Galactic Omens
Fast-forward to 2016 and across the country to Disney California Adventure – the beleagured younger sister of Disneyland (and the subject of its own Declassified Disaster: Disney’s California Adventure feature). Fresh off of a 5-year, $1.2 billion redesign effort that had “turned back the clock” on the park’s once-modern-themed lands, California Adventure had “re-opened” in 2012, reborn as a true complement to Disneyland with storied, reverent, historic, and distinctly-Californian settings and stories!
But a very unusual rumor began to circulate among Disney Parks fans… Far-fetched as it may have sounded, insiders were adamant that a big change was coming to the newly reborn California Adventure.
According to rumor, the park’s Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – a still-new E-Ticket thrill ride seemingly perfect for the reborn park’s Hollywood Land – would close. As if that weren’t nonsensical enough, these insiders suggested that the 1920s art deco Hollywood Tower Hotel would be transformed into a sci-fi superhero ride based on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.
So impossible did this rumor sound that many fans suggested it was a prank, invented just to see how far such a ridiculous and impossible rumor would travel among gullible message boards…
Then, it happened. In one of our favorite features ever, we chronicled the unbelievable story of how Disney designed, dropped-in, then destroyed California Adventure’s Lost Legend: The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The 200-foot pueblo deco hotel lording over California Adventure was transformed into a sci-fi “warehouse prison power plant” based on “the beauty of an oil rig.” Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! opened in 2017.
Seemingly playing against the billion dollars Disney had just spent getting rid of modern music, irreverence, and inconsistency, the well-received ride nonetheless repositioned the park’s future path. And allegedly, the much more revered original Tower of Terror in Florida was due for the same change… Until rumors shifted to another park entirely…
Guardians of the Universe
On July 15, 2017 at the semi-annual D23 conference, it became official: Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind would move into the former Universe of Energy pavilion at Epcot.
Though little was really known about the ride that would result, Disney did mention that (in-universe) Peter Quill – the fictional hero Star Lord, portrayed in the films by Chris Pratt – has a history with the park, having visited in the 1980s. (Which aligns with his childhood, given that he was abducted by the alien Ravagers in 1988 to kick off the first movie.)
The canonical footnote was derided by EPCOT fans as a piece of baiting fan service meant to soften the unsoftenable blow of yet another classic dark ride being replaced with a trendy property – and at the once-sacrosanct EPCOT no less.
But gradually, all but the most ardent EPCOT purists seemed to become open to the possibility of a Marvel super hero ride in the park… even if Disney’s excuses for putting it there got more and more outlandish. (Given that the attraction begins in a cultural emissary exhibition hall and “Galaxarium” recalling the formation of the planet Xandar, Disney has taken to describing the ride as an “Other-World Showcase Pavilion.”)
Once through the exhibition, guests are invited by Nova Prime (Glenn Close revisiting the role of Xandar’s planetary prime minister) into a teleportation chamber to be beamed to a Xandarian ship hovering over earth… There, we’re meant to be regaled with the power of the “Cosmic Generator,” an engine that powers Xandar’s technology but also, by chance, can rip holes in space and time.
Of course, once there (via a clever physical effect similar to that used on the Lost Legend: Poseidon’s Fury), a planet-sized Celestial (first seen in Marvel’s The Eternals) nabs the Generator and travels back in time to undo humanity’s existence, requiring us to hop aboard the ship’s escape pods, which are re-programmed by Rocket to follow the being through a swiftly-closing time portal to steal back the Generator, re-set the timeline, and make it back to EPCOT before the park disappears and we lose our Lightning Lane reservation.
It’s no Hamlet, but of course, the purpose is to drive us toward the ride itself: a fully indoor “Omnicoaster” – Disney’s catchy name for a new roller coaster system that spins, but not freely. Instead, its rotation is controlled throughout the fast-paced, multi-launch ride, aiming guests at gargantuan screens and the odd physical prop as they blast through space to the trademark classic pop rock soundtrack of the Guardians franchise.
Reaching speeds of 60 miles per hour and traversing nearly a mile’s worth of track (the longest fully enclosed coaster on Earth), Cosmic Rewind is a real anchor attraction and E-Ticket, no doubt driving far more interest and attendance than Universe of Energy ever did. The flip side, of course, is that the thrill ride further limits EPCOT’s reach to the young and old, not to mention those who have no interest in spinning through the stars (leading to the ride’s infamous nausea-inducing reputation).
Of particular interest is how little of Cosmic Rewind is actually contained in the former Universe of Energy building – really, just the ride’s queue, pre-show, load and unload stations, and the ride’s ascent to its initial launch. Most of the attraction instead takes place in a massive new soundstage constructed behind the pavilion. Even the ride’s train storage is housed in a new add-on to the original Energy structure.
