Podcast: The Ride - Journey into Imagination with Derek Waters

Episode Date: February 23, 2024

Derek Waters (Drunk History) joins us to discuss the beloved attraction Journey into Imagination! Griffin Newman Does Whatever He Wants Episode up at Club 3: Patreon.com/PodcastTheRide Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FOREVER! DOG! Why, hello! Today we're talking about a beloved ride with a new friend. Can he imagine too? Of course he can, Jason. His name is Derek Waters. And today on Podcast the Ride, we're all going to discuss the original 1983 journey into... Imagination! Imagination! Imagination! Welcome to Podcast The Ride, a podcast about theme parks with two hosts who love their children but also kind of wish they were little purple dragons. I'm Scott Gairdner. There's Mike Carlson.

Why did you say it out loud? That's the only thing. Now that's going to be recorded and will be played in a therapist's office. I've been feeling that from you, Ferl. That's been the unspoken thing ever. Of course, parenting is great. Oh, how's it being a dad? And I'm like, it's good. It's good, you know. Yeah.

It's good. No, it's nothing surprising. Yeah. It's just, you know, babies. They are what they are. They can't make things appear with a wink or a smile. They don't. They don't.

They didn't come out the gate sounding like 60-year-old men. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jason Sheridan, hi. Hi. Unfortunately, you'll have to settle for me. I'm the closest thing to a whimsical,

childlike purple dragon. The imp of the show. Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I don't know how we haven't made you do that costume anywhere. Oh, yeah. That'll be to Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. I don't know how we haven't made you do that costume anywhere. Oh, yeah. That'll be to come.

Oh, sure. Yeah, really. Okay, well, I'll file that away for later. Guys, it's a big one. We're at a big one here. This is a big one. I was about to say this is a big one. Yes.

That we've been like, not actively kicking down the curb, but, you know, it's special bottles. You want to open them when it's special. This is like my bottle of Scottie Pippen's Digits bourbon that I haven't opened yet. That's right. You still, it's been so long. It's not open yet.

I keep saying I'm going to open it, but I haven't. It's still sitting on the shelves. Scottie Pippen's like personal, not personal, well it is. Yeah, it's his brand of whiskey basically. Private label. Private label, Digits. It's like personal, not personal. Well, it is. Yes. His brand of whiskey, basically. Private label. Yeah. Private label. Digits.

It's got his hand up. Do you have any sense of like, is Digits well-reviewed? Are you even going to be like, is it a good bottle? Outside of like a three-month period where Scotty Pippin was promoting it heavily, I have not heard a thing about it. I don't know if they're still making it. I don't know what's going on. I've much more recently seen him promoting a popcorn that he doesn't own.

It's not his Scotty's popcorn or anything. But I have not seen any more digits. But he could be making more money endorsement-wise than as an investor. That might be just weird expenses that cut in. Yeah, I don't know anything about his deals. Digits is dead to him. Yeah, I do think maybe he did a grocery store signing of digits in the last year now that i'm thinking about it but that was maybe the last time i like consciously clocked a digits that's in chicago then i think it was here actually

did you fight you found out after the fact i think my daughter was maybe like very like two weeks old or something and it was not an appropriate time to go drive to like they're not dragons they get in the way your digit signings i guess if she could have met scotty pippen that would have been pretty cool though oh yeah imagine her size a newborn baby next to in his digits oh wow yeah that is pretty good incredible scale any any fully grown person but scotty pippen especially tall guy um okay let's let's not distract anymore from let's let's say the words let's say what we're doing it's journey into imagination the classic the beloved original epcot dark ride that ran from 1983 to 1998 uh and we have arrived at this juncture due to a new friend on the show, who I'm so excited is here,

his imagination helped him create and host the smash hit Comedy Central series, Drunk History. A writer, director, actor, a good man, a theme park fan, Derek Waters is here. Thank you, guys. I'm so excited. This is such a dream come true. Oh, man. A dream come true. Just one little spark. I'm so excited. This is such a dream come true.

Oh man, a dream come true. Just one little spark. I'm so excited. One little spark from you saying, can I do this? I don't know if anybody's... Either you're the first who's actually called Journey into Imagination or it's been in other people's emails

and we've been like, I don't know if we're ready. We're not ready. Somebody probably has mentioned it,, I don't know if we're ready. We're not ready. I'm not sure. Somebody probably has mentioned it, but I can't remember. I think I've blocked it out of my memory. Yeah, maybe. But we're opening this bottle of digits for you.

I'm so excited to be part of these digits. It's important, yeah. And do a signing at a grocery store. I've never heard a signing at a grocery store. All the guys are doing it. Mark Wahlberg is signing his liquor at a grocery store. Cranston and Paul, they go to the grocery stores They sign, yeah

It makes sense, that's where you buy it In some states In some states, right No, but this is such a dream come true I love this show, I love you guys I'm very excited to journey With you guys Not into your imagination

Well, we could, we'll see i've already brought up we'll see where it goes now that the spark's been lit uh i mean i like i think we got to go into into your imagination a little bit or at least your at least your your interest and fascinations uh because as as we've gotten to know each other over the last year, which has been great, I think a real bonding point and a reason why I feel like mutual friends were like, you guys got to talk. Because big theme park person, feel free, anything else, anything within general theme park you want to shout out and talk about, feel free. But there's specifically the thing of like kind of what this ride is which is 80s animatronic fever dreams yeah and there's a specific thing that when we first talked you stumped me with and i'm curious if it will stump the listener um but i wanted to give you a little

bit of a platform to talk about uh your even there there's Figment, our 80s animatronic friend, but then you had a really specific one where you grew up. If you want to talk about him and that a little bit. Wait, wait, wait. I had one growing. Oh, you mean the one I still have? I mean the, oh, I'm talking about the Baltimore-specific animatronic location that you were passionate about. The animatronic. Yeah.

So I remember I went to Disney World maybe in like 2018. Yeah. And I just had this animatronic memory. I was like, I remember this old guy, Captain Andy. But I was like, what was that place? And my mom said, oh, it was only around for like three years. But I had such a fascination of this place. And as I researched and found out, there were only three.

There was one in Baltimore. There was one in Seattle. And one was one in um seattle and one in california which i don't know where it was but what have been more than what i saw you saw more than wood and whittier kind of like odd nondescript south bay oc kind of cities had yeah so i i would love if a listener knows about this because so i felt i was writing a show about with animatronics and i was like i don't know where this is going but i feel like captain andy is like leading me somewhere he was this old dog that played the banjo he had a band come out with him and like this beautiful stage i mean beautiful stage and um mike mike and jason by the way and listeners look up photos of this place if

if you wish because just to get the vibe captain andy's river town right exactly the full is the full name that's the establishment because it's this like it is so precisely what all of us want and chase but it just there wasn't enough of them to uh for tons of people to know about it. Yeah, so I was thinking, you know, I want to do a show that has these animatronics in the style of Captain Andy. And so I found this place. Is it Gardner Belt down in Redlands? Gardner. Gardner Hole. Yeah, yeah.

So I went down there and they gave me a tour. And the guy goes, I don't know if I ever told you this. He goes, we're thinking about making an old hall of fame of animatronics. And have you guys ever heard of Captain Andy's Rivertown? And I just said, shut up. He goes, yeah, not a lot of people have. And he goes, that's Captain Andy from Baltimore. Whoa. up he goes yeah not a lot of people have and he goes that that's captain andy from baltimore whoa so i'm looking at this very old crooked one-eyed dog with still like with the hat on

and it was i like almost cried like looking at this most beautiful thing that i was like this this machine gave me such joy as a kid and just like looking at it and um so you can edit some of this stuff out sorry but so i was i was really excited emotion about an animatronic will never be cut from the show i'm like yeah well i've also learned why i cried too uh not in general but about animatronics but uh i got home and i was like i don't know where this idea is going but it's going somewhere and captain annie's leaving me so i i found the blueprint of the original layout of the stage and i online and the guy says hey when you when this comes to your house well do you mind calling me? And I said, oh, not at all.

And so I called him, and I said, hey, thank you so much. It arrived. It's beautiful. It was like all the blueprints of the original Captain Andy. And I told him briefly what I've said to you. I was writing something that really felt like he was inspiring me. And he goes, I just want to know, what was this? was this and i go wait you sold me something you don't know and he goes yeah the guy who created this um just passed away and i am a huge jaws fan and i buy everything jaws and he designed the ride of jaws and his family just gave me all his belongings that they didn't

know what to do with so when you bought this a day after i put it online i just thought i should give you a call and then i told him a little more how much that meant to me he goes you know what i have something that i think only you would like i'll send it to you for free and like a week later i get the script of captain annie's rivertown it says creators notes do not lose and it has all of the like signals for what the animatronic should be doing during which song and it was i was just so touched by that like it really moved me of like that was really nice and uh i don't know i i believe him like that thing when i when ideas start sparking i'm not trying to be funny but that you get signs like all right this is the odds of that happening are just insane to to connect with this guy him not even knowing what he had the guy just passed away wow when he just

put it up like the day before you bought it basically and that was just a coincidence because i just after going to redland i was like oh i'm gonna look up captain andy stuff that's a yeah the coincidence of that is nuts i gave you a wallet. I have a wallet. Yeah, yeah, I know. It's on the mantle still. It's awesome. And you look, it's just like such a, like, Captain Andy himself, his design, it feels like very classic, or not even classic, it feels specifically like kind of 80s Disney design or Chuck E. Cheese design or Rock of Fire. Yes, all performed.

And font is perfect. It's just this whole package is is like how has this eluded me i purely because i didn't grow up with it and if you look at the dogs in there i don't know if you have it but i'll send you guys a picture maybe you can put on your site but of the dogs you see a lot of i believe he was a imagineer briefly the dog's ears and a lot of their faces remind me of america sings big time yeah yeah and i'm not sure i feel like one was probably going after the other you know how those things yeah yeah influence yeah um yeah that's that like because i also know they're like singing dixie songs so i do want to let your audience know like oh there are things that plenty yes yeah that happens we're lucky figment doesn't right we are we are yeah let me ask because

your your passion for Captain Andy and then we're talking about journey into imagination since you mentioned Baltimore did you ever see see six flags power plant do you know what that is i do yeah and my mom oh it's so real she goes i remember when that was up but we didn't want to go down but i remember i'm like i'm pretty sure my grandmother took me uh i'm embarrassed i just admitted that but it's funny because i recently was talking about that with someone and i i think that's like i was born in 79 i think that comes out like 83 87 i i'm not positive but very short amount yeah my family did a number of long weekend trips to the Inner Harbor, but at that point it was a Barnes & Noble and Hard Rock Cafe.

Right, yes. And the ESPN zone. Yeah, an ESPN zone and then this giant aquariums next to it. And there are some shopping malls, which of course at this point in the 2020s are dying. Yes, yeah, yeah. Now you're pining for those but yeah yeah that there was this like magical that place we still got to do

an episode about that that like like a completely original ip no other park like that this weird indoor converted power plant their industrial zone that's like a really singular kind of like a carnival right like a yeah kind of like they were trying a lot of different stuff they had like leeway to try a lot of different things and like little bits and bobs would end up in like the adventurers club down the road a pleasure island you know um or or the technology would show up elsewhere. Right. But it was just kind of like Epcot Center in general, where it's like, well, it's something kind of new. It's kind of a World's Fair.

It's kind of an exhibition. It's not exactly a theme park. Right, right. So kind of quickly, I think on a really short-term basis with Power Plant, they're like, we don't know what to do with this it's not making money we gotta close it precedent for it

indoor theme parks it's just always a tough game especially if they aren't super ride oriented but anyway Captain Andy Wise listeners if you I was saying before we did this if you talk about this on the show 98% of listeners won't know what it is, but 2% are listening and they're buzzing.

Like, he knows that? Wait, I've never heard that reference anywhere. Listeners, if you have any Captain Andy info, extra stuff, and then maybe we could dive in deeper down the road. Although it seems like, Derek, by default, you have now become the keeper of the legend of Captain Andy. I have a lot of tokens. I will give you guys tokens. Oh, wow. Sick.

Yes. But I also remember learning that what happened was they spent so much money on the facility. I don't have the exact measurements, but there was a very big facility like with food mini golf and um and then the show but they didn't put any money into employees that understood animatronics oh crap yeah so if you don't have that show they're just eating pizza and uh miniature golf so i think that's they just didn't um there's a clip i'm sure you probably saw it and i thought oh that's the line the selling

point um when i came to baltimore the guy it's a news uh reel and the guy goes yeah we want to bring a theme park to your neighborhood like that was what their like goal was which is many these so many wonderful people were trying to do this in the 80s and 90s yeah all these various it's what they what everybody was trying to do everyone wanted one and yeah around the corner like a little show but do you think i've as i'm getting older i'm like i always forget and i'm gonna convert this to what we're talking about is out here doing this business and i'm like to convert this to what we're talking about, is out here doing this business. And I'm like, oh, there are people that didn't want to achieve this for passion. There are people that wanted to do this for the business. And that frightens me.

