We are now on to the second canceled attraction for the Japan Pavilion at Epcot but don't worry, it is not the last. We already discussed the canceled Meet the World attraction in the first-ever entry in this series, and are now back to this pavilion to discuss another canceled project, the Mr. Fiji roller coaster.
Planned as one of two mountains to be added to World Showcase (the other being in Switzerland), this would have recreated the famous mountain from Japan behind the already existing pavilion, adding the first ride-through attraction to the section. It would have been similar in design to Disneyland's Matterhorn and would have been built on top of the already existing show building intended for Meet the World, which would likely have served as the entrance to the new attraction if it had opened.
This ride made it really far in development, with numerous models and pieces of concept art produced. In fact, it even had a sponsor lined up, FujiFilm, possibly the most perfect sponsor-attraction match up ever made by any theme park. The only problem, a rival company was already a sponsor at Epcot, Kodak, and threatened to leave the park if one of their major competitors was featured in a Disney Park.
Kodak ended up killing two attractions during their time as a Disney sponsor, one being the original Journey Into Imagination, and the other being the Mt. Fiji roller coaster, which after Kodak expressed their objections to it, was scrapped.
There is still a massive unused show building in this pavilion, and with Disney investing a lot of money in Epcot at the moment, we could easily see Japan actually get an attraction in the next decade. That or at least another canceled proposal.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the other entries in this series here. We will be taking a one-week hiatus from this series next week to pay tribute to IllumiNations on its 20th anniversary and the first day after its closure. Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions will return October 8th with its next entry, The Lost Countries of Epcot, where we will look at all the other countries that were ever planned for Epcot's World Showcase and were canceled before their plans got far enough along to warrant a full article.
Kodak ended up killing two attractions during their time as a Disney sponsor, one being the original Journey Into Imagination, and the other being the Mt. Fiji roller coaster, which after Kodak expressed their objections to it, was scrapped.
There is still a massive unused show building in this pavilion, and with Disney investing a lot of money in Epcot at the moment, we could easily see Japan actually get an attraction in the next decade. That or at least another canceled proposal.
Thanks for reading and be sure to check out the other entries in this series here. We will be taking a one-week hiatus from this series next week to pay tribute to IllumiNations on its 20th anniversary and the first day after its closure. Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions will return October 8th with its next entry, The Lost Countries of Epcot, where we will look at all the other countries that were ever planned for Epcot's World Showcase and were canceled before their plans got far enough along to warrant a full article.
“The Mr. Fiji roller coaster”
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