Innoventions - Five Years Gone
A Retrospective
On July 2, 2019, Disney quietly announced the permanent closure of EPCOT’s Innoventions as well as neighboring facilities Club Cool and the Fountain View. To those who were following topical rumors at the time, this came as no shock. Even to those who were casually visiting the park, it should have been no shock. The writing had been on the wall for Innoventions for several years, yet nonetheless I found myself heartbroken.
The Backstory
Innoventions wasn’t something many people cared about by that time, it spent its final years limping towards permanent closure to the point where this announcement almost felt like a mercy killing. Innoventions was a multi-million dollar redevelopment of EPCOT’s CommuniCore facilities which took place in the first half of 1994. CommuniCore, the original central hub of Future World, consisted of two semicircular buildings which housed exhibit space. The idea behind CommuniCore was to create a showcase of contemporary technological advancements, something that would allow park guests to familiarize themselves with forces that would shape their near future. A key part of CommuniCore is that, apart from its subject matter being future-focused, the buildings were as well. CommuniCore exhibits could be easily swapped out without impacting their neighbors, and the buildings themselves could be expanded inward and outward if more space were ever needed. They were purposely designed this way so that, with proper investment, an attraction that was inherently time-sensitive wouldn’t need to worry about ever being stale. If the need were ever to arise, CommuniCore could lend itself to nearly anything being built within its walls.
With this in mind, CommuniCore began to feel aesthetically dated by the mid-1990s. EPCOT, barely a decade old, already had its first run-in with “the Tomorrowland problem” - the future it depicted felt out of date. This sparked a series of investments across the park, and simply swapping out the content of CommuniCore wasn’t enough. Despite their good bones, these facilities had to be redressed. CommuniCore ceased operation after over 11 years in January 1994.
With CommuniCore closed, work began immediately on transforming the complex. CommuniCore’s defining characteristic, its outer walls of windows, would either be boxed in or removed entirely. No longer would these buildings have a light open-air feeling, but rather a dark trade show-type floor flanked by exhibits using their own specialty show lighting. The original radial paths of CommuniCore would be removed in all but the south quadrants, in their place a new grid-like layout to divide exhibitor space into segments akin to trade show booths. The north quadrants of the now-Innoventions complex would see the most drastic changes, with the northwest building being expanded and the northeast building seeing all but a kitchen block and the now walled-off EPCOT Computer Central being gutted and redeveloped. CommuniCore’s guest spaces became Innoventions, and the Stargate Restaurant became Electric Umbrella.
The twist with the concept of Innoventions came in that Disney was not the one presenting the show - they were simply hosting corporations that would. Perhaps the most genius Eisner-era initiative for EPCOT, other companies would pay to showcase their technology in Future World and thus receive a captive audience to market to. EPCOT gets a fresh attraction at a very minimal investment and Disney is no longer on the hook for refreshing their exhibits. The presenting companies would either do that themselves, put their brand image on the line by showcasing something stale, or leave to be replaced by another exhibitor. Simultaneously, EPCOT guests were no longer presented with Disney-created approximations of concepts or examples of technology, they were able to see real consumer electronics. Products on display were either in development and shown as proof of concept or available for them to purchase now. This was real-deal hardware from real-deal companies that could change your future.
For Innoventions’ first five years, it operated exactly this way. Corporations would come and go, exhibits would be cycled out, and EPCOT struck gold with something fresh at its heart. In 1999 the complex would be redeveloped again, due to guest complaints of confusing crowd flow the grid layout of Innoventions would be removed in favor of “the Road to Tomorrow”, a single road-themed winding path with all exhibits on either side of it. Innoventions would relaunch alongside EPCOT’s millennium celebration for its second iteration.
Throughout its Road to Tomorrow run, the attraction slowly gave up on its original concept. New exhibits were more along the lines of things you may find at a children’s museum rather than technological advances. New sponsors weren’t signing up to debut their new consumer products, but rather to showcase some element of their industry. New exhibits would include attractions like Liberty Mutual’s “Where’s the Fire?”, a fire safety exhibit created within an interactive home, and UL’s “Test the Limits Lab”, an area showcasing the tests consumer products go through to receive a UL safety certification.
In 2008, Innoventions would receive its third and final rebrand. This time it would go all in on the Children’s Museum aspect, debuting exhibits like T. Rowe Price’s “The Great Piggy Bank Adventure”, a financial education-themed exhibit in the West building, and FLASH’s “StormStruck”, a severe weather simulator which demonstrated the impact of a hurricane on a typical home. A companion website, innoventions.disney.com, was launched at this time as well. The website would be refreshed to keep up with new exhibit showcases up until the opening of Glidden’s “Colortopia”, which would not be featured on the site. The site would shut down following the closure of StormStruck and The Sum of all Thrills in 2016.