And I'm like, this might be similar to that where this guy looked at Disney or some show that he was like, you know what, I could make a fortune with this. And it's like, no, you didn't think about it. You got to take your time and go like, all right, if you're going to have, and I believe it's close to 15 to 17 animatronics on stage. You should invest in knowing how to fix that. Just one guy with a wrench would be good to

yeah it's like they got the right people to to build it all and then just right and never no plan for upkeep and then juicy in london is where they have a captain andy yeah they landed in yeah somewhere called watermouth castle that is the place where you can so it's still there so you can still see him perform yeah it's just him and i think like a couple side characters who are in like creepy glass like they're in they're in fish tanks yeah they aren't in there like the the they aren't in the set that you have the blueprints for right yeah they're trapped like the guard like the guardians of the galaxy oh yeah collectors yeah um i wonderful but isn't that always i think the push and pull and with disney too to this day is like there's always there they're like

have to be the crass people who just want to make a lot of money but if that can empower the artists to do something really heartfelt uh right that's that's all that matters is the inspiration and uh with animatronics i think and it goes in with figments like as i was looking at this you know demented captain andy that they were trying to restore the reality the i think my favorite thing of animatronics is this inanimate object just made me feel yeah it's it's actually like i think i don't the word dumb is very lazy but it kind of works and it's like it's like this stupid machine is making like i don't know like when uh like the country bears sing like a beach boy song like i always will find that funny like it's not real and i think when you're a kid everyone has that memory of like mom that is that real is that real like

trying to figure out if something is real or not. I think that's one of our first like discoveries as children. And with them, you're like, I still don't know. When I watch like a really cool animatronic, I'm like, I think, I believe they're real. They're still a part of you. Well, I don't know. I don't know. But then I watch Rocket Fire Explosion and I'm just like, like oh man this makes me so happy i'm when i first moved here there they were selling one of the sets and it was like the whole rocket fire

whoa yeah i believe like it was a good amount of money and my dad has a tire supply store in baltimore i was like dad if i i lived in an apartment with no money i was like dad if i if i could afford this could I keep it in your warehouse? He's like, you've lost your mind. I was like, dad, but just imagine being depressed and then going outside and watching a gorilla play the drums to Led Zeppelin. Like, that would just be so awesome. I still feel the same way it's the only thing where this is the only area where like i i don't think that that belongings can give you happiness except for this kind of stuff it's the only

i would never not laugh at that they would never get like uh i used to find animatronics funny like there's never i'm never gonna say that I'm there no no no this is not this is not my animatronic phase from zero to 44 right right 45 is typically the cutoff yeah scientifically that's when the animatronic part of the brain fizzes out um I yeah god absolutely and I don't know if you know the extent to which, like, Rotten Captain Andy just reminds me of, listeners certainly know this, but, like, there's, listeners and we all have a lot of affinity for this character Botanicus, who is from the E.T. adventure,

the E.T. ride at Universal Studios, E.T.'s teacher. And, like, the whole, all the rides, all the rides there were great. Of all the things, there's plenty of successful things at Universal Studios, but there's something so special about Botanicus specifically, and this will tie into Figment, and it's a character you can only meet in this specific place or these two specific places.

And when I got a job as a Universal Tour guide, one of the first days I saw the rotting corpse of Botanicus sitting backstage, around at a corner unquestionably that is what i recognized it in an instant just without the skin it is so obviously and he's got his big staff and his like orb and just with the feelings the feelings i got about it and just what that did to me and then that it literally helped my wife and I get together because she came to take my tour and I broke the rules of the park so that I was like, I want to show you something.

And I didn't know she had the same affinity. I can show you the world. Wow. Yes, yeah, yeah. Shiny. I didn't even know this was going to be my wife. She was a friend I knew and then like- Well, she was either never going to talk to you again

or marry you. Yeah, a thousand percent, yes. That's the Botanicus test. They better shoot your shot. Because it's like flipping a coin, you know? You're getting one of two options, you know? Full throttle. But then like some of the most important relationships,

that one and then Botanicus completely is what brought Mike and I together, which is what brought us together with Jason. So there is particular magic, I think, to... I'm just so happy to learn about yours, that you've had it for Captain Andy, we've had it for Botanicus, and I think probably a lot of people listening have it for Figment.

There are so many, like, just visually... Like, I have a wall of toys, and if you saw what this wall looked like, you would think I was... Something's wrong. This guy's... I wouldn't. We wouldn't. That's fair. Most people, normal like, you would think I was, something's wrong. This guy's, that's too many.

We wouldn't. That's fair. Most people, normal people would come in and say, uh-oh, there's something wrong. I didn't until we started doing the Zoom episodes. And I was like, God, that is a lot of toys. Yeah, no, it's too many. It's too many. But here's the problem, is that what you're describing is what I feel when I see these. And these are perfect recreations of things that hit me when I was five, five six seven years old tell me what what I said that reminds you of that you were talking about how

how happy the animatronic makes you and in a similar way I was I find that like literally I can feel I almost can feel it in a practical way in my mind of like I'm looking at this thing that I saw when I was a kid and it is just giving me this joy and you can like, I can go in there and just get a hit of it. Like I can go in the office, literally get a hit of the toy, put like, move them around a little bit and then leave.

And I go, I feel a little bit better. You don't need to pick a favorite, but if, can you get at least who's in the top five? Just name. I have Billy Bob from the rocket fire explosion. I have a Billy Bob.

That's like, I actually have two I have one And there's one smaller one The head But no no Just the Well the head

A recreation toy It's a recreation toy That's how tall I have one that's like Almost probably 10 inches And then there's one That's still in the box It's like four

I don't know if they're making Any more And you went to Party Time Pizza I never Well I never saw Billy Bob live But I I never got to see The Rock of Fire live

Those regrets You know I never saw Bowie And neither of us ever saw I never saw Billy Bob live but I I never got to see the Rock of Fire live those regrets you know I never saw Bowie and I never saw Paul Simon before he retired I never said Billy Bob he retired I'm hearing this for the first time right now Paul Simon I didn't know last night I chose Rock of Fire instead of Tom Petty I saw Petty second to last night and then he died I saw Tom Petty second to last night or before the last concert and I saw mike nesmith from monkeys last concert wow that was the literal literal last you shouldn't tell someone that story when they play a concert if i'm like hey you're saying hey i want to let you

know everyone dies when i'm the angel of death yeah yeah so excited so excited young person we deal with it we We have a curse. This is the PTR. We kill a lot of people by bringing them up. I think we all have to defend it. And I just want to say it. It probably always comes up. But just to say it's like we only are here for a little while.

Let's get the thing. They are material things. But if it brings you joy and clearly something happened in our childhood that wasn't working but that helped us sure that that was a helping pill that was a mechanism that that reminds us that things are going to be okay surround yourself with things that remind you things are okay yeah yeah i agree that's beautiful You say that on every date. That's your line. Yeah, but you still have a figment. In the last week, I have purchased multiple secondhand Planet Hollywood t-shirts.

Damn. Oh, you've been giving that from us. What is it that drives you there? It was probably similar to Figment. I'm associating happy times with family, going to those places, be them Orlando or the Atlantic City Boardwalk, the real hot spot of Hollywood. Of course, yeah. It always just felt like an event. Yeah. And you think also because it's gone, there's also that drive.

It's gone, but it's also kind of hanging. Again, much like Figment, it's kind of hanging on. They still have? There's still a little. I didn't know that. There's one or two play to Hollywoods hanging on out there. There's a few. Yeah, yeah.

One by one, they're going. And a lot of them have been remodeled, so they aren't all the 90s velvet zebra uh zebra pattern nightmare that that they were but there's as if there's a few there's a few hanging there when it opened in baltimore my parents dropped me off at like noon and i stayed because i wanted to get a good seat for like bruce willis playing the harmonica you know like i wanted to be you went to that you went to the opening of baltimore whoa and i took pictures on my probably disposable camera there you go yeah wow i i love playing how also it's like the world that we love and a restaurant like it was great idea yeah yeah and it um you know especially in the late 80s early

90s they were everyone was so good at selling the idea of Hollywood, be it MGM Studios or Planet Hollywood, like the magic of the movies. Yeah. You know. Yes. I think it's something that is not conveyed nearly as well today, but it like, anything of that nature just like electrified me at that.

Yeah. I will enforce going to Journey after this, but do we all know about the Planet Hollywood temporary auction gallery that's happening? Yes. As this airs, I believe, this will be open. And listeners, too, this is in Beverly Hills. I don't know what the deal is exactly

and if it's the real stuff or if it's recreations, but I think this is going to be this gallery. I'm going to tempt you, Derek, with things. Oh, boy. I think it'll be a place where you can like go see Stallone in the demolition man tube and like you know whatever

what do you mean go see him like what a recreation thing he's not there live yeah there's a thing all the planet Hollywood's had which was like a Stallone curled up into a ball like a naked mannequin Stallone a naked Stallone curled up into a ball. Like a naked mannequin Stallone. Yes, a naked Stallone.

I don't remember that. Wow. They almost all, you could like eat under it. It would be hanging up above you. Yeah. And your boots might be. They obviously made multiple for many locations. But basically, there's this gallery in Beverly Hills, apparently, where they're selling all this Planet Hollywood stuff.

And I don't know the deal with it yet. By the time this comes out, I may have tried to go. I'm not totally sure. I've tried to figure it out. But hopefully, it is my hope that this will be a temporary pop-up Planet Hollywood to go walk around. That sounds like really, that's a good time. Now, the jacket, though, I really,

that jacket was so cool. And you got two of them? I got a couple T-shirts and a sweatshirt. Oh, sorry. I thought. Those I'm sure. No, my dad has a jacket. It's in the will probably.

It's the heirloom in the will. We were talking about it a while ago, and he's like, well, I lost some weight recently, so I fit in it again. So I'm like, all right, fair enough. Because you were asking about it. You wanted to get it before eating well keep uh he's lost weight i've gained weight so now it's like well at least someone's wearing it it'll it'll land where it's meant to land um okay let's start getting there because though i loved

all of that and it's it's a perfect like texture to put into what we're talking about. My last thing. No, yeah, yeah. Oh, please. Playing in Hollywood, I went when I was 17, 18, and auditioned for The Real World in Baltimore. Oh, wow. But I was like, now I look back, I'm like, I don't think there ever was a Real World Baltimore.

I think I got conned. To do what? Did you have to take your shirt off or something? Man, oh shit. That might be where figment comes in to save me. From dark energy. I just remembered that. They did DC.

Would that have been for, maybe they were going to move it. That would make sense. That's wild. I mean, I just, look, the rest of it, we could do an hour about, I want to know about your Bruce Willis and the the accelerators concert but okay because this is an important one let's make sure that we do it uh uh okay journey into imagination opens march 5th 1983 uh cliff notes version in case because this is now it's been gone for a long time and there's this current thing that happens to have the same title and the same character

but that's not what we're dealing with today here's the rules it can come up we can talk about it but we're talking about the good one the pure one that fits with the vibe we've had so far it is a dark ride that celebrates imagination and explores where ideas come from via hijinks with a whimsical professor type named dream findinder and a literal figment of his imagination, a dragon named Figment. Just to say the little cliff notes of it. Not an opening day Epcot attraction. It was a little bit late, but in that first year. And we'll talk about the specific stuff in this and the history of it.

But I ask you now, Derek, why emotionally, of all the things you could have picked why journey into imagination it's the first ride or i would say first event i remember being with my family and feeling like i was somewhere else whatever that does but i remember the music i remember his face and they had um you know a dream finder and a figment walking around the park and getting your picture taken it was actually this hand that figment oh yes your pants yeah where he was like yeah the dream finder has to be puppeteering and he's got like a fake arm bed to hold right incredible but i think there also is like almost like a sesame street feeling

like where we're being entertained but we're also being educated when i was like yeah this again i'm six or seven but i still think the brain registers like oh yeah imagination is the coolest thing that we have the capability of doing and there's a ride and there's this guy flying like it really felt like you were flying and i i like puff the magic dragon and i he reminded me of puff oh sure you know sure yeah not just the dragon qualities but um and then you go back and you're like oh and it probably was because when we all got off the ride, I saw my family happy. Let's be honest. It probably was that. Whoa. Yeah.

