(‘Interview with Ron Schneider, the Original Dreamfinder - Defunctland Podcast, 11/8/17’)
KEVIN The Journey into Imagination is not gone. And that’s one thing that I’m hesitant to do episodes on for Defunctland, because it’s still there…kind of. I mainly do episodes for just extinct rides. But do you consider, Ron, that it’s gone? Do you think that the original intention, the original ride is gone, or do you think…
SCHNEIDER It’s gone. It’s completely gone.
KEVIN (chuckles)
SCHNEIDER The story, the message…see, EPCOT Center was supposed to be an inspirational park. The Imagination Pavilion showed you where everything else in EPCOT came from - where everything in the world came from. Because it comes from imagination, from creativity. And so that’s gone. That is gone.
(Opening credits set to an upbeat new wave cover of 'One Little Spark'.) --- (Chapter 1: Professor Marvel’s Gallery)
KEVIN On October 1st, 1982, the second park at Walt Disney World opened to the public. The then-named EPCOT Center was the third Disney park to be built, and the first to stray away from the Magic Kingdom’s style. The Imagineers took EPCOT in a different direction than Walt Disney’s original Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, choosing to create a theme park reminiscent of a classic World’s Fair. While Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom promoted the idea of fantasy and the power of story, EPCOT would showcase the importance of technological and cultural progress.
In the Future World section of the park, pavilions were planned themed around concepts supporting society, such as transportation, energy, communication, technology, and the environment. However, there was an outlier: a large building featuring two large glass pyramids, named the Imagination Pavilion. It was much less tangible an idea than the ocean or computers, but the execution made its inclusion clear, and its development had started a decade prior.
(A Disneyland documentary.)
ANNOUNCER Walt Disney’s pledge that Disneyland would never be completed now rests with a new generation of designers, like Tony Baxter.
BAXTER I started with Disneyland back in my first year of college, and I was employed out there as an ice cream scooper. And it wasn’t that I wanted to scoop ice cream, but I really wanted to work at Disneyland.
KEVIN In the mid-1970s, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was entering development at Disneyland. The project was the first spearheaded by Imagineering legend Tony Baxter. It was to replace the Mine Train Thru Nature’s Wonderland, a Frontierland train ride featuring animated animals. This took up a lot of the area’s land, and the plans for Big Thunder still left plenty of space for other attractions.
BAXTER Disneyland has around eighty developed acres. In addition to that are these thirty, thirty five acres up here that have nothing in them.
KEVIN Baxter didn’t want to leave this section of the park un-utilized, so he created an extension to Big Thunder’s story that would provide a wonderful blueprint for a new land, to be named Discovery Bay. Since Big Thunder Mountain had gold within in, Baxter concocted a story of what the lucky miners would do after finding the fortune. The man that survived the mine’s collapse was Jason Chandler, a young innovator that would continue to head west with his wealth, founding Discovery Bay and funding the inventions of the explorers and scientists that resided there. This steampunk dream would feature attractions such as a Nautilus simulator and underwater restaurant, a dark ride shooter inside of a fireworks factory, and an attraction called ‘Professor Marvel’s Gallery of Wonders.’
This animatronic show was to feature the unique carousel theater rotating show building that other Disney attractions the Carousel of Progress and America Sings utilized. The compelling inventor Professor Marvel would put on a musical showcase featuring his wacky experiments and his fantastical animals, one of which was his trusty pet dragon.
BAXTER Discovery Bay is kind of a once-only place in time. It’s a Victorian place that occurred at the turn of the century. It’s the kind of place that Jules Verne or H.G. Wells might have inhabited. So you’ll actually be able to, for instance, board the Nautilus and have a very elegant meal down below the water while you’re being serenaded on the pipe organ and looking out at all the scenic wonders of the ocean floor from those overhead windows. This is just one of the adventures that might go in here. There’s, like I said, a flight on an aerial-suspended monorail system that looks like a dirigible, and a time machine.
