This was literally all i could think of the last time i went to disney, i was just in epcot and just staring at these buildings that used to be so alive and interesting but now its bare and boring. So sad that my days of magic are done at disney as ive gotten older but thank you for this video i cant wait to watch it 5 times
It's not just you getting older. The parks are predatory and there's no vision. There's also the wider problem of modern sentiment being so bleak. Nothing compares to the post-Soviet space age where everyone had great optimism for the future and was enraptured by science and technology.
I was a cast member in 2018 and i picked up a shift in future world and my break room was in the back part of innoventions and you could see a lot of the walled off exhibits, it was really strange seeing all these effectively abandoned attractions
That's me at 24:56! Even in its weaker final state as it tapered off into nothing, Innoventions was an area I held very close to my heart. I was there all day on closing day, not wanting to believe time had finally caught up with it. You put together an excellent retrospective here 💜
Thank you for bringing me back 30 years! I remember 12 year old me being in awe of all of the infotainment aspects of Epcot. I even got to ride the magic carpet on our way out of the park after the fireworks, a memory I’ll never forget.
I did my College Program in 2009 at Innoventions. As soon as I saw the thumbnail I clicked. I helped open up the T Rowe Price exhibit, The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, that year, and was absolutely heart broken when I wasn’t selected to open “Sum of All Thrills.” That form of Innoventions is frozen in my memories. So thanks for the trip down memory lane.😊
innoventions was in such a sad state for a while so i wont necessarily miss it, but it makes me so mad that they did absolutely nothing to make a new and interesting space. the thing i will miss most about epcot before the recent renovations is the innoventions music as you walk by, and i much prefer the colorful and kinda wacky buildings as opposed to the sleek apple store-esque new look. also its so funny you posted this video when you did. ive been thinking about innoventions and mid 00s-early 10s epcot a lot recently and just so happened to search for a video on innoventions today and here this was
the thing i remember most about that "where's the fire" thing is that in the que for it there was a video of a christmas tree burning and it freaked me out and made me not want to go near christmas trees
My only memories of Inoventions was going through it to avoid the sun for a minute and playing Cars 2 on Xbox 360 for like half a race before my mom told me to get off of it
I have a lot of nostalgia for Innoventions, one thing that wasn't mentioned is that the space was also used at one point for the hub of a Kim Possible ARG/ scavennger hunt around the park. I remembered a lot of the attractions in this video and am sad to see them all go forever :(
I just visited EPCOT for the first time in 15 years, and truly the central hub of the park just felt… empty. I hope that they can someday bring back the fun futurism flair that EPCOT once had.
If there's one thing I miss about Innoventions it's the vibe/ energy of the plaza with the neon, fiber optics, palm trees and of course the fountain. The current plaza feels so dead now. It's nice to sit there in the morning but that's basically it. Also removing the old music is a travesty.
I've seen a few videos and was like, WOW, it was so cheap. The thing about the festivals is you go to each country to taste their food, NOT to go to a cafeteria.
In the mid 90s, as a teen, at Innoventions West there was a guitar game that I loved. It had to be the inspiration for what became Guitar Hero. There were three songs to choose from, and they were based on difficulty. Kickstart My Heart was the hardest. Hey Jealousy was the mid level. I can't remember what the easy selection was. Does anyone else remember this exhibit?
My favorite part of the 2000s/2010s Innoventions was the great piggy bank adventure - it was a really basic way to learn about personal finance and saving while being a fun collection of games. A perfect example of the “edutainment” of old EPCOT
Sum of all thrills was actually really cool but the extremely low capacity sealed its fate. Now the problem is there are far too many people out there who will not criticize Disney under any circumstances. I guess they don’t realize that if you love Disney you have to be willing to call them out for the failures and the obvious disregard for what used to be the high standards that made the “Disney Difference” The fact is Disney is in real danger of irreparable damage. Universal has made them look more like six flags than Disney. I have real concerns about the future plans for the parks as a result of the disaster that is the Epcot refurb. 🤷🏻
I agree with the point that smaller attractions should be there to balance out the bigger ones. I was in Epcot years ago and got dehydrated. I felt like I couldn't really stomach a ride like test track, so I went into innoventions instead. Was it the greatest thing ever? No. But having guests who aren't on big rides be forced into bland building 432, another gift shop, or sitting on a bench in the heat is certainly worse.
