Today Epcot is celebrating it's 25th Anniversary!Epcot is the second theme park built at the WALT DISNEY WORLD® Resort near Orlando, Florida. It was dedicated to international culture and technological innovation. The park opened on October 1, 1982, and was named EPCOT Center from 1982 to 1993. It was the largest Disney theme park in the world by area until 1998, when Disney's Animal Kingdom® opened.
The theme park originally was known as EPCOT Center to reflect the fact that the park was built to embody the ideals and values of EPCOT the city. In 1994, the name was changed to Epcot '94 and subsequently Epcot '95 a year later. By 1996, the park was known simply as Epcot, a non-acronym, mixed-case word.
The original plans for the park showed indecision over what the park's purpose was to be: some Imagineers wanted it to represent the cutting edge of technology, while others wanted it to showcase international cultures and customs. At one point a model of the futuristic park was pushed together against a model of the international park, and EPCOT Center was born—a theme park with the flavor of a World's Fair.
The Walt Disney Classics Collection has released two sculptures representing Epcot since 2005. Figment (pictured above) was a Limited Edition release of 500 sculpted available at a WALT DISNEY WORLD® Resort Signing Breakfast with Bruce Lau on September 08, 2005.
Happy Birthday EPCOT Center!!
ReplyDeleteWish I was there today. Would love to have gotten one of the guidemaps. Very retro looking for today only. Hopefully they will continue with the merchandise for a year. If not, will have to work on friends who might be going down. Hopefully some new and exciting things will happen with the fiscal 08 budgets for EPCOT Center. Like a name change back to the original. Like getting rid of the purple awnings. Like adding another country. Like adding more attractions to existing countries.
Hopefully it will be an exciting year.
Let's hope we'll see more WDCC Figment! I'd love to see Kitchen Kabaret characters in WDCC!
ReplyDeleteFrom our discussions, would love to see them relook at some of the original plans and reconsider adding some of those countries and rides that never happened.
ReplyDeleteI personally have just started to appreciate Epcot and enjoying reading and learning a lot about that park that I wasn't aware.
Wish I could have been there! Was there for the Magic Kingdom 25th and Disneyland's 50th. Hope it was a fun day for all who were lucky to attend.
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