Disney Legend Publicly Calls for New Journey Into Imagination

Once every year or so, old school EPCOT fans get new hope that maybe Walt Disney World will finally do the right thing and reimagine Journey into Imagination. This post details the latest development in the decades-long saga of hope and heartbreak as WDW diehards not-so-anxiously await Figment and Dreamfinder being restored to their former glory.

Normally, I like to start these posts with ‘quick recaps’ of these ongoing stories. That would be impractical here, as there have been many causes for false hope. The biggest came over a decade ago, when there were credible rumors of a year-long refurbishment that ended up being derailed when Frozen was a smash success and Frozen Ever After ate up that budget.

The most recent was a series of videos Disney Parks posted on social media last holiday season featuring Figment arriving to California with a suitcase an idea bag & book and a dream his imagination. In these videos, Figment visits the Walt Disney Studios corporate headquarters in Burbank and Walt Disney Imagineering campus in Glendale. The videos seemed to be teasing something, but over one year later, and it’s been crickets since.

For my part, I don’t believe Walt Disney World is going to announce Journey into Imagination 4.0 with Figment and Dreamfinder anytime soon. I just want to be upfront about this, as my many posts about reimagining Journey into Imagination over the years could be misconstrued as offering false hope.

That is not the intention at all. There are a few subjects I’ll find any excuse to report on without fail as my own form of protest or a pressure campaign. Among those are the Cinderella Castle Dream Lights, Night Parade at Magic Kingdom, Lights of Winter at EPCOT, and the Journey into Imagination Reimagining, among a handful of others. (You can now add “Saving MuppetVision” to that list–rest assured, more posts are coming on that particular topic.)

While I don’t think Walt Disney World is always responsive to fan feedback and complaints, they definitely are sometimes and in the right circumstances. All of those qualify, so we’ll continue to push for these things even if the chances of success are low. It beats doing nothing.

In the case of Journey into Imagination 4.0, the new reason why Walt Disney World is unlikely to proceed with a reimagining is because management hung the ole “mission accomplished” banner with the opening of Spirit Halloween Superstore CommuniCore Hall. With that, they declared the overhaul completed, despite many of its announced projects never being finished.

This perspective was more or less reiterated during the recent D23 Expo. There were tons of announcements for Walt Disney World, including new lands and attractions at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Each of these parks will, conservatively, see hundreds of millions of dollars of investment at minimum. Magic Kingdom could fairly easily eclipse $2 billion depending upon the scale and scope of its new lands.

Meanwhile, the only thing announced for EPCOT was a new lounge inside Spaceship Earth…which takes over a lounge space. Not exactly ambitious. Additionally, new details were revealed about Test Track 3.0, a ride being funded by Chevy Bucks. Suffice to say, the amount of money Disney will invest in EPCOT over the next couple of years is next-to-nothing. The contrast between EPCOT and the other three parks really says all that needs to be said. EPCOT is not the priority–it is deemed “done” for reasons beyond me.

Now that your expectations are properly in check, the latest development is that Disney Legend Josh Gad has publicly called on Walt Disney Imagineering to reimagine Journey into Imagination. For those who are unaware, the real-life Olaf is actually a big Walt Disney World fan, and has been visiting the parks over the last several days for fun as part of his Candlelight Processional hosting duties. (I suspect the reason he agreed to the gig was for the free trip.)

Based on his Instagram account, Gad has made visits to all four parks (including Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party) and even stopped to pay his respects to the GOAT, MuppetVision 3D (his words–but also mine). That’s how you know he’s one of us.

His Walt Disney World exploits obviously included EPCOT, where he posted a photo of Figment from Journey into Imagination: “Hey @waltdisneyimagineering call me. We need to give this guy the ride update he deserves.”

I’m not naive enough to think one celebrity, even a Disney Legend, will make a difference in getting a new Journey into Imagination with a single social media post. This is especially true as famous people have become oddly vocal about Walt Disney World and Disneyland in recent years, expressing some strong and specific opinions.

But maybe Josh Gad should matter? For one thing, he did go out of his way to endorse CEO Bob Iger and the current Disney Board of Directors during the company’s proxy fight with activist investors. An endorsement that might’ve been unsolicited, but probably not.