“The loss of any sense of character” - ooof. That’s just life post-2010, sadly. You could tell and feel when these buildings were in the 90s or 2000s. And now you can tell it’s in the 2020s, but not in a good way :/
This reminds me of an old virtual reality exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that I went to as a kid in the 90s and early 2000s. I like how the tech is older (now), but somehow seems more optimistic than things today...
Alec Tronic was 100% creepy. I was a CM for many years and saw plenty of backstage AA figures, no guest should ever see an animatronic like that. I imagine that ruined the magic for a lot of people.
This video just reminds me how drastically attendance spiked the minute vloggers appeared on the scene around 2018-19 I was a regular during the beginning of the 2010s and it's night and day comparing the parks popularity from then to now.
I miss the OG EPCOT with Comunicore, Horizons and Universe of Energy. Such a tragedy that Eisner destroyed an amazing park because his son was bored!!! 🤬
90s was the peak…. And really the end. Innovations really never left the turn of the century. The “aughts” they tried to keep something in there… then the 2010s was already gone.
Mentally I’m still hyped about Epcot. Growing up on Disney channel I always saw these kickers that got my hyped to go to WDW. But as the saying goes Never meet your Heroes and sometimes I feel it’s never worth going.
In retrospect, I never had much of an emotional connection to Innoventions (outside of the music loop), but I'd rather have it than the literal nothing that is there now.
I never really went into Innoventions as a kid but I do remember there was a bug tunnel you could crawl through and I felt so embarrassed doing it bc I thought I was way too old and I was the only kid in the exhibit 😂
I love your channel and really appreciate the content and level of effort for you put into your videos! I was wondering if you had ever thought about doing a video on the history of Disney World’s resort hotels? Keep up the great work and I hope you have a wonderful day.🇺🇸⭐️
I got to experience the Agrabah VR magic carpet ride, back in the day; it was so cool. What a sad state CommuniCore Hall is in! Should've turned it into Thor's Mead Hall for the money they sank into it.
When I went, it was in Innoventions; because of all the SEGA products. As a kid who had the Sonic 2 level select and debug codes memorized, seeing that Sonic statue was like seeing Jesus.
It's time to blame Disney fans. They just keep making excuses and paying higher prices. Why does Disney need to do anything at all? Profits from cupcakes and cookies could probably keep the gates open.
Epcot in the 80s and 90s were epic. Sadly I feel Epcot really lost its identity and more and more feels like just another theme park. Still have some cool things like world showcase but even that area feels less unique now. I really wish they would have kept Epcot different from everything else but alas it's not.
I loved when it had Sega Arcade and Console games, it also had my very first experience in Virtual Reality goggles where you play a first person shooting game where you shot eggs :)
A lot of this really kinda sums up a lot of Disney's them parks nowadays and then some. More so when it comes to lack of actual originality and character in the theme parks. Mostly originality in the attractions. And that's been more and more inexcusable for a company that keeps on being more and more needlessly greedy and so anticonsumer when it comes to these parks.
it's really disappointing to see it dead. but companies don't want to advertise now. look around. most advertisements really aren't that. a LOT of trade shows have died off. they just want you to buy and not think about it.
I first visited EPCOT in the late 90s, so I only ever experienced that area as Innoventions. I was not impressed with the area at all, spent very little time there, and mostly avoided it during my subsequent visits. That said, it does look like Disney found a way to take an area that offered little to guests and make it offer nothing at all. It boggles my mind that the same people who created the amazing Pandora area in Animal Kingdom have produced such a drab and dreary revamp of this part of EPCOT.
Sitting here trying to work out a way to explain the lack of Attraction I’ve had to innoventions as an international tourist…… You’re on the dream Holiday you’re in the park .Surround by rides characters lights smell sounds and that certain Disney feel. When I walked into the building (DL CA) and checked out the iron man expo and the house of the future. Meanwhile I can hear muffled sounds of Tomorrowland. I looked around and saw black walls artificiall light and displays that I could see at a trade show of children’s museum. I felt like I was wasting the short therefore valuable time walking around what felt like a concept expo at at a state fair EDIT For anyone that’s also in Melbourne Australia and never saw innoventions. It’s just the government building at the royal Melbourne show
Great video! It was best when Epcot first opened...once Innoventions came about it became a sad attempt at corporate marketing. Look, you can walk through a lighting exhibit sponsored by Lutron! Snooze.
I did my DCP in Epcot in future world and innoventions west closed during my program and East was a shell of its former self. While it was obviously sad to see it like that it was cool though because we had to cut through innoventions west to get through to backstage so I got to walk through west after it had closed. I felt like a VIP
I miss innovection The current apple HQ office sucks I always remember having dreams of walking and seeing a thumb 👍 up logo with the old epcot music...
