If you’ve been a Disney Parks fan for long enough, there are certain things that are just facts; there are deeply layered reasons and nuances to explain why things are the way that they are. And because frequent visitors come to understand the methods behind the madness, we become blind to… well… weird things.
Don’t believe us? Here are 7 things that Disney Parks fans just seem to understand or ignore, but that first-time guests must be totally bamboozled by. Put yourself into the shoes of a first-timer and imagine how strange some of these must be for someone who doesn’t have the history or context behind them!
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1. Why do people love that bratty purple dragon?
The Question
Though a guest visiting EPCOT for the first time today would likely have a lot of questions about the unique park, we can imagine that one thing they must wonder about that purple dragon… Think about it: if your first visit to Walt Disney World were today, vinyl clings of Figment would greet you at the Orlando International Airport – right alongside Mickey and Minnie. Once you’re at EPCOT, the dragon who looks like a Disney character, but was created just for the park takes center stage, becoming practically omnipresent.
Figment is the “host” of EPCOT’s International Festival of the Arts; Flower & Garden Festival topiaries are trimmed in his likeness; Figment is plastered across t-shirts, sweatshirts, MagicBands, backpacks, stickers, Mouse Ears, and Annual Passholder magnets. He’s the plush offering throughout most of the park’s gift shops. In fact, Figment is the subject of a full category in the shopDisney catalogue!
“Figment mania” is so pervasive through the Disney Parks fan community that – when the 2022 International Festival of the Arts began in January – 8-hour lines for a promotional $30 Figment popcorn bucket literally snaked around the park, bringing EPCOT lovers (and the standard Ebay resellers) out in full force. (A sight that would be pretty inexplicable for new guests in and of itself, mind you.)
Given the little cartoon dragon’s immense popularity in the park, first-timers probably wouldn’t be surprised to find that Figment stars in one of EPCOT’s rides. But what might surprise them is that the ride is pretty bad. Not only is “Journey Into Imagination With Figment” one of the least beloved rides at Walt Disney World, but Figment himself spends the entire ride as a pretty unlikable purple brat. (Those are nicer words that his co-star, Monty Python’s Eric Idle, used to describe him.)
Journey into Imagination is a very-’90s ride that sends guests on a 6-minute tour of the Imagination Institute where Idle’s Dr. Nigel Channing hopes to inspire us with the sights, sounds, and smells of the Sensory Labs. Figment pops up as a CGI nuisance who intends to teach Channing what imagination is really about by subjecting us to pranks that range from annoying to frightening, like being left in the path of an oncoming train (via audio), being sprayed with “skunk” smell, and being blasted with air for a Technicolor finale.
The ride itself is mediocre at best, often a walk-on, and largely forgettable, while the “iconic” Figment immortalized in art, topiaries, and t-shirts is pretty annoying! So why do people love him?
The Answer
Of course, nothing at Epcot is quite what it used to be… and that includes Figment. The unsanctioned character ambassador of Epcot since 1983, Figment originally starred in the Lost Legend: Journey into Imagination. A playful purple dragon with limitless enthusiasm for ideas, Figment and his creator, Dreamfinder, sang along to the beloved tune of “One Little Spark,” leading guests through realms of art, literature, performing arts, and science in the sensational original.
Unfortunately, a horrendous 1999 re-do of the timeless classic created the Declassified Disaster: Journey into YOUR Imagination, axing Figment, Dreamfinder, and “One Little Spark” entirely in favor of a cold, unimaginative tour through the bland “Imagination Institute.” Poor reception to the new ride forced another redesign just two years later.
The solution essentially inserted Figment into the Imagination Institute storyline, but as the somewhat annoying, pesky dragon we know today; one who’s fairly unlikable for being so visible in the park. Still, fans just can’t shake Figment. Despite being the irritating star of a notoriously awful ride, he’s still a de facto ambassador for Epcot. Now if only sales of those popcorn buckets would be used to fund the much-rumored redesign of the Imagination pavilion that the original Figment deserves…
2. Why are the road signs purple?
The Question
Many first-time guests have heard the strange urban legend that Walt Disney World is literally its own city (and many derivatives thereof, including rumors that no one can technically die on Disney property). Of course, if that were true, it would give the Walt Disney Company – a private entertainment entity – governmental control over an area of Florida, and that can’t be true! … Can it?
The Answer
It all goes back to a story Disney fans know well. When Walt Disney Productions secretly began to acquire massive landholdings in Central Florida in 1965, Walt wasn’t dreaming of a new Disneyland. A futurist and a forward thinker, Walt had moved on and was planning out the real, living city of EPCOT – a utopian, modernist model he thought would sincerely influence the design of any modern city to follow.
To make it happen, Disney petitioned the Florida legislature to create a “special municipal district” to provide Disney with the controls it needed, like oversight of building permits, road development, and sewer systems.
Naturally, plans for EPCOT died alongside Walt. Instead, “Walt Disney World” evolved into its modern form: a leisure resort and “Vacation Kingdom of the World.” But the “Reedy Creek Improvement District” was signed into law. That means that the two municipalities within – Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista – are served by their own water department, fire department, transportation systems (including those iconic ‘90s kitsch directional signs), and emergency services.
But it also essentially gives The Walt Disney Company governmental control… of itself. Disney can approve its own building permits, okay its own infrastructure plans, and even sign its own liquor licenses! A dystopian example of what happens when a corporation is given governmental oversight of itself, or a logistical necessity for operating a mega-resort? Hmm…
Maybe that brings us to our next thing first-timers would find confusing…