I never hide that barrier of like, yeah, you're not 44 and you still like a purple dinosaur because it's cool. It did something. And I love that. It'd be hard to make it fully opposed to just clinically, this is a cool thing. Yeah, there's got to be an emotional. Yeah, but also it's not like, offense to small world like there's like actual like art that went into it like it's very like uh you know when you're a kid you're just seeing colors

and stuff and then you watch this as an adult and you're like man they were really like educating you on like your brain a dream finder that goes around and collects things that inspire your dreams note musical notes ideas like they're like colors and i don't know i just think whether you know it as a kid that that shapes you of going okay i don't have to like work in business yeah i don't have an imagination do you do you feel like you can trace like a creative career back to like this and things like this i think yeah i think without knowing it was just like oh yeah this is when i feel good this is where i feel like oh i'm escaping whatever i'm in and getting this great joy and yeah also the music of this was so good the sherman brothers

and then um all right we can't talk about the other one but it was 12 minute ride no yeah yeah oh yeah yeah it's i think it's it's just part of it at this point this like that there was this like crazy ambitious experimental borderline psychedelic kind of ride and then ever since there's been this strange impression of one it's just short yeah they cut it in half yeah who would lengthwise i'd so bizarre and that was one of the goals evidently it was to like i don't know 12 minutes is a little long and now you're like who is now in the age of rise of the resistance you're like who is complaining about a long ride that's so weird yeah um i also think when you have a stuffed ant you know like i didn't live in florida i lived in maryland so

i probably rode that ride twice yeah yeah between 83 and 98 yeah but you have this like figment stuffed animal like pulls you back there yeah i i love i love the ride and the leaping i think they're called leaping frog fountains they're still there right they are still there yeah i i love i love the ride and the leaping i think they're called leaping frog fountains they're still there right they are still there yeah my i was showing them to my girlfriend back in like november and we're immediately like giggling like chill like trying i was like no you gotta if you catch it you can get soaking wet like it was so hot that day and i was like you you figure out where it goes and you you put your hand up to block it and then people are walking by giggling with us and i was like well the fountains still work

the fountains still do yes what they're designed to do the exterior last night i was like thinking i was like oh i want to bring this up and see what you guys think. But now I feel different because you brought the aquarium. I was like, you know what? If you look at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the design of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Yeah, yeah. I was like, is that the inspiration to their architecture? I couldn't find anything. But then when you said the aquarium in Baltimore, they both have a similar glass.

Yeah, the glass. Crystal-y. Yeah, yeah. God, that's true. What year is the Rock and Roll? Did you look? Rock and Roll fame is 97. Okay.

Okay. Yes, well, sometimes one little spark happens when you see a building, and it sparks the mind to make the same building, but slightly different. There was so much in the air back then, or like unbuilt, unrealized projects. Like a lot of the video essays about Journey,

of course, touch on the unbuilt Discovery Bay at Disneyland. The original version of the Land Pavilion, which was going to have gigantic crystals. Yeah, that design is really cool. really cool yeah if you've never seen that the one he's been trying to put like big crystals in disney forever that's a big thing too in addition to just jules verne shit it's like big crystals is definitely something that comes up a lot i never knew that it just like and like i it also appears in other stuff like even just like art from like lucasport which is going to be like the George Lucas overlay or yeah, whatever redo of Tomorrowland.

It's very crystal-y and these big buildings. I don't know if that's specifically Tony or not. Which also might have, there might have been something like that in Westcott too. Yes, for sure. Yeah, this idea just moved from the big indoor atrium that was very crystal-y. Which like, it's great it landed where it did because I'm recalling, I feel like, but at this point we're getting close to having covered like all the big original Epcot stuff.

Yeah. And one of the last ones we did, I don't remember if it was, or maybe it was when we talked about Horizons. I feel like I at some point declared this is my favorite looking. Maybe I said Horizons was my favorite of the big austere original Epcot buildings.

Why did I not say Journey into Imagination? It's this, right? Isn't it? Just like architecturally. Aesthetically pleasing. It feels future-proof. Yes. Like I do think crystals and glass work.

It's like kind of forever 80s but forever future. That thing is certainly the vibe I want. Yeah, it doesn't feel dated in a way. Even like, you know, like that land building is like a little unfriendly. I think it's cool. I think all, I look, I love all of the big, like blocky Epcot buildings. Yeah, but a lot of early Epcot was like, I hope you like Brutalism. Yes.

Because it's going to be some metal and some brown. Yeah, yeah. Cements. Which I did, and I do. And then I've like, any time I see that in Warner Center and Woodland Hills or wherever, I'm like, ooh, it's like Epcot. But this, I don't know, Journey,

this building's aged so well. The thing Journey is going forward is that it feels very much of like a sister to Spaceship Earth to me, because of the like like whatever like triangles. There's some whimsy in the architecture. So it does feel like it's built from the same like material or something and Horizons feels different.

Yeah, yeah. I guess I do, I think Journey, yeah, I guess you're probably right. I don't mean to dictate that. No, but I like Horizons a lot too. If I had ever said this one was the best, unless it's the best Spaceship Earth, does that count? Well, if that counts, then that's my favorite.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you have a leaning favorite Epcot building? I mean, yeah, Journey. The other thing I was going to say is like you also, now when you get older and you get off a ride and there's like, you know, the toys to buy. But like with Figment, you went into like, you know the toys to buy but like with figment you went into like you know the image works like you were kind of yeah you now like learn something on the ride that you got to like do it so it's almost like its own separate park like you had got to do what figment taught you

in that rainbow corridor that you walked through like that it was just it's just magical and that's what all we love of disney and stuff and it just felt like yeah i don't know i just i'll forever love it and figment's funny yes yeah absolutely uh uh well you want to you want to talk characters a little bit let's just like like, and we can go, look, we'll do a little Dream Finder too, but let's make sure we devote enough time to just like, we've not really had just a big talk about Figment on the show. We have not had a big talk. We haven't had the talk about Figment. That will be the talk with my son. You should know there is a purple dragon and he's wonderful.

Yeah. Oh my God. Figment's great. I don't know if this is going to be the most intellectual talk, but Fig he's wonderful. Yeah. Oh, my God. Figment's great. I don't know if this is going to be the most intellectual talk, but Figment is wonderful. Visually appealing. Yes. Kind of. A great shade.

Well, so much. I think purple's going to be good, but I love that. The very 80s, I feel like the building they did some of in that color, too, that kind of light periwinkle purple. Oh, yeah. Great purple. I really, especially being like having all these toys of like stuff from when I was a kid

like just visually speed like Dream Finder figment just perfectly like like appealing to a child like just yeah from the colors to just the juxtaposition of the two characters like almost that like over anything else the ride probably could have been

half as good, but just those two characters, seeing them as a kid, to me at least, it was like, oh yeah, I like these guys. Yeah, they're very good. Do you know why Figment was red and yellow, his outfit? His little sweater? Yeah. Yeah, but yes, go ahead.

I did find that. You did? Yeah, yeah. Also, real quick, a good note of red and yellow makes you hungry, technically, that combination. Because it's like ketchup and mustard? Think about McDonald's, In-N-Out, Wendy's. They've done studies that that combination makes you hungry. That's interesting.

But Figment has it because it's Kodak. Oh, right, right, right. Kodak. Oh, right, right, right. Kodak logo. That is a thing about this ride. As a kid, immediately endeared the Kodak company. Yes. I was like, Kodak is good. They're important.

They're powerful. Reading, it was funny reading about the late 90s Kodak. It was just like, we're not going to do any digital. We're putting our foot down. They had the ability, but they were very resistant to it. And that was the kind of death knell of a lot of photography companies. It's just not going with the, yeah, yeah. Not immediately embracing.

Sure. Yeah, yeah. I think at the end of the ride, I believe this is the first ride where it takes your picture at the end. Oh, yeah. And I think they could have done it digitally and Kodak was like, no, this has to be done in the slides, whatever their current technology was. They could not do any demonstration of digital photos. There is a long interview with Tony Baxter on this old blog called The MacGyver Project. And he says, like, I mentioned once, like, well, we could sell these photos.

And they immediately gave me a death stare. Oh, what? Yeah, I don't know. Apparently, it took a lot to take those digital, like those photos for just a second. Like they had a room of computers to manage that at first. Wow, wow. Just having a photo that you look at for three seconds on your way out of the room. But they didn't sell photos and they didn't sell videos at the blue screen

in the Imageworks, the blue screen, like acting in a movie area. Oh, yes. Yeah, yeah. uh in the image works the blue screen like act in a movie area oh yes yeah yeah right um the the colors also come from uh the original i think they went more like uh you know a to b with him being a green dragon originally but green is the color of fuji film which was in the park it was in epcot elsewhere or like they were trying to be or were they like gonna be part of the japan well the idea that the rumor was that they got the mount fuji coaster canned oh my god that supposedly there was gonna be a mount fuji coaster uh in

world showcase and then they were like no fuji Fuji, no. Just the mention of the freight. Yeah, yeah. The word Fuji Coaster Sense. That sounds awesome. I wish they did that. I'm glad they got us this, but shit, Fuji Coaster sounds really good. Yeah, because the Dreamfinder and Figment were from the original concept of, we just said it and I can't think of the name of it, the original 70s Tony Baxter. Discovery. Discovery Bay. Captain Magic?

Captain Marvel and his dragon. Yeah yeah and it was like green dragon they were like no green no green allowed yeah but that also sounded cool carousel progress with like some crazy sure oh yeah yeah yeah i yes so there's this there's this captain marvel i wait professor it's not captain marvel professor yeah that makes sense um yes professor marvel Is this Captain Marvel? Wait, Professor Marvel? It's not Captain Marvel. Did I say Captain Marvel? I think Professor. Professor, yeah, that makes more sense. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, Professor Marvel. That was going to be part of that Discoveryland area that never got built at Disneyland.

Then Tony Baxter had an idea for the Land Pavilion where there was a guy named the Land Keeper. Yeah. And he was not quite, well, Land Keeper is a a couple He's in a white tux He's cool He is kind of neat He's a different vibe entirely But he's sort of Colonel Sanders A little bit

But then with Rainbow And he has the Captain EO rainbow on his shirt That really feels like it did turn into Captain EO I am sure that's what that is Yeah absolutely This whole thing Everything that happened in this pavilion, there was a lot of stuff that was just floating around there. It just all feels like they were all talking to me as a five-year-old.

Well, what do you want to see on his chest? I want a rainbow. They're like, great. What color should the dragon be? Purple? Because it's my favorite color. And they're like, great, this kid is just deciding all the things that will make other kids like it yeah yeah it's uh it's smart um figment i think is i mean okay a few things

it takes very little to like on board with him you kind of understand what he is as soon as you see him and then this the introduction scene and the ride you kind of like all right i get it he's this whim he's a whimsical thing of your imagination that's that's very clear he also just visually because in the ride he has to work as animatronic um cartoon his original animation of him in the ride and then a puppet for all the videos at the end and he translates from medium to medium really well yes yeah i think that's true yeah uh the you mentioned um you know thinking the animatronics were real in that ending scene as a kid i remember like figments of mountain climbers superheroes this and that and then reading the reality of that in one of the tony baxter

interviews like oh that is um we wanted to animate that we couldn't get it animated in time so that puppet is actually an animatronic with the guts removed and a puppeteer doing it and it is so cumbersome they could only do like five minutes at a time because they had to rest. Because animatronic skin is so thick and heavy. It's not like felt. It's not Kermit. Yeah. Whoa, I never knew that.

That's so cool. Yeah. Those cute little sequences. How adorable is it? Figment lifting a little barbell. And now we know that was, Figment's lifting a little barbell and then the guy under Figment is like really struggling.

Yeah, he's in pain. Ag just agony like begging for a cigarette break and it's better because it's not i look the animation would have been cool i'm sure but it's better that it's not yeah i think yeah yeah i remember dream finder is teaching figment is asking questions as the audience so like we're learning from figment on what who dreamcatcher is and figment's asking questions like oh we can anything is possible like we can come up with anything like i always thought that's a good teaching tool too where he's speaking for the audience like an elmo fashion they want to get scary you can turn the word cat into bat like i remember the thunder i read that they were going to have fog machine smoke machine to make you feel like you're on a cloud oh well when he's flying but they didn't want to mess up

the design and i was like yeah i read that yeah he said they don't have the good haze machines that we have now. So that would have been really cool. They haven't perfected fog technology, or they hadn't perfected it. I didn't appreciate what a time we live in, fog-wise. Yeah, this is a golden age of fog. Curing diseases, whatever, that is what it is. But we can like...

Six Flags Fright Fester on the forefront of fog technology. It's their development. Yeah, they won't destroy sets anymore. Yeah, and a teen can breathe it in, no problem. Right, yeah, yeah. Has there ever been another ride where it was refurbished, but the main character was gone?

I don't understand. I don't know. McDonald's without cheeseburger. I don't know why... Well, it is similar to, in a way, to McDonald's becoming kind of these bland McCafe, kind of aesthetic-free, just cold surfaces, and the characters are kind of gone. Yeah. I've seen the characters in ads lately. They're peppered.

