Epcot was running behind in construction, and many individual projects were at risk of not being completed for opening day. Today we talk about a backup attraction that never ended up being shown in the park because the attraction it would have replaced was ready for the park's opening.
Welcome back to Epcot Center's Cancelled Attractions and today we are discussing the fully completed but never publically shown Dreamfinder hosted preview for Magic Journeys. As always be sure to visit here if you missed any previous articles in this series.
Magic Journeys was an opening day film in the Magic Eye Theater in the Imagination Pavilion of Future World. It showcased the latest in the then-new technology of 3D film in a time when it wasn't widely available.
The problem was that because it was being made with cutting edge technology it was falling behind schedule and the company wasn't sure it was going to be ready on opening day and they needed a solution.
They decided, with Journey Into Imagination not ready to open with the park, to create a preview film for Magic Journeys hosted by Dreamfinder, that way it would actually preview both future attractions in the pavilion. It was called Dreamfinder Run.
The film was under two minutes and featured Dreamfinder running through backstage areas at Disney, including the creation of some of Epcot's classic attractions, before starting a shorter version of Magic Journeys.
The idea was that this film would precede whatever parts of Magic Journeys were completed in time for opening so that there was at least one attraction open in the Imagination Pavilion on the parks opening day.
So why did it never actually premiere in Epcot Center? In the time between the emergency film being created and the park opening the actual Magic Journeys film was actually finished so a preview film would have been unnecessary. The film was never released publicly although it did eventually leak online (check that out here).
This video would have introduced Dreamfinder before the original Journey Into Imagination and given us our first onscreen appearance of the Dreamfinder character.
Would you have liked to see this film in Epcot? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to go here to check out all the other entries in this series. Be sure to come back every Tuesday as we go through the final few entries in this series, including next week's look at the canceled Thames River Cruise attraction.
This is very cool! Thanks for the link to the video! I probably wouldn't have been able to find it otherwise ;v;
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