Epcot in Disney World may not be exactly what Walt Disney was thinking of when he dreamed
up the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow, but it is still impressive nevertheless.
It is a center dedicated to not only the promise of the future but to a celebration of all
cultures around the globe.
It is a theme park that shows the world that there can be a place for a more sophisticated
audience who want more complex entertainment… you know, like that time we got The Magical
World of Barbie.
So why Barbie, and why Epcot of all places?
Well surprisingly enough, for as odd of a match as it might seem, it kind of makes sense.
Disney and Mattel actually have a relationship that goes way back.
Mattel was one of the first corporate sponsors for the original run of Disney’s Mickey
Mouse Club which aired on ABC.
However beyond just the normal sponsorship arrangement of accepting Mattel’s money
in return for advertising time on the show, Disney also licensed out some of its rights
to Mattel for Disney branded toys.
Fast forward thirty-six years and that partnership was still around.
In 1991 Mattel had extended their support, agreeing to be the sponsors of the Autopia
in the upcoming Euro Disney park, as well as both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s
versions of it’s a small world.
They’d also continue to grow their toy licensing business, which at that point was pulling
in an estimated two-hundred million dollars a year in revenue.
So in 1993 when it came time for Mattel to plan the 35th birthday of their classic doll,
Barbie, they felt it would be perfect to turn to Disney.
Disney agreed, realizing it might be just the opportunity that they needed.
The idea was to create a half hour stage show that celebrated Barbie and her legacy.
It was called The Magical World of Barbie.
But…
Epcot?
It just didn’t really match.
Well, as it turns out, that’s exactly why they put it there.
During that same time in the early 1990s, Disney was facing a problem: attendance at
Epcot was on the decline.
The common criticism held against it was that for a beacon of the future, it was growing
pretty antiquated pretty quickly.
On top of that it generally wasn’t appealing to younger guests as much as The Magic Kingdom
or Disney-MGM Studios.
So Disney decided to try and win over new and younger audiences.
Food Rocks would replace Kitchen Kabaret.
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience would replace Captain EO.
Spaceship Earth would get a major refurbishment.
In an attempt to make the concept work, the show would be centered around the idea that
Barbie had made all these friends all around the world over her 35 years, so it would only
be natural that the show take place in World Showcase, and
Disney didn’t take the task lightly.
They would end up holding auditions in six cities across the United States in search
for the perfect actress to portray Barbie.
After weeks on the road and after seeing over one thousand potential Barbies, Disney
returned home empty handed.
But as luck would have it, the casting team would tune into that year’s Miss America
pageant, where they would find their perfect Barbie in third runner-up and Miss Oregon,
Elizabeth Simmons.
The show was slated to open in November of 1993 at the America Gardens Theater in The
American Adventure, and it was planned to run five times a day, five days a week, for two years.
It premiered the evening of that Thanksgiving… and it would close that very same night.
After seeing the initial performance, both Disney and Mattel agreed that the show wasn’t
quite there yet in terms of the quality they were seeking, and so the show would be pushed
back into December.
According to Simmons during an interview on The Tiara Talk Show, over the following 30
days the cast would adjust to 30 different script rewrites, with the show evolving and
changing every single day.
A month later, on Christmas Day, a revised version of the show would premiere to audiences
and relieved Mattel and Disney executives.
During those first two weeks Disney and Mattel ran a promotion where if you wore pink to
Epcot, you’d get a free Barbie magazine, and Mattel would end up producing a thirty
minute VHS special that took place at Epcot.
Customers could buy the tape for just one cent with the purchase of certain select Barbie dolls.
The special would stress the international theme of the show and had two young hosts
exploring the different World Showcase pavilions while also giving viewers a sneak peek at
the stage show in Epcot.
The show itself was, well, pretty much what you’d expect a Barbie themed stage show to be.
It had its target audience and it did well enough that it was performed throughout 1994.
However it wasn’t creating the desired effect of getting audiences hyped up for World Showcase.
As it turned out, Disney had found better results with another approach that they called
“flextainment”.
Flextainment was described as experimental street shows in the various World Showcase
pavilions that “fit more with the park’s traditional image.”
And we know these shows must have worked because while they’ve changed over the years, they’re
still around today, almost 25 years later.
So in the spring of 1995 Disney and Mattel would announce that The Magical World of Barbie
would be ending on May 11th, just seven months short of the initial two-year plan.
There was some talk of Disney and Mattel working to bring the show to another park, but nothing
would really come of it.
Mattel’s sponsorship of rides would go on for a few more years, and to this day there
are still plenty of Disney branded Mattel toys.
In the grand scheme of Disney World history, The Magical World of Barbie is most likely
fated to being a small footnote in a chapter of Epcot.
It was short lived and oddly out of place.
But it was also another example of Disney’s willingness to try something different when
faced with a problem.
A quality that, if nothing else, kept things interesting.