EPCOT

At my last visit to Disney World, which was my junior year of high school, I found EPCOT to be the most enjoyable of the parks. My favorite ride is an Animal Kingdom, but the "World Showcase" I found so fun. Now, a lot of people can get on board with the racism in some Disney films like Aladdin or even The Lion King (based primarily on the appearance of the villains compared with that of the heroes). I figured there must be more to the Disney racism though, so I thought maybe EPCOT. Maybe there is nothing to this, maybe it is just a cool cultural exhibit that allows people to briefly explore different parts of the world.

The iconic Spaceship Earth sphere at EPCOT

I never knew the original concept for EPCOT though. The concept was that, rather than amusement park, EPCOT would be a real city that pushed forward urban living. It would have real laboratory facilities filled by American corporations called "Industrial Park." According to Wikipedia, "this would stimulate people to return to their own communities and encourage technological growth where they live." This concept clearly never came to be, as after Walt's death they instead made it into a theme park with the two components of "World Showcase" and "Future World." Had it existed though, considering Walt's supremacist tendencies, I feel that it would have turned into a Walt trying to idealize a very specific style of living, probably typical of upper-middle class WASPs. By doing this, it would inherently indicate that other living styles are not as positive. After Walt's death though, despite his brother's best efforts, the EPCOT city did not come to exist.

The overhead original plan for EPCOT

Instead, EPCOT opened as a Disney World theme park with two main sections: Future World and World Showcase. Future World is an attraction featuring technological innovations that imagine the future.  World Showcase is sometimes called a "permanent world's fair" with 11 different areas themed to countries (Mexico, Norway, China, Germany, Italy, United States, Japan, Morocco, France, United Kingdom, and Canada).

Future World

World Showcase from across the lake

At EPCOT, often they have employees actually from the country, with the accent and knowing the language and culture. The French area's restaurants are actually run but a French restaurant group! The water for the dough in the Italy area is imported (some say from Italy, some say from Philadelphia, though). The Canadian stop seems very cool, considering people in America do not generally think about Canadian culture and food (aside from poutine maybe). The head of the Mexican restaurant San Angel Inn is actually one of the owners from the real San Angel Inn in Mexico.

The France Exhibit

Conversely, the Canadian kitchen is run by an American, a lot of the alcoholic beverages offered at the British stop was not from Britain (and apparently it isn't even very good), and the Chinese food is extremely bland and Americanized. Additionally, causing some uproar, the Norway spot is being largely repurposed as a Frozen spectacle. Thus, Disney is commercializing the culture and changing its features just for the purpose of furthering their attractions (I can't blame them for this...). And finally apparently the American station offers terrible food that isn't representative of American food. (All of these reviews are from here.) In Future World, in Spaceship Earth, some of the facts presented just aren't true about human development, but that side of the park isn't worth getting into for now.

The China Exhibit

EPCOT may use stereotypes to create the atmospheres. However, after looking at sources (including this one that compares architecture at EPCOT to the things they are based on), there is a fair deal of accuracy in the architecture, clothing, and food in each stop that it comes off more as an overview of a cultural experience. To me, though, EPCOT seems to be rooted more in the history of the countries, showing colonial American architecture, ancient Mexican civilization's buildings, and in general more traditional, castle-like buildings. Nowadays, a lot of architecture around the world is standardized, especially in the populous urban areas. Some people may not like that EPCOT pulls mostly from the most popular, tourist-y aspects of countries (i.e. the Eiffel Tower or the Leaning Tower of Pisa) rather than the typical, actual culture. I take some issue with this, but it does make for the best attraction and provides a fair amount of education.

The Mexico Exhibit

All of this said, taking into account the positives and negatives, I would say EPCOT is generally a good thing. It provides a generally well-rounded experience all in one place. I think it's pretty funny though that some countries (like Norway) have paid for their country to be displayed at EPCOT. Although it is overall a positive experience, it is wise for people to take into account the negative aspects when visiting.

The America Exhibit