Originally Posted By LindsayC Taking a trip down memory lane I have posted a few photographs from my last visit to Epcot’s Wonders of Life pavilion on our blog - and there is a link on that page to many more that are featured in our Flickr Epcot set. <a href="http://artoftellingtales.blogspot.com/2010/01/from-archive-little-bit-of-wonder.html" target="_blank">http://artoftellingtales.blogs...der.html</a>
Originally Posted By FenwayGirl Thanks for the memories. This was one of my favorite pavilions....loved Cranium Command.
Originally Posted By MPierce Every time I see the Wonders of Life Pavilion, I think about how ill Body Wars made me.
Originally Posted By Spirit of 74 Every time I see the Wonders of Life pavilion, I think about how ill WDW management makes me.
Originally Posted By smctopia You can check out the Wonders of Life section at Walt Dated World by going here: <a href="http://www.waltdatedworld.bravepages.com/id229.htm" target="_blank">http://www.waltdatedworld.brav...d229.htm</a> Visit Walt Dated World
Originally Posted By mousermerf <--worked at Body Wars, had to ride it daily for test flights, misses it.
Originally Posted By Mr X Body Wars was nauseating in a way that Star Tours never managed (for me, anyway)...I think it was all the "suck and blow" motion that did it. I'm fine with up and down and side to side. The pavillion itself though, was WONDERFUL. I can not fathom why Disney shut it down (well, probably to have a place to host the more important guests, I realize that).
Originally Posted By mousermerf A manager at Epcot did not like Wonders. He shut us down while they were doing guest counts during EMH testing to see where guests went during those hours - they later used those numbers to pick which attractions stayed open for EMH. they also used them to justify closing Wonders.
Originally Posted By leobloom I liked how the inside had the feel of a generic American shopping mall. But I really liked that you got multiple attractions for the one pavilion, unlike UOE, M:S, TT that all monopolize their spots with one single ride.
Originally Posted By leemac One of the biggest issues with Wonders of Life was that the design became dated very quickly. Those white walls with bright coloration always seemed so....eighties (which is ironic as the pavilion only ever saw the last 73 days of that decade in operation). I could just never figure why the external shell was so different to the interiors. I always loved Wonders of Life. It just seemed like the perfect marriage between education and entertainment. It handled delicate subjects to perfection. The Making of Me that was written by television writer Glenn Gordon Caron (NBC's Medium and creator of Moonlighting) was just exceptional. I'm an unabashed Martin Short fan though. A little-known fact is that Ralph Eggleston was one of the animators on the animated sequences of the sperm and egg. Ralph is one of the great visual artists up at Pixar now - his work on Nemo created the undersea world. As was Tony Fucile (Ratatouille and The Incredibles as a character designer). Body Wars wasn't the greatest product. A clear rip-off on the earlier Inner Space (which opened about two years prior). The movie itself is fairly perfunctory with direction by Leonard Nimoy but the motion base was nausating. Just far too rough. Ultimately it was a cheap product - even the queue was duplicated from Star Tours. However it was Cranium Command that was the true star of the pavilion. Directed by the wonderful Jerry Rees (who also did Mickey & Mickey and Back to Neverland for Disney/MGM - two fantastic movies) it had a great script that capitalized on all of that Saturday Night Live cast. I particularly loved Grodin and Lovitz as the left and right brain. It was just a great piece of theater. It is a shame that once MetLife pulled out that the company couldn't find anyone else to assist in the renovation of the pavilion. You would have thought that any many of health-related companies would be interested. I hope that Epcot does receive a well-being pavilion again one day.
Originally Posted By leemac <<Mickey & Mickey>> Doh. Michael & Mickey. I should say that we have a great interview from Jerry Rees in Issue 15 of Tales about the making of Back to Neverland (including some of his own photos on the set with Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite). We will have an extended version of the interview on the blog too.
Originally Posted By Mr X ***One of the biggest issues with Wonders of Life was that the design became dated very quickly. Those white walls with bright coloration always seemed so....eighties*** Wow. I have no idea where you get that from, but I didn't get that impression at all! In fact, I thought it was one of the most inviting, friendly and "timeless" pavilions out of all those at Epcot. Always busy too, every time I was there (probably a couple of dozen times at least, over the few years it was open). Was that the general attitude of the Disney management, Lee? I certainly didn't get that impression myself (although it's fair enough to say that Cranium Command, a nostalgic favorite of mine, DID suffer from "dated syndrome" after a couple of years).
Originally Posted By leemac I forgot to add that Kirk/Trousdale worked on Cranium Command too. The days when WDFA used to enjoy working on park stuff!
Originally Posted By leemac <<Was that the general attitude of the Disney management, Lee?>> No idea at all. <<In fact, I thought it was one of the most inviting, friendly and "timeless" pavilions out of all those at Epcot. >> One of the complaints that we always hear about is that the multi-attraction pavilions are confusing to people - they don't understand what is in there and for many it is a trek over to the pavilion to discover it too. No idea if that is reality. I don't really recall it ever being uber-busy like The Land. Personally I found the decor very dated even in the early nineties. It just felt rather cold. The contents was always excellent though - it just all stitched together well. Wonders of Life was Barry Braverman's baby. He loved that pavilion and he partnered with Steve Kirk (TDS' executive producer) to work on it and specifically Cranium Command.
Originally Posted By mousermerf The queue to enter the building used to go down the slope out front - it has a capacity as a whole and that number was reached in the early days. Body Wars had a position, called Redirect, whose job it was to switch the signs in the planters at the base of the entrance walkways inside the pavilion to make flow within the building circular and one directional. Body Wars had 4-5 hour waits. The pavilion was entirely capable of being busy - however it was not capable of being on the park map, in promotional media, barely on the website, and was essentially non-existent as much as possible.
Originally Posted By mousermerf First cuts were to the comedy show Anacomical Players and Coach's Corner - living two empty venues. Then exercycles (which were very popular) started breaking and being carted off and never replaced. Then the Sensory Funhouse started having failures and never being replaced or fixed. Then they stopped running Making of Me on any given day because they didn't want to staff it. Then they had a single person running Cranium Command and 2 people running Body Wars, while closing down the store and shuttering the food place Pure and Simple. Then they simply closed it.
Originally Posted By mousermerf Btw, Body Wars went from having the following positions.. 4 Probe Operators/Loaders 1 Photocell (directs to the probes) 1 Tower 2 Unload (assist guests at the exit/clean up) 2 Greeters (or just 1 if not busy) 1 Redirect To having.. 1 Tower 1 Probe Op