They are bringing that, yeah. It's never a good idea, I don't think. Well, they got rid of the original McDonald mascot, too, which was what, Speedy? Was that like a little character that was before Ronald? Oh, yeah. Oh, I forgot about him. You see him occasionally.

He pops up once in a while. He's always confused me, I think. Why is he only at like one out of every 100 McDonalds? I'll say this. When I see him, I don't feel joy like I do with these other characters. Speedy, that is. Because he's from the 50s. Yeah, I don't have a connection to Speedy.

I see joy when I see Birdie and Ronald. Do you like Zippy, the United States postal mascot? I like him, but I have no deep affection for him. You don't dislike him? Don't dislike. I feel like you love him.

I love Zippy Yeah of course you do Zippy was a little cartoon guy Yeah Introduced with the advent of zip codes To get people to use zip codes Whoa He's about zip codes

Well you were about him Yeah Zippy As a kid you loved zip codes And you loved the US Postal Service I do love zip codes Show me my zip code again mom Oh that was Getting the zip code

Right before bed I feel like it was like in the nearby area okay i learned when my birthday was i specifically remember uh around the time probably of figment the most paid attention most like figment like first grade or teacher asking when's your birthday i was like i don't know, March? My birthday is in October. I have no idea why. That's weird. You got it way wrong? But I got it way wrong, and at that point,

I had already celebrated my birthday, I think. It's like, wait, that was just a few... I don't know why. Did you get nervous? I think I got nervous, but tying shoes and learning zip code, I think. They were late coming for me.

I got the first start of the address with zip code. It took a while to learn those numbers. I did Velcro for a long time. I did Velcro for a while, Derek. Kangaroos, yeah. Did you do kangaroos? I had a lot of Velcro with X-Men or Ninja Turtles on them. Oh, cool. And then you're like, I don't want to do shoes that tie

because the X-Men aren't on them as often. Well, I still agreed. Looking back, I was like, well, they were more efficient to do the Velcro. Are you going to go back to Velcro? I don't know. Every now and then I see a Velcro. Sure, I see a running shoe with a little bit of Velcro. I'm wearing slip-ons right now.

Oh, so you are. Yeah. You don't have to worry about any of it. Yeah i don't always do slip-ons but for a record you know comfortable comfortability yeah sure sure um here's a that's well okay how about that let's clear this one out of the way because we can't not say it um there is a story about why figment is figment of course and i think it's you know okay we love tony baxter creator of this ride and creator of figment very much on the show and i think it's maybe does that just maybe answer why this show is so perennially devoted to telling

the same stories over and over oh perhaps because it is what our man Tony likes to do. There are these tales in any setting. With us, in real interviews, he will always tell. So we have to tell. Does anyone want to tell the tale? I think this guy does. The figment? I think this guy wants to tell it.

Well, he said he stumbled upon the word figment because there's an episode of Magnum P.I. where Magnum P.I.'s friend Higgins his butler was really mad about a goat

eating his prized flowers yeah of course and he went on like a little rant that he's like I know it's real it's not a figment of my imagination yeah we said figment doesn't eat figments don't eat flowers is that the correct line something like technically tony shortens it but the real line is don't and don't tell me it's a figment of my imagination. Figments don't eat rare tropical flowers. Tropical flowers. There you go. That's the actual full line. But he was talking about a goat.

What's that? He's referring to a goat. But why would he say a figment doesn't eat? He's saying, don't tell me it's not real. I think Magnum, I don't know the full context of the episode. Honestly, that's research I probably should have brought into this affair so that I would actually know. But believe that uh magnum pi and what this is what happens on magnum pi by the way he's hiding a goat in the yard i think this is the b plot like it's funny

higgins is a stuffy guy and he's got a deal with the ridiculous goat eating his beloved tropical flower it's not that magnum has chosen a goat as his new partner but he's gonna keep it off the books but i wouldn't put it past magnum crazy ideas from a loose cannon uh but yes that is what it is hearing figments oh no no okay please has he ever because i know that story but like they knew Kodak was going to be the sponsor. He's trying to come up with this stuff. And I thought Kodak was really heavy on imagination and color. So I'm like, I think the word imagination was probably what triggered him half listening. Oh, true.

Like trying to find things that are like cool with the word imagination associated with imagination that's a good point because that's yeah why are they doing any of this if not for and yeah it did all come from uh kodak is interested they want to do something and uh they don't want to do one of these stuffy avcott pavilions they want it to be and it doesn't matter what it's about, so long as it is something imaginative. That is what they said. And Disney said, how about imagination? Imagination is pretty imaginative.

They gave a lot of room. I feel like Baxter says, well, figment, it's a known word. People know it, but I feel like it's not used a lot. So there's a uniqueness to it. He said it's a million dollar, but nobody's grabbed that as IP, basically. Is the last time he watched something current this Magnum PI episode?

Probably. That's my question. Because this all comes from me asking him if he's ever watched an episode of Seinfeld and thinks, oh, we can make a ride out of this. And he goes, well, I watch old movies or something. He said something along those lines. Oh.

So I was like, oh. The last piece of media that he ever watched. That may be question for interview number two with us. Sure. This is Magnum P.I., the last current show you watched. You have made me think of a theme park. It's just like, so how did you come up with the ride Balky? Well.

It's all rides from 80s sitcoms. I just read the idea of these characters who are perfect strangers. How did that phrase enter your head? Funky Brewster. It's a dance club. But a pretty broad assignment. I don't want to be imagination well like Kodak seemed reasonably hands-off yeah I think so as long as nothing green is in it and as long as it's about imagination and I do think actually with that like them just saying exactly what given Kodak exactly what they wanted I think that they then they determined here's what the

rooms are like we explore performing arts and literature and that and I don't think I'm pulling this out of nowhere I think that Kodak saw the presentation and said what about science and then you watch a ride through and Dream Finder says what about science i think they quoted kodak back to them wow i also feel like i'm uh hallucinating that's a figment of my mission i don't know maybe i got that from somewhere that's a how to win friends friends and influence people trick i think you say someone's words back to them or you say like three or four of their words back to them and they go oh wow they were listening to me that science part by the way i think that was the part that scared me as a kid really sure that creepy music and the time lapse uh flowers and

melting snow and stuff yeah i feel like i was just scared i was scared of like certain types of film does that make any sense like i could tell the difference some like i'd watch sesame street and i would know when it goes to film as opposed to video oh video is friendly and where my friends live and film is scary yeah and i didn't know what i was yeah but i swear i have this that like frame rates and like the quality of lenses just would like and then it would scare that like sesame street is on video and then follow that bird is on film and follow that bird is very upsetting and I think part of that is that like well now it's now my character my favorite characters are being shot the way you know like Midnight Cowboy is being shot film is for grown-ups film gives you like a little surreal quality versus just video video feels like I'm just looking through a window and film I agree with that yeah you could feel that

you couldn't articulate it probably at five no I don't think but i did it's one of those things i give i feel the feeling i felt it no i hear you film video it felt like there was more weight to it if you were watching something that was on film absolutely like it felt like yeah yeah there's also the sesame street films there's also the audio i remember like it sounded completely different like it was just like i don't know i'm yeah i i i'm i'm feeling you at first i want to say you sounded like a dick as a kid being particular but that i was a film snob yeah what kind of lens is this mother another wide angle interesting but we like what we're used to yeah yeah yes but also what in figment that there's so much happening your brain just can't

digest it there's film there's there's animatronic there's yeah video there's i don't know and the colors like i just think yeah I wonder how many times we wrote it as as kids that it still stays with us like it's pretty uh other things probably didn't I like you probably like you probably did seven other rides on those same trips that don't like stay with you haunt I don't remember any of them I only remember remember Figment. Yeah. Well, it was awesome. I feel like it was easy. Not that there was never any lines, but just the modified Omnimover setup. It was an Epcot ride. You could go in and get on a dark ride in five, maybe 10 minutes.

There's not a big pre-show. There's not exhibits to walk through. There's not a post-show. You got to... The post-show is's not exhibits to walk through there's not a post show you gotta like the post show is fun and it's the playground ride and you get to see the rainbow corridor you know yeah and this i'm repeating myself because we've said this on multiple epcot episodes but also my memories of all going on epcot stuff in the 80s all blend together because they all feel like they're of a piece all the epcot rides

are an experimental rock and roll album or something and like you remember pieces here and there but i'm watching like world of motion as an adult on youtube and i'm like i don't know any i don't i'm sure there's parts of it i maybe remember but like i can remember some things about horizons remember some things but it all really blends together and i think that's part of a design yeah i have it all feel like a one piece honestly embarrassed ass but like the the the caveman blowing his feet that's spaceship yeah that's still there yeah i remember wait or is it wait wait are we wrong is it are they blowing their feet because they don't have vehicles to uh it's not because oh because they have to walk like Flintstones on the ground.

Yeah, because there's a tundra scene sort of on Spaceship Earth before you get into, like, obviously the different. Yeah, but maybe that's what you're doing. Nothing embarrassing about that because now I'm questioning where. I know there's cavemen in Spaceship Earth, but are there also? I'm questioning it now. Because I'm just picturing this guy blowing his feet i remember that was like a memory that's what i think it's world of motion no you're right look here this is at from some like auction oh yeah that is a caveman blowing his feet there

you go i don't think we talked about this in world i don't think we did see that's one of those that is one of those weird things there's multiple rides with cavemen in epcot right multiple things where you go into the renaissance futures, and the futures all feel very 80s. Right. Which ones have horses? Yeah, it's really all of it. I guess imagination probably feels like the outlier of all of them, too. Because I feel like, or I guess horizons and imagination feel a little more unique.

Well, imagination, I think, is the most ethereal horizons yeah you know if you're latching on to set pieces horizon was like well you get to pick the ending you get to pick sure yeah yeah and that was a big thing for me as a kid but even watching watching imagination um it just the start is unique that carousel yeah which i had totally forgotten about i know i knew this at some point but it's like oh a lot of the money went to building five dream finders and dream catchers and figments and you would slowly rotate around the scene like you're watching like a three minute scene basically to start the ride you pull into a turntable and you're moving exactly along with the scene that you're watching to where it might feel like you are not moving at all like you're it's perfect and i i i have to

say i didn't know this ever that they're that they built five identical yeah i didn't know that this scene five times i didn't know that so it's like a miniature carousel progress. Like within, you're on a Haunted Mansion type ride that goes into a carousel progress with this trippy so that everyone can get that experience at once and it doesn't slow anything down. And five of, not just nothing, five big flab-traption flying machines that are full-sized. I saw a photo of an Imagineer sitting in one who's the same size. It is not smaller for Dream Finder. Right.

That is a full adult-sized flying machine that they had to build five times. Yeah. Seeing the overhead of it, I'm like, oh my God. Yeah, I never even, watching any of these videos over the years, I never even put it together that that's how that was achieved.

One of those for a long time was in the mouse gear shop in the center of Epcot. You could look up and see it. See the rusting parts of a- The rusting dream catcher. Wow. They kicked out of the ride. Do you guys all feel this way a little bit

where like, okay have i've had like affection for this i know i've watched a ride through here and there but i'm not even of all the things we've covered i've i'm not close to having this memorized or i wasn't before it's like all stayed in that hazy kid brain i for sure remember seeing from my vantage point as a child the the big like the big flying machine and dream finder because that was so like striking and scary but the rest of it i'm like i have like like bits and flickers but like it's all really in a in a childhood haze for me you guys feel similar yeah 100 it all it really feels like a dream It really feels truly like I can't remember anything outside of those just big iconic images from it that lasted. from the videos that then I had to go back and find. Right. Totally. Or pictures where it's like, wait, there is a teapot.

There's like a weird teapot art piece. Right. Oh yeah. Like right when you start to pull into the actual attraction part. Yeah. And that's like just, yeah, it's just set dressing. It's not even like, you know, it's not honed in on. Yeah. Right, right. It story yeah right right like seeing the

the two big moments uh the big moments of like the edgar allen poe like yeah phantom of the opera like organ but it's a keyboard and he's writing mystery story and then that goes into figment wanting to put on a little show and he's in a tux and tails with a top hat. And I'm like, well, that's my adult. Like, that's just my brain. It was everything. Which just molded at six and it just never changed, you know? Yeah.

