It’s Time to Reimagine Journey into Imagination.
Disney Parks has posted a series of videos featuring Figment arriving to California with a suitcase an idea bag & book and a dream his imagination. In these videos, the character visits the Walt Disney Studios corporate headquarters in Burbank and Walt Disney Imagineering campus in Glendale.
The first in a series of five videos features Figment letting his imagination run wild in Legends Plaza in front of the Team Disney headquarters (the Michael Eisner or “Seven Dwarfs” building–where Bob Iger and the other c-suite head honchos work). In the second video, Figment meets a superfan of his (keen eyes should recognize that bench). The third features Figment unloading a bunch of unimaginative junk from a bag at a security checkpoint.
In the fifth video, Figment demonstrates the five senses by visiting various areas of the studio. He checks out the multiplane camera on display in the lobby, smells food in the commissary, etc. Most notably, Figment touches former Imagineer Tony Baxter’s handprints on his Disney Legends plaque. For those who are unfamiliar with him, Baxter created Figment for the original Journey Into Imagination attraction at EPCOT and has been quite vocal in recent years about getting a crack at redoing the ride.
The final video is the culmination of everything that came before it, with the character carrying a notepad labeled Figment’s Book of Ideas. He walks through the halls of the headquarters and meets with employees, before finally walking through the doors of the storied Walt Disney Imagineering building in Glendale.
D23 followed up with their own videos that remix the same footage of Figment at the Walt Disney Studios and Imagineering headquarters, while also adding shots of Figment with the statues in Legends Plaza and touching Marty Sklar’s plaque.
We’ll start with the obvious, which is that Disney hasn’t announced anything in or alongside these videos. Absolutely nothing official has been said about Journey into Imagination getting a fourth version. They’re toying with us.
They know they’re toying with us, too. Despite cliches about social media accounts being “run by interns,” that’s not how any of it actually works with Disney. A series of posts like this would be workshopped, involve (multiple) meetings across departments, and go through layers of approval. None of this is done on a lark. It’s all purposeful and strategic.
Disney knows exactly what they’re doing by ending on a shot of Figment entering Walt Disney Imagineering, the reactions and emotions it’ll evoke from fans. That’s precisely the point. They want the speculation. The buzz. The hope. The blog posts like this one. (Hey, it’s not falling into a trap if we jump into it willingly!)
Whether the video actually means something or is teasing at an announcement to come is anyone’s guess. I’ve heard some fans speculate that this relates to the upcoming Seth Rogen Figment film. I’m highly skeptical of that being the case. For one thing, that movie was never officially announced and it’s been over a year since we’ve heard anything about it. In between, Disney has cut back significantly on streaming production, and then there were writers’ and actors’ strikes, the latter of which was literally just resolved.
Even if the film is still in development (a huge “if”), this doesn’t seem like the time to share or tease an update on it. This also doesn’t seem like the way of doing so. These videos focus on Tony Baxter and Marty Sklar, two Imagineering legends well-known for being instrumental to EPCOT Center. It also ends with Figment ending the Imagineering building.
Admittedly, reading anything into the videos is probably unwise. But if you’re going to draw conclusions, the video is leading you towards ones about EPCOT, not a movie.
Funny story: we can’t have candles anymore because Yossarian the Cat likes to “play” with the flame and kept burning himself. On a totally unrelated note, my sincere belief is that Disney Parks is purposefully teasing an upcoming announcement for a reimagining of Journey into Imagination at EPCOT. I’ll be the first admit that’s colored by me very much wanting to believe. (I’m like Mulder and UFOs, but with way worse luck!)
I’ve held out hope for a Journey into Imagination reimagining for years, and been burned by a number of rumors and announcements that never came to fruition. (I still can’t watch Frozen without thinking about what could have been had that movie not been a smash hit.) Point being, what I think will or should happen should not be taken seriously by anyone.
