Gutting the pavilion...slowly

Though much of the Wonders of Life pavilion was still present when the Festival Center made its debut in 2007, Disney has been removing some of the more overt pieces of Wonders of Life over the years in what has been a painfully slow process. The most notable example of this is probably the Body Wars simulators, which remained in place for several years following 2007's closure, and were only removed just recently (and reportedly broken down for parts). However, the Body Wars simulators aren't the only part of this former pavilion that has been removed in recent years. 

The Birth Theater, which housed the aforementioned The Making of Me film had a big curtain over its signage for the first few years when the facility was being used as a Festival Center. In 2008, The Making of Me sign came out from behind the curtain (even though the film never did), but sadly this piece of Wonders of Life history was pulled down for good the following year, negating the need for an inconvenient curtain. 

In recent years (2013 and 2014) Disney has finally gotten around to painting the area that previously housed Goofy About Health in the center of the pavilion and have installed permanent signage around this area indicating its status as a special event stage. 

Though traces of Wonders of Life still exist in the Festival Center (just look up the next time you find yourself in the Festival Center if you need proof), it seems like every year more of this original pavilion is erased. 

The legacy of the Wonders of Life closure

Though Wonders of Life isn't the first attraction to be lost thanks to a sponsorship gone sour, its closure was particularly devastating for fans, as this pavilion housed several classic attractions that were neglected when the sponsorship first ended in 2001 and then fell into decay and disrepair while the pavilion operated seasonally. Reports from guests in 2005 and 2006 recall headlining attractions like Body Wars and Cranium Command being in ridiculously poor shape, hardly ever being open, and breaking down frequently. By the time this pavilion limped along to its closing date in 2007, it was already in the saddest shape of pretty much anything at Walt Disney World at the time, and looking back, its closure was almost a mercy killing as this once-amazing pavilion had simply been allowed to slide too far into disrepair to ever make a comeback. 

However, beyond the rapid decay of Wonders of Life after the initial sponsorship was lost, the real tragedy of Wonders of Life is what replaced it. Though Epcot certainly needs a space for events related to the Food and Wine Festival as well as the Flower and Garden Festival, they took out a whole pavilion with two major attractions (and several smaller ones) and replaced it with...something that is only open 1/3 of the year and has no real value to most Epcot guests. More importantly, the Festival Center has nothing to do with the larger Future World area, and just doesn't make thematic sense in this portion of Epcot. 

Instead of teaching, entertaining and thrilling guests by taking them inside the circulatory system or demonstrating how different parts of the body work together in concert with your brain as the conductor, the former Wonders of Life building simply exists to give guests space to experience upcharge wine tastings and buy merchandise related to Epcot's two annual events. Hardly an inspired tradeoff.

It's crazy to think that an attraction pavilion that closed nearly a decade ago still hasn't been replaced (or at least demolished) and simply sits like a monolith next to the Universe of Energy, reminding longtime guests of what once was, and what will never be again. Though many longtime Epcot fans point to the losses of Horizons, The Living Seas and even World of Motion as negative turning points in the development of Future World, in this writer's opinion it was the closure of the Wonders of Life pavilion (and subsequent failure to replace it with anything) that really changed Epcot. It's one thing to try to update an attraction and/or replace it with something else, but to just close an attraction and give up on the concept behind it (which was one of the best in all Epcot) is just a shame and makes Wonders of Life the saddest (and most pointless) closure in Walt Disney World history.