♫ A world of peace
♫ A world of love
♫ With happiness in every heart
♫ That's what we're dreaming of
♫ Dreams of the future
♫ We'll make them come true
♫ The future belongs to the dreamer
♫ The dreamer inside of you
♫ Dreams of the future
♫ All shiny and new
♫ If you see it in the eyes of a dreamer
♫ The future belongs to you
- [Narrator] One of history's greatest dreamers
was Walt Disney, whose vivid imagination
helped him to become the leading pioneer and innovator
in the world of show business.
Still he looked far beyond his lifetime,
to the creation of a showplace that could point the way
to exciting and achievable new directions in future living.
He called his dream Epcot,
Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow.
By the middle 1960s, the Disney organization
acquired more than 27,000 acres of land
in the center of Florida
to build Walt Disney's last and greatest dream.
On October 1st 1971,
the first phase of Walt Disney World opened to the public.
Almost immediately, it became the number one
vacation destination in the world.
Nearly 140 million visitors have come here
from all 50 states and more than a 100 nations.
From the very beginning,
the Epcot dedication to innovative technologies
has been a part of the Walt Disney World master plan.
Advanced new electric-powered monorail trains
and linear induction-powered people movers
already demonstrate potential new transportation systems.
Other Community of Tomorrow technologies
include a central energy plant solar project,
the world's first use
of steel modular construction at the hotels,
a unique network of underground crisscrossing utilidors,
computer-controlled fire, safety, and energy systems,
the world's first 100% electronic phone system,
and the use of once pesky water hyacinths
for treating of wastewater
and creating methane gas for energy.
And so with Epcot's foundation already established,
the Disney organization is now rapidly moving ahead
with the creation of EPCOT Center.
This vast new showplace will come to life
thanks to the ideas, the inventions, the imagination,
and the magic of the people at Walt Disney Productions.
(jaunty music)
This is WED Enterprises, a unique Disney design organization
made up of artists,
designers,
architects,
engineers,
and dozens of others, working in a harmonic blend
of space age creativity called Imagineering.
They bring to reality
the kinds of dreams that EPCOT Center is made of.
Today, they are imagineering the future,
and with the help of their sketches, renderings, models,
and a little imagination on our part,
we can turn the clock ahead to October 1st 1982
for a preview look at Walt Disney's greatest dream,
EPCOT Center, a vast new showplace
for the innovations of tomorrow and the nations of today.
This unique community of ideas
will encompass two major theme.
First, Future World, posing the challenges
and previewing choices for the community of tomorrow.
And second, the World Showcase, a community of nations
focusing on the cultures, traditions, tourism,
and accomplishments of people around the world.
(solemn music)
Your journey to tomorrow begins with Spaceship Earth.
Towering nearly 17 stories above Future World,
this mammoth geosphere
is the first structure of its kind anywhere in the world.
Inside, you'll board a unique time machine
and spiral deep into the past
in search of clues to our survival through the ages
and how they'll help us chart the course of our own future,
on this, our Spaceship Earth.
(cheery music)
The Land will be your gateway
to the major geographic regions of the Earth.
Here, you'll discover the promise and potential
that remarkable new agricultural methods
are already bringing to food production,
including a look at plants
which have learned to grow without soil.
♫ The earth and man
♫ The earth man
♫ Can be good friends
♫ Be good friends
♫ Let's listen so our harvest time will never end
- [Narrator] In this dramatic building,
the universe of energy awaits you.
Its solar paneled roof will help power
your traveling theater cars.
A ride on sunshine, it'll bring you face to face
with immense creatures of the primeval world,
where the formation of our fossil fuels took place.
Then, on a spectacular wraparound screen,
you'll explore emerging new energy systems
that may help power our world in the future.
♫ Feel the glow
♫ Here we go
♫ Through the universe of energy
♫ From the seas
♫ Till the skies
♫ There's a force beyond our eyes
♫ We all have sparks
♫ Imagination, that's how our minds
♫ Create creations
♫ Oh, they can make
♫ Our wildest dreams come true
♫ These little sparks
♫ In me and you
- [Narrator] Dreams, fantasies, creativity,
that's your journey into imagination,
into the boundless realms of the arts,
literature, science, and film.
Just imagine a visit to a place where you can visualize
anything your mind can fantasize.
♫ A dream can be a dream come true
♫ Just add the spark
♫ In me and you
(delicate music)
- [Narrator] Another kind of journey
will take you into the world of motion,
where a whimsical series of audio animatronic scenes
will show that the story of transportation
is indeed a moving experience.