With that said, assuming for the sake of argument that a Journey into Imagination reimagining were going to happen, I think this is probably how it would look. Josh D’Amaro wouldn’t just mention it in passing as one of the quick hits during the Disney Parks Panel at the 2024 D23 Expo.
The company would build up to the announcement with a bunch of breadcrumbs and a series of teases over the course of months, telegraphing their intentions to make such a reveal to generate excitement and pack the Anaheim audience with diehard EPCOT fans. The reveal itself would be as splashy as possible, getting Tony Baxter and Figment (and Dreamfinder, if he’s to be involved) on stage to share the news as the grand finale of the Parks Panel.
With the 2024 D23 Expo happening August 9-11, this is about the time those teases might start. So now it’s a matter of seeing what else happens in the coming months.
While I cannot say whether this is false hope or a sincere sign that Journey into Imagination is being reimagined, what I can say is that it should be. That it’s time to reimagine the Imagination pavilion (Figment called–wants changes!). That’s hardly a bold assertion–it’s been time for well over a decade. The last version was only a band aid, meant as a quick fix for the truly abysmal second version.
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.
Earlier this 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.
This approach to growing attendance without expanding makes a tremendous amount of sense. Although CEO Bob Iger and Parks Chairman Josh D’Amaro have touted a plan to invest $17 billion in Walt Disney World and another plan to double investment to $60 billion in Disney Parks over the next decade, they’ve also conceded that the spending will start slower and ramp up in the back half of the decade.
As we’ve pointed out repeatedly, Disney has too much debt and not enough liquidity to front-load spending. This means that whatever the 10-year plan is for Disney’s Park & Resorts, it’s necessarily backloaded. That’s why this blog has focused on figuring out streaming, ESPN, linear television, etc. It’s not that we really care about those divisions–we’re parks fans first and foremost–it’s that all of that is a prerequisite before investing in Walt Disney World.
That alone puts the start of expansion plans in late 2024 or 2025. This doesn’t mean Disney won’t announce big plans earlier, but we likely won’t see significant construction on anything until then. Spending probably doesn’t start in earnest until October 2024 or maybe even 2025. That’s the point at which we’d expect work to begin on the Tropical Americas at Animal Kingdom, meaning you probably have (at least) another year to ride Dinosaur.
To that point, there’s also a reason why Walt Disney World will start with Tropical Americas rather than the ‘Beyond Big Thunder’ project in Magic Kingdom. Well for one thing, Animal Kingdom is in much more urgent need of help. But the other big reason is that Tropical Americas is mostly a reimagining rather than a fresh build, and can be accomplished much, much faster. (While we hope there’s a brand-new Encanto ride in this land, there’s no guarantee of that.)
But this is a post about EPCOT and Journey into Imagination, not Animal Kingdom. Getting to the point, if you look at the current Disney Parks Project Timeline, you’ll notice absolutely no major attractions on the horizon after Tiana’s Bayou Adventure opens in 2024. If rumors are to be believed and that attraction is able to open early, that leaves at least a 2-year gap between that attraction and Tropical Americas.
In that time, Universal is opening Epic Universe in Summer 2025. Walt Disney World won’t have a direct ‘answer’ to that new park. Whether they should is another topic for another day. But it’s already too late for a new ride or land to debut at Walt Disney World alongside Epic Universe. That ship sailed at least a year ago.
About the only thing that could be accomplished in that timeframe is ride reimaginings. Personally, I’m skeptical even that’s sufficient time for any unannounced projects, but it’s at least plausible. A redone Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster could be done in 6-8 months and would be a colossal draw with mainstream audiences.
Over at EPCOT, revisiting Wonders of Life with Inside Out 2 would be a perfect fit for that pavilion, and provide a needed family-friendly option for World Discovery. Meanwhile, a reimagined Journey into Imagination would be a huge hit with fans and revitalize that corner of EPCOT.
