Future World entertainment in 1996

In 1996, Epcot was celebrating 14 years of existence. That’s newer than Disney’s California Adventure is from the time that I write this (2018-2001=17 years-ish). And to me, DCA (and Animal Kingdom) still seem like new parks!

During the 90s, Epcot began changing from the original intent of the 1980s park to whatever it is today. With Disney and Pixar characters being added everywhere, especially in World Showcase, the park feels more like a light Fantasyland in many ways:

  • A Frozen water/dark ride (Norway).
  • A Three Caballeros dark/water ride (Mexico).
  • A Ratatouille dark ride (under construction in France).
  • …plus all kinds of character meet-and-greet opportunities.

Originally, the attractions were themed to the experiences found in the countries they were in. Today and in the future, it seems they are just more Fantasyland dark rides.

But I digress…

Let’s stick to the Future World section of the park and look at a few entertainment offerings you could find back in 1996.

Do you remember the “visiting family of space aliens” (if I recall the guide description) that appeared and did …this?

August 29, 1996.
August 29, 1996.

At the time, I’d never seen anything quite like it. Saying they were “visiting aliens” was a stretch, but by doing that and putting them in spacey outfits at least gave us some reasoning for why they were in Future World. Since then, I’ve seen dozens of acro-balance acts at Renaissance festivals and other events. But I can at least say “I saw this for the first time at Disney!”

Just like Main Street USA has their “citizens of Main Street,” there were various characters found at the Future World pavilions. This character was in front of Horizons

August 29, 1996.

I have no recollection of what was going on there, but it caught my attention enough to use one of my 99 digital photos I could take that day.

Meanwhile, over near the still-new Test Track, this nerdy scientist character was conducting some cooling experiments…

August 29, 1996.

He had set up a walkway with traffic cones (outlandishly outfitted with caution tape) and was allowing guests to go through his human “car wash” … Yep, he was spraying them with water mist bottles.

With his bowl cut hairdo, his extreme overbite, and stereotypical Asian accent, it was … something.

Epcot had “struggled” for years to not be thought of as a boring park. Changing the slow moving World of Motion to the fast moving Test Track (the fastest ride at Walt Disney World) was probably the first extreme example of this.

But, lesser extreme examples were the park introducing Disney characters quickly after opening (it opened without them), and then adding more and more odd street entertainment like these.

Had I know then direction the park was starting to take, I would have taken many more photos of various other things they had in those years.

Is anything from that era still part of Epcot? Magic Kingdom still has their mayor, but does Epcot still have that guy? 🙂

Until next time…

Leave a Reply