Originally Posted By Disneylandfan85 >>I think this is just discussion for the sake of discussion.<< You say that like it's a bad thing.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros ^^Not at all! I think this is a really fun topic, and one that hasn't really ever been discussed before. I was just trying to respond to Goofyernmost, who didn't seem to know where the thread was going It seems like most of the threads these days are about news and events in the parks. I think it's great to have some just-for-fun ones too!
Originally Posted By mrkthompsn Another fair one is "EPCOT Center" (all caps EPCOT) to "Epcot" (single-word, cursive). Removale of the acronym.
Originally Posted By FerretAfros >>Mickey's Birthdayland to Mickey's Toontown.<< There were actually some changes when they changed the area into Toontown Fair. That's when the permanent houses were built, and the area really began to look more intentional. The original change from Mickey's Birthdayland to Mickey's Starland really didn't amount to much, but the final version was (slightly) different
Originally Posted By Disneylandfan85 >>Another fair one is "EPCOT Center" (all caps EPCOT) to "Epcot" (single-word, cursive). Removale of the acronym.<< That, too, was mentioned in the article: >> FOUR NAMES, ONE PARK It's a single word today. Epcot. It seems like we've always known that word. As far back as the 1960s, Walt was using it to tout his Florida Project, which then became known as Disney World, and then later changed to Walt Disney World. But to most of us, Epcot has always referred to a theme park. There was a time when Epcot stood for something. A unified vision of the future, a harmony of all lands, an impossibly large parking lot. All true. But I was speaking more literally. Epcot is an acronym: Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow. And as we all know, acronyms should be capitalized. Hence, the name of the park was EPCOT Center. In 1994, EPCOT Center became the first Disney theme park in history to change names. I'm not talking about shortening it to simply Epcot, as it is known today. No, to get there, we have to dive into a dark period of Disney history that brought us pirates chasing food and the transformation of Cinderella Castle into a giant pink birthday cake. I'm speaking, of course, of the 1990s. In 1994, EPCOT Center changed its name to Epcot '94. Don’t ask me why. I think the reason is that Disney was trying to shake the "boring", "educational" taint of EPCOT Center. They figured that the best way to do that was to rename the park like it was the caption to somebody's senior picture in a yearbook. Looking back at Epcot '94 is a little like catching your favorite theme park dressed up in pegged jeans and a mullet. It's painfully awkward. This is an EPCOT Center that is trying to be hip, in-the-now, relevant to today's audiences. Only it still has movies about oil rigs, Walter Cronkite on the soundtrack, and Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk. Very cool in many ways, but definitely not High School Musical material. But there were problems on the Horizons. After finally making a clean break from the stodgy image of old EPCOT, after months of changing signing and promotional materials and an ingrained corporate culture, [and after Jeremy Irons usurped Walter Cronkite and Rick Moranis kicked out Michael Jackson,] Disney watched with horror as the calendar somehow rolled over from December 1994 to January 1995. Just like that, Epcot was out of date. Again. They scrambled around and updated everything all over again. Epcot '94 became Epcot '95. But the jig was up. Now it looked like Epcot had flunked a grade, and they had to bump its graduation year. Most of us were hoping it would be able to get into community college, but it was looking more and more like it might be Cosmetology school. When 1996 rolled around, Disney marketers were ready. Epcot '95 became Epcot. Just one word, like Madonna. Now there's a woman who has never re-invented herself. <<
