DisneyFanatic.com The Latest News, Advice, and Perspective from Disney Fans for Disney Fans!
On February 16, The Walt Disney Company announced its latest venture: masterplan residential communities called Storyliving by Disney. But, it appears that some onlookers are not having it.
Taking to Twitter, people quickly likened the Palm Springs development to Walt’s original vision for the Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT). Some of the comments were positive, but others? Not so much.
One person tweeted, “I see the ghost of uncle Walt is still trying to make EPCOT happen.”
https://twitter.com/TBSkyen/status/1493999131001556997?s=20&t=ptppx0yqOYurueq6MPfIRg
Another fan rather sarcastically superimposed Walt onto the Contino™ concept art and said, “We call it NOT Epcot.”
We call it NOT Epcot pic.twitter.com/ITN4jKsDiL
— Rohde’s Roadies (@RohdesRoadies) February 16, 2022
Another fan said, “Oh boy, Disney’s finally making Walt’s original dream or EPCOT come true…in that they are building a weird, creepy community that’s subservient to the Mouse.”
https://twitter.com/brainchild129/status/1494005039123382276?s=20&t=ptppx0yqOYurueq6MPfIRg
This is not the first time Disney has built a masterplan community. After all, the Walt Disney Company founded Celebration, Florida after Walt Disney World Resort was built. But, that community has gained a reputation far from utopian, and some people see history repeating itself with “Storyliving by Disney.
Like this fan who replied to Disney saying, “A quick reminder of who Celebration went for Disney…”
A quick reminder of how well @CelebrationFLA went for @Disney … RT: https://t.co/wxqo81jXSS
— Alicia Lalone🟧 (@AliciaLalone) February 16, 2022
Walt’s original idea for EPCOT was for people to voluntarily come together to partake in a grand experiment for a prototype community of tomorrow. One of the reasons why the dream was never fulfilled was a logistical one. How can you control a pluralistic city-size populous enough to keep everything up to par with EPCOT’s vision on every ground of suppressing everyday racism to constantly updating the smart house appliances?
Now, there are some people who would be more than willing to be those guinea pigs, but there are clearly others who don’t take too kindly to the idea of a for-profit company having such a significant control of their lives–at least, in the overt sense of living in a masterplan community.
Credit: Disney
Related: 9 Great Places to Live When You Retire and Move To Disney!
The first “Storyliving by Disney” community will be called Contino™ and be located in California’s Coachella Valley. It will be Disney’s third residential project, following Celebration and Golden Oak.
