Spaceship Earth and communication...

So today I've been reading through my textbook for the upcoming class I'm taking on 'Executive Communications' for my MBA, I keep having visions of Spaceship Earth.  Strange I know, but this is one of those attractions that made EPCOT one of my favorite places in the world. 

Yet honestly.... the new revision  hasn't really done much for me .  I still like the ride in general, (it certainly needed the TLC and upgrading).  But it doesn't 'grab me in the gut' the way it used too.

Sure there is the now old storyline that Imagineering came up with (with some help from Ray Bradbury) in the late 1970's which was ALL about "Communications" emphasis on the capital "C", but the new Spaceship Earth has a different storyline:

"Our new story is essentially about how all the innovations of one generation influence and inspire another." - Bob Zalk, Imagineer

So why would a Communications textbook make me think of the new Spaceship Earth?  Which really doesn't have a storyline that much to do with Communication per say?

Well, that's because Imagineering is all about storytelling right?  And what is good storytelling?  It's good COMMUNICATION.  Lets assume Don Fabun was right in 1968 that:

"Communication is the transfer of meaning."

Then for us to be communicating together effectively, it's not just enough to transfer my message and walk away.  Instead it is about you and I engaging in such a way that our communication is more deep: you receiving my message, understanding my message, and me imparting to you the necessary information such that you understand it the way I do - with all the intricacies, complexities, context and detail.  You don't have to agree, but you at least UNDERSTAND.

It's not something that the new Spaceship Earth does completely, although I'm sure at the refurb's conception the storytelling intent was otherwise.

Each ride in EPCOT (and many other Disney rides for that matter) is about communicating strategically some basic message.  That strategic reason is why Imagineering works so hard on backstory to communicate a sense of continuity and purpose to any setting, that makes you feel like you are there.  And they have to do so in a way that overcomes both the physiological (5 senses) as well as psychological (mental) barriers in an engaging way. 

And so from Bob's quote above, we have the strategic message for Spaceship Earth:  innovation throughout time has influenced and inspired future generations.

     "Okay Michael, so what?", you say.  "That's just way to deep for something that is suppose to be fun and maybe a bit informative."

    "I agree it's a bit deep, but it's the ESSENCE of what makes those experiences grab you deep inside and MOVE you in a way that nobody has been able to do like Disney", I say.

It is certainly what used to move me about EPCOT.  Every experience  in Future World made you want to laugh, to cry, to feel charged up, informed, excited, but somehow to FEEL someway; while World Showcase WANTS you to understand maybe as Maya Angelou likes to put it:

"We are more alike than we are different."

So back to Spaceship Earth and that core, strategic message.  After riding the new ride several times and listening to the audio track again while I'm typing this from a pretty good binaural recording done by Ricky Brigante over at his excellent podcast "Inside the Magic", the experience just doesn't quite do it for me on a few levels.  It's message is just too subtle in too many places.

Unfortunately, fixing some of them, like re-doing the loading area to reset the expectation to something like 'this ride is going to be wonderful for all of you and we are traveling through time, and oh, It will be NEW for all you old timers', would require taking the ride down again and spending more money. 

There are some things that can be done with the ride still in day operation that I think would help a little:

• for instance, the Bruce Broughton score is nice, but maybe a little TOO pianissimo (that's soft for those of you who don't read music ;).  When I exit the information tunnel where we are building 'velocity' and moving towards a crescendo bursting into the star field, I want a rousing John Williams timpani, cymbal crash, french horn, etc. or maybe some Copeland or my favorite which you can hear in the cue area at Soarin from 'The Last Starfighter' (all three links open an iTunes link).  Something to get the blood boiling from the build up on the assent.  Think IMAX audio cool.
• maybe tinker with the voice score as well so that when you hit that tunnel, Dame Judy is rising in speed, tone and just after that big audio moment gives you a meaty morsel to go with it and to think about as we move through the star field.  Maybe the current script is good, it just needs some more PUNCH at that apex point. 
• if you really wanted to bump it around a little, honestly I think the script hews just a little too close to the old information theme.  Sure it talks about innovation, but it stays too focused AROUND innovation in communication. 
• And lastly...Find someway to more closely tie the loading area and the idea of loading into a time machine into the decent as a conceptual background for peeking into the future and then returning to now. 

The point here isn't to get into rehashing Spaceship Earth however.  It instead is to highlight that well planned and thought out COMMUNICATION is what good storytelling is all about.  When Disney is firing on all levels, they are an unstoppable force in immersing us in a new world . . . and maybe, just maybe, changing our perceptions and ideas about the world around us.

UPDATE:  Added music links to three favorite/popular songs as ideas of what I mean.