I see a lot of nostalgia for the Disney land/World prior to the 90s revamp. Was there a big demand for change in the parks prior to Eisner altering it? Was attendance declining?
I kind of hate what apple did on technology everything seems rather dull not just them but Sony Disney I think Nintendo sort of it’s unique but building designs it’s all Simplistic it doesn’t have that scent of rebellion and diversity it used to have in the 90s were due for a renaissance of creativity.
What era of Innoventions was your favourite? Or did you prefer CommuniCore?
CommuniCore
This was literally all i could think of the last time i went to disney, i was just in epcot and just staring at these buildings that used to be so alive and interesting but now its bare and boring. So sad that my days of magic are done at disney as ive gotten older but thank you for this video i cant wait to watch it 5 times
Cry harder
It's not just you getting older. The parks are predatory and there's no vision. There's also the wider problem of modern sentiment being so bleak.
Nothing compares to the post-Soviet space age where everyone had great optimism for the future and was enraptured by science and technology.
@jilp2002 I hope you remember that phrase while standing in Kamalahs bread lines.
@@jilp2002 i dont get what you are even mad at? Why are you mad that i grew up and disney lost its childhood charm on me 😭
it's disney, they got woke and lose imagination
90’s Disney Kids had a lot to thank and blame Eisner’s teenage son for.
I was a cast member in 2018 and i picked up a shift in future world and my break room was in the back part of innoventions and you could see a lot of the walled off exhibits, it was really strange seeing all these effectively abandoned attractions
The design of those 90s Innoventions exhibits were so cool, I wish someone would recreate them in VR.
I loved your point about how theme parks need these small thrills to flesh out the experience.
That's me at 24:56! Even in its weaker final state as it tapered off into nothing, Innoventions was an area I held very close to my heart. I was there all day on closing day, not wanting to believe time had finally caught up with it. You put together an excellent retrospective here 💜
I am still super sad the foundation of nations is gone. I don’t want to go back to Epcot any more.
Thank you for bringing me back 30 years! I remember 12 year old me being in awe of all of the infotainment aspects of Epcot. I even got to ride the magic carpet on our way out of the park after the fireworks, a memory I’ll never forget.
Quite possible one of the most underrated channels on RUclips
I did my College Program in 2009 at Innoventions. As soon as I saw the thumbnail I clicked. I helped open up the T Rowe Price exhibit, The Great Piggy Bank Adventure, that year, and was absolutely heart broken when I wasn’t selected to open “Sum of All Thrills.”
That form of Innoventions is frozen in my memories. So thanks for the trip down memory lane.😊
innoventions was in such a sad state for a while so i wont necessarily miss it, but it makes me so mad that they did absolutely nothing to make a new and interesting space. the thing i will miss most about epcot before the recent renovations is the innoventions music as you walk by, and i much prefer the colorful and kinda wacky buildings as opposed to the sleek apple store-esque new look.
also its so funny you posted this video when you did. ive been thinking about innoventions and mid 00s-early 10s epcot a lot recently and just so happened to search for a video on innoventions today and here this was
They could of showed what could be in 2030 and beyond. SO sad.
the VR aladdin thing got moved to DisneyQuest and was one of the coolest things to me as a kid.
I've heard it said that the version that ended up in DisneyQuest was a lesser version, but I don't know too much about the differences
the thing i remember most about that "where's the fire" thing is that in the que for it there was a video of a christmas tree burning and it freaked me out and made me not want to go near christmas trees
My only memories of Inoventions was going through it to avoid the sun for a minute and playing Cars 2 on Xbox 360 for like half a race before my mom told me to get off of it
I have a lot of nostalgia for Innoventions, one thing that wasn't mentioned is that the space was also used at one point for the hub of a Kim Possible ARG/ scavennger hunt around the park. I remembered a lot of the attractions in this video and am sad to see them all go forever :(
I loved the Sega area. In 1994 this was all mind blowing
These are the best theme park videos on the platform. Makes my day whenever I see one was uploaded!
Thank you! I really appreciate that.
I just visited EPCOT for the first time in 15 years, and truly the central hub of the park just felt… empty. I hope that they can someday bring back the fun futurism flair that EPCOT once had.
