Failed Utopian Society

After recently returning from a trip to Disney World I was intrigued by a specific park and decided to look into its history and original intentions. EPCOT, officially opened October 1st, 1982 is “where the impossible becomes possible,” containing the typical thrilling rides and delicious foods while also celebrating communities around the globe.

The trip to this theme park did not immediately spark any line of questioning until I visited Magic Kingdom and rode on the People Mover, the 10-minute tour of Tomorrowland. A very cute, fun, and low-impact ride that goes through many attractions including passing by models of a prototype community, “Progress City,” the original plan for EPCOT. From this ride forward I entered into an intriguing spiral for the original city design and its purpose. 

EPCOT standing for Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow was Walt Disney’s dream of an entire Utopian Society. The idea stemmed from his growing frustration with modern society: the dirt, the noise, the negativity, and the lack of a united community. This sparked Walt Disney to start his design of EPCOT. The “company town” would consist of Disney employees, and within its circular shape, monorails would take the citizens from their apartments or houses to businesses and rings of development. No worries of work, travel, or trash would consume the people living in EPCOT and there would be no reason to engage with the outside world. The idea was to showcase new technologies and developments from the inside and work to keep advancing against the outside world. Each citizen was to be known as an “Imagineer” and focus on state-of-the-art technology. 

This led me to my first question about EPCOT: How intense would the Imagineers’ separation from society be? Would the new technologies go to the world or be kept only for Disney use? 

As Walt Disney was an incredibly rich man from his brand he was able to model and pitch his dream city to legislatures in 1966. The meeting was not as successful as he intended, just as other projects like it had failed. The amount of money and work that would have to go into his design was incredibly unrealistic for the time and suspicions about the city were just too strong. Although the idea was shot down by many, it did not evaporate until Walt Disney's death later in 1966. Walt’s brother took over the Disney company along with the idea and tried to keep the vision going, but without Walt and his support behind the plan, there was no way to complete the project. The idea continued to trouble the employees and the utopian dream vanished.

Passing by the model was eerie, to say the least, as many of us have seen dystopian movies of failed societies and controlling governments. I could not help but wonder what would have been if Walt Disney had not suddenly died and the project moved forward. How upset with the world around him must he have been to come up with a whole new society? Would destruction and grief have been the fate of EPCOT or would it have truly been a business endeavor and a community of close-knit friends?  

It was obvious that the Disney coworkers were put off by his plan, so was there another aspect of the city that we don’t know about? Or are there any future plans to create another similar society now that the Walt Disney Company has the money and power to go through with it? As Disney is now one of the largest and richest companies in our world, who is to say that they could not succeed? Walt Disney once said, “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” After all these years will Disney soon have the courage to create a whole new world of magic and paradise? Careful what you wish for–Disney and paradise might not turn out to be what you think.