It is so, it's such a fun blend of like, yeah, like, oh, you just put this cute character in like a tux, which obviously is, you know, we've seen Bugs Bunny in a tux. As a kid, i don't know that i knew what that really meant right yeah but i like it yeah and then it's just mixed with like really heady like colors and weird noises and it doesn't i think it's interesting that it doesn't translate so well to even old footage like i know it's a lot of the upcut stuff i guess doesn't but

it just doesn't you can't really feel it in watching even the best quality like upraised footage yeah yeah i feel like yeah i'm like i know i can see it and i can imagine i can imagine it but i cannot feel it necessarily from these images of the same video yeah i just remembered when you like you couldn't capture everything that was going you're constantly yes look there were so many things to see that i also think that's why it's harder to remember because there's not just like one journey there's like again when you see all the figments doing characters all this music and rainbows it's like i don't know i just yeah well like juxtaposing and even just with watching like a vh or like camcorder footage

of Haunted Mansion or Pirates from the 90s or something, you're like, well, I can tell in this footage what it is. Obviously, it's not giving you all the feelings of it, but it was very dark and it's, yeah, it has like a lot of like trippier things going on. Yeah. Yeah. Do you want to like hear a little like, let's just get a hit of Which one How about some one little spark

Just to give us A little vibe here One little spark Of inspiration Is at the heart Of all creation Right at the start Of everything that's new One little spark lights up for you

oh hello there so glad you could come along i am the dream finder musical notes what delightful melodies those will make i love these flights of fancy searching the universe for sounds colors ideas anything that sparks the imagination i mean just to get a little hit of that like sound is a lot of it this is a real like uh obviously the song is great sherman brothers and then the but the what i couldn't find is Where the instrumentation comes from Cause it's like a There's a real like I mean there's

It's a big like Synth festival for sure And you're And when When synths and keyboards And digital sounds Were not everywhere When you're a kid

You're like I can't make heads or tails Of any I don't know what these sounds are This feels like the future There's all types of There's like harpsichord Mixed with just like weird Like texture stuff And That bass I can't make heads or tails of any, I don't know what these sounds are. This feels like the future to me. There's all types of, there's like harpsichord mixed with just like weird like texture stuff.

That bass. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, that big flatulent. Yeah, yeah. I love that. Electronic fart. This is, I really, if anyone out there knows who like, because I don't think the Sherman brothers are up at the,

they aren't like. You don't think they were at the forefront? Doing all the patchwork on the mini mode. There's not a huge discogs entry. Is it? I looked. I wanted to know. Dick and Bob.

I don't know who played on this. Dick Sherman out with Maroder on a speedboat somewhere. Just chatting about what's going on, what's the new tech like. What gear are you using these days? Did you guys hear the original song for it? Yeah, yeah. Yes. It's the guy that. Let's hear it for for it? Yeah, yeah. Yes. It's the guy that... Let's hear it for the land.

Yeah, yeah. Let's give it to the land. Wait, maybe it didn't. Wait. Yeah, that's where... There was another song? I think it's called Journey into the Imagination, but it's... But it's...

No, it's not. It's just... Journey... It's very much... Let's give it to the land. It's that same kind of Mormon... It's kind of like mellow 70s. Yeah.

Like, you know, James Taylor-y something. It didn't feel like you fall asleep to. It didn't feel like you try very hard with it either. There's a humor of those through Epcot, as opposed to kind of the bounce and the like, this is kind of like a, not in a round, what am I saying, but it is sort of the same thing over and over

in a small world way, which is probably effective in a ride. So like that it it like it's it is sort of the same thing over and over in a small world way which is probably effective in a ride like that it's like all of it it's every bit of music is different permutations of the same melody yeah over and over so you come out you know it for sure but whoever this man or woman was that did those so sounds I would say they came from composing movies or shows because I think that's the sound of the Dreamcatchers. What do you call it? Like the exhaust pipe or whatever? Yeah, like when he's sketching something, they're sounding like the sound that the idea comes in to the Dreamfighters. Yeah, sure.

His machine is making the music kind of. They don't say that. Lots of like weird synth bloops and bloops are also hitting all of these like sound moments. Tony talks about, you know, that intro scene is very important because you don't know who Dream Finder or Figment is when you go on this for the first time

but it kind of gives you their personalities and their whole vibe at the beginning but like once you can bag a bunch of times i'm like oh it also sets up the rest of the ride like music notes come into play later lightning comes into play later all the things they grab here, they use later in the game. Everything shows up in the dream port. Yes, that's all. That they capture in, that the dream catcher catches. Wait, okay. Now we've said,

what is the dream catcher? Dream catcher is the airship. Now this is confusing because I've also seen it referred to as the dream ship and the dream mobile. It seems like there's not a definitive one. Yes, because I was looking at it. They don't even know, or they all had different. Okay, so it's one of those. It's the dream ship and the dream mobile. It seems like there's not a definitive one. Yes, because I was going to ask you. They don't even know, or they all had different.

Okay, so it's one of those. It's the dream something or other. But either way, it's not the dream port, which is where the dream machine or dream catcher goes to drop off the dreams. Yeah. And Dream Finder is the man. Yeah, Dream Finder is the man.

But the good thing is, with your imagination, it can be whatever you want it to be. Yeah. That's Finder is the man. Yeah, Dream Finder is the man. But the good thing is with your imagination, it can be whatever you want it to be. Yeah. That's a good point. Yes, they probably wouldn't box it. And then there's also some separate device called the Imaginometer. So at least you remember that separately. It lets you know how good your imagination is.

Is it that part? Yeah, I think so, yeah. Is it a quantity or a quality thing? Oh, I don't know. I'd have to look at the machine again to see how they measure it. I'm wondering if that's the second one. Wait, you mean the other version of the ride? The Eric Idle thing.

Journey into your imagination where they then tell you your imagination is dog shit. Right. That is, compare the openings of these. Meeting this whimsical man and then he makes up a friend for you as opposed to a character from another movie who you don't remember even if you just saw it saying you have no imagination. Your imagination is shit. A guy who's just who is so much like not to say he didn't. I think Eric Idle's the performance is not the issue. But he's also like he came up on Twitter recently.

He doesn't remember what this is. Somebody tagged him in a photo of like a dragon and he's like, oh yeah, Quest for Camelot was fun. And they're like, no, that's not what that is. That's from Disney. He just didn't, he doesn't even, and admit it, it was like one day for him. And then probably nobody likes it, so nobody's saying to him day to day, like, hey, love that DevCat ride. That just pisses me off. I know.

As opposed to the love. And maybe that's a good tie-in, too. Let's talk about the voice talent of this attraction a little bit, because these are both fascinating people uh to talk about uh um so uh uh dream finder is chuck mccann who is a like perennial voiceover guy and kid show host try a lot of stuff that was local and we didn't grow up with but he did big national things that we know he's the original sunny the cuckoo bird okay he did he is the the first that ever cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs was said later Duckworth the Butler

in DuckTales among many other Disney voices and of course we can all say it together he starred in and created the series Far Out Space Nuts which was a Sid and Marty Croft

nightmare starring him and Bob Denver. I've watched this. You've watched Space Nuts? Yeah. I've never seen one. I've never seen a episode of this. The title's familiar to me.

I've never seen a lick of... How'd you like Far Out Space Nuts? Pretty far out? You know, it is pretty far out. I don't know if it's something that I would recommend everybody watch, but it's certainly interesting. I would say watch the opening credits. Okay. And you can get the vibe from it. Okay.

So. See how far out they get. Is it a good song or anything at least? I don't remember the song. Okay. Maybe it was all right. Anyway, to talk about his voice for a minute.

I mean, how, like, was this, this is the first thing that's like this? Because it's so familiar. And I, upon revisiting all this, I was flashing to, like, sketches I've done, things I've done here and there, where I've done the voice that is like, why, hello, I'm a big, performative, old-timey man, and, like, is it purely from this? It's, I love, I love this voice, and and the suit and the beard and i think is there a

santa claus before this because he's very santa like extremely i always mention that everywhere that he's very like santa so i'm trying to think plays santa in something like some mickey christmas thing i'm not sure what but he's he's all if you can imagine he was also santa yeah so it's in the zone of like like like obviously like i'm trying to like miracle on 34th street that's santa claus oh he was a little like the twinkle in his eye it's not quite as maybe boisterous but he's got the vibe going when he like reaches like he sits like like puts his hand on a child's shoulder it's like impossible for them to call you stupid like no you didn't understand that this is the way you do it and you're like oh that's a better way

of responding to me than like you idiot no that's not what that you find that like that's like a nurturing type i find them yeah nurturing father figure uh rewarding to the imagination yeah i mean hey let's bring that up don't we all identify as figment, wishing we had someone that's encouraging our imagination? A dream finder in our lives? Oh, interesting. Sure. A mentor figure. Whoa.

Do you feel like you found them? Has anyone found a dream finder? A big boisterous. That's interesting. Yeah, I don't know. I think identify our dream finders. Who's encouraging? Genuinely, somebody you know, Tommy Blutch, a showrunner of Mubim City.

Love him. He was like this older brother figure to me who took me through this scary experience. And he doesn't sound like Dreamfinder, but he is a big larger-than-life, boisterous person. So there's one, Tommy. And if I told him that,

he'd say, what the fuck is a Dreamfinder? He'd put me on blast for 10 minutes yeah yeah he'd yeah he'd call figment something else yeah but yeah i love him but yeah i don't know i just thought of that right now that there's another identifying quality of like what you relate to is that dream finder someone older than you encouraging because i don't i don't think of figment as like not real it's like or a dragon i'm just like oh yeah i know figment's figment he's not a dragon yeah well he's a fig he reads as a kid yeah kid yeah and he's like we're saying dresses up like all these different things so yeah how is he not yeah which likely i think that's right i think endeared me as a kid yeah because it's like well he's got his own personality he's like mickey mouse and bugs bunny own

personality can also you know be a superhero or an astronaut or whatever like can be a cypher can be take on other jobs you know now isn't it curious that we do we say childlike and he's a kid yeah even though he is voiced by do i have the uh at the time of the recording he was voiced by a 58 year old man of course yeah it's kind of weird billy bardy was 58 when he was the voice of figment billy barty he did this at 58 uh he was he was a three foot uh nine inch tall man yeah um which i guess there was the calculation i think in that baxter interview you've talked about somebody was like well if there's this quality we're going for why not like get a little piece if he's going to be little when i get a little person to do it because they try they said connie stevens tried they tried a zillion people for his women they couldn't

figure it out but billy barty just had that quality inherently i think they pitched him up um yeah that's what i was gonna ask something's tweaked a little yeah not a ton though it's like he gets it most of the way there cool and um a little bit of credits for him billy bardy was let's go back to sid and marty croft he is sigmund from sigmund and the sea monsters yeah um there's something where he's rumple stiltskin he was in mickey rooney shorts when he was three years old that's how but he straddles that much like all the way back to old hollywood like that there's some i saw some sketch what was it something with him there's something with him and don knots on the donnie marie show i think you can look that up okay

i think i know it already he's uh he's guildor in masters of the universe oh yeah okay um and uhf and uhf oh that's right what is he in uhf he's a film, he's the camera guy. Oh, okay. Oh, gotcha. So like, yeah, guy you've probably seen in things here and there. What maybe nobody has seen is his own show, which was on maybe Los Angeles local television. This seems to be a prank show called Short Ribs. And just so you can get Billy Barty outside of his figment context, here's Billy. Hey, this is Billy Barty and short ribs is coming your way. Hey, Kevin, have a seat.

Hey, that was just fun, boys and girls and ladies and gentlemen. We're going to have fun on short ribs. Don't you do what we do. Right, Kevin? Right. And we're going to be doing all kinds of crazy things on short ribs. But we're going to be doing, not you. Right, boys and girls?

Right. So don't forget, short ribs, up in your way, and all kinds of crazy things like, wow. For the listener, he's with a taller man who he pulls the chair out from under, and he falls on the ground, and then later hits him. But that's a... What a rant. An awful lot of like, do not do. He does the mildest prank you've ever seen and then says, so we're going to do that, but don't you do it.

And we're going to do it, but when we do it, you don't do it. So sit there and don't do it while we do it. Here we go. I was pretty confused by the end of that. Extremely. Yes, I really was. But you do understand that he's got

the juice he's got the energy that's why they went to oh yeah but i also watching that i'm thinking yeah he probably had would have a worse response than eric idol on do you remember figment i think maybe just like grouchy character actor I don't know Old Hollywood guy You don't think cares about the magic of the Disney theme parks I don't know That little fucker The power of that curtain

To this day I always say I never want to see The Pirates of the Caribbean with the lights on Oh you said this about Behind the attraction You were like I don't want to see the they show too much yeah yeah wow wow and we gotta have the curtain you want the mystery still yeah yeah still like watching um there's a great video essay about this this guy martin's vids who does does it about all these attractions and he always gets the blueprints and usually adds in some animation and i'm like

watching it and i'm like still doesn't read to me this looks like nonsense from above like i can't square this with my childlike wonder there's not a man nobody it was it just was manifested nobody had to build and think about a layout it It just was, it was dreamed up, like out of the Dream Finder's mind. And it makes what, another thing Tony Baxter had said when they went to redo it, he's like, look, they spent a million dollars to gut it when you're flossing up a, you don't usually just start spending seven figures to like, trash it.