If there's one thing I miss about Innoventions it's the vibe/ energy of the plaza with the neon, fiber optics, palm trees and of course the fountain. The current plaza feels so dead now. It's nice to sit there in the morning but that's basically it. Also removing the old music is a travesty.
I've seen a few videos and was like, WOW, it was so cheap. The thing about the festivals is you go to each country to taste their food, NOT to go to a cafeteria.
BABE WAKE UP NEW GEORGE BROWNING VID JUST DROPPED
In the mid 90s, as a teen, at Innoventions West there was a guitar game that I loved. It had to be the inspiration for what became Guitar Hero. There were three songs to choose from, and they were based on difficulty.
Kickstart My Heart was the hardest. Hey Jealousy was the mid level. I can't remember what the easy selection was.
Does anyone else remember this exhibit?
My favorite part of the 2000s/2010s Innoventions was the great piggy bank adventure - it was a really basic way to learn about personal finance and saving while being a fun collection of games. A perfect example of the “edutainment” of old EPCOT
I agree
Sum of all thrills was actually really cool but the extremely low capacity sealed its fate.
Now the problem is there are far too many people out there who will not criticize Disney under any circumstances. I guess they don’t realize that if you love Disney you have to be willing to call them out for the failures and the obvious disregard for what used to be the high standards that made the “Disney Difference”
The fact is Disney is in real danger of irreparable damage. Universal has made them look more like six flags than Disney.
I have real concerns about the future plans for the parks as a result of the disaster that is the Epcot refurb. 🤷🏻
I agree with the point that smaller attractions should be there to balance out the bigger ones. I was in Epcot years ago and got dehydrated. I felt like I couldn't really stomach a ride like test track, so I went into innoventions instead. Was it the greatest thing ever? No. But having guests who aren't on big rides be forced into bland building 432, another gift shop, or sitting on a bench in the heat is certainly worse.
I agree
“The loss of any sense of character” - ooof. That’s just life post-2010, sadly. You could tell and feel when these buildings were in the 90s or 2000s. And now you can tell it’s in the 2020s, but not in a good way :/
'Then ceo micheal eisner'
Ohhh i seeee
This reminds me of an old virtual reality exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago that I went to as a kid in the 90s and early 2000s. I like how the tech is older (now), but somehow seems more optimistic than things today...
Alec Tronic was 100% creepy. I was a CM for many years and saw plenty of backstage AA figures, no guest should ever see an animatronic like that. I imagine that ruined the magic for a lot of people.
This video just reminds me how drastically attendance spiked the minute vloggers appeared on the scene around 2018-19 I was a regular during the beginning of the 2010s and it's night and day comparing the parks popularity from then to now.
I was born in 2001 and can’t believe innoventions was ever cool. I’m so mad I missed it!
I miss the OG EPCOT with Comunicore, Horizons and Universe of Energy. Such a tragedy that Eisner destroyed an amazing park because his son was bored!!! 🤬
babe wake up george browning posted
Yet another banger from George Browning
If you still want this experience, go to The California Science Center in Exposition Park, it’s pretty much a West Coast version of EPCOT.
some of my favorite childhoood memories were made there
90s was the peak…. And really the end. Innovations really never left the turn of the century. The “aughts” they tried to keep something in there… then the 2010s was already gone.
Great video of my favourite topic - EPCOT (Center).
Mentally I’m still hyped about Epcot.
Growing up on Disney channel I always saw these kickers that got my hyped to go to WDW.
But as the saying goes Never meet your Heroes and sometimes I feel it’s never worth going.
excellent work as always, george!
In retrospect, I never had much of an emotional connection to Innoventions (outside of the music loop), but I'd rather have it than the literal nothing that is there now.
Innoventions was amazing! Today we are completely used to technology like Zoom, but back then, the idea of videoconferencing was so wild
I never really went into Innoventions as a kid but I do remember there was a bug tunnel you could crawl through and I felt so embarrassed doing it bc I thought I was way too old and I was the only kid in the exhibit 😂
IT'S LIKE A THOUSAND SEGA GAMES ALL UNDER ONE ROOF!
god i wish i was old enough to remember visiting that era of innoventions
I love your channel and really appreciate the content and level of effort for you put into your videos! I was wondering if you had ever thought about doing a video on the history of Disney World’s resort hotels? Keep up the great work and I hope you have a wonderful day.🇺🇸⭐️
I got to experience the Agrabah VR magic carpet ride, back in the day; it was so cool. What a sad state CommuniCore Hall is in! Should've turned it into Thor's Mead Hall for the money they sank into it.