Indisputably the most successful thing to come from this final incarnation of Innoventions was Raytheon’s “The Sum of all Thrills”, an attraction which utilized Kuka arms to simulate the movements of a roller coaster that guests would design in a prior room by combining prebuilt segments on a touch screen. If you ever visited Cyberspace Mountain at DisneyQuest, this was essentially a more modern version of that. To date this is the only “ride” that ever existed in central Future World, counting both its CommuniCore and Innoventions days up to now.
Innoventions would run in this final incarnation unchanged (with exception to a horribly ugly repaint of the buildings in 2014) up until 2015, with the abrupt closure of the entire West complex. At this time Disney was actively working on a new plaza revitalization plan, and just like in 1994 the West building required more extensive modifications to accommodate it. While no word was given publicly aside from stating there were new plans in development, the idea here was to begin a phased closure where the East building could continue to operate for a little while longer while the West building was being revitalized. Closing Innoventions West was a serious sign of faith in this project, as it didn’t just kill stale exhibits but also “THINK”, IBM’s (the attraction’s longest-running presenter) fifth exhibit produced for Innoventions and arguably the most fitting thing to be placed in that building in over a decade by that point. It was not even a full two years old.
The planned fourth incarnation of Future World’s central plaza ended up being canceled shortly after Innoventions had closed to accommodate it. The exact reason for this isn’t publicly known, but if I were a betting man I would say it had something to do with Bob Chapek’s appointment as head of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts a few months prior. This closure meant that the writing was immediately on the wall for the East building. One year later StormStruck and The Sum of All Thrills would permanently close, as well as the main entrance to the exhibit. Guests were now directed to enter from the back entrance by the Universe of Energy.
This now left two exhibits in Innoventions operating; “Take a Nanooze Break” and Glidden’s Colortopia. Much like with IBM’s THINK, Colortopia was a brand new exhibit. Glidden had just signed a five-year contract the same year the West building closed, which meant Innoventions East either had to stay open until 2020 or a new agreement would need to be negotiated. Disney would choose the latter.
Against all odds, Disney signed a new exhibitor for one year. muRata’s “The SpectacuLAB” show debuted in 2017 in the former Vision House space and promptly closed a year later with no option for renewal. Some took its opening as a sign that Disney would continue investment in Innoventions after all, but in retrospect, it is very clear that this was a space filler to make Innoventions look a little less sad while they ran out the clock on Colortopia. A shame too, it was a cute little science show. I was there for its first showing and ended up being one of the kids they brought up on stage as a volunteer (if you dig that video up, I’m the kid in a Body Wars shirt)
Following the short but sweet run of The SpectacuLAB, Innoventions was back to half of one building with its main entrance closed and only one major exhibit, a shell of what it was even four years prior. At this time, Disney had already announced their intentions to give EPCOT a full overhaul. Work was underway in the entrance plaza, Universe of Energy, and Wonders of Life; Innoventions couldn’t be far behind. On July 2nd, one day after the attraction’s 25th anniversary, a date came: September 7th, 2019, would be Innoventions’ final date of operation.
The Closure
There were just over two months until the shuttering of Innoventions East, the Southwest Quadrant in the plaza, and the Fountain of Nations. While I knew Club Cool had its fans and plenty of EPCOT diehards would come out to mourn the fountain, I worried tremendously about my beloved Innoventions going out with a whimper. One of my friends, Stefanie (former DisTwitter personality who went by the tag TheEPCOTQueen) and I shared this concern so we decided to organize an open invite get-together to send it off. I made buttons to hand out and we acted as tandem hosts for an evening, but before this, I arrived at the park bright and early at 9 AM.
Following a run on the monorail to take a look at the full plaza one last time, I went straight to Innoventions. It was, as expected, completely empty. Nobody is picking Innoventions over Soarin’ or Test Track at park open, even on its final day. I spent some time taking photos of the empty exhibits as if I hadn’t spent the last few years doing the same thing and had a Colortopia showing to myself. I took this opportunity to speak with the opening cast, I handed them buttons and little thank you cards I whipped up in Photoshop. The cards were maybe a little cringe in retrospect, but it’s the thought that counts, right?
One Cast Member I spoke to that morning, Lamonte, told me that he was the sole remaining member of the Innoventions opening cast. He started with the attraction in 1994 and stayed all the way until its final date of operation. He told me he debated on whether or not he wanted to come in that day, but ultimately decided he wanted to be able to say he was there on the first and last day.