So the timeline makes sense, and reimaginings certainly fit with Disney’s plans to invest $60 billion–but less of that up front. (I know a lot of Walt Disney World fans won’t like hearing this, but I suspect we have a good 5+ years of redone rides before we see anything brand-new. Honestly, as much as I’d love both, there are so many rides in sorry states that are overdue for TLC that I’m kind of fine with this approach.)
About the only thing that makes the prospect of a Journey into Imagination announcement at the 2024 D23 Expo less likely is other potential projects at EPCOT. We already know that Test Track 3.0 is coming, but that’s being funded by General Motors and largely has a different target audience than the family-friendly Figment ride. Both could happen simultaneously.
However, Spaceship Earth is also overdue for a refurbishment and that will be necessary due to the ride system sooner rather than later. That’ll probably be a year-long project, and it’s difficult to imagine both it and Journey into Imagination going down at the same time.
Then again, it’s tough to see Disney closing Spaceship Earth and putting up new construction walls right after the walls come down around the Giant EPCOT Dirt Pit. So it is conceivable that a reimagining of Journey into Imagination will leapfrog Spaceship Earth.
The final reason why a reimagining of Journey into Imagination could and should happen is repairing relations with fans and positive PR. For Bob Iger, this should be a no-brainer move. Although it’s unlikely he himself is a Figment fan, Bob Iger has demonstrated upon returning that he does care about guest goodwill and fan disenchantment–but there’s more work to be done on that front. He’s also concerned about his legacy.
Likewise, Josh D’Amaro still appears to be in the running as a successor CEO. Regrettably, that’s not a position fans vote on, but there have been a lot of mainstream media pieces about fan complaints about the parks. If D’Amaro becomes the heir-apparent, you better believe that CNBC, Wall Street Journal, etc., will all be running pieces about the guy who presided over a period of fan unrest being promoted.
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.
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. There are several incredibly compelling reasons to move forward on this in 2024. It’s the second-best time to do something, with the most logical time being a decade ago.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do you think 2024 will finally be the year that a reimagining of Journey into Imagination is announced? Think Disney is purposefully teasing that with these videos or are they just giving us false hope again? 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!
I get the impression that, for first-timers, the intense Figment presence in the parks is so unexplained that it’s like EPCOT’s version of David S. Pumpkins. “Why did they have to go all in on Figment!?!?”
I caught the tail end of Figment and Dreamfinder in the early 1990s and still remember it fondly. Journey Into Imagination was special on many levels. As a child, imagination had a face – and it was a lovable dragon with a description that was an instant ear worm.
I think it is safe to say the building needs a complete gut job. The turntable is gone which may help with the budget to only recreate one blimp with modern technology. Imagine an updated AA Dreamfinder!
It is possible. I am anxious to see what happens.
Having been going to WDW since 1982 I now have given up in hopes Disney will improve Figment’s ride. Recently they totally destroyed Figment’s image. HOW COULD THEY MAKE FIGMENT A FULL SIZE PERSON???? Don’t they know Figment was little? Dreamfinder would hold Figment. He was cute and cudly. Now he is big and scary. They have turned Imagination into a nightmarefinder.
This is actually a smaller version of the Figzilla (TM Bricker Corp) creature created … twenty years ago. (This post could be titled It Was Time to Reimagine Journey into Imagination Fifteen Years Ago, Just Do It Already.)
Congratulations for having missed that, but now I feel old.
I’d recommend to Disney that if they want to re-imagine the Imagination pavilion, please make Phineas and Ferb a big part of it alongside Figment. While the nostalgia factor is strong with Figment, the best Disney embodiment of imagination came with the P&F show. P&F are popular characters as well, and would help broaden the appeal beyond a potentially polarizing update of Figment.
Is Phineas and Ferb still popular? I remember a lot of fans wanting that back when the reimagining was rumored in the mid-2010s, but a lot has changed since then.