What did they spend that much on? Like taking out the carousel and redoing the track to take out the open it the opening which is where you meet it's like where any of the heart of it comes from that was the first move like well get that out of there which still like 40 years later seems like a technological marvel just thinking about like oh multiple sets of people are seeing this at slightly different times and the only they're invisible thing in the defense of the removal of it and i'm not saying i was for it and i don't like that new ride but apparently it did break down all the time it was very very uh

unreliable yeah i remember some breakdowns but like yeah i didn't know about that and then even when it was like the new one came on board i would have been like 14 15 and i've been like oh it's a monty python guy oh sure yeah yeah it like takes you out of it almost yeah yeah i've seen him he's from uh casper he's from uh yeah right he's helping kathy moriart. He's a bad guy, right? Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. That's kind of a small part for him, but whatever. Anyway, one other thing about Billy Barty. I'm so excited to read this phrase. At the same time, in 1983, when this opened, he was in the middle of operating a roller rink in Fullerton, California, not just a few miles from disneyland uh his roller rink was called billy bardy's roller fantasy god that was something you could have in the same night popped down at disneyland and then gone to billy bardy's roller fantasy and the other thing about that is it was not just a roller rink but a concert venue and i'm like i'm looking up like well what dumb concerts happened at billy bardy's roller fantasy what kind of bands would they book oh the answer is new order and metallica metallica played there in 82 metallica opened for rat when they're like a new band

they're like important early concert and then new order you can look this up on on youtube you can find the full new order set from billy party's roller fantasy and the first song is blue monday they start with the big one doing it then so this play billy party's roller fantasy was a fully legit new wave ska metal venue. Like absolutely good. I hate to call a shot, but that sounds like an episode to me. Yeah. I mean, I'd agree, except there's almost nothing more. There's like three flyers.

Unless listeners, and again, listeners can point us. Send us all your Captain Andy stuff. Send us all your Billy Barty stuff. If anyone has a dead drop or a cachet of Billy Barty's Roller Rink. Yeah, yeah. Is that nuts though figment had a roller rink that metallica played but the title of that roller rink makes me take back that maybe he didn't like imagination because he be yeah it's fantasy like you wouldn't put

your name on top of say if you had any like you know you know, like, like, that's sissy stuff. I don't want to put that word in there. You would have just said roller rink. Yes, exactly. Yeah, that's whimsical, though, roller fantasy. Yeah, yeah. Boy, I love it. That is great.

I was just reading too, Barty was sued in small claims court by two of the writers of the canceled comedy television show Short Ribs. He went to court for Short Ribs. Yeah, he lost the cases. Oh, no. And he said, he claimed the lawsuit news was the most publicity he ever got

and compared it to similar press that celebrity Zsa Zsa Gabor received for slapping in Beverly Hills Police Officer. Oh, my gosh. Is that right? I don't know. The best thing that ever happened to me. Yeah. Sue me again, guys.

He had an interesting career and uh i don't know that we call the shot on his roller rink but we call a billy bardy there you go yeah and we'll try to find more if yeah billy bardy's life i mean really cool figment seems like maybe that's and ends up being his like legacy like his main thing in a way i'll pitch also you guys do an episode of all those guys like the voiceover guys of that era like oh we've talked we're behind on honestly that's one of the things we thought we would do from the beginning and then we haven't really who comes to your mind though when we oh now you gotta put me on oh not on this but you don't have to name him but i mean just like um um i'm blanking on his name, but, well, in the Haunted Mansion, he's also.

Paul Freeze? Yeah, yeah. Because he was also Tony the Tiger, right? Isn't he the same guy? That's Thurl Ravenscroft. That's Thurl Ravenscroft. He's come up as many times as I can make him come up. What a cool guy, cool voice, looked crazy.

Yeah, Paul Freese is the ghost host in Haunted Mansion. Yeah. And then how about the VO who did, was it Jack Wilson? Do you mean the guy, what did he do? Is he the voice of the park guy? Yes. Yes. Jack Wagner

thank you yeah who is the Permanente Serbo I'm forgetting the words if you say it fast nobody knows Permanente Serbo crap yeah you caught me yeah those are on the list I don't know that is one where we thought we would have done those by now

and we haven't I don't know Derek's calling I just think that era is so I don't know. That is one where we thought we would have done those by now, and we haven't. I don't know. Do them. Derek's calling. Do them. Do them. I just think that era is so, I don't want to, it just, I wish that still existed. I like that idea of like, oh, that's the same voice that, I'm not saying it should only be five actors working, but.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know. I think that era of like these guys could be Tony the Tiger and then also be in this Disney world. Like, I just think, I don't know. I think that era of like these guys could be Tony the Tiger and then also be in this Disney world. Like, I just think, I don't know. I'm fascinated by that era of the voiceover world because I feel like they did so much. I've tried to get like a Billy West episode going because he can do impressions of all those guys. And he's also one of those guys who like I go, oh, my God.

Just need contact info. I've tried multiple. Oh, wow. Oh, geez. I have tried. tried multiple who's the way Derek you're saying you're into the guy is it the Christmas story voiceover guy what's the who's that Gene Shepard Gene Shepard what else is Gene Shepard or is he I mean he's well he's carousel progress yeah the redone carousel of progress yeah right wow wow um okay I gotta get to him It's a carousel But the grandfather at the last scene Of the current carousel progress Is the original

Who's the country singer Ray Yeah It's a country singer who's the voice Oh god Everything's going out of my mind When you got Billy on the brain When you got billy on the brain when you got bardy on the brain i got billy bardy on the brain but i also want to when you brought that

up um but jeff bergman is the best voiceover guy that's i think i played you this friend of mine does these voices like oh you know well he's wait he's bugs or he has been bugs yes oh you knew his name just by i did did. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Well, we had Eric Bauza on the show, who is a current Bugs, and I know sometimes it's him, and so he was going through. He's able to do the- All right, now I'll do Mel Blanc Bugs. Now I'll do Jeff Bergman Bugs.

Yeah. But Jeff Bergman's also- Was he Trump in that Trump cartoon? Yes, yes. And what is it? Has he been Fred Flintstone? Fred Flintstone. Yeah, Barney.

He's your friend, really? Wow, wow. And Yogi. Oh, yeah. Oh, geez. Wow. yes yes and what is it you've been fred flintstone fred flintstone yeah barney really wow and yogi oh yeah he he did drunk history to do the rot when we did the unsolved mysteries parody like so he did like the best robert stack that i lip sank and i was like wow and um but real quick there was a drunk history story. I wanted to remember that. We did this episode called Are You Afraid of the Drunk? And it was about the creation of Frankenstein. And there was this one doctor that I'm blanking on his name, but there's a doctor in the scene.

And they were like, what do you want him to wear? I was like, well, it should be known that he's rich, but he should also be like weird. And I'm like, like a mink stole, like, I don't know, like a, I don't want to do taxidermy. Somebody wearing like a mink coat, but like, what about, and then I just saw it. I was like a fig mink. They're like what i was like okay it's figment it's face but it's the body like a mink still you know like they're like okay we'll try and then they made it and it was really really cool but then disney was like you gotta like take off his eyes you gotta take like make him green spots all over

him but i still have them in my closet wow you had to defig defigment to fight the fig mink a little bit but it never really you see it like for a second in the show anyway but i think it was my way of saying i would like a fig mink. Is that not exactly what the dream finder, you took figment from your imagination, you added, like when he's holding the blocks in the mystery part. That's right. Yeah, you tipped it over to Kay,

and now it's a fig mink. Rex Allen is the name of it. That's right. Rex Allen is the grandfather of the carousel. How did we all mess that up? We let everybody do it. We'll have our info straight when we get to carousel uh um i is this is this a good time because you have that item but you also have

you have another item which is part of what brings you here for this attraction uh would you like to talk about that well yeah i mean i'll just say that I was very, I have been very lucky in my life. I got to go to a Disney auction and there was a figment there from the original ride. Figment nerds believe he was the upside down figment. In this footage, I can't, it's very hard to see. I couldn't find it. I really wanted to come in. Same.

Go, here it is. Yeah, yeah. I don't think I was scammed. But there are parts of me sometimes where I'm like, maybe he was outside of the ride to let you know it was under construction either way an imagineer made this figment yeah and it's figment on a little board looking over and um yeah i decided sell a shohei otani card baseball card he's going to give having trading otani for figment like figment will inspire me otani's really cool sure but if i'm gonna be able to side between the two i'm not gonna stare at a

baseball card all day i don't stare at figment but knowing like because it represents art inspiration and i just anyway i'm making an excuse for why i would it's okay excuse yeah awesome it's an amazing thing to to go for and to get i do i have i have a picture of your because it was at the gallery in the burbank mall this was the joel mcgee collection i was so excited to hear that you got it and he's like fused into a little block so it's just his head and hands. But if you hold it upside down, that's what I think it was. Hold the thing upside down.

Yeah, yeah. Hold the image upside down. Oh, you literally flip it. There's like Denny's on the wall. Because it's like, why would his hands be up like that? Do you have it? Did you put it in the ceiling? Originally, I was like, that would be so cool. yeah i have some people that uh i don't want touching that okay anyway i would i'd

say no but i have a case that people i like you touch it i was like you got to feel his fingers like there's but upside down on a ceiling is where i would love it but yeah i'm just afraid of yeah it's also from 1983 like it's not he's just hanging on that might shatter as soon as anything yeah yeah does it feel that way because you did have to like handle it to put it in the case so like yeah well i got nervous because it came without the what i learned this week uh the horns of a steer all right those weren't on when i when i picked it up and i was like oh no oh no and i'm like i can't like i don't want to mess i don't want to mess this up this is like this is my child i dropped this i'm dead this is my inspiration yeah it could dissolve in your hand right i could screw it out it could

crack the whole thing like i thought about i was like whoa let me just think if someone came in here right now with a baseball bat and cracked it in half what would i do i know it's just a material item but what would i do and i i just like i i don't i don't think i could move like i think it like has represent i think it just like it represents something so strong to me that it's like i don't know it's your rosebud or something like yeah does it let me ask because so many um so much mixed media used in this attraction and some materials used in the past they didn't know how it would withstand a few decades of time

does it stink? does it smell? this is going to be very funny because it's been since April last year that I have not gained my scent of smell or taste. Oh, no. Oh, my God.

It's a COVID thing. Right, right. It's a COVID thing. Whoa. And it's very funny you say that because I'm like, what if it fucking smells? I would have no idea. Jeez, that sucks. I did.

I was so, you showed it to me i don't think it smelled but i think it had the case on so i couldn't at least it stayed i can smell i just can't tell what it is if that makes sense so if there was an odor yeah i can go i i only asked because i've been at like antique stores or comic conventions or collectibles shops. And I'm like, Oh, this is really cool. It's like from such and such year.

And I'm like, this kind of smells. And I don't think I want it in my house. I know there's the good mildew, which is the ET ride. We know that. That's the good mildew. But I remember this guy,

Joel, that I got it from, which i also realized this is why he does this and i was like thing i was like how do you do why we all want to be able to have all these toys but then getting rid of them what my reaction to him made me go oh i am very excited to be in his shoes someday because i was near tears saying how much this means to me. And I was like, where did you keep this? He's like, oh, in storage spaces. Like, I know some of this stuff I've never even seen.

Now, that part definitely I didn't like because I was like, all right, that's too much money but i guarantee you that thing has been around like crap yeah and rainy storage unit but no it was well kept but that is a really good question i just get a ridge i got an original splash mountain watch wow or their opening day splash mountain one oh yeah you should with that like where it like, the comic kind of font instead of, like, the folksy Critter Country font? But that wasn't in, that one might smell. It is interesting. Well, you blame, whatever.

I just love that question, because we don't think about that when we look at something so perfect in our mind of like this animatronic of Dream Finder. Right. Oh, that mustache glued on probably fucking reeks again. Oh, you're right. Yeah, yeah.

And then failed fog experiments made like bad, shitty old fog soaking the mustache that probably never came out of it. It's like lead covered in lead paint. How many of those old animatronics had hydraulic fluid going through them? Oh, yeah. Leaning all over it. That would occasionally explode out of them.