After a morning at Innoventions, I went around the plaza in preservation mode. Back then I was still in high school, and I was taking my school’s digital video production course. Having heard me discussing Innoventions’ closing date, my teacher offered to lend me some professional equipment that my school had to shoot closing day with. I hauled this big professional camera and tripod into EPCOT and spent a good chunk of the day going from location to location filming B-Roll, with the idea that the footage I shot would someday be valuable to people even if only to use as background footage for YouTube video essays (all I believe it has been used for since). If you’re interested, all of that footage can be found here.
After my detour to film the plaza I was approached by someone higher up whom I sadly do not remember, but I assume it was a manager or lead or something similar. They gave me a paper EPCOT multi-experience pass valid for up to five people at anything other than Frozen and Reflections of Earth, a sincere thank you for being there that day, and they let me know that the cast of Innoventions had gotten special permission to wear the buttons I made for them for the rest of the day. I never used that pass, both because there was nothing else I wanted to do at EPCOT that day and because keeping it for posterity meant so much more than any ride would’ve. I still have it today, however it has now expired by almost five years.
When I returned to Innoventions later that day crowds had picked up slightly, but it was no different than any normal day. Every once in a while someone would show up who was there for a goodbye, but it seemed most in attendance were regular park guests. Disney had advertised on the park maps that it was their last chance to see Colortopia over the last few weeks, however the maps available on the date of closure had already removed the attraction, so I’m not sure any regular park guests made special trips because it was closing. I had more time to speak with the cast, exchanging stories and generally just being a positive force on what was a difficult day for many of them.
On a very complimentary note and as a final cast story, I was there with my mom that day, and while I was off filming she sat in Innoventions herself. Later that day she told me that an Innoventions Cast Member approached her while I was gone saying something along the lines of “I want you to know that we thought this day was going to be very rough on us, and then your son showed up”. I wasn’t there to personally hear this, but it still touched me. Whenever I find myself caught up in something admittedly silly like this, knowing the human factor gives me all the reassurance in the world. If I’ve made someone feel good, if I’ve made them smile, that is what matters most to me. I like to think I gave Innoventions the attraction the sendoff it deserved and wouldn’t have gotten otherwise, but it’s truly the CMs there who made it so special and it matters significantly more to me knowing I made their day better.
I met up with Stefanie around 4 PM and got food with her at Electric Umbrella as we talked over our plans for the night. We were on somewhat rocky grounds at the time, so that doubled up as us working things out before risking personal issues affecting anyone’s night. We met up at the Fountain of Nations at 5, having no idea how many people would show up. As you can see from above we got a surprising turnout!
After we exchanged greetings and I handed out buttons I guided us on a walking tour around the plaza giving out fun facts about different sections, I believe that’s the context of this photo here at least. This is among the sillier things I’ve done in life, but people were into it and I had done way too much research for my own good. Glad I got my moment of playing tour guide before Disney started banning that, haha.
We returned to Innoventions not long after and camped out until closing time there. I had brought some Innoventions artifacts along with me (Plastic Works robots, pins, buttons, old maps, etc.) and displayed them along a ledge at the old SpectacuLAB for people to look at. I also hosted an impromptu trivia session where I handed out Innoventions memorabilia to those who could correctly answer the quickest. It was killing time and vibing until Innoventions closed for good at 7:00 PM. Our group was split into two final Colortopia showings, and afterwards we stuck around to cheer the cast on as they closed down and left. Many of us lingered in the building, no longer staffed by Innoventions CMs, simply to keep the moment going. One by one we began leaving until it was just myself and the security CMs left in the building. They never asked me to leave, but with everyone else gone I knew I couldn’t stay forever. At 8:58 PM, a staggering nearly two hours after Innoventions was closed to park guests, I left. The attraction was closed for good.
It was a Food & Wine night so EPCOT was open until 10 PM. Innoventions was a remnant of a bygone era not just in substance, but in operating hours, where Future World formerly closed at 7 PM. While Future World switched back to being open until park close later on, Innoventions and Journey Into Imagination retained their old hours. Imagination went back to park open to park close a few years ago, so the 7 PM Future World closure is finally extinct. I had another hour to kill so I joined most of the group who had moved on to run out the clock at Club Cool. The vibe at Club Cool was very celebratory, just people having drinks and living in the moment. The turnout there was significantly higher than Innoventions had, likely because of it both being a more popular attraction and there being no assurance of it reopening. Disney had stated it would return, but didn’t elaborate on where or at what scale and I don’t think many of us actually had faith that it would.
