All the Old Epcot References in the Mickey & Friends Mural

With the opening of the new Communicore Hall and Plaza, we have a section that is the home to character meet and greets: Mickey & Friends.

If you have traveled over to that location, you can’t help but spot the giant colorful mural.

For us Epcot enthusiasts, there are plenty of Easter eggs that throwback to when the park was actually fun (instead of this generic, bland monstrosity that took 5 years to build).

But I digress… I’m going to keep it positive.

With that, let’s take a look at the hidden homages to the Epcot Past that you can find all throughout the outer and inner spaces at Mickey & Friends.

Horizons

If there is one thing that every EPCOT fan will cry about, it is the removal of Horizons. This dark ride took you past scenes that depicted the future. We should have been in space, under the sea, or in the desert. It was replaced by Mission: Space.

You can spot the Robot Butler from Horizons in the exterior queue and near Minnie’s section of the meet and greet.

Behind the outside Butler version, you can spot the Horizons building.

Here’s a look at the Horizons building.

We also have an homage to the orange groves from Horizons.

The Living Seas

With this pavilion, the premise focused on taking guests under the water (via Hydrolators) to Sea Base Alpha.

There are several references to the Living Seas before Nemo moved in. If you can’t believe it, there were actual divers that went into that long-abandoned tube in the middle of the pavilion.

Yes, there was a diver lock-out chamber, which I just learned did not really go anywhere.

Also, there’s a rendition of the exterior of the building.

And one of the most impressive pavilion entrances in Epcot. Remember when all the Nemo metal characters were taken off, and we thought the original exterior might return?

Imagination with Figment

Since Figment is the unofficial official mascot of Epcot, you would expect to see a few references to him.

Figment and Dreamfinder were like peanut butter and jelly. You couldn’t have one without the other. In the early versions of the ride, Figment was cute and playful, not the bratty Figment of today.

There are constant nods to his buddy Dreamfinder all over Epcot. You can find the Dream Mobile at Figment’s meet and greet, and now here. But still no appearance by the man himself.

There’s also a nod to the jumping fountains and show building of Imagination.

And the Imagination Pavilion.

Fountain of Nations

Now one of the biggest travesties is the removal of the Fountain of Nations for a garden. The Fountain played a show of water and music every few minutes throughout the day. Now we have trees, metal chairs, and a female body part-looking planter in the middle of Epcot.

Behold, the Fountain of Nations. It wasn’t just a water feature, but an integral part of Epcot. It was an opening day feature that held water from 29 countries and 25 bodies of water.

Who wants that? Let’s rip it out and put a planter and light features that don’t work.

Body Wars

The Wonders of Life motion stimulator was the predecessor to Star Tours. This attraction shrunk you down and took you through the inner workings of the human body in a Probe Vehicle. You are supposed to check out how white blood cells react to a splinter, but something goes wrong.

The ride vehicles as shown in the attraction artwork.

Universe of Energy

Oh Disney, why do you hate dinosaurs? First, the Universe of Energy, and now DinoLand USA is going extinct.

This attraction was a 40-minute ride through the process of energy, from dinos roaming the Earth to the production of oil. The pavilion changed to Ellen’s Energy Adventure, and it became an annoying trip through time.

Here you can see one of the brontosauruses and the exterior of the pavilion, with the unique shaped building.

Communicore

Communicore like Communicore Hall? No, Communicore the building when it was actually fun, informative, and looked towards the future.

SMRT-1 was a robot that was a part of the Computer Central. He used innovative voice recognition technology and would interact with guests through games.

The real SMRT-1…

There’s a throwback to the Communicore building in the upper left of the mural by the Lightning Lanes. I missed it the first time. You can see it from this angle…somewhat. 

It’s the yellow structure near the top left of the photo.

You can also see a little bit of Communicore in this interior mural.

Here’s a look at the old Communicore…

World of Motion

Now it would be great to have the giant Sea Serpent staring us down, but nope probably too obscure for Disney Imagineers. Instead, we have. rendition of the World of Motion building.

At one time, this attraction took you through the world of transportation. It’s fun to be free! In my opinion, it was better than Horizons.

The queue actually took you outside (covered) as you wind your way up to the show scenes.

There are a few Disney characters in the mural – it’s named Mickey and Friends after all.

There are plenty of other references to existing attractions, such as The Land Pavilion, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Spaceship Earth. But I’ll leave that to you to discover. You can probably spot them in the above photos.

So, what do you think of the references? Did I miss any? Let me know in the comments!