And make it look like they were bleeding. Or they had a big open wound. Now, do we think we have to have this conversation, but with what I said about Captain Andy at the top, why they had to shut it down, do you think there were too many figments like how can you take figment off the ride i what do you think it was i think there was an unfocused it will be cooler and the new i think they were trying to shake money out of kodak and they did but not enough to do something good and i think kodak in some unfocused manner of like this silly cartoon character is not the modern cutting edge 2000 look kodak will continue for decades to come

it's gonna be a grand 21st century for kodak And we can't have the face of our thing be this silly cartoon. I think it was some odd. Tony also implied, without saying a name, but one of those good little Tony Baxter shots where he's like, this was somebody else's opportunity, the management at the time, to prove that they're creative and they could come up with a different thing. And I don't know if he means, I don't think he means Eisner. Maybe somebody at the parks at that time. I wouldn't know if he means I don't think he means Eisner I probably maybe like

somebody at the parks at that time I wouldn't know where to begin but I think it was that I think it was some like lame sterile late 90s cartoons aren't cool um which you saw at that time so that like acute goes away and earnest goes away and then I think we all kind of reclaim it and want it um but that's my as much as none of that makes any sense i think that's why they they took them away it seems like there was five reasons it's politics it's the new head of something it's sponsor and it's the issues other pavilions at upcott kept losing sponsors so then that would lose a lot of they're like we can't do it again yeah yeah they got rid of the thing that tech probably broke down the most they did as well and they want to make it short they had some sense that like some kind of probably unfocused like

well tower of terror is like a short ride and that's high thrills and so we gotta we are this can't we can't have a big long ride insane insane Insane. Insane that you would cut down. By like 35%, they cut down the ride length. Yeah. It's the strangest thing. Wow. I'm so glad. We're going to mostly put this in its own episode because I thought there'd be some real joy to talking about this with you, Derek. It is.

I love it. The stink of the new one will close the door. It would be better. That smells. Culturally, the new one can we'll close the door it would be better that smells culturally the new ride smell but also wasn't there another honey i shrunk the audience reference that that was another thing yeah they were kind of linking it all together eric idol shows up into that and then they were trying to link in like flubber and then some really old disney movie

computer war tennis shoes i think was referenced very casually. That'll hold them, the kids. They'll love that Computer War Tennis Shoes stuff. I'll say this. As a 14, 15-year-old, I liked all the shared characters showing up in other attractions. I did, yes, yeah. I liked that, and then eventually-

I like that Professor Brainerd won the won the inventor of the year award in the past it's the only thing i like about any of this i i i don't hate the third version as much as some people where they put a bunch of figments back in yeah because there's at least a bunch of figments but if i look at it in the context of like, oh, and this replaced this. Oh, I despise it. Yeah, of course. The fact that you went on it, because we didn't go on it

when we were down there a couple months ago. Oh, yeah. I don't think I would. I don't think I want to go on this new one ever again. Figment or no figment. Yeah, it's just, I don't know. But you're right. You got to keep it alive.

Because if you don't go, it's dead. It's like, all right, it won't be the same, but we've got to make a movie. No one goes there. That's the only way. Well, as development things come and go, the last anybody heard about any of this, Seth Rogen and his company had the rights to a figment thing. I have zero clue. Maybe somebody listening knows where that's at or if it's already not happening but that's

like okay well there's a name that would you know uh do something cool that probably yeah a question i've i've seen the question of like figment maybe there's hope for more figment is dream finder dead is dream finder gone forever because i don't know i think they can recontextualize like and you could do them with you could do figment with new animation. It doesn't feel like culturally here in the 2020s that we're after like, why hello there? But I want it. That's all I want. Me too.

We've talked about, though, the comic a couple years ago that they put out with Hot Young Dream Finder. And it starts in 1901, right? Something like that. I'm not saying we have to use that canon, but I'm just saying, look, I'll take Hot Young Dream Finder if that's the option on the table. I think also, too, people always fantasize of like, well, they should rebuild Horizons.

They should rebuild this. And it's like, that's never going to happen. I don't know. But Horizons is a whole other building. This, they have, it's the vehicle. That's what I was going to say. It's like, you could reboot this. Yeah.

This hasn't changed much in function, like in grand schematics. I mean, it's changed, certainly. And Imageworks taken away is just a DV dvc club lounge now i think upstairs um some amount of it but not as much as it used to be but like this and then this was always getting like the rumors were like oh it's gonna be like phineas and ferb meet figman and teach about imagination right now i've never heard that in my life that's crazy we're going the 10 15 years ago at this point but like um inside out was floated i've caught that and i've come to really like inside out it's been on the ass a lot i would accept and and figment

there's a picture of figment in the movie uh uh with uh bing bong there's a show there they hit a little figment easter egg so clearly they uh bing bong there's a shot there they hit a little figment easter egg so clearly they're like there's thought about tying those things together somehow story four although i couldn't find the image but it said figments in toy story four so yeah whoa i don't know about that one wow wow yeah so our people seem like real parks people yeah yeah definitely there's other marks references and inside out to a mission breakout figment oh that's right oh yeah you see him in the yeah have you seen him in the Guardians line oh yeah in there yeah yeah yeah he's in a cage like yeah they speak pals yeah I frozen like

is that the idea that he's frozen I don't know what is it can he does you know I don't think he is frozen because the Guardians are not frozen when they're in their things. So he's probably in there, he's being tortured now. He's got no air. Oh, he's in pain. Zapping him? Yeah, Figment is in the Guardians' ride and he's hurt. Do you guys, sorry, this feels like I'm on drugs, I'm not,

but Flight of the Navigator, this just came to my head. There's some little critter that's on that spaceship. When you were saying that, I was picturing this little, like, it's not a dinosaur. It's like a little, like, and I just remember, like, I think I connected that to figment. Who is that? Okay, I know there's the polar bear. You're not talking about the robot. Not the robot.

You're talking about this thing. It's like a little, like, um. This thing. Yeah. What is he? Okay, I know there's the pole. You're not talking about the robot. Not the robot. This thing. There was like a little like. This thing. What is he? He's a lot like Captain EO's pals too. That all kind of ties together. What is his name? Do we know his name?

Little Critters, I think we're all prepped for a Little Critter Renaissance. Yeah. I mean, I don't think anyone's gonna object to that. But do you remember that Figment is an alligator it's an alligator mouth

with horns as a steer like that I never knew until research came out it's an alligator mouth that seems like one of the things there's so many pieces in the set which by the way hearing tony baxter talk about it there's like stuff they didn't get in there from like running out of

time running out of money he's like i wanted this effect like he was still in 2015 going like i would redo this part if i could do it again or it's like this would have been even better if this worked 100 he's like why did they not just update this put in the digital age because all these things could have been done with current projection and not instead of just ripping it out coldly i really cannot find the name of this critter it's okay i just was like oh i think all the critters like you're saying look the same there was a real style of critter all these mid-80s things uh um goblins should we i feel like we're sort of like on the way up but do we want to shout out anything

else like in the in terms of that stuff like the details to note in this right anything where it's like we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about this or that in this right gosh there's like the song itself you're saying

steer like I didn't I didn't realize that. I guess I've heard that, but yeah, he's got like horns of a steer. Two tiny wings. Wait, do I? Oh, wait, I have his beard. Let's just. But what fellow? What is it?

But a lovable fellow. But a lovable fellow. Let's hear it. Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Eyes big and yellow. Horns of a steer. But a lovable fellow. Yeah, thank you, thank you. I feel like they're trying. Not quite. I'll throw in a dash of childish delight.

Look, figure. Oh, jeez. I feel like they're trying to tell you, like, yeah, look, he may look like he's a demon from hell, but don't worry about it. He's friendly. He's nice. Because they're saying he's got the horns of a steer, but he's a lovable. Don't worry about it. Don't worry.

Because the butt is, I think, yeah, I think butt is the word butt in there. It means like, yeah, he's got horns, but don't worry. He's good. He's fine. He's not the devil. He's not the devil. He's not a freak. Don't throw sodas at him.

Yeah, yeah. But things do get scary, not just while I'm playing clips. I have zero memory of the scary mystery part. And this is nuts, this part. What chilling words, like shriek or killer, can spark the mind to start a thriller? And some more sparks, like dagger blood and glory, and then a mystery story. Yeah, I loved it. I love that oh my god yeah killer they say in this ride and blood it's an organ but again it's it's not keys it's letters it's like a typewriter right yeah that's a hell of a piece that's really cool and then everything you pass figment with the

blocks the change cat to bat, the raven. There's scary animation. That's like the Tony, like, Claude Coates influence, which he was the one. Oh, Snow White scary. But, like, Snow White scary adventure. Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But even, like, when you're going up the hill on Splash Mountain, you're like, this is scary.

Like, he's making sure he's got a little piece in there that's scary. Because that is the fun, I think, of being a kid and conquering something that feels scary and then you're out and then you're out and then it feels like you accomplish it really feels like you did something there like you really went through something if there was a little period of like extreme uncomfortableness sure why are the bats there at the end of the pirates i always was like why are you there at the pirates ride yeah at the end of the pirates i always was like why are you there at the pirates ride yeah the end of the pirates like those are bad about the bats wait well i'm just thinking about your point like the like surviving something i was like yeah but then the ride's over like i guess you get a little

like well pirates has a weird you're talking about disneyland pirates yeah pirates has kind of a weird like lingering part after the scariest part. Right. Dead space outro. Because, yeah, the whole thing's on fire. The pirates have destroyed the town. And then you're getting in the middle of a gunfight, but it still feels like you're going so slow and you're going up.

It just feels like you're really easing back into reality versus like, oh, my God, we got out. So there's scary elements after the town has been burned down but i feel like they didn't well what's the is it the uh paris one that like the drop is at the end i think so yeah because like they correct tony they corrected what corrected quote unquote like the problem in the sense that like well the end should probably be the drop but this one wasn't scary until just they were all i think that's the middle of the ride yeah yeah this wasn't like the climax yeah yeah no and then this is where it goes to him like in a little dressing room in a toxin dales a brand new show showmanship i did i did think of you i was like you you took

the words out of my mouth this must have been adjacent the idea of like putting out like a little vaudeville putting on a show yeah in ep. In Epcot and especially in MGM Studios. They were like, it's time to put on a show. Show must go on. Time to put on a show. Tales and top half. Yeah. This is like, especially at that time, the only part of Epcot that has any of that like

razzle dazzle. Yes. Because everything else is so much more like we're teaching you about things. Right. And concepts and history and whatever. It's kind of the only, it's like we're teaching you about things and concepts and history and whatever it's kind of the only it's like where all the sweetness yeah the thing that they ripped out especially like the the birth of figment moment and the whimsical machine they they took out the the only like real kid lightness in original epcot i think yeah and it's also they took like i mean the ride's still there but like they took out and i forget i'm going to put this in the in the like shittiest way because i can't remember

exactly what people were saying but they're like all the other things we were trying to teach people about we also wanted to have something that said like well this is like imaginations where all of that stuff comes from like the imagination pavilion is where we kind of try to explain to people that we cannot have any inventions without somebody coming up with something in a creative way so then you got that and then the whole thing is kind of lost because you get like the engine of it is gone it's like it sucks kind of like cynical 90s like sarcasm yes exactly for that like really unpleasant unpleasant era that we talk about where it was like, yeah, there's energy. Oh, this is out of date 10 years later.

Yeah. And it's like, obviously, the rides aren't there. The only spaceship ever was there, so I guess it doesn't matter anymore. But at the time, it's like, oh, yeah, that's kind of like lesson number one for explaining how somebody comes up with an idea or somebody comes up with inventions and stuff and learns about science, whatever. They have a theory. They have an idea. And now that's all gone. That's done.

So it's like the park has never truly – are we calling this the heart of Epcot Center? Especially after I heard that, yeah. And it hasn't had its heart since 1998? Yes, that's what I thought now. I think so too and i was just thinking like do you like figment is the logo the mascot in my head yeah of the park but who is the mascot and would that have been a problem that mickey was you know like that there's a different mascot at epcot than there is. Would that be?

I'm just very confused why you get rid of someone so likable and loved. They tried to make them all live together. You can find art of like, here's Mickey and Minnie and Figment, all as equals hanging out. And then you wouldn't buy mouse ears at Epcot. You would buy a Figment hat where his beak is the brim yeah those are cool as hell i'd like yeah those yeah um it's interesting when epcot oop it opened with such uh confidence and a mission statement and i feel like it encountered what is now a very modern problem

which is like it's not making money hand over fist immediately. Like, it's not making, like, Avengers Endgame opening weekend, you know, midnight preview. Like, so quickly they seemed like they got very insecure at Epcot. I mean, you get the living seas, but how quickly do you, like, all right, put a bunch of Sega games and Barbie in there for these stupid children. These children are stupid, but we

need their money. And then Figment's like, everyone's imagining. It's working. Children are smart. The only thing in their defense is that Epcot did cost a ton of money, and it didn't do well

at all, and the rest of the company was right before Eisner. And the movies aren't good. That's a real part of the magic, too. Looking at these nice little Figment animated pieces that are from 83, a totally dark time for the company where the animated films aren't good. And the feature other than like Tron is cool. It's a weird, grim time.

And then through it all like the one the beacon of light is figment yes and he's still like they're still trying to have their cake and eat it too because like all the popcorn buckets they sell and people go nuts for it yeah and they just had like debuted a new character spot where you take photos with them and people going nuts for it like and he keeps falling has he stopped falling down i mean those are so there was a famous fall like it's been more than once did it have more than one yeah i don't think they gotta they work on the eyes he's not meant to be tall it's weird he's really tall he reminds you know a part of me last night going like where do i think it also i was like je, Jeffrey, Toys R Us. I was like, there was a little bit of Jeffrey in Urban Vice Versa, right?