As noted, he’s also the voice of Olaf, and there are like a half-dozen Frozen sequels (or so it seems) in development. Unless Disney plans on melting-off Olaf in Frozen 7, keeping Gad happy may not be a bad idea. He’s the heart and humor that provide the films needed levity. That reindeer can’t do all the heavy lifting himself.

While I’m skeptical that even a call to CEO Bob Iger from Disney Legend Josh Gad, and star of the company’s biggest franchise at this point, would make any difference in getting Journey into Imagination reimagined, what I can say is that it should. As we’ve said many times and for many years, it’s time to reimagine the Imagination pavilion (Figment called–wants changes!).

That’s hardly a bold assertion–it’s been time for almost two decades. The last version was only a band aid, meant as a quick fix for the truly abysmal second version. That third version–again, a temporary solution–is now the longest-running version of Journey into Imagination.

It’s no secret that even as diehard Figment faithful, we don’t love the current incarnation of the ride. It made our lists of the 10 Worst Attraction Replacements at Walt Disney World and 10 Attractions That Have Aged Poorly at Walt Disney World. We recently (half-heartedly) defended Journey into Imagination as one of several attractions at EPCOT that you should not skip, which is a “controversial” opinion because the attraction truly is divisive.

The current Journey into Imagination has low guest satisfaction scores relative to other rides of its kind. We’ve routinely remarked that first-timers confuse Figment for a Spyro the Dragon knock-off, which is really only a half-joke.

Unless you’re a child of the 1980s or 90s who experienced the original attraction–which has been gone for far longer than it existed!–or are a voracious consumer of Disney history videos, you likely have zero affinity for Figment and might even be confused by why the current character has such a strong fan following. (He doesn’t! It’s the old Figment we love!)

Not only is guest satisfaction low, but the current Journey into Imagination attraction and the pavilion as a whole are underutilized. The ride routinely is a walk-on or has an actual wait time of under 5 minutes. The theater has been showing the Pixar shorts for a while now, which was also meant to be a band aid following the removal of Captain EO. Along with Journey into Imagination 4.0, I can think of few better landing locations for MuppetVision 3D than the Imagination pavilion.

Last year, Disney leadership expressed a desire to increase capacity of the parks by reimagining areas that are currently underused. There are several such spots in EPCOT, but aside from Wonders of Life, I can’t think of any that have as much potential for absorbing more crowds as the Imagination Pavilion. There’s so much untapped potential with Journey into Imagination.

Of course I’m biased, but I think a Journey into Imagination reimagining should’ve been fast-tracked to debut before 2027. Walt Disney World needs more between now and when Tropical Americas opens to offer some semblance of competition to Universal’s Epic Universe. We now know that isn’t going to happen in any meaningful sense.

I also think that Disney is mistaken in its assessment that the half-baked EPCOT overhaul is “over.” I suspect that they are already discovering this via attendance since summer, and that trend will only accelerate as Epic Universe eats into the attendance of Animal Kingdom and EPCOT to disproportionate degrees.

At that point, something will need to be done, and the most likely candidates are reimaginings. Several are possible at EPCOT, as discussed in our List of What EPCOT’s Overhaul Needs in Phase 2. That is unsurprisingly topped by JII4, but also on the list are updates to other former Future World pavilions as well as additions to World Showcase.

This is both my hope and my expectation. Walt Disney World’s current 5-year plan clearly calls for minimal investment in EPCOT as other parks are the focus. I’m skeptical that’s actually possible or practical, and the company might have to divert some of those resources from Magic Kingdom–a park needing no help to begin with–to EPCOT as it becomes apparent the park is not “fixed” from an attendance perspective.

As for when this could happen, well, it depends upon how quickly Disney is disabused of the notion that EPCOT needs no further meaningful investment. It’s possible that this has already happened.

EPCOT has seen consistently low crowds since June, which is ironically enough when the overhaul was completed. With the D23 Expo occurring only a couple of months later, it might’ve been premature for making an announcement.