I don’t see why they can’t take down both Spaceship Earth and Figment at the same time. Hardly anyone rides it anyway. I’ve been perplexed for so long as to how and why they have left that beautiful imagination pavilion to be so underutilized. That ride is truly disappointing. It should have been rethemed over a decade ago. I occasionally watch the sky for UFOs and maybe I’ll see one someday and maybe I’ll see something special done with that Imagination area that truly shows the world that Imagineering is still the gold standard when it comes to design.
I have a soft spot for spaceship earth- always ride with my sons. Hopefully they just upgrade the ride system and the big screen
It’s not a matter of taking down both–it’s taking down all three, and at a time when EPCOT is supposedly “finishing” construction and should be, at least in theory, more popular than it was ~5 years ago.
Taking 3 rides at the front of the park down also leaves them with almost no safety net when rides break down or need a few days of maintenance. To each their own, I just don’t think it’s a great idea…and I’m guessing EPCOT operations agrees. 😉
Bring. Back. The blimp ship—One of the most beautifully designed set pieces ever made.
In six visits we have never done this ride- may check it out next time since epcot is ride light
First off, very well written article.
Second, being blunt – this is a teaser for the movie. Much like these teases aren’t random, so aren’t the people who appear in them. In that last Instagram video, you’ll notice that among the people Figment takes a photo with is Dan Hernandez and Benji Samit, which you may recall back in September 2022 were the two writers mentioned in articles leaking that the film is happening. You can look them up, it’s exactly them. And that of course can’t even be pretended as an coincidence, it’s a direct hint.
HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean this teaser is ONLY for the film, either. He appears at the animation studio and imagineering studio, which might be an indication of both. Disney is aware that the main dream of the fandom is is a ride restoration, and also how their new marketable gold having an unfrequented and unpopular ride is showing that the ride is what has flaws, given you have a contrast between hours long waits for meet and greets and merch vs 5 minutes for this ride. There’s no reason they can’t double up on both, and have a restored ride open just in time for the film’s debut. And this might be a very viable strategy as well. They know he moves things really well and a fresh coat of paint on the old ride alongside some new media can get this character even further in sales and marketability then ever. Because they haven’t even gotten to the surface of the potential worldwide popularity of this dragon, and the current state of the ride and even his regional appeal is holding him back. And they know that, and will address both.
Thanks for the heads up–I did not realize the writers were in the montage. That’s definitely them, though. Google confirms as much!
I guess that means, at minimum, that the movie is still happening. Here’s hoping they have a great script for it!
I love Figment. I remember going to EPCOT when each ride was sponsored by a company – Figment was sponsored by Kodak. Many year later, I loved taking my daughter on the ride – she loved it too and spent her money on a plush Figment toy. I would buy lots of Figment branded items if they were available. I hope Disney sees the merchandising opportunities. I’d buy a purple Figment car if they had one. Fingers crossed Disney invests in reimagining Journey into Imagination!
I think I’ve commented to you Tom, on this subject in the past. My wife and I took our three kids to Journey Into Imagination at EPCOT Center in the 1980s and they loved it. Dreamfinder holding Figment in his arms outside the pavilion, the ride, Magic Journeys and the fantastic upstairs Image Works. They could have stayed there for hours. I SO wanted my grand kids to be able to experience JII and all the pavilions Future World had to offer, but much of the front of the park seems to have no focus.
When EPCOT Center opened in 1982, Future World was hailed as a prophetic Community of Ideas, based on the knowledge and predictions for the future of authorities from industry, the academic world and the professions. In 2022, Zach Riddley said, “For the storytellers of EPCOT, the important thing is that we don’t try and pretend to know the future.” What would Marty Sklar and John Hench say about that 180 degree change?
And like you said in a recent post Tom, when Walt Disney said “EPCOT will always be in a state of becoming” he was referring to his Community of Tomorrow, not a theme park. Disney Productions named the park EPCOT Center, which distinguished it from Walt’s dreamed city. For the park to now have the exact name as the prototype city and to erect a statue of Walt Disney in Dreamers Point, as though the park was Walt’s idea, is disingenuous.