I had every drink one after another like I was doing shots, something I’d later repeat when the new location opened in tribute. I think the new Club Cool is a much nicer venue, but the drink lineup is significantly worse than the old one. I dearly miss my VegitaBeta, it was a dark day when they finally took it off the menu at the Disney Springs Coca-Cola store. Ultimately some CMs gathered us around for a group photo of whoever was left in Club Cool, which I didn’t understand at first but it was fun to do. I feel bad for the poor CMs in the back who were Mike Wazowski’d.
Stefanie left just before this photo was taken and never got to say goodbye to me for some reason or another. Once the photo was done I rushed out to the central plaza and said my goodbyes to her just outside Fountain View. Regretfully, this was the last time I would ever speak to her in person. In the interest of keeping it brief, Stefanie did some things to me that caused me a lot of mental turmoil. In the confidence of privacy I discussed these things with a colleague I had recently met, and expressly against my wishes she would post a callout thread a month later that resulted in the worst night of my life, contact being severed, and essentially Stefanie’s exile from the internet. The way that situation was handled remains one of my largest regrets, and said colleague would later go on to do some of the same things Stefanie did to me. It’s the realization of that and my lack of retaliation towards her, even as she continues to make petty digs at me online, that has made me revisit my timeline of events with Stefanie. If I could change anything about my time on Twitter, I think it would be how that situation was handled. It’s a little sad that this night was essentially the end of our friendship along with Innoventions, but I also feel like that’s almost fitting.
Back to EPCOT, from here the park was closed. I made my way outside Club Cool and into the southwest CommuniCore Main Hall with my final cup of VegitaBeta. I sat on a bench there and watched what I could see of Reflections of Earth through the windows. This was another of my favorite spots in the park, so just as with Innoventions I was taking the moment in. It too emptied until it was just me in there. This time, however, I was kicked out. I took a final look around and was on my way.
Even though I would love to have silly bragging rights here and maintain that I was the final park guest to leave this facility, like a week after it closed to guests they housed a showcase for the “Arendelle Aqua” product line in this building exclusively for influencers. This was in that weird trend of Disney consumer products where they kept chasing the Rose Gold high of selling a line of Minnie Ears and Loungeflys and junk around a vaguely Disney-themed color and hoping it would sell like hotcakes. The building had already been gutted of everything that wasn’t affixed to the wall at this time and it kind of irks me that this was its final use, but nonetheless, it was.
The hardest thing to say goodbye to that night was the Fountain of Nations, it was the heart of Future World and its removal is still felt to this day. Apart from historical significance and kinetics and whatnot, it was just a profound fountain at such a large scale. Central Future World today is sorely lacking something like the Fountain of Nations, and I’m not sure it’ll ever get that soul back.
The Fountain of Nations would get an extra day of life as Disney didn’t finish putting up construction walls overnight. After the evening of September 8th, however, it was drained and out of service for good. It would be demolished and replaced with absolutely nothing aside from a couple of walkways and planters five years later.
The Epilogue
Following its closure, Innoventions East was gutted to serve as a temporary MouseGear location while the main one was gutted for its transformation into the new permanent main gift shop, Creations Shop. The temporary MouseGear location was the blandest Disney retail area I have ever seen, it was essentially nothing but blank walls. It was temporary, however, so it didn’t really need to have much effort put into it. My favorite parts were that it still played the interior Innoventions music loop, the area just in front of the door still had the curved shape of the Road to Tomorrow even with the road itself gone, and the stock room was entirely unchanged from when it housed Take a Nanooze Break. That wasn’t a public area of course, but you could catch glimpses whenever the door was open.
Following the opening of Creations Shop, the former Innoventions East would close again to be transformed into Connections Eatery, the new main quick service restaurant in Future World. Electric Umbrella, the prior main quick service, would be gutted and turned into the new location for Starbucks following the demolition of Fountain View and its temporary relocation to World Showcase.
Truly, Connections is an excellent venue. While boxing Innoventions in made sense for the 90’s, enough time has passed to where the original 1980s open-air feeling of CommuniCore has come back into style. The original architecture shines with the addition of the new windows and faux wood paneling on the ceiling, as though it were meant for this. My only real complaint is that we shouldn’t have had to lose attraction space for a quick service in a building that already had a quick service, it is very upsetting that Innoventions was replaced with a restaurant (Sum of All Thrills is a restroom now!). It’s a giant location, which anyone who has had to fight for a table knows isn’t a bad thing, but I feel this expansion was a direct result of taking down the second floor of Electric Umbrella which could have been retained. It’s hard to be too upset over this change knowing Innoventions received a mercy killing and we got a wonderful quick service out of it. The main thing to mourn is the potential of what could have been had it remained exhibit space.