I think they also eventually put the agrabah VR attraction in DisneyQuest because I remember doing it there
When I went, it was in Innoventions; because of all the SEGA products. As a kid who had the Sonic 2 level select and debug codes memorized, seeing that Sonic statue was like seeing Jesus.
Innoventions was my favourite part of the park and I was so disappointed when I could finally afford to go 5 years ago and it was gone
It's time to blame Disney fans. They just keep making excuses and paying higher prices. Why does Disney need to do anything at all? Profits from cupcakes and cookies could probably keep the gates open.
Epcot in the 80s and 90s were epic. Sadly I feel Epcot really lost its identity and more and more feels like just another theme park. Still have some cool things like world showcase but even that area feels less unique now. I really wish they would have kept Epcot different from everything else but alas it's not.
I loved when it had Sega Arcade and Console games, it also had my very first experience in Virtual Reality goggles where you play a first person shooting game where you shot eggs :)
Hi I love your videos😃
A lot of this really kinda sums up a lot of Disney's them parks nowadays and then some. More so when it comes to lack of actual originality and character in the theme parks. Mostly originality in the attractions.
And that's been more and more inexcusable for a company that keeps on being more and more needlessly greedy and so anticonsumer when it comes to these parks.
In the end, they just ran out of sponsors. In other words, the road to tomorrow just came to an end.
it's really disappointing to see it dead. but companies don't want to advertise now. look around. most advertisements really aren't that. a LOT of trade shows have died off. they just want you to buy and not think about it.
I first visited EPCOT in the late 90s, so I only ever experienced that area as Innoventions. I was not impressed with the area at all, spent very little time there, and mostly avoided it during my subsequent visits. That said, it does look like Disney found a way to take an area that offered little to guests and make it offer nothing at all. It boggles my mind that the same people who created the amazing Pandora area in Animal Kingdom have produced such a drab and dreary revamp of this part of EPCOT.
Babe get in here, the new George Browning just dropped
Me, out of instinct, at the start of the video: "God damn it, Eisner."
Sitting here trying to work out a way to explain the lack of Attraction I’ve had to innoventions as an international tourist……
You’re on the dream Holiday you’re in the park .Surround by rides characters lights smell sounds and that certain Disney feel. When I walked into the building (DL CA) and checked out the iron man expo and the house of the future. Meanwhile I can hear muffled sounds of Tomorrowland. I looked around and saw black walls artificiall light and displays that I could see at a trade show of children’s museum. I felt like I was wasting the short therefore valuable time walking around what felt like a concept expo at at a state fair
EDIT
For anyone that’s also in Melbourne Australia and never saw innoventions. It’s just the government building at the royal Melbourne show
The VR headsets I got so hyped for.
Sega having a site there was insane.
Colortopia was my favorite thing to do at Epcot!
Great video! It was best when Epcot first opened...once Innoventions came about it became a sad attempt at corporate marketing. Look, you can walk through a lighting exhibit sponsored by Lutron! Snooze.
I got to do the VR magic carpet ride as a kid
also, eisner was a fuck but he gave us a hell of a lot of interesting attractions and ideas that we look back fondly upon.
I did my DCP in Epcot in future world and innoventions west closed during my program and East was a shell of its former self. While it was obviously sad to see it like that it was cool though because we had to cut through innoventions west to get through to backstage so I got to walk through west after it had closed. I felt like a VIP
I picked up a shift in Epcot back on my college program in 2018 and it was kind of creepy walking through innoventions with everything closed in it
I remember a lot of this. storm central. the highways. fire display. club cool.. the caveman.
I miss innovection
The current apple HQ office sucks
I always remember having dreams of walking and seeing a thumb 👍 up logo with the old epcot music...
I see a lot of nostalgia for the Disney land/World prior to the 90s revamp. Was there a big demand for change in the parks prior to Eisner altering it? Was attendance declining?
Oogh the footage of the festival at communicore is just saaaad. It looks Worse than the Dealer’s room of an anime/comic book convention.
wise
Off topic, but has anyone listened to the podcast Prototype World of Tomorrow?
I kind of hate what apple did on technology everything seems rather dull not just them but Sony Disney I think Nintendo sort of it’s unique but building designs it’s all
Simplistic it doesn’t have that scent of rebellion and diversity it used to have in the 90s were due for a renaissance of creativity.
Dang
i eat dirt
21
What incentive do capitalists have to share their business plans?
fun fact: i’m the first like
I’m the 12th