So it seems that the great philosophical question of my generation has become “What thinketh thou, Disney?” A lot of times this question comes paired with the popular discussion topic “The Wings of Pixar: Candle Wax or Real Feathers?” Both subjects seem to be generated by the apparent belief that Disney seems to think that Animation for Animation’s sake is all that matters. That they can slap the semblance of a story together, input the whole thing into a render farm, pop out a templatized feature length product and just by the simple fact that they epoxy their Brand name to it, it instantly should make it a quality animated film in the grand tradition of their storied past. While Pixar preaches “Story, story, story” (now whether that will continue to be true in the future is still to be seen…), Disney is all about the Brand. And that fact about Disney is nowhere more evident than in Chicken Little, the newest animated mass market twinkie from the Mouse House’s piece work animation assembly lines.

We’ve all been to Epcot, we’ve all been bored by it, we’ve all seen its sad decline from a kind of permanent world’s fair into a gaggle of thrill rides and theme restaurants. We’ve all thought “Why bother?”

What is somewhat less known is that the original plan for E.P.C.O.T. was vastly more ambitious, a kind of planned city of the future that would have housed about 30,000 people, experimented with new systems of transportation, civil engineering, and social design. It’s all pretty fascinating, as you can see in this promotional film which aired as an episode of “Walt Disney Presents.”

Been a while since we've done "Disney Space" stuff, so check this out.