KEVIN The Discovery Bay concept was announced in 1976, but it unfortunately never came to fruition. Disney had a lot on their plate as they neared the new decade, including the construction of EPCOT and their first park overseas, Tokyo Disneyland. This and the failure of the 1974 film, an adaption of Jules Verne’s The Island at the Top of the World, is most likely the reason that Discovery Bay does not rest along the Rivers of America today. But Baxter’s concepts were too unique and interesting to be forgotten, and he attempted to implement them into his next project. --- (Chapter 2: The Land)
As development on EPCOT began, Baxter was given the opportunity to design the Land Pavilion, which was to be sponsored by a logging company. Baxter’s design put emphasis on agriculture and mankind’s usage of resources, all while displaying the beauty of Earth’s nature. The show building was comprised of seven towering crystals, five of which would feature different environments that guests could walk through. The pavilion’s main attraction was to be called ‘The Blueprints of Nature,’ a suspended dark ride that took guests on a hot air balloon ride over the different habitats of the world. The finale of the ride would lift guests through the largest crystal to give them a view of the walkthrough habitats surrounding the pavilion. This was Baxter’s attempt to salvage a concept for a Discovery Bay attraction, the Western Balloon Ascent, that would have allowed guests breathtaking views while transporting them to Fantasyland.
The original Land Pavilion was another brilliant concept by Baxter, but once again, it was not to be. The Land lost its sponsor, and Kraft Foods quickly replaced them. Kraft was more interested in a pavilion focused on agriculture and food production, and Baxter’s concept was scrapped in favor of attractions such as Living with the Land and the now-defunct Kitchen Kabaret. Of course, Baxter wasn’t about to let his ideas die, and his third attempt was the charm. --- (Chapter 3: Something Imaginative)
(1950s Kodak commercial featuring Disneyland.)
WOMAN Hello. We’re having a wonderful time, and best of all, we’ll be saving all of it to enjoy again and again. You can, too, with a Brownie movie camera like this. I was just taking a picture of Dave and Ricky on Tom Sawyer’s raft. Now I’ll get one of Ozzie enjoying himself in his own way.
(Picture of her husband sleeping on a bench.)
That picture’ll be a big hit at our house.
ANNOUNCER You can get a Brownie movie camera for only $32.50, or as little as $3.50 down. Remember: Brownie movie cameras are made by Kodak, and the surest way to better movies is to insist on that name - Kodak.
KEVIN Kodak, a longtime sponsor of Disney parks, was set to sponsor the pavilion located directly south of the Land Pavilion. The topic had not been chosen for the pavilion, and Kodak just wished for something imaginative. This caused Baxter to consider reviving another concept from Discovery Bay: Professor Marvel and his pet dragon, who would lead guests on a ride signifying the importance of imagination. Baxter’s team were aware audiences would not enjoy a lecture on the concept, so they did their best to create a world of fantasy that would inspire guests to use their own imaginations.
The ride was able to use some of the steampunk-era designs left over from Discovery Bay, and they even snuck a few hot air balloons and fireworks in there as well. Baxter tweaked the story of the professor and dragon into the memorable Dreamfinder and Figment. Dreamfinder would be a friendly bearded man with a Santa Claus-esque jolliness to him, and Figment would be a cute dragon that Dreamfinder had conjured from his creativity. Baxter recalls that he got the idea for Figment from an episode of the television series Magnum P.I., where a character whose lawn had been chewed by a goat was told that it was a figment of his imagination.
(Clip of the episode in question.)
MAN And don’t tell me it’s a figment of my imagination. Figments don’t eat rare tropical flowers. Mine have been decimated.
KEVIN Baxter became enthralled by the word, as it was easily recognizable yet not fully utilized in any major way at the time. The late Imagineer X Atencio and others also had a part in bringing the Figment that audiences found when the attraction opened to life - with his two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow, horn[s] of a steer, and a lovable fellow.
After the ride’s topic and characters were created, the Imagineers created various sections of the dark ride, each focusing on a different medium that imagination helps create. The original theme song of the ride was recorded by frequent Disney songwriter Robert Mullen.
(Excerpt from the song in question - a folksy acoustic guitar piece.)
MULLEN Let’s all take a journey into imagination Where inspiration goes far beyond our world of space and time
KEVIN But this was rejected, and the even more frequent Disney songwriters, the Sherman Brothers, were hired instead. They composed the theme song, entitled ‘One Little Spark,’ that had different variations sung throughout the ride.
