This year’s D23 Experiences Showcase at the Honda Center ended with Neil Patrick Harris in a purple suit and hat and a dramatic announcement. It’s one Walt Disney World fans have longed to hear: EPCOT is finally bringing back the Dreamfinder. That might not sound like much if you’re unfamiliar with the beloved figure who used to call the theme park home. For anyone who remembers the original, best version of the Journey into Imagination ride it’s all we’ve wanted. The cheerful Dreamfinder was Figment’s best friend. EPCOT’s de facto mascot, who is more popular than ever, has never been the same without his bearded pal. That flying purple dragon’s attraction has also been considerably worse.
The show-closing news is bigger than just one character or even one ride, though. It’s a sign that Disney might finally fix one of its most glaring, most confounding problems. This should finally be the spark to bring some Imagineering magic back to the Imagination Pavilion.
Figment—the lovable fellow with two tiny wings, eyes big and yellow, and the horns of a steer—joined EPCOT in 1983 a year after the park opened. His home and ride have always been located inside the Imagination Pavilion. It’s also where visitors could once walk the long-shuttered Rainbow Corridor, a still-missed part of the land.
The pavilion stands out thanks to its two glass pyramids. One has long been closed to most guests while the other is entirely closed to everyone. Visitors also know the area for its nearby jumping water fountains and signature reverse waterfall. Until 1998, it was also home to the dream-chasing Dreamfinder, Figment’s revered story-telling friend. The two took guests on a ride through imagination and all the ways we can tell stories. Visitors then entered the ImageWorks playground, which long ago moved downstairs.
The original Journey Into Imagination was the best. It was one of Walt Disney World’s most fun and creative rides. Dreamfinder and Figment, who often greeted fans in the park, were also perfect symbols for everything EPCOT represented. But when Disney revamped the ride in 1999 as Journey into YOUR Imagination, Dreamfinder was gone. Eric Idle’s Dr. Nigel Channing was part of a team of scientists who took over instead. That version of the attraction was so unpopular it lasted only two years. Since 2002 guests have instead ridden Journey into Imagination with Figment.
It’s…..it’s fine. It’s fine. Figment is such a great character that any ride based on him has a high floor. My toddler certainly likes it, and even I find it has its charms, like when Disney uses burnt coffee to recreate a Figment skunk spray. Buuuuut….it’s just not nearly as good as many other dark rides at Disney parks. It’s not especially innovative or whimsical. It also feels dated. It’s even worse for those of us who know what a Journey Into Imagination could really be. The ride pales in comparison to what it originally was.
Disney has seemingly agreed with that assessment for a long time, too. The Mouse House knows Dreamfinder and Figment are the best. In 2014 the company released an absolutely wild steampunk graphic novel series about the pair. A 2024 Golden Book titled Figment, written by Imagineer Jason Grandt, is also a retelling of the original ride. Dr. Nigel Channing is nowhere to be found in either tale. The same is also true of Eric Idle at EPCOT. He’s never even been on the ride he’s in. He doesn’t even remember filming his role for it. Not exactly a ringing endorsement. That’s not even a broken doorbell endorsement.
In the last few years, as the kids who grew up with the original ride have become some of Disney’s most dedicated paying customers, Figment’s popularity has only grown. His merch is everywhere and it always sells. That’s happened even though most people who love Figment don’t love his ride. So as his presence in EPCOT and Disney World has increased, so have the calls for the company to fix his ride by bringing back Dreamfinder. Disney Experiences Chairman Thomas Mazloum addressed that directly when he told the Honda Center crowd about the upcoming update. “We know how important this is to you,” he said. “We’ve heard you, and this is one more way we’re putting you in the center of everything we do.”
A new ride can’t be all they do, however. Journey Into Imagination is not a singular problem at EPCOT’s Imagination Pavilion. It’s emblematic of the fact the whole pavilion is a problem. A big one. It’s not “fine.” It’s underwhelming at best and hugely disappointing at worst. The area, in theory, represents creativity, art, imagination, innovation, and storytelling. Instead it’s old and in desperate need of an update. The Imagination Pavilion lacks anything resembling imagination. That’s about as inexplicable as anything you’ll find in any Disney park considering the parks’ greatest asset is its Imagineers.
When Disney lets Imagineers run wild they create actual magic. They’re the best at what they do, and no singular location in all of Walt Disney World should better capture what they are capable of—the wonders they can create, the stories they can tell, the rides they can build and design, the feelings they can evoke, the environments they can bring to life, the ideas they can raise and challenge you with—more than a place called the Imagination Pavilion.
It’s so obvious it almost seems silly to even say. If any area, and most especially at EPCOT, should embody the best of Imagineering its the Imagination Pavilion. And that’s why Dreamfinder’s return has to be a big part of an even bigger overhaul. The whole interior needs to be gutted and redone. It needs to not only be updated but re-imagined. There’s no reason one of the glass pyramids should remain closed, why it should feature technology that was old 20 years ago, or why any of it, let alone most of it, should be boring.
It’s not just long past time for Dreamfinder to make his way home. It’s time for that home to live up to its own name. And I hope the it finally will. I asked a head Imagineer at D23 if that was the plan. He told me the Figment revamp is “very early” in the process. Early might not be what Disney World fans eager to get Dreamfinder back might want to hear, but that’s good news. It means plans aren’t even close to finalized. Anything is still possible. And if anyone can make real the infinite possibilities the Imagination Pavilion represents, it’s Imagineers. Disney need to let them do exactly that.