations on this back in 1986 and began developing the pavilions preliminary plans as kind of like a pitch to Swiss officials the timeline that was set in 1989 had the pavilion and coaster opening by 1993 however Disney was just never able to find a Swiss company willing to take on the sponsorship costs and the project was just abandoned there was actually a few more pavilions for other countries that never made it like Denmark Scandinavia Costa Rica the Arab nations and most recently Russia honestly it just seems like Disney had an enormous amount of bad luck and trouble with their attempts to build any new showcase pavilion in fact Disney insiders who had been working on a cot in the early stages told outlets that finding countries to sponsor pavilions was incredibly difficult early Epcot Center concepts called for up to thirty one individual pavilions the park opened with nine but even showcased pavilions that did make it to fruition had some pretty amazing attractions that never did first was a boat ride in the Germany pavilion called the rhine river cruise Imagineering disney.com created a fantastic graphic on where the boat ride would have been in relation to the current structure much like mexico's boat ride the river cruise would have taken guests on a nighttime passage through Germany viewing all types of notable landmarks while the arches were built just like in the original concept art upon construction the show building just never was though likely ready for expansion however is time passed and with Disney likely unable to secure sponsor the wooden doors that seemingly led somewhere were replaced by a wall the river cruise would have surely been a welcome at immersive addition to the already fantastic German but would have absolutely been nothing like the very last thing i want to talk about nap cots over at the japan pavilion a few attractions had been developed but ultimately never built like the bullet train simulator that was based around the idea of a circle vision movie just taking place inside a high-speed train but the real incredible attraction being developed certainly may have been the most popular ride in all of Epcot and that's the Mount Fuji rollercoaster in the early 90s Disney was developing a thrill ride for World Showcase much like Epcot's Matterhorn concept a similar train would run through the interior and exterior of the mountain it actually kind of bears more of a resemblance to Space Mountain just this would obviously be built to look like Japan's iconic Mount Fuji building this though may have been a challenge constructing a mountain on top of an already existing structure and continuing to keep it structurally safe to support the new immense amount of weights would be crucial the backstage road and retainment canal would also likely have to be diverted slightly to fit the attraction and its back-of-house areas this would obviously cost a lot of money and Disney actually did have a sponsor and a pretty fitting one at that being Fujifilm however because kodak was already a sponsor over a journey into imagination the clash of the two companies just wouldn't work and because of this the coasters plans were abandoned really all of these plans fell through almost solely on Disney unable to properly finance them it is incredible how many attractions and pavilions almost made it past their conceptual phase Epcot's in the 80s and 90s relied heavily on sponsorships to pay for their attraction fees Epcot Center in itself was a colossal expense for the company already and making Disney's financial situation even more precarious Michael Eisner and Frank Wells did come in and essentially save the company but the fact remains that convincing your shareholders to build an 85 million dollar man in World Showcase wouldn't see an ROI for another three or four years so that's likely why Disney was trying so hard to secure a sponsor since I'm sure Imagineers knew that if they didn't the attraction wouldn't be built so what's gonna happen with all these concepts for both future world and showcase well for future world I think it's safe to say that Disney is going in a different direction with that section of the park world showcase on the other hand though has some truly creative and interesting concepts with the pavilions I think of a country or corporation approach them with some money in hand there is a chance they could build something great ever since the late 90s Disney has been pushing for more thrill rides in the park so that makes me think why not build the Mount Fuji right now if you're looking to add more thrill rides and spread out the park with a ticket attractions why not build something that will not only provide similar popularity rivaling Space Mountain but also legitimately fit perfectly into the theming of World Showcase I mean seriously imagine how amazing Japan would look from the opposite side of the lagoon with that coaster building something like that would just make so much sense bananana now instead replacing a universe of energy is Gardens how does this relate to anything in Epcot you know what I miss Ellen seriously Epcot's future world is such a mess right now the Seas looks like it's an early 80s aquarium with Finding Nemo sprinkled around it journey into imagination is like experiencing a car crash wonders of life is still abandoned so is pretty much all of interventions which by the way has the worst color scheme I have ever seen it's a good day when all of test tracks ride system is working Mission space is a 100 million dollar ride that barely sees lines over 20 minutes The Odyssey is still abandoned right right the point is there was some genuinely great ideas that Disney had for Epcot that never made it into the actual park which is a shame Epcot was built and still stands today is one of the most creative and obscure theme parks in the world the park though did see some concepts like Norway only for it to be turned into frozen land and even others like horizons which did have a lot of the concepts from the space pavilion included in the attraction Disney is pouring a lot of money into the park right now perhaps some of the abandoned concepts that seem so promising back then may reemerge and have a second chance for guests to enjoy [Music] if you're looking to build yet another horizons fanpage I have the perfect website builder to do it with seriously though don't make another horizons fanpage there's like 10 of them Squarespace is a phenomenal site that offers tons of fantastic perks you get an all-in-one platform meaning you never have to install any plugins updates or patches they also offer award-winning 24/7 customer support to help you with any problem or question you may have Squarespace is super clean super easy to use and with my special code you can get a free trial and 10% off your first purchase all you need to do is use the link squarespace.com slash b SF I've set up my own site with them which allows everyone to go vote for the next topic of abandoned the topic that has the most votes from my site will get its own video in the future anyway guys my name is Jake follow us on Twitter Instagram and snapchat and thank you very much for watching [Music]

Channel: Bright Sun Films

Views: 1,001,910

Keywords: disney, family, friendly, disney world, Walt Disney World, funny, info, epcot center, Epcot never built, never built, disney company, world showcase, HD, jake williams, brightsunfilms, D23, Florida, 1982, opening day, pavilions, the land, spaceship earth, theme park, abandoned, abandoned theme park, cancelled, china, Japan, past present and future, future world, magic kingdom, monorail, test track, space pavilion, mount fuji roller coaster epcot, matterhorn ride, equatorial africa, 2018

Id: y_V-gIoXr4U

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 15 2017