The attraction was originally to have two steep drops to add some excitement to the ride system, but these were removed during construction. The attraction also featured a unique variation to the classic Omnimover ride system used in many Disney attractions. This version included separate four-car trains that could move at different speeds independently from other trains at different points in the ride. The attraction was to have fog machines to give the illusion that guests that floating on a cloud, but these did not last long, as the fog would have damaged the sets.
With the elements designed and construction beginning, Journey into Imagination was already showing its brilliance. But EPCOT’s opening day was approaching fast, and the Imagineers were far behind schedule. --- (Chapter 4: Behind the Glass)
(A news story covering the opening of the ride.)
ANCHORMAN (BRIAN) As we talk about tomorrow, here’s a bulletin for you: there is no imagination crisis here in this country, especially here at Disney World. We’ve gathered a panel of imagination experts just to prove it.
DREAMFINDER Hello there, Brian! Good to have you here at EPCOT.
BRIAN And who is Dreamfinder?
DREAMFINDER (CREDITED AS ‘HARRY BRAVERMAN, DISNEY IMAGINEER’) Well, I’m kind of the host of the Journey into Imagination show out here at EPCOT Center. I traveled all over the universe collecting the stuff dreams are made of - sounds, colors, ideas…anything that sparks the imagination. And I store these sparks into the Journey into Imagination pavilion. And the guests and I recombine them into new ideas and new inspirations.
BRIAN I am left to assume that you do not dream alone. Who’s you’re little friend?
DREAMFINDER Oh, this is actually something I dreamed up. This is my Figment. (Looks toward Figment) And I’m very proud of you. You see, I threw together the two tiny wings, the nose of a crocodile, the horns of a dilemma, and all the calm and reserve of a small child’s birthday party.
KEVIN The Imagination Pavilion began construction a mere fifteen months before EPCOT’s opening. The pavilion was to feature three main attractions: the signature dark ride, its post-show, and the 3D film Magic Journeys. Per Kodak’s contract with Disney, one of these three attractions was required to operate on opening day. Journey into Imagination was experiencing a few snags with construction on top of the already short window the team was given to create the ride. Journey’s post-show, the interactive playground ImageWorks, featured state-of-the-art interactive technology. The Imagineers hadn’t worked out all of the kinks in the complex walkthrough attraction, so it wouldn’t be ready for EPCOT’s October 1st opening, either. Finally, the 3D film Magic Journeys, also using groundbreaking technology to create 3D effects, was running behind schedule. The Imagineers were out of options. Something had to be open at the pavilion.
Their solution was to shoot a short promotional film using the strolling Dreamfinder, played by Ron Schneider, who was still developing the popular walk-around character at the time. The short film was to play in the Magic Eye Theater, and was to show a preview of the unfinished Magic Journeys. --- (Clip from the promotional video.)
DREAMFINDER My impatient young friend, you can’t rush creativity. It takes time to do things right.
FIGMENT (PLACEHOLDER VOICE) Uh-huh. And isn’t now the time for a preview of the Magic Journeys film?
DREAMFINDER By golly, you’re right! I better hurry along!
(Dreamfinder rushes through the still-under-construction pavilion, lending a hand here and there where he can. He takes a film canister from one of the Imagineers and runs it to the theater…and falls off a ledge into an entire pile of canisters. He slowly emerges with a pair of 3D glasses.)
FIGMENT Now, Dreamfinder? The glasses?
DREAMFINDER Now, Figment. (He puts his glasses on.) And all our friends in the audience, too. With special glasses on, now we can all enjoy a preview of Magic Journeys. --- KEVIN However, this film was not used, because less than a week before EPCOT’s opening, Magic Journeys was ready. Two months later, ImageWorks would open the pavilion’s main doors. Visitors would walk past the queue for the unfinished dark ride, make their way up the stairs, and be given a view of EPCOT through the glass pyramids. They could then enter the playground of the future.
