World of Motion
| World of Motion | |
|---|---|
| Park | EPCOT |
| Land / area | Future World East (now World Discovery) |
| Type | Omnimover dark ride |
| Opened | October 1, 1982 |
| Closed | January 2, 1996
|
| Status | Closed |
World of Motion, presented by General Motors, was the transportation pavilion at EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Florida. An opening-day attraction of EPCOT Center, its main feature was a gentle Omnimover dark ride that told the history of transportation as a comedy, from human feet to the automobile age and on to an imagined city of the future. It was followed by the TransCenter, an exhibit hall of General Motors prototypes and ideas.
History
General Motors signed as the pavilion's sponsor in December 1977, during the park's development, initially on a ten-year agreement.[1] The pavilion opened with the park on October 1, 1982, in a round building on the east side of Future World whose form suggested a wheel. The ride was shaped by Disney Legends Marc Davis and Ward Kimball, whose background in animation and character comedy gave its history lesson a gag-driven tone quite unlike a museum timeline.[2]
When the original term ended in 1992, General Motors continued on one-year extensions while Disney and the sponsor discussed a cars-only thrill-ride replacement. World of Motion closed on January 2, 1996. On its final ceremonial ride, carrying executives, it reportedly broke down and its riders had to walk out. Its closure temporarily prompted the reopening of Horizons (EPCOT) to absorb capacity.
Experience
Guests boarded four- to six-person Omnimover vehicles, called Chaircars, on an outdoor portico and spiralled up into the building. Narrated by Gary Owens, the ride passed through around thirty scenes with roughly 140 Audio-Animatronic figures. It began with caveman "foot power," then reached the invention of the wheel, played as hopeful inventors offering triangular and square alternatives before the round wheel won out. Boats, trains, bicycles and flying machines followed, each a sight gag: a used-chariot sale and the world's first traffic jam, a motor car tangled with a horse-drawn cart.
Throughout, the theme song "It's Fun to Be Free," written by X Atencio and Buddy Baker, recurred in period arrangements — ragtime, jazz and other styles matched to the era on stage.[3] The finale passed through "speed rooms" suggesting rapid modern travel and arrived at CenterCore, a glittering future city in perpetual motion, where a Pepper's Ghost effect placed guests themselves inside futuristic bubble vehicles.
Riders disembarked into the TransCenter, designed by Bob Rogers and BRC Imagination Arts. It displayed concept cars, including the Lean Machine in the Dreamer's Workshop, and shows such as The Water Engine and The Bird and the Robot, in which a toucan explained robotic assembly alongside a robot arm.
Closure and legacy
The building was retained and modified for Test Track, which held its grand opening on March 17, 1999, after a delayed conversion.[4] General Motors remained sponsor, later through Chevrolet, so sponsor and subject survived the replacement intact — only the tone changed, from comic history to a high-speed test procedure.
Tributes survive inside the successor. Test Track's post-2012 versions scattered World of Motion logos through the building, and a sign on the outdoor speed loop reads "FN2BFRE," a vanity-plate rendering of "Fun to Be Free." For opening-era guests, World of Motion remains the defining example of the original Future World formula: a sponsor's subject, a moving vehicle, a memorable song and an exhibit hall at the exit.