Over the past few years, we’ve been working hard to build a library of Lost Legends, telling the in-depth behind-the-scenes stories of beloved-and-lost rides from around the globe. We’ve survived Disney’s scariest attraction ever, Alien Encounter; ventured 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to revisit the sunken Magic Kingdom classic; taken flight to relive the lost experience of Soarin’; toured the skies of Walt’s Tomorrowland aboard The Peoplemover; we’ve even merrily raced along to Nowhere in Particular aboard Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride. Across the site, keep your eye out for links to other Lost Legends, or set course for your favorite.
But today, we return to what may be the international capital of closed classics: EPCOT. It seems that rides at this uniquely ambitious park are doomed from the start, and a number of our Lost Legends resided here once upon a time. Today’s entry earned its place in Disney Parks’ history books by being the first thrill ride at EPCOT; a unique fusion of education and entertainment in a shuttered pavilion.
This can only be the story of BODY WARS, the would-be classic that nauseated a generation en route to an unfortunate and unusual closure. Even today – a decade after its closure – Body Wars is sealed away behind closed doors, rusting and awaiting its own demolition. In today’s in-depth entry, we’ll explore the history of the doomed Wonders of Life pavilion, the experience of its headlining thrill ride, and what became of it. Brace yourself, because this ride is not for the feint of heart… or stomach.
And before we head off, remember that you can unlock rare concept art and audio streams in this story, access over 100 Extra Features, and recieve an annual Membership card and postcard art set in the mail by supporting this clickbait-free, in-depth, ad-free theme park storytelling site for as little as $2 / month! Become a Park Lore Member to join the story! Until then, let’s start at the beginning…
Origins of Life
Even before EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening, plans for Walt Disney World’s second gate were already unlike anything Disney had produced before. A park rooted in reality, EPCOT Center’s Future World realm was meant to be a showcase of American industry, innovation, and the power of progress. In fact, long before the first shovels of earth had been moved, Disney was already in talks with corporate sponsors who would financially support Future World’s industrious pavilions, powering the park’s “World’s Fair” vision.
Starting in the mid-’70s, Future World was already taking shape. One by one, companies signed on to underwrite pavilions dedicated to their industries – transportation, agriculture, energy, communication, ocean exploration, and more – in exchange for having their brands, logos, and messaging associated with Walt Disney World and the WED Enterprises-designed attractions within.
Given just how salient the topic is – and how many industries it entangles – it’s pretty surprising that the original slate of Future World pavilions did not include one serving as an ode to health, wellness, and the human body. But rest assured: Imagineers had designed one.
In fact, a “Life & Health” pavilion was among the first envisioned for the park’s Future World, as evidenced by the Member-exclusive rare photograph of a late ’70s EPCOT Center model, above.
Perhaps more than any other topic broached by the intellectual and self-serious EPCOT, Disney was determined to get the Life & Health pavilion “right.” Around 1976, Disney Legend Marty Sklar (at that time, president of WED Enterprises) took lead on organizing a “Good Health in America” conference, luring doctors, international health organizations, and medical professionals together to inform the project. Establishing an advisory board, Sklar hoped that real, industry professionals could collectively help Imagineering piece together the “best practice” messaging for such a sensitive subject as health.
By his own admission, Sklar believed the health pavilion would be “more controversial than any subject we’ve taken on, because theories about health care and how you manage your own body have changed a lot.” That’s why the park’s Life & Health pavilion would need to be about personal choice and not preaching… and why it would need a sponsor willing to invest in keeping this pavilion ever-changing, fresh, and alive.
By 1978 (four years before the park was open), plans for a Life pavilion were ready to go. The draft called for a circus-themed pavilion (above) that would invite guests to learn more about themselves in a number of attractions jutting from the Midway of Life. For example, Good Health Habits was to be a Carousel of Progress style revolving theater; Head Trip would feature animatronic emotions to humorously explain “the data handling and communication capabilities” of our nervous system; Tooth Follies was planned as a musical-mouth revue, akin to the Enchanted Tiki Room.
The pavilion’s overarching message? Fun! Life is a carnival; a joy; a wonder!
Evolving Adventures
Still, there’s one thing all Future World pavilions needed: a grand, ambitious, educational, and epic dark ride to anchor the message. Just as each of its sisters had a slow-moving attraction exploring the past, present, and future of humanity’s relationship with each pavilion’s respective industry, this health pavilion would have a spectacularly-scaled dark ride of its own.
The Incredible Journey Within would’ve placed guests in blood-cell-shaped vehicles suspended from above (like on Peter Pan’s Flight) and set adrift through massive scenes depicting the intricate, delicate, and powerful inner workings of the incredible human machine. This tour through tissues, organs, and the almost-musical nature of our systems might’ve been an almost-abstract, awe-inspiring journey. But there was a problem…
“We started out to do a ride-through,” Sklar later recalled, “but we found that it was nearly impossible to move the huge set pieces. If you can think of moving a section of lung, for instance, that was 30 feet high, on a continuous basis as people ride through… you can imagine how ponderous and difficult that turned out to be.” The scale and cost of recreating thefluid, fluctuating world of the human body was just too great.
(Nevertheless, you can find out more about The Incredible Journey Within – including ultra-rare, Passholder-exclusive photos of the ride’s mock-up model – in our Possiblityland: Never-Built Future World feature.)
Ultimately, without a sponsor signed on and without an anchor attraction to sell to them, the health pavilion was put off and missed EPCOT Center’s 1982 opening. But of course, the idea wasn’t dead…
Wonders of Life
In 1987, Disney officially announced plans for the newest pavilion in Future World – one based around themes of health and wellness.
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (better known as MetLife) had come on board to finance a new Life and Health pavilion. And designing it was simple enough. After all, Imagineers needed only to return to the general plans drawn up a decade earlier.
Beneath the skylights of a 60-foot tall geodesic dome, the new Wonders of Life pavilion would indeed be a fair; a joyous, celebratory exploration of fitness and emotion and health and wellness. Within, guests would find sculptures, fountains, skylights, and plenty of sideshows – including holdovers from the first draft like a sensory funhouse and an animatronic show through the mind. There were also new additions spurred by MetLife, like a focus on physical fitness in exercise bikes, a fitness playground, and more.
But without a doubt, the reason MetLife signed on to sponsor such an ambitious and expensive new pavilion was in part because of a promising new concept that would serve as the pavilion’s E-Ticket centerpiece… and maybe redefine Future World altogether…
A new technology had made its debut in 1987, and it seemed possible that it could headline not only Wonders of Life, but all of EPCOT… Read on…