Reinventing Epcot for ‘cosmic’ community
ORLANDO, Fla. — Can a roller coaster dance?
The new “Guardians of the Galaxy”: Cosmic Rewind at Walt Disney World’s Epcot aims to answer that question with ride vehicles that twist and turn in time to a beat. They move, swiftly and smoothly, in a journey that will take guests back in time to randomly selected songs such as the Trammps’ “Disco Inferno,” Miami Sound Machine’s “Conga” and Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” among others, transforming an area of the park that was once dedicated to the edu-tainment of the Universe of Energy into one where good times and savethe-world heroics take precedence over classroom lessons.
Cosmic Rewind is part of a multiyear transformation of Epcot, a park once loosely based on Walt Disney’s concept of an altruistic future city dedicated to innovation and experimentation. Opened in October 1982, Epcot was ultimately designed as a sort of permanent World’s Fair, with attractions in pavilions dedicated to the land, the sea and various science and engineering topics, all of them sitting across from World Showcase, a celebration of international cultures.
But today it’s out with the old and in with the Marvel, as Cosmic Rewind is also Walt Disney World’s first proper superhero-themed attraction, and only the third Marvelbased ride at a Disney park in the U.S. It’s one piece of a multi-pronged update to place more Disney characters in a park that has long stood on its own and with its own mascot, the little purple dragon Figment. Cosmic Rewind is arguably the boldest shift yet away from Epcot’s cultural and once educational focus.
The good news: It’s a fresh infusion of theme park vitality to a park that has badly needed some reinvention among aging attractions.
The Universe of Energy, a ride once described by Disney as documenting how “oil, coal and natural gas (became) so important to our way of life,” was no modern classic, as its various revamps over the years never quite divorced the ride from its roots as borderline oil industry propaganda. It did, however, have a dramatic scene involving larger-than-life robotic dinosaurs. Cosmic Rewind is generally screen-based, with the exception of some impressive pre-show illusions that want to trick us into believing we teleported into space.
But lack of dinosaurs aside, the ride still attempts to make overtures to Epcot’s traditional themes. Though irreverent and self-reflexive — the raccoonlike character Rocket jokes about Epcot’s name at one point — the ride takes a science-rooted explanation to the birth of the universe. Though the ride is essentially a chase through a darkened show building filled with floor-toceiling screens, it’s ultimately a roller coaster that places an emphasis on feeling over highspeed thrills or any fake sense of danger.
The power of song to unite
us is a theme, as is the joy of discovery through space exploration. There’s a villain that wants to destroy Earth, but what I remember more is the wonder of rocking in time over a vision of the Milky Way, a moment that felt like a triumphant treatise on space travel. In that way, Cosmic Rewind nods to the classic Space Mountain, just with far more pop and Chris Pratt’s Peter Quill (other Hollywood personalities who make appearances include Glenn Close and Terry Crews, in addition to the full roster of Guardians).
“The goal of our transformation is that Epcot is a park about what’s possible, it’s about inspiring people and people are our subject,” says Zach Riddley, the creative executive with Walt Disney Imagineering who has been overseeing Epcot’s rebranding and additions, which include a ride inspired by “Ratatouille,” a new nighttime show and the upcoming walk-through attraction “Journey of Water,” inspired by “Moana.” “The idea of what a global community means is
something that we focus on in different ways. It can be an intergalactic community.”
Where Epcot has been and where it’s heading is perhaps exemplified and contrasted by Cosmic Rewind’s neighbor, Spaceship Earth. Both rides are centered on imaginative concepts of time travel but Spaceship Earth is a slowmoving attraction that takes us through visions of the Renaissance as well as the birth of space travel and the World Wide Web — the ride as an essay centered on human communication. Cosmic Rewind, in contrast, is around a 3-minute blast of infectious melody, modern intellectual property, and a unique ride system that marries Haunted Mansionstyle Omnimover vehicles that can turn and rotate with roller coaster fluidity and speed.
Cosmic Rewind is the loudest piece of Epcot’s reinvention, which will also include a new plaza dedicated to festivals and the “Moana” walk through. Other promised initiatives, such as a pavilion dedicated to the art of play and a “Mary
Poppins”-inspired attraction, have fallen off the current docket in the wake of extended pandemic closures with no word yet as to when they may re-materialize. But in the meantime, Ridley promises “Moana’s” Journey of Water will tap into Epcot’s original themes.
“The Epcot-ness of this story is to focus on learning about the water cycle — how it moves through various ecosystems,” Ridley says. “We use ‘Moana’ as references and a jumping off point, but we’re not telling that story of that film or of her. It’s about this message. Epcot again is a park about people and possibility. So our way in on an Animal Kingdom or Magic Kingdom story is that it is about us, and what we can learn and do, and what it should inspire us to do in terms of action.”
Hitting all those marks in a roller coaster is a challenge, but I look forward to revisiting Cosmic Rewind. No ride before this, after all, has ever inspired me to want to dance on a roller coaster.