There were a variety of activities in which guests could interact with technology. This included Dreamfinder’s School of Drama, an attraction that allowed guests to star in a movie with Dreamfinder via a prerecorded film and blue screens. In these films, Dreamfinder was played by the then-young Imagineer Joe Rhodie. Guests were given the option of three films: Enchanted Travelers: Wily Wizard the Cranky King, a fantasy; Deputies and the Return of Sagebrush, a western; or Acrobatic Astronauts and the Galactic Getaway, a sci-fi film. During the 2013 D23 Expo, Tony Baxter gave a presentation on the former attractions at Disney parks. Included was an early test of the western overlay of Dreamfinder’s School of Drama starring Baxter and his Imagineering team. --- (At the Expo, they put the film up on the screen behind them; the visuals come on, but the audio does not.)
BAXTER This is Joe Rhodie, in case you didn’t know.
CO-PRESENTER We have audio.
BAXTER Audio?
(The volume turns on.)
DREAMFINDER …of Drama! With the help of this magical blue stage - and your imagination - we’re going to travel back to the days of the Old West!
(His top hat turns into a cowboy hat as saloon-style music plays. He wipes the screen to transition to the movie.
Baxter and Friends hang out at the saloon bar. A cowboy in black barges in.)
BAD COWBOY ‘Scuse me.
(They get up on top of the bar. He shoots at them; they dodge in hammy fashion.)
BAXTER We were all twelve.
CO-PRESENTER This was pretty advanced, though, even up into the ‘90s.
BAXTER Yeah, for 1980, to sandwich live video between a foreground plate and a background plate and do it every four minutes all day long was pretty, pretty advanced. We shot this all at the Billy Graham Studios in Hollywood - non-union - and a lot of the performers there worked at Disneyland, and all the costuming came from Disneyland Costuming. And Joe we got for free.
(Baxter and friends are superimposed onto a train chase.)
DREAMFINDER We can catch him!
(They catch the bandit with a lasso.)
DREAMFINDER Grab the rope, then tug!
BAXTER Right, Tony, right! --- KEVIN Guests could also manipulate giant kaleidoscopes mounted on the wall. The Electronic Philharmonic allowed guests to conduct an orchestra by waving their hands within a sensor. On the other side of this was the dressing room for the strolling Dreamfinders. The Magic Palette allowed guests to draw on pictures on computer screens. Probably the most famous part of ImageWorks was the entrance to the Sensor Maze, the Rainbow Corridor. This was used in a lot of promotional material, and also provided the backdrop to a famous picture of Michael Jackson. These are just a few of the interactive attractions ImageWorks offered, and the lineup was updated and changed throughout the years.
The pavilion was also known for its array of fountains located in front of the entrance. The Jumping and Leapfrog Fountains provided the perfect introduction to the tone of the pavilion as guests approached it.
Five months after EPCOT’s opening, Imagineers were putting the finishing touches on the dark ride. Figment and Dreamfinder had already been introduced to guests through promotional material, strolling actors, and the various attractions in ImageWorks. But with the grand opening of the ride approaching, they were about to become legends. --- (Chapter 5: Journey into Imagination)
(1982 EPCOT Center opening TV special.)
DANNY KAYE Where do you come from originally?
ROBOT I come from somebody’s imagination, where all wonderful and incredibly fantastic things come from.
DREW BARRYMORE (age 7) He hasn’t been programmed for modesty.
KAYE I think you’re absolutely right. Somebody was telling me about a character named Dreamfinder who lives in the Imagination Pavilion.
ROBOT That is correct, Master Kaye.
KAYE Yeah. And he is the latest creation, I hear, and a real expert on the subject of creativity.
ROBOT Uh-huh.
KAYE Do you suppose I could meet him?
ROBOT Your wish is my command, Master Kaye.
(Dreamfinder and Figment are teleported to them.)
Dreamfinder, this is Master Kaye and Drew. Drew and Master Kaye, meet the keeper of the sparks of imagination, Dreamfinder.
DREAMFINDER It’s nice to meet you! And this is my assistant and good ride-on, Figment.
KAYE I understand you’re in charge of some very creative things. I would think that would be terribly interesting.
(Ride and postshow footage.)
DREAMFINDER Right you are, for right in there, imagination’s everywhere! The visions once inside your head exist inside that place instead. Imagination is my game, the sparks of which ignite the flame of your own creativity. And that’s real great for you and me!
