Behind the Attraction is a Disney Plus sequence that, because the identify says, takes viewers behind particular sights present in Disney Parks, however a number of the episodes stretch the definition of what counts as an “attraction.” Whereas the primary season gave us the historical past of the Haunted Mansion and the brand new season provides us the story of the creation of Pirates of the Caribbean, Season 1 additionally included an episode on the Disneyland Resort, and the brand-new Season 2, arriving on November 1, contains an episode about meals in Disney Parks. Season 2 additionally contains an episode about a whole theme park: Epcot.
Reasonably than specializing in a single attraction discovered at Epcot, the episode of Behind the Attraction covers your complete park from its earliest ideas by way of the fashionable day. I had an opportunity to talk with sequence director Brian Volk-Weis and requested him about why Epcot acquired its personal episode, and he mentioned that all of it got here down to 1 man named Disney… not Walt, however Roy. The director mentioned:
I’ve all the time been very excited about Roy Disney…the story that to me is all the time encapsulated. The connection between Walt and Roy is Epcot. as a result of it is the handoff. Roy. I do not understand how a lot, how well-known that is or not, however Roy was all the time in opposition to it. He was all the time, all the time in opposition to it. He had an enormous struggle with Walt about it. Walt handed away fairly, shortly between prognosis and passing away, and Roy, simply being a loyal brother. actually devoted the remainder of his life to creating positive the entire thing occurred, and as I am positive you understand, he handed away in a short time after he was finished so to me. That is all the time been essentially the most stunning, bitter-sweet facet of their relationship. And I type of use this episode as an enormous excuse to point out that.
The legacy of Roy O. Disney is not practically as nicely often known as Walt’s. The older brother who believed within the imaginative and prescient was the cash man who managed the funds, usually telling his brother that what Walt needed could not be finished earlier than determining the way to pay for Walt’s desires.
Walt Disney’s dream for Epcot was that it will be an precise metropolis; a spot the place folks would stay and work, however with entry to cutting-edge developments in know-how. As Brian Volk-Weiss says, Roy was very a lot in opposition to the enterprise, as it will be too troublesome and too costly.
That metropolis would finally by no means occur (there’s definitely a query of whether or not Epcot would have ever labored within the first place), however the concepts behind it will stay on in Disney World’s second theme park, Epcot Heart.
When Walt Disney handed away in 1966, he had simply completed filming a brief film about The Florida Undertaking, primarily centered on what Epcot was going to be. Roy was planning to retire from The Walt Disney Firm when his brother died, and so as a substitute he stayed on with the precise intention of constructing positive Walt DIsney World occurred.
Ultimately, the thought of Epcot town could be repurposed as Epcot the theme park, with ideas like a everlasting World’s Truthful recreated in World Showcase and the give attention to know-how dropped at life in Future World. Epcot definitely has a narrative in contrast to another theme park, making it worthy of its personal episode of Behind the Attraction.
Roy would die shortly after Magic Kingdom opened, so he wouldn’t stay to see what Epcot turned both, but it surely’s definitely true that had Roy not finished what he did, there could be no Epcot of any sort. It did not change into what Walt needed, but it surely turned one thing. Epcot has seen loads of current modifications, a few of which are not even a part of the Behind the Attraction episode, however the core of Epcot stays, all because of the Disney brothers.
