Happy Anniversary!

[disneyfanatic101]

I would like to be the first to wish Journey Into Imagination a happy 25th anniversary! I found this story on WDW News Today:

Drawing Imagination


For the first part of our series of special articles on Journey into Imagination, I thought we should start even before March 5, 1983. Let’s go back and look at some concept art for the original Journey into Imagination attraction.

In this concept art for the look of the actual pavilion, notice how much taller the building was and how much more detailed the exterior area and entrance seem. If this concept had actually become reality, it probably would have doubled the cost of the actual amount spent on construction of the project. Just imagine, we thought the pavilion and attraction we actually received were well detailed; this version could have been even more amazing.

In this particular piece of art, we see lines of male and female entertainers dancing on our way through the entertainment portion of the attraction. While this part never made it to the original ride, we did get a very cool laser light show hosted by the Dreamfinder. As Imagineering always says “good ideas never die”, and this scene may someday find life inside the Imagination pavilion.

This piece of art ended up being very close to the final scene of the original attraction. This concept art shows Figment (in his originally proposed green colors, story for another day) sitting in a row of movie theater seats, imagining himself in some classic films. Looking closely at the reel of film that was above the heads of guests, it appears that Figment would have been a part of classic films such as Sleeping Beauty, a western, and some kind of sci-fi flick. In the end, we received a scene with clips of the Figment puppet doing some rather funny things such as climbing a mountain and lifting weights.

Well, that’s it for today’s special article. Over the course of the next two weeks, stay tuned for more articles on the Imagination pavilion at Epcot, as we celebrate 25 years of Journey Into Imagination!!!

[Spyne]

I'm a little late on this, but Happy 25th Journey into Imagination! May your imagination continue to spread to everyone.

[BamaJenn]

I guess it's truly the anniversary of the pavillion... I can't call this the anniversary of the attraction because the original is no longer there. Had it been there for 25 years I'd say "Happy Anniversary Journey Into Imagination" but alas, it didn't make it 25 years.

Great to see the concept art though! That last scene was almost dead on (except for the fact that his colors changed - a thing I have to thank Kodak for because Purple just fit).