Innoventions West would be entirely demolished. The Southwest quadrant was planned to be replaced by a multi-tier Festival Center in order to retire Wonders of Life’s use as one, however this would be quickly canceled. Following years of nothing happening on the site, the original Festival Center would be redeveloped into a building that is functionally almost identical to the one they tore down. The differences are that it includes a small outdoor stage in place of Club Cool, the interior building itself is about half the size, and it has a significantly uglier exterior appearance. The result is the dismal CommuniCore Hall, somehow the worst of both worlds in combining the old layout with the original Festival Center. Despite this, I still think it was a better outcome than had they built the original multi-tier building.
The Northwest quadrant would be replaced by Moana’s Journey of Water, an outdoor water play area that was only planned on the NW site as a space filler to facilitate the construction of the festival building that would never come to be. It is a children’s play area so I’m not the target audience, however, my main takeaways are that it is extremely poorly placed (both as an attraction at EPCOT and its placement within EPCOT) and is nowhere near worth what was lost for it. Everything in the central plaza’s redevelopment aside from the new East building is a far cry from what was originally planned, really, both in the 2015 and 2019 proposals. That is a story for another day though.
In closing, while the removal of Innoventions in its final form is little to mourn outside of nostalgia, the lack of smaller exhibits is very noticeable in modern EPCOT. Something off to the side that the whole family could get enjoyment from, perhaps something to contrast with the thrill city that Future World East has become, is one of those things that EPCOT needs. It has been integral to the park’s DNA since 1982, this is truly the first time it hasn’t had something like this. I don’t agree with the take that the current plaza is soulless (to an extent, there are definitely soulless elements), but three mostly empty buildings in a formerly lively space are difficult to ignore. I’m not sure how you could effectively rectify this short of tearing down everything built over Innoventions West and starting over or using Wonders of Life as an exhibit space. The latter seems to be the best we can hope for as it nearly fulfilled a similar purpose, albeit for a significantly younger audience. I can’t help but feel that is a plot suited for bigger things though, killing all space in the Innoventions area has done more harm than good for EPCOT. While Innoventions itself may no longer be what’s best for EPCOT, the day it receives something in the same spirit is the day it inches closer to feeling more like EPCOT again. I truly hope it comes sooner than later.
Innoventions’ closing day holds a special place in my heart just as Innoventions itself does. It’s one of my favorite memories not only at EPCOT, but in my life as a whole. A thought that brings me great comfort when thinking about extinct attractions is how they were originally designed for momentary entertainment, yet even the smallest things can create an impact that far outlasts the attraction itself. Innoventions did that for me, just as Horizons and Journey into Imagination did for so many of you. Even closure doesn’t have to mean the end of an impact, Wonders of Life and myself is proof enough of that. If I could end this with anything, it would be an ask of you. Go to YouTube and play a little of the Innoventions BGM today. Go look at that exhibit you remember fondly one more time (if applicable). Keep those memories alive, they’re the most powerful things a theme park can create. 💚💙
Really enjoyed sitting down and reading this article with a cup of coffee this morning. The oral-history style of both the history of Innoventions, and your personal experiences really create a wonderful loop. Really enjoyed this, DFG.
Innoventions feels like it started as a CES for the masses, and I think that was amazing. The development of that exciting period of person technology also meant things getting out of date quickly (even seeing some internet machines running Win 98 SE in Disneyland's Innoventions in 2001 felt "old", yet in Theme Park time 3 years feels like barely a blip). I'm sad I got the tail-end of that CES area with a few things left.
I have a lot of great memories in Innoventions at EPCOT, especially when the IBM Think exhibit was happening around the time that Watson was on Jeopardy! and they gave out a couple of special mini-buttons and had a small video and demo about it (later posted to their YT page). Rode Sum of all Thrills many times. Hell, my personal transportation history is thanks to Innoventions. Bought a Segway for work rides in 2010. Later, I bought my little Spark EV in 2014 because I first saw it in Innoventions and loved the design, and literally used the same Siemens EV charger that was in Innoventions, that I still have today.
Given Innoventions and its trajectory with CommuniCore Hall, is that Theme Parks are feeling less and less "dynamic" over time. Yes, there's festivals and seasonal events, but those are getting really wrote in the way that they work. Innoventions, the Disneyland Festival Arena, and other spaces actually felt fresh and dynamic on every visit (even as a frequent visitor). Now, they have an event space in the new Communicore, and it feels like understanding that you can do a temporary effort, even if it lasts a few months, is just totally gone from modern operations and the current strategy. Every day has to feel the same now, and these spaces used to make everything feel a little more special.
Again - great article, really enjoyed it. Keep it up, DFG.