Sweetums74
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Hey all-
I just read an article on Walt Disney Imagineering's internal news page that said that Dave Goelz is voicing Figment in the rehab of the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot @ Walt Disney World.
Just some back story on the whole thing for those of you not familiar:
In 1983 the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot opened. The basic idea was that you were guided through the world of imagination by a human type character named "Dreamfinder". Early in the journey, Dreamfinder creates a purple dragon- a figment of his imagination- and names him "Figment". Figment was voiced by the late Billy Barty.
In the late 90's- I think 1999- the original attraction was changed to carry over the "Imagination Institute" theme that was introduced a few years earlier in the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" 3D film that was also shown in part of the Imagination pavilion. Dreamfinder and Figment were taken out of the new attraction (although aspects of Figment could be found in throughout).
To put it bluntly, this new attraction was pretty bad. IMHO it removed the charm and whimsy and was quite stale (a lot shorter too). This view was shared by a good portion of other people too.. many who demanded the return of their beloved purple dragon.
So this summer, Figment is being added back into the attraction. The original song will be coming back as well.
I didn't know how they were going to bring Figment back w/o having him speak unless they were going to utilize recordings from the original attraction or recordings that Billy Barty made that were never used.
Now I know. Dave Goelz is doing it. I'm sure that he has done a fine job and I'm really looking forward to going back to the attraction in a month or two (maybe even only a few weeks).
I'll give a report.
Chris
I just read an article on Walt Disney Imagineering's internal news page that said that Dave Goelz is voicing Figment in the rehab of the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot @ Walt Disney World.
Just some back story on the whole thing for those of you not familiar:
In 1983 the Journey Into Imagination attraction at Epcot opened. The basic idea was that you were guided through the world of imagination by a human type character named "Dreamfinder". Early in the journey, Dreamfinder creates a purple dragon- a figment of his imagination- and names him "Figment". Figment was voiced by the late Billy Barty.
In the late 90's- I think 1999- the original attraction was changed to carry over the "Imagination Institute" theme that was introduced a few years earlier in the "Honey I Shrunk the Audience" 3D film that was also shown in part of the Imagination pavilion. Dreamfinder and Figment were taken out of the new attraction (although aspects of Figment could be found in throughout).
To put it bluntly, this new attraction was pretty bad. IMHO it removed the charm and whimsy and was quite stale (a lot shorter too). This view was shared by a good portion of other people too.. many who demanded the return of their beloved purple dragon.
So this summer, Figment is being added back into the attraction. The original song will be coming back as well.
I didn't know how they were going to bring Figment back w/o having him speak unless they were going to utilize recordings from the original attraction or recordings that Billy Barty made that were never used.
Now I know. Dave Goelz is doing it. I'm sure that he has done a fine job and I'm really looking forward to going back to the attraction in a month or two (maybe even only a few weeks).
I'll give a report.
Chris