NATURAL BEAUTIES
New, updated topiaries set for Epcot’s flower and garden fest
There are new faces and new places in the topiary scene as Disney World prepares for the Epcot International Flower & Garden Festival. Figures have been streaming into the theme park for several days, and now visitors can see a couple of new members of the green team — including a 6-foot Remy from “Ratatouille” — in place.
The event officially kicks off Wednesday, March 4, and runs daily through June 1.
In the old-is-new category are the retheming of the Chinese dragon into a Japanese dragon as well as the popular Peter Pan topiary getting a sculpted, more realistic face. He looks a little surprised, too.
Eric Darden, festival horticulture manager, literally walked us through some of the changes during a stroll in World Showcase on Thursday morning.
The Remy figure, naturally, is in a garden in the park’s France pavilion. That’s also the future home of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, a ride set to open this summer. Remy wears a chef ’s hat and stands atop a round of cheese.
“It wasn’t a hard decision,” Darden said. “Now he’s going to be a permanent element of our park, and this will be one we can use every single year.”
Remy’s garden area, just down the hill from where Belle and Beast figures typically stand, features plantings that are the ingredients of ratatouille (the French dish,
not the animated film). Look for tomato, eggplants, herbs and such.
In the Japan pavilion, a re-imagined dragon has been moved from the waters of the China pavilion to the rocky shore of the World Showcase Lagoon. It is framed by the big red structure and backed, in the distance, by the park’s bigball icon.
“We’ve actually been talking about this for several years because we just we suspected — and now it’s confirmed — that the effect of the shot with Spaceship Earth and the Torii gate,” Darden said, pointing out the Instagram moment.
“It’s a pretty valued photo spot,” he said.
The dragon has a new sculpted head, tail and claws, and it looks leaner than before because it’s made of different plants. Now we see succulents instead of bromeliads.
To see Peter Pan looking back at you, go to the United Kingdom pavilions, where Pan is engaged in a sword fight with Captain Hook. The figure previously had a blank green face, the sort of old-school Disney style. Now he’s got a sculpted head with an expressive face. It’s a technique seen at Epcot in several figures, notably princesses such as Snow White, Belle and Elsa.
Pan’s lack of facial detail nearly kept him out of this year’s festival.
“Once you start doing things better that becomes an expectation,” Darden said. “So we always thought he was a sore spot … frankly, we weren’t going to use it at all.”
But because the topiary team was ahead of schedule on the Remy figure, it was decided — less than two months ago — that there was time to sculpt a proper face.
Getting a slightly different face and a new place is Tinker Bell, now located in a garden near the gazebo on the back side of the U.K. pavilion.
“We traditionally keep everything out on the promenade, but I think we have enough elements this year that we could have one tucked away and hidden,” Darden said.
Disney frequently rearranges placement of topiaries from festival to festival. This year, more upheaval occurred because of the major park construction going on, particularly in the area between Spaceship Earth and the lagoon.
There’s a nod to that as well in the gardens. The big five figures — Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Goofy, Pluto — will have new, um, roles.
“You know how many times we’ve had them help us garden?” Darden said. “These are going to have construction equipment. They’re helping us redo Epcot.”
And when they’re in place on opening day of the festival, they’ll be flanked by the event’s famous flower towers … with a twist.
“The ones around there are going to be orange and white — like traffic cones,” Darden said.