Though some fans may hold a grudge against the Guardians team for overtaking yet another Disney classic, rumors suggest that the ride that became Cosmic Rewind had been planned for EPCOT’s Energy pavilion before the Guardians were a part of it.
Instead, insiders suggest that the concept for a rotating, enclosed coaster back in time was on the short-list for years, built around the idea of blasting back to the Big Bang as part of an action-packed, high-speed “Time” pavilion – perhaps a modern re-imagining of the “Time Racers” roller coaster allegedly drafted for Spaceship Earth in the ’90s.
When you think about it, that might’ve made this ride a clever, EPCOT-ified equivalent of Animal Kingdom’s Modern Marvel: Expedition Everest – a flashy thrill ride elevated to be “on theme” for the park’s larger message. If that is true, we might still argue that the Guardians wrap is an overall more attractive and interesting overlay for it if only for the humor and soundtrack inherent in the franchise.
And indeed, when Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind made its pandemic-delayed debut in May 2022, even most holdouts had to contend that the ride was a winner. Whether you view the ride through the context of an old EPCOT or a new EPCOT, it has its rough edges… but altogether, Cosmic Rewind seems to be an improvement on Ellen’s Energy Adventure in any metric but length.
Worth noting: Cosmic Rewind also occupies an important role in another, wider reimagining of EPCOT. The anchor of the re-thought north end of the park, Cosmic Rewind does not occupy Future World at all, but the new “World Discovery” “neighborhood” that – with “World Celebration” and “World Nature” – make up the former Future World real estate.
It’s a lot of nonsense, of course, but roughly centers the park’s three thrill rides – Test Track, Mission: Space, and Cosmic Rewind – together under one flag.
The last straw
The Universe of Energy pavilion and Ellen’s Energy Adventure closed forever on August 13, 2017 – coincidentally, the same day as the only other ride to use the moving theater ride system, fellow Lost Legend: The Great Movie Ride.
For the most ardent EPCOT purists, it’s not just that Epcot lost yet another “classic” dark ride, or that Universe of Energy contains the last, fading remnants of the park’s original DNA. It’s certainly not that Universe of Energy (or Ellen’s Energy Adventure) was sacrosanct – too revered and essential to change. Quite the opposite, any hope for Universe of Energy practically required a rewrite and a reinvention.
What is the issue is that, at least to Disney Parks historians and fans of EPCOT Center, the loss of Universe of Energy signals the pulling of the plug; the final pillar of EPCOT Center’s brave, industrious, new way of looking at themed entertainment.
Maybe you could argue that EPCOT Center failed long ago, and that the closure of Universe of Energy is overdue. But to our way of thinking, the problems EPCOT Center faced in transitioning to the 21st century were Disney’s own doing. Each pavilion in turn faced one of two fundamental issues:
- The pavilion didn’t change until it was too late. Some attractions fell into such conceptual disrepair after so many years without the incremental upgrades necessary, any reasonable path forward required a complete rewrite. Some attractions were simply too outdated for a “quick fix.”
- The pavilion did change, but diverged away from the rest. Some (like Horizons and World of Motion) sacrificed their “brains” for “brawn,” becoming 21st century thrill rides that lost their wide scope. (Who, after all, would say that TEST TRACK is a better look into the concept of “transportation” than World of Motion?) Others (Journey into Imagination and The Living Seas) simply got character infusions to cover their dated styles. Others (Innoventions and Wonders of Life) were literally just abandoned.
This painful diversion not only cheapened each pavilion’s integrity, but defeated the whole point… the interconnectedness; the unity even in difference. Horizons and The Land were connected; Journey into Imagination and World of Motion were teaching the same thing; Universe of Energy and The Land were sisters. Now, the pavilions are scattered… and maybe that’s why the park is.
At least from here, it seems that the change to Universe of Energy exemplifies both. That’s why – come what may when Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy join Disney World’s attraction lineup – EPCOT Center is long gone. And sure, it’s been dying for a while. But that interconnectedness; the World’s Fair concept; the brains and bravery behind a new way of making Disney Parks… they’re a thing of yesteryear. Perhaps the great, big, beautiful tomorrow Imagineers are developing for Future World will reunite the pavilions once again… but this time around, expect the common thread to be Disney, Marvel, and Pixar intellectual properties…
The complete stories of closed classics don’t end here. Make the jump to our Lost Legends to set course for another closed classic.
Now we want to hear from you… was this inevitable when it came to Universe of Energy – the most epic of EPCOT Center’s epic dark rides? Could a 45-minute “educational” (and admittedly outdated) dark ride truly continue much farther into the future for the sake of nostalgia? Could it have been updated? Or is the connection between dinosaurs and energy simply too tangential and one-sided to represent the much larger concept of “Energy” anyway? Are you excited for Epcot’s new path with Marvel at the helm?