As an adult I can certainly tell the the ride is very bad. (Never having experienced the original)
However my children (5 and 7) love it inexplicably. Probably due to figment stuffies at the end but you’re right there’s huge untapped potential. Even in its current iteration with no concept of the former ride at least my small humans love that darn Figment.
Thank you for highlighting these – I wouldn’t have seen them otherwise and your commentary is always appreciated! I’m maybe a few years older than you and can definitely relate to the love of the original ride (and the play area). I have happy memories of nighttime at the Imagination pavilion in the 80s/’90s (my mom would bring us back over to EPCOT then, when the play area wasn’t mobbed). I had a decal of Figment (allowed light through) on my window at home as a kid. As we never had any bumper stickers or window stickers on the family cars, I feel like this was a big concession to the inspiring character that Figment 1.0 was! Re: today, I actually still enjoy a ride on the current incarnation (even though it’s horrible vs. the original), but that’s only because I enjoy and prefer the dark rides. It’s pretty depressing (at exit especially) though how abandoned-mall it feels at the pavilion though, generally. I liked the last video the best – felt the most charming to me. Though I still can’t go over GIANT Figment. Like maybe there’s a reason that Tinker Bell isn’t a “face character” in the parks? Making her regular-human size wouldn’t really be true to the character. Anyhow fingers crossed (but trying not to get hopes up)!
“Figment has already “proven” that he can really move merchandise and is a highly successful meet & greet character.”
This. Not just retro t-shirts, but a ridiculous amount of guest interest and character specific merchandise recently. Given the original ride has been closed for *over 25 years,* it doesn’t take a spreadsheet user to wonder how much more money Disney could make with a better attraction to expand beyond fans with nostalgia to an even broader fanbase. This could be a great way to turn investment in attraction into revenue even faster than normal.
(Is the Figment in this video the new design for the meet-and-greet, an older one, or a brand new design altogether? I’m not quite sure.)
The thing is, they are just scratching the surface on the amount of merchandise Figment could move. Imagine if the character appealed to casual audiences and not just diehard fans?! There’s no way the former–a much large group–is buying up much of the current merchandise because the character, as they know him, is annoying.
That’s to say nothing of future synergy opportunities beyond the parks. Both D’Amaro and Iger have recently said that they want more theme parks IP (to their credit, they’ve followed through on that with actual announcements). No bigger parks IP than Figment.
Even if they dropped $150 million into a ride reimagining, I have to imagine that would pay for itself many times over within a decade. Very difficult to understand why they’re dragging their feet on it at this point. I kinda got it a decade ago, but the circumstances have changed.
(It’s the new meet & greet character.)
We all want a new figment ride. 90’s Figment was great while the only thing good about the replacement is the wait time. But while reading you’ve brought up a few other find memories. Tom, if anyone knows the answer it’s you, would Disney break out Captain EO again? The Pixar shorts are great but we’ve all seen them or own them on dvd. Even if they just rotated CEo at special times of the year, and worked in Honey I Shrunk the Audience every so often I think the Disney Park fans would love it. Captain Eo’s been locked away for 8 years and Honey 24 years.
Sorry meant fond not find and Honey 14 years not 24 years.
If they are going to do a reimagining of Figment, the big question now becomes who they get to do the voices and live action bits. First names I would put out there would be Josh Gad because, well, it’s Josh Gad. Second would be Alan Tudyk. I’m not going to say that there’s some contractual agreement where Alan Tudyk is required to voice at least one character in every Disney owned animation created, because I don’t think that’s how the relationship actually works. It seems far more likely that Disney has Mr. Tudyk locked in a basement cell beneath one of the castles and drags him out in front of a microphone every time they need a zany character voice. I mean, has anyone actually seen him in person? Do we need to call in a “wellness check” on the guy? I’m not saying “Free Alan Tudyk”, because the results may justify such extreme measures of film production. But the man voicing characters in EVERY Disney animation seems to have become a law of the universe.