We haven't done that episode. We never talked about Jeffrey. We have not talked about Jeffrey. File that one. We need that, yeah. There's a restored ride through and all around pavilion. And they get some of Walk Around dream finder and puppet figment and there's a he's doing a really funny bit where figment keeps knocking kids hats off like he just

keeps biting onto the hat and throwing it away and everyone's having so much fun um one day we haven't said ron schneider Who was the one in the park? Yeah, walk around Dream Finder. Right. For a lot of stuff. Yes. So he's doing the walk around and doing the puppeting. And Figment would not talk.

That was one confusing thing. When he was out in the A.O. They didn't do a ventriloquist thing. There was some specific calculation of why. That's maybe the only bad thing about that. There's a great clip on the today show of brian gumbel talking to dream finder and figment and it is weird that figment's not saying anything yeah because brian's just like oh well what do you do oh you have imagination here well what about your friend here but he also says he's my right he's my right hand

man and he's on his left and i was like I guess he forgot they had to move over for the camera that's either an oversight or a great joke yeah that's yeah that's a good point a little more clearly

if they really want to get people excited I feel like this is a figment costume but like bringing back the puppeted dreamer they have the small things

they do like baby Groot and stuff and I'm like that is the ultimate if he's just a smaller little puppet character and you go up next to a table. They're doing Zootopia stuff. Have you seen that thing they wheeled out on stage for Zootopia?

The puppets that they're laying down? I don't know if it's a puppet, though. There's a character that can kind of climb up. It's a free roaming animatronic. It's really wild. Now, I don't know if they're're gonna put the money into figment for that but still i'm they have little things you can take pictures with parkour i want figment i would love figment to do parkour they should have like a spot too like mickey's a magician and you go in

and you meet him in his dressing room before the show wow i would love that you know i just thought you know i think dream catcher and figment are just walt and mickey like i know that they had said like dream finder had like walt inspiration um it's impossible for any character there not to but i'm like oh it's that relationship that it's like i don't know yeah the creator and the creation he's like really he's got the spirit and the childlike wonder and and then yeah if we could bring it back all it takes is as long as they're making money i hate we hate the reality of that yeah it's like if that's not making money they have to get rid of it and that really bums me out what do we what do they do is there a way to keep dream findinder and not have to meld it into Inside Out?

No. I mean, just the way the company is. I will accept an Inside Out. I like Inside Out. I think the spirit does combine with Figment decently. I'm not against that, but I would miss, at least just have, can Dream Finder be outside? He doesn't need, I don't need the flying machine back. I know that's hard to do, but can he be outside?

And then if Figment needs to go meet anger and sadness in the ride, that's okay. I like them. But they should pony up for the real cast like they didn't do for the movie, but for the sequel. Dreamliner and Figment send Bing Bong to hell. Like, thank you. Not every idea is a good idea. You've been outgrown. Here's an idea of fire.

I don't know. I don't know why they don't do more like photo op stuff that's like a little bit more like elevated, like a Halloween Horror Nights maze. Just like give me like a little rainbow tunnel that leads to just a kind of a dream, whatever catcher, whatever the name of his vehicle is, with a guy in a puppet. Like, I just like, that doesn't feel like it would cost more than, I'm going to say 50 grand. I don't know what it technically costs to build anything. Add a damn hashtag above dream, you know, like, just do the dumb wings that people would get their picture.

Oh, yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, you would be, I don't know. It makes me so sad knowing there's so much unused space in there. Yes, yeah. That is a big empty box, that pavilion. Yeah, yes. It still looks as good as it did.

It hasn't been decimated like other Epcot things. It's breaking Dream Finder and the original figment's heart that they have not imagined what. I don't know. We betrayed them. We betrayed what they taught us. Right. I know.

We got to bring them back. Fuck. This is like 50th down the list of things they need. On the internal list, I bet, of stuff disney needs to do this is so far down the list it's just making me sad about it i feel like they keep it they'll do these d23s they were it's like they're trying to hurt our feelings they're going they'll say at the like and it makes us think about what's going to happen tomorrow and then they tell us nothing about tomorrowland and then like we didn't do it just took six a little bit of imagination right never

goes nothing yes and then they're like well we got a new character like suit there's a new suit Tomorrowland. And then we just took a little bit of imagination. Right, never goes nuts. And then they're like, well, we got a new suit. There's a new suit we bought for Figment. And you're like, but no, we wanted to ride. Yeah. That's the twisted thing about all of this, is they know exactly what that crowd wants, and then they will give them just the littlest

crumb. And the people there are excited and they want to be excited because it's fun to be in a big room like that talking about something you like. Everybody freaks out about the crumb. Everybody lines up for six hours for a food bucket. Scott, I've been in these rooms, and you get worked up in a lather by these charismatic, handsome people that do these presentations.

Daddies do these presentations. And, yes, you want to cheer for things that people say on stage, even if after the fact you come out of a haze and you're like, wait a minute, that wasn't... What was that? Oh, we got a suit. There's a new suit for Figment. That wasn't a ride. So you want to be... They're having fun in the moment, but

yes, if you're watching on a live stream, you go, oh, fuck. This sucks. Come on. If you weren't there. Yeah, yeah. Derek, are you then cynical about the idea? Do you think this is just going to... Will they just operate this cruddy version of the ride, or will they close it?

Or do you hold on to any hope of the possibility that they fix what's wrong? I always have hope, and I think it's always who is running the company at the time. And all I can say is that we should pray for the next one in line grew up when we did. Oh, totally. I really think that would be the way it's going to happen. Unfortunately, it's like someone else has this.

A lot of people have the same nostalgia. We do. Just hopefully the next one in line is like yeah this is why it's important for things to age down and for not for all of our leaders and cultural leaders and big figures to all be uh 70 years old and older yeah so that we just get somebody of a couple generations down who knows it's important to bring back figment. No, it's always got to be very old politicians. Bob Iger's got to come back to Disney. Jon Stewart's got to come back to The Daily Show.

Everything old is new again. Old is the new new. What about Jason being the CEO of Disney? Oh, boy. Jason for CEO. Start peeling out the floorboards, huh? Oh, you want to make some money? Well, let's sell some of this copper wire in the walls. We don't need all this, you know? Oh, you want to make some money? Well, let's sell some of this copper wire in the walls.

We don't need all this, you know? How many activist investors would be coming at you in the first six months of your tenure? How many Nelson Peltzes would be coming at you? Nelson Peltz. I wondered when you'd show up. You're dressed as the Dream Finder in a boardroom meeting. That's my CEO suit, you see.

Oh, hello there. Would you like a generic seltzer? We've gotten off name brands here. Buy in bulk at Costco. We put the money back into the park. Jason is the cheapest CEO Disney ever had. He's like, we have to save a dollar. Don't you understand?

Do you want imagination back or do you not? You're on the stage. I've got to do a shift in the park. I'm helping out. I'm being Dream Finder and the figment puppet. There's just humans on the ride acting now. No robots. It's cheaper, you see.

And I'm flying southwest. I walk the walk and talk the talk. Until the boys build me a dream machine to fly where I need to be, I'll go in a plane. Look, hey, don't lose hope in imagination, Scott. Dream finder and figment want you to hold on to it. You're right. And that's probably the easiest for Derek to remember

because you get to see our pal every day if you want to. And have you been inspired by him? Do you look in those yellow eyes and feel like you're defending Conjure Dreams? Oh, yeah, yeah. And also defending the question, so what the fuck is that? Well, amen. the question so what the fuck is that it's either well amen that's our whole lives as theme park fans isn't it yeah it's that thing that like yeah he inspires me i'm you know also was thinking like when we're talking about figment i get in my head a lot of going like, all right, so we saw that at a specific age. There is something at Epcot right now that is hitting that same age for someone, you know? And so that's what

I really hope for is that if it's not figment, there's something there that's hitting childhood imagination to like that, that is so educational and crucial to people like us that you're you you kind of know about it but i don't i don't feel like it's embraced of like what what did you just say like the worst thing you can ever hear as an adult or a child is like where do you come up with this stuff fuck you my imagination and creativity is sometimes looked down upon you know and i think that's for any enjoyment in like a conservative world of like hey look at these things that can happen if you use your brain and not just like you know or i should say using your heart over your brain i just i just think there's so much to think about and more than we know why we like it that it like allowed us to feel like oh to be creative and to yeah to be accepted i think

there's a lot yeah like i think or maybe it's tim burton who's talking about kids i've said this before on the show where kids like second graders or first graders will say something like i'm not good at drawing which in hindsight i remember the kids would always say say something like i'm not good at drawing which in hindsight i remember the kids would always say that in school i'm not good at drawing you're like wait a minute those are first graders of course you're not good at drawing like yeah yeah you're like like there's already a roadblock for certain kids as far as arts are concerned yeah and it is probably pretty important to have things because if they're not getting a support from family or whatever it's good to have some things in the world like that where you're like,

you just be creative. There's no, you don't have to be self-conscious about it. But I remember that all the time. Cause like I like to draw and I was okay at it. And then kids would be like, Oh, you're good at drawing.

I'm not. And I remember being like, yes, that's correct. I am good. And you're not, but, but like not in a weird way.

I just remember like, well, obviously like I'm the one who's good at drawing, but we're in second or third grade. Yeah. And I wasn't that good at drawing, but in hindsight, you're like, well, obviously, I'm the one who's good at drawing, but we're in second or third grade. It's insane. So there shouldn't be good or bad. And I wasn't that good at drawing. But in hindsight, you're like, oh, that is bizarre.

That is a really weird roadblock that kids have in their mind. I'm sure it's about any creative thing, music or whatever. Wow. So we got to tap into the spirit. I mean, it makes me, now I'm like, how can I reflect this into my kid? Sure. Like, watch it. Like, let him just, because, boy, yeah, you see it every day.

There's this imaginative spirit that is so strong that doesn't have confines on it yet. And, yeah, it's good. I'm not going to use that mean voice like you use, Derek. Just say, what did you come up with that? Wait, what mean voice? No, the way your character. Yeah, yeah, you portrayed a person who was, like,

judgmental of creativity. Oh, right, right. No, the way your character. Yeah, you portrayed a person who was like judgmental of creativity. Oh, right. Magic, go on with it. But I also think taking your son on the ride would be good for both of you because that's what he's going to remember. Sure. That's true. And it will change your feeling on not liking it because he's going to see something that you didn't, you know,

and be like, oh, wow, I like when Figment did that, you know? Yeah, it's true. Well, you gotta get, if you can't have the perfect Figment, you gotta go with the Figment you have. I completely agree. And then when he's, you know, 16, 17, you sit him down, you have the talk, and you say, you know that ride you like?

The ride is not as good as it used to be. I know you like it. And you have a beautiful message. I have to show you this Pruder film of the old ride And you'll never get to experience this That's the talk We'll gear up for it

That's the big talk It is so nice to just deal with the good times And everything you Everything broader you tied it into Derek is wonderful and I'm very happy to say Derek Waters you survived podcast the ride with the good times and everything you you everything broader you tied it into derrick is wonderful and i'm very happy to say derrick waters you survived podcast the ride i'm so excited man i want the shirt to have you the photo that we can't offer a shirt the photo you can't buy i thought we should do like a if we we need to like set up the photo booth or something i know

so much stuff we should have done in the last six or seven years you guys are making the best content that's all you have to do don't worry thank you thank you thank you that's so nice I know so much stuff we should have done You guys are making the best content That's all you have to do Thank you That's so nice You've made a lot of wonderful content yourself Let's exit to the gift shop Is there anything you'd like to plug

Oh just this show I'm good Hopefully soon Just pitching shows That creativity Imagination Got a couple sparks Got a god damn bonfire going on over here Oh yeah, on the way That creativity, that imagination Has been wandering Got a couple sparks, got a god damn bonfire

Going on over here Actually not the fire Just a bunch of sparks But we know now What that turns into Oh boy, well can't wait For it to become the bonfire And as for us

You can find us on the socials at podcast the ride merch is available in our t public store for three bonus episodes every month check out podcast the ride the second gate or get one more bonus episode on our vip tier club three you'll find all of that at patreon.com slash podcast the ride and derek hey when you go home tonight just uh if you see figment just just say Mike, Scott, and Jason say hi. I will. And then you guys come over and tell me if he smells like shit. Forever.

Dog. This has been a Forever Dog production. Executive produced by Mike Carlson, Jason Sheridan, Scott Gairdner, Brett Boehm, Joe Cilio, and Alex Ramsey. For more original podcasts, please visit foreverdogpodcasts.com and subscribe to our shows

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