I was planning for my next post to be an article about the recently-announced Superman/Batman movie and my opinions on it. But the Internet had other ideas. Specifically, the section of the Internet that concerns itself with Walt Disney World.
It’s currently ablaze with the idea that EPCOT’s Imagination pavilion will shortly become the home of the Disney Channel’s Phineas & Ferb. A lot of people are acting as though this is an officially announced thing that is for sure going to happen, and this has led to no small amount of agonized wailing and hand-wringing. So before somebody gives themselves an aneurysm over this Phineas & Ferb thing, let me say something:
IT IS A COMPLETELY UNSUBSTANTIATED RUMOR
The way it started was, a guy on the WDWMagic message boards who has a proven track record of providing accurate inside information said that Imagination would be closing for at least a year, that there would be some kind of refurbishment, and that the refurbishment would involve the removal of Captain EO. Nothing was said about what might replace the current ride-through attraction and post-show. So people began speculating.
One speculation was that some kind of Phineas & Ferb attraction would be installed. Actually, there have been speculations about this for quite a while, based simply on the fact that the current Imagination attraction is horribly unpopular, Phineas & Ferb are a successful Disney Channel property, and Disney likes to use its theme parks to promote its film and television properties.
So when it was suggested that the Imagination pavilion would finally be getting some kind of refurbishment, the Phineas & Ferb speculation popped up anew, and was repeated over and over again until it blossomed into a full-blown rumor. Then various Disney fan websites picked up on these speculations and reported them either as fact or at least as credible rumors. Sometimes these pretend journalists even attributed the story to “sources", which infers that the source is within the Walt Disney Company, when in fact it was just some yahoo on a message board.
So, final sum-up:
- The Phineas & Ferb thing is just an unsubstantiated rumor
- In fact, the Imagination pavilion’s closing and subsequent refurbishment hasn’t been officially announced, and so that’s a rumor, too, albeit a more substantiated one because it comes from a credible source.
- Just because an unsubstantiated rumor is repeated a whole bunch of times does not make it true.
- We have no real idea what form any refurbishment of the Imagination pavilion may take, except that Captain EO is almost definitely going away.
- Everyone should just chill out until we have more information.
That is all. Thank you and happy Internetting!
I know this is just a rumor, though common sense indicates that they have to do something with Imagination. It's getting no crowds even on the busiest days and is valuable real estate next to Soarin'. While I wouldn't be thrilled by a Phineas and Ferb re-do, the current incarnation sets the bar very low. If they expand the ride and re-open the upstairs as a post-show, it would work for me. One of the main issues with the current ride is that it's short and wastes so much of the space in the building. I'm glad to even hear rumors of something happen given the lack of attention from the top brass towards Future World.
ReplyDelete>> Disney likes to use its theme parks to promote its film and television properties. <<
ReplyDeleteOr could it be that the converse is equally as true; that Disney uses its film and television properties to provide content for their theme park attractions? It always seemed that way back in Walt's days, and it makes sense to use things that 1.) they already own and 2.) are already quite popular.
I've watched more than a few Phineas and Ferb episodes with my boys (11 and 13) and they love those guys. It's sort of a weird dynamic where the things that P and F do sort of inspire my boys to think creatively and do things themselves sometimes. So I think they could do far worse than use these characters, whose whole show is about imagination and turning what you dream about into realities (however unrealistic), for the basis of a new Imagination pavilion ride (if Disney should actually go that way)...
Excellent post! As much as I love the Disney blogger community, I'm often disappointed in the number of times I see rumors passed off as confirmed news. (People who use images/information without attribution is another pet peeve, but that's another story.) Imagination is no doubt due for a refurb, whether in the manner rumored here or in some other way. But capitalizing on rumors to drum up page views is a practice I just can't get behind.
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