♫ Fun to be free
♫ To wander and roam
♫ To go where you please
♫ To travel with ease
♫ To do all there is to be done
♫ It's fun to be free
- [Narrator] But what about the future?
Tran Center will give you an over-the-shoulder look
at new designs and technologies
for tomorrow's world of motion.
(delicate music)
Here, you'll reach for new horizons,
a spectacular odyssey into the future
where you'll discover the envisioned technologies
of the 21st century and beyond.
Here, you'll visit a city of tomorrow,
desert farm, space colony, and undersea city.
♫ For the whole human race
♫ There is time, there is space
♫ As we reach for new horizons
(dramatic music)
- [Narrator] How would you like to venture
into the living seas, yet stay safe and dry?
In Sea Base Alpha, you'll do just that
and still be able to explore
the wonders of our aquatic frontier,
a futuristic research station beneath the waters
of the largest saltwater tank environment in the world.
(solemn music)
At the hub of Future World is CommuniCore,
Epcot's community core.
Here is your own close encounter with the future,
where you can personally participate
in a wide range of hands-on activities
that may soon apply to your own daily living.
Epcot Computer Central will focus on the role computers play
in serving your everyday needs.
Future Choice Theater
will enable you to express your opinions
on important issues of today and tomorrow.
Other CommuniCore attractions will enable you
to further explore the worlds of energy, communications,
space, and many more concepts from the day after tomorrow.
Just beyond Future World,
nestled on the banks of a broad lagoon
is the World Showcase,
the first permanent international exposition of its kind.
Here, nations stand side by side in friendship
along the banks of a broad lagoon.
As you stroll along the promenade that circles the lagoon,
you'll discover exciting shows, attractions, restaurants,
shops, and great architectural landmarks
unique to each nation.
In the shadow of the famed Eiffel Tower,
Disney cameras will whisk you
across the romantic French countryside,
your film journey made all the more magical
by the great classical music of France's finest composers.
(elegant music)
Stately buildings and gabled rooftops
provide a traditional British setting
for your stroll through the United Kingdom.
A few steps away and you're in a spacious plaza
surrounded by the picturesque medieval buildings
of Old Germany.
Here, there's a difference though.
It's Oktoberfest year-round in the nearby beer garden.
Classic art, graceful architecture,
you're now in Italy, where you'll discover sculptures
of a noted Lion of Saint Mark's
before you enter a recreation of the Doge's Palace.
(serene music)
From classic Europe to the exotic Orient,
here, you'll stroll through a garden
rich with living Japanese art and colorful koi fish ponds.
You've arrived in ageless China.
The magic of Circle-Vision will unlock mystery and beauty,
60,000 years of our oldest civilization.
From ancient Asia, you now strike out for colorful Mexico,
where you'll find a country
moving boldly into the future.
(stately music)
Then to majestic Canada where Disney Circle-Vision cameras
place you in the northern wilderness.
(solemn music)
Would you like to meet a cast
of three dozen great American figures brought to life
by the magic of Disney audio animatronics?
You'll find that to be just one part
of the American adventure,
the centerpiece and host for the World Showcase,
perhaps the most inspiring and dramatic show
ever presented about America.
♫ America
♫ You must keep dreaming now
♫ Dreaming the promised vow
♫ Of your pioneers
♫ America
♫ Keep on flying now
♫ Keep your spirit free
♫ Facing new frontiers
- [Narrator] Yes, if dreaming is what
the American adventure is all about,
then so is doing.
That's what's happening today.
Walt Disney built a staff of doers.
And today, his greatest dream, EPCOT Center,
is indeed becoming reality.
And no matter where you go in Future World
or World Showcase,
it'll be an experience unlike anything you've ever imagined,
except perhaps in your wildest dreams.
(pleasant music)
♫ It started in the mind of just one man
♫ Then the dream inside became a plan
♫ Now the time is almost at hand
♫ We're getting ready
♫ 15 years ago, we started small
♫ But with people working hard and giving their all
♫ Our dream kept growing strong and tall
♫ We're almost ready, almost ready
♫ We're getting ready, getting ready
♫ The dream's achieved, Imagineers
♫ The artists and the engineers
♫ The work in hand with caring heart
♫ Trying hard to do their part
♫ We're getting ready for you
♫ We're getting ready
♫ For you
(lively music)