All joking aside, both of these actors are super awesome and they can both pull off “understated emotional depth” as well as “madcap zany shenanigan” without breaking a sweat.
Hei Hei!
It’s Krei-zy that you’re accusing disney of Tuk Tuk-ing him away like that! Every internet commenter thinks they KnowsMore than one of the greatest animation houses ever. We’re going to have to Duke it out before you Weasleton your way out of this! Toucan play that game! I want you to pack up your Duffle and leave so I can Wash my hands of this nastiness, K? 2SO If you’re lucky, I’ll still send you a Valentino.
Nice!
What do writers do while on strike and off the picket lines? Little secret, they write.
If there isn’t a finished first draft figment script it’s because it wasn’t green lit before the strike.
If these videos are anything other than a tease for a new/redone Figment ride, someone at Disney PR has made a grave mistake. It seems so obvious that’s what they are hinting at, to have to backpedal and go “jk sorry for the confusion” would be a huge embrassment.
You raise an interesting point about Test Track 3.0 though. While the two don’t have the same target audience, I have a hard time imagining Disney taking 2 rides at EPCOT out of commission simultaneously. It doesn’t feel like the park has enough rides to that to be feasible. But on the flip side, as you said, the current Journey Into Imagination never has a wait so maybe shutting it for refurbishment won’t even register when it comes to feels like crowd levels.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Journey of Water has higher daily throughput than Journey into Imagination.
Add to that Cosmic Rewind and Ratatouille, and I think there’s sufficient capacity to take down two attractions with overlapping reimaginings.
“With the 2024 D23 Expo happening August 9-11, this is about the time those teases might start. So now it’s a matter of seeing what else happens in the coming months.”
Sweet mercy, if they’re going to be actively teasing us with this for 10 months, it’s going to be absolute torture. I understand the want for a splashy D23 moment but why start teasing that *now*? (Unless they’re anticipating low numbers at D23 next year…?)
Err, 9 months.
I wouldn’t expect them to actively tease us for ~9 months. But if a reimagining of Journey into Imagination is going to be announced, I do think they will milk it for all it’s worth.
Remember, the Figment meet & greet was one of the ‘big’ announcements of last year’s D23 Expo…roughly a full year before it actually debuted. And that was just a costumed character. Can you imagine a RIDE?!
When you posted about Figment taking a trip to California, my first thought was they would try and put the ride in Disneyland/DCA! But other than that possibility, I can’t think of why else they would go through the trouble of making and posting these shorts if it isn’t a precursor to something happening. Your reason seems sound to me…so I’ll keep my fingers crossed that there aren’t any major financial shifts that would change the probability calculations.
It would take the pitch of a lifetime from Imagineering to convince management–after years of dragging its feet on doing anything meaningful with Figment–to double down on the character as Disney Parks IP and build a new attraction at Disneyland.
I just don’t see that happening. Although everything is global these days, Disneyland fans and locals just don’t have the same affinity for Figment as longtime Walt Disney World fans. And if they do, they could just as easily be convinced to visit Florida.
Then again, they’re bringing Hatbox Ghost to Magic Kingdom for no particular reason, so who knows. (One AA versus an entire ride is a big difference, IMO.)
I hope you are correct. When I returned to the parks as an adult with my kids, one of the biggest disappointments was going on the current iteration of the ride. I didn’t realize they had ruined it, and suffice to say I was bummed to discover what had come of something I loved as a kid. I’m also pretty sure they could pay for the ride itself with a year of renewed plush sales.
Agreed, Drew. I’ve never understood why they let such a terrible ride stay in place for so long. It seems to me that sales of Figment plush easily make it the most ‘profitable’ ride in existence at EPCOT. While I don’t agree with Tom that bringing back Figment and Dreamfinder is a “surefire way of undoing a lot of the outrage and brand damage from the last few years,” I do think it’s the very least they could do for what is arguably the flagship character of the park. And I do mean the very least because (I’m going to say it…) Figment is an IP that has been underutilized outside the park, and misused inside the park.