5. The Music

Music has always been an essential piece of what makes EPCOT, EPCOT. Look no further than the park’s entrance loop as it was in 1982 – a stirring, energetic, emotional, monumental collision and crescendo of orchestra and synthesizer composed by the legendary George Wilkins. Filled with wind chimes, strings, electronic instruments, and waxing and waning intensity, this score alone is packed with memorable motifs, hummable melodies, and soul-gripping spirit. All of it was meant to set the stage for a park that was historic, reverent, intense, innovative, and joyful.

But music has always been there at the core of the park’s identity. As the original scores of the ’80s gave way to the Millennium Celebration, the music of EPCOT became even more engrained into the park experience.

The score of the long-running Illuminations: Reflections of Earth and its New Millennium counterpart, Tapestry of Nations – both composed by Gavin Greenaway – remain among the most moving in the Disney Parks songbook. Atmospheric, celebratory, cultural, powerful, and goosebumps-inducing. They are, for lack of better terms, perfect compositions, and so absolutely perfect for the park’s spirit. Both centered on the idea that the world tends toward order, and that "we go on," persevering day-by-day and century-by-century, living on through those we touch.

Few would deny that EPCOT’s ambitions are far less deep today than they were back then. For better and worse, the park has somewhat stepped away from its lofty pursuit of intellectual, life-changing reflections on industry and culture. Instead, it’s settled into a decidedly more modern niche: a semi-scientific “discovery park” of brawn-over-brains attractions that use Disney, Pixar, and Marvel characters as stewards. (Though fans feel they can eke out a Future World-style scientific focus hidden in Cosmic Rewind, Occam’s razor would suggest that the standards for entry to EPCOT have just changed.)

Luckily, one thing that has not changed is the park’s reliance on music… even if the music itself has. As part of the park’s multi-phase relaunch, an entirely new score and musical motif was developed for EPCOT around its identity as Disney’s park of “Possibilities.” Composer Pinar Toprak’s theme (not yet officially released, but heard in the embedded video above) carves out a new recurring musical motif. Like the music that came before it, it’s both mysterious and emotional; contemplative, yet celebratory; a sparkling, inspirational, and fittingly colorful orchestral hook that’ll be heard across the park.

6. The Message

For better or worse (and probably much to the chagrin of modern Disney leadership), the “original,” 1982 version of EPCOT was not a park of fantasy and animation, nor one compatible with it; it instead tasked guests with imagining themselves as global citizens who would shape, inherit, and then pass on the planet. EPCOT Center dared to deem visitors as capable – capable of understanding, connecting, dreaming, and applying what was showcased there, making the unthinkably bold assumption that when offered it, guests would use the park to look back on the past and imagine what lay over the horizon.

Did it work? Well… On one hand is EPCOT’s oft-mocked embodiment of “edutainment”; a theme park that kids dreaded “wasting” a day at; a pop culture punchline; a park that, put simply, wasn’t much fun. But on the other hand, look to a generation of themed entertainment design professionals, engineers, designers, scientists, and theme park fans – like so many of us! – who were shaped by the park… sometimes without even stepping into it in its original form ourselves.

Yes, its forms and functions were unique… but most important was its message: “to entertain, inform and inspire,” and “above all, […] instill a new sense of belief and pride in man’s ability to shape a world that offers hope to people everywhere.”

We’re of two minds when it comes to EPCOT’s message today.

On one hand, we question whether any Disney theme park really “means” anything uniquely its own anymore. Yes, Walt Disney World’s four parks have very different decorations, and the elevator pitch for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom is simple – “magic,” “technology,” “movies,” and “nature,” respectively… but considering you’re equally likely to find Finding Nemo or Moana or Guardians of the Galaxy at any of them, it stands to reason that in the age of the Disney+ Park, there’s an air of interchangability to the four, caused by the slow and steady loss of distinct, deep themes.

But on the other hand, EPCOT will always be different from any of its sisters. It looks different. It sounds different. It feels different. It was born of an entirely unique set of circumstances. It has lived forty years torn between the past and the future. Through its architecture, its icon, its visual language, its entrance, and its music, it’s clear that EPCOT is not a “Magic Kingdom” and never will be.

Though characters have officially invaded, “Future World” has fallen to new “neighborhoods,” the pandemic has shuffled the master-plan, and the intellectual, industrious, and cultural ambitions of old have been softened into the more dreamy ideals of “Possibilities,” the vision is clear: that the “new” EPCOT will embrace what was, what is, and what could be. Imagineers are hoping that the 21st century version of the park feels fresh but familiar. That’s why echoes of “classic EPCOT” can still be found in new and nostalgic places… if you know where and how to see them…