ROBOT Couldn’t have said it better myself. Want to go inside?
KAYE I sure do.
(Transition to more ride footage.)
ANNOUNCER Journey into Imagination has Dreamfinder and his impish friend Figment whisking you through words, sounds, colors, and facts that lead you to new ideas and thoughts. After Figment and Dreamfinder, you’re left to test your own skills of imagination. --- KEVIN On March 5th, 1983, four months after ImageWorks opened, Journey into Imagination would debut. Guests lined up and faced long wait times to embark on their flight of fantasy. Guests entering the pavilion were immediately confronted with the loading station. After boarding, they would encounter a projected silhouette of Dreamfinder on his elaborate flying vehicle, the Dreamcatcher. The vehicles then enter a giant turntable, with the cars turning to face the center, where the Dreamfinder himself welcomes guests by singing ‘One Little Spark’ and introducing Figment.
This turntable was the most unique element of the ride. The Omnimover vehicles locked into the scene, moving along the circular path perfectly with the Dreamcatcher. There were actually five identical scenes created, all playing simultaneously. This means five Dreamfinders, five Dreamcatchers, five of everything was encompassed in the carousel. Walls separated the sections, as the effects and sounds from the scenes ahead and behind would have bled into one another.
This long scene lasted around three minutes before guests exited the turntable and exited into the Dreamport to deposit all of the ideas that Figment and the Dreamfinder had created. The Dreamport featured wacky measurement tools and odd contraptions used to capture the sparks of inspiration.
Guests then entered the art section, a beautifully sculpted room in which the Dreamfinder and Figment used their imaginations to create works of art, with Dreamfinder holding a giant glowing paintbrush. The murals and sculptures were brightly lit with changing colors.
After the guests twisted through the art section, they would enter the realm of literature. Here, they encountered Dreamfinder playing an organ made of letters. He sang as he wrote a mystery novel. This area is much more dark and sinister than the previous section, but this is only because Dreamfinder has imagined it so. A fun effect in this room was Figment holding three blocks spelling ‘cat,’ with the projection behind him changing from a cat to a bat as he turned the block to spell the new word.
The next section was performance, a much more lively area featuring Figment in a tuxedo and Dreamfinder conducting a light show. Next was a dark, futuristic area for science, with Figment dressed as a hitchhiking astronaut. Dreamfinder was in a lab coat doing research by viewing educational films. There was also a projection of an animated Figment, his body size being manipulated as he learns the power of dreams.
Guests then enter the final show scene. The vehicles rotated around Figment, accompanied by videos playing puppet versions of himself using his imagination in different ways, singing the chorus of ‘One Little Spark’ alone for the first time. Guests then see Dreamfinder for the final time behind a giant camera filming Figment, inviting guests to use their imaginations in the ImageWorks. Guests then disembark and exit the ride.
Journey into Imagination was one of Disney’s longest and most elaborate dark rides of all time. Dreamfinder and Figment would become a highlight of guests’ trips, and make frequent appearances in special events and television specials. There was something for everyone, between the state-of-the-art technology and effects, the beautiful sculptures and artwork, the lovable Dreamfinder and Figment, and the unforgettable Sherman Brothers song. It was truly one of the greatest rides ever produced by Disney…and it all started with Tony Baxter’s one little spark of imagination.
However, on October 10th, 1998, EPCOT’s beacon of creativity and wonder would be extinguished. The closure of Journey into Imagination perplexed guests, and its replacement turned that confusion into full-on outrage. How could this have possibly happened, and what…or who…was responsible?
MARK FROM YESTERWORLD The story continues on Yesterworld, where you can watch the second and final part to the history of Journey into Imagination, picking up right where Kevin left off. We’ll explore the events that led to the attraction’s closure, its controversial successors, as well as the fate of Dreamfinder, Figment, and the Imagination Pavilion as a whole. Click here to watch Part 2 now. --- (Clip from a television special.) DREAMFINDER Well, a dream never spoils, Figment. Because every time you dream it, it becomes as new and fresh as the day it was born! So keep dreaming your dreams out there! We'll keep them safe here until they come true. And they will! (chuckles) Goodbye! Say goodbye, Figment.