I’m not that optimistic. Disney is notoriously slow to respond to trends, so it’s more likely that it’ll take until Epic Universe opens. While there’s considerable debate over whether that’ll eat into Walt Disney World attendance or a “rising tide lifts all boats,” our expectation is that it’ll be a bit of both. That Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios will benefit, whereas EPCOT and (especially) Animal Kingdom will suffer. (The average family only has so many vacation days to allocate to theme parks, and that number is under 4.)

Realistically, that puts the earliest conceivable announcement of Journey into Imagination 4.0 at the 2025 Destination D23 event at Walt Disney World, which will occur over Labor Day weekend. Given that it’s only a few months after Epic Universe opens, that is probably still too soon for Figment news, but it all depends on how bad the ‘damage’ is for EPCOT.

Disney could scramble to greenlight and make a splashy but surface-level Journey into Imagination announcement at the event. Given that the 2025 Destination D23 is happening at Walt Disney World, the home crowd would go absolutely nuts over the news. Again, I don’t want to give false hope–this is probably unrealistic. They’ll actually announce Wonders of Life being replaced by a Cars Bar instead.

Honestly, I’m kind of okay if it does take Walt Disney World until the early 2030s to reimagine Journey into Imagination.

CommuniCore Hall is a joke. World Celebration is about as inspired as an office park in Anytown, USA. Festival overlays since the overhaul finished have been pathetic. If this is the best current EPCOT can offer, then it’s not up to the task of redoing Journey into Imagination.

As I’ve said before, I still have faith in Walt Disney Imagineering. Their work-product elsewhere demonstrates that they are not the problem. I have far less faith in the executives at the helm. If past precedent is any indication, Imagineers are going to get one crack at a Journey into Imagination overhaul in the next two decades. As a fan playing the long game, I want that to be a fantastic reimagining. While I’d love for my daughter to enjoy it while she’s young, I’d rather have it be done well than done fast. Maybe that means outwaiting current management.

As we’ve said before, the final reason why a reimagining of Journey into Imagination could and should happen is repairing relations with fans and positive PR. As pent-up demand continues to fade, attendance drops and Epic Universe opens, Walt Disney World will need the diehards more than it did a few years ago.

For Bob Iger, getting Journey into Imagination 4.0 greenlit should be a no-brainer move. Although it’s unlikely he himself is a Figment fan, Iger has demonstrated upon returning that he does care (somewhat) about guest goodwill and fan disenchantment–but there’s much more work to be done on that front. Much more importantly (to him), Iger is concerned about his legacy.

Then there’s Josh D’Amaro, who is allegedly in the running as a successor CEO. Fans have viewed D’Amaro favorably over the last few years in spite of all that’s happened, largely because Chapek has taken the blame–and D’Amaro is much more likeable. But the tides are starting to turn–and that’s despite a huge slate of D23 Expo announcements. D’Amaro has yet to prove himself (his track record at this point is basically just CommuniCore Hall and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure), and a reimagined Journey into Imagination could help raise his stock.

Bringing back Figment and Dreamfinder is a surefire way of undoing a lot of the outrage and brand damage from the last few years, quieting the complaints and criticism. I can’t think of any other single positive announcement that would outweigh so many prior negatives ones. A lot would be forgiven by fans in the blink of an eye. We’d win, the executives who want to bolster their statures would win. Everybody wins.

An overhaul of Journey into Imagination would be both a legacy project and something that would define the otherwise underwhelming World Celebration neighborhood of the EPCOT transformation, tying it together into a more cohesive project. Figment would become the face and mascot of the new-look EPCOT, elevating the otherwise underwhelming central spine in the process. Not only that, but Figment has already “proven” that he can really move merchandise and is a highly successful meet & greet character. Walt Disney World has done enough dipping its toes into the pool to test the popularity of Figment. It’s beyond time for a redone ride.

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of Disney Legend Josh Gad’s public plea for a reimagining of the Imagination Pavilion? Do you think JII4 will be announced at the 2025 Destination D23? Or is this just more false hope for fans? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment that now is the second-most logical time for a Journey into Imagination overhaul? Any questions? Hearing from you is half the fun, so please share your thoughts in the comments!