Admin: ParksWiki backfill wave 1 (swarm)

2026-11-14T15:11:49Z

ParksWiki backfill wave 1 (swarm)

New page

{{Infobox attraction
| name = Journey Into Imagination with Figment
| park = [[EPCOT]]
| land = World Celebration
| area = Imagination! pavilion, World Celebration
| type = Dark ride
| opened = June 2, 2002
| designer = [[Walt Disney Imagineering]]
| status = Operating
| replaced = Journey Into YOUR Imagination
}}

'''Journey Into Imagination with Figment''' is a dark ride in the Imagination! pavilion in World Celebration at [[EPCOT]] in [[Walt Disney World]], Florida. It is the third version of a ride that has operated in the pavilion since 1983, and it takes guests on a tour of a fictional research institute devoted to the senses, hosted by Dr. Nigel Channing and continually disrupted by Figment, a small purple dragon who has become one of EPCOT's best-known original characters. The ride is accompanied throughout by the Sherman Brothers song "One Little Spark," and it exits into the ImageWorks interactive play area beneath the pavilion's glass pyramids.

== History ==

The Imagination pavilion opened with EPCOT on October 1, 1982, sponsored by Kodak, but its ride did not open until March 5, 1983. The original Journey Into Imagination, created by Tony Baxter and Steve Kirk, was a long, gentle ride in which guests encountered the Dreamfinder, a bearded inventor who travelled the skies in a blimp-like craft collecting dreams and ideas. In front of the riders he created Figment — voiced in the original by Billy Barty. Together the pair led guests through realms of art, literature, theatre and science, all set to "One Little Spark." The original is still widely regarded as one of classic EPCOT's defining attractions.

That version closed on October 10, 1998, for a wholesale rebuild. It reopened on October 1, 1999, as Journey Into YOUR Imagination, tied to the Imagination Institute setting of the pavilion's 3D film ''Honey, I Shrunk the Audience''. The new host was Dr. Nigel Channing, played by Eric Idle, and the ride became a tour of laboratories testing the senses. Dreamfinder was gone entirely and Figment was reduced to brief cameos; "One Little Spark" disappeared as well. The version was poorly received by guests, and it closed after only two years, on October 8, 2001.

Disney responded by bringing its missing character back. The third version opened on June 2, 2002, with Figment now voiced by Dave Goelz and appearing in every scene, and with "One Little Spark" restored. Dreamfinder did not return, although a tribute survives in an office door bearing the name "Dean Finder." Kodak's sponsorship, dating to 1982, ended in August 2010. The 2002 version has now run far longer than either predecessor, and Figment has become an unofficial mascot of EPCOT itself.

== Experience ==

The current ride is framed as an open house at the Imagination Institute. Dr. Channing intends to demonstrate how the five senses feed the imagination by taking guests through the institute's sensory laboratories, beginning with Sound, Sight and Smell, with Touch and Taste to follow. Figment, who has not been invited, decides the tour needs his help.

In the Sound Lab, a hearing experiment is interrupted when Figment produces a telephone and turns the demonstration into a joke about a "train of thought." In the Sight Lab he scrambles an eye chart into a singalong of "One Little Spark," and a caged butterfly effect carried over from the 1999 ride now works in reverse, vanishing rather than appearing. In the Smell Lab, Figment takes over a scent machine and, disguised as a skunk, wins a blast of burnt-coffee odour for the riders.

Channing then tries to abandon the tour, so Figment invites everyone to his own open house — a house turned literally upside down, with furniture on the ceiling. Convinced that imagination works best when set free, Channing joins Figment for a finale crowded with Figments, singing "One Little Spark" together. Guests unload into ImageWorks, a hands-on exhibit area.

== See also ==
* [[EPCOT]]
* [[Figment (character)|Figment]]
* [[Spaceship Earth]]
* [[World Celebration]]
* [[Walt Disney World]]

== References ==
<references />

[[Category:Attractions]]
[[Category:EPCOT]]
[[Category:Dark rides]]
[[Category:2002 establishments]]

Journey Into Imagination with Figment - Revision history

Admin: ParksWiki backfill wave 1 (swarm)