Defunctland: Walt Disney’s City of the Future, E.P.C.O.T.
Walt Disney made ambitious plans for a City of Tomorrow named E.P.C.O.T. just before his death in 1966, but the plans were soon abandoned. What were Walt’s ideas for his city of the future, what happened to the project, and would it have worked?
Major Sources:
Walt Disney and the Quest for Community by Steve Mannheim
https://amzn.to/2GVS6XM
Walt Disney and the Promise of Progress City by Sam Gennawey
https://amzn.to/34RG2ih
The Original E.P.C.O.T. Project by Sebastien Barthe, Jeff Williams, and Paul Williams
https://bit.ly/2SQnaLg
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@retsa
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
rest in piece walt disney, you would have loved to be a feudal lord
@btrplay
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
26:30 Teenagers (of all ages) assessing each other? Walt predicted Reddit.
@KennethKrueger-p4i
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
A genius…he sold it to children knowing the parents would have to pay for it.
@VishalDudhani
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Alec sent me down this 🐇 hole….😅
@monono954
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
"At the time I4 was under construction & still is today." Lmao
@Sam-Witch621
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
"There will be no retirees"
oh so he was THAT capitalist huh?
@lcampm2
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Here is something similar😂: Overview
Inside Disney's luxury Cotino community in the Coachella …
Cotino is the first Storyliving by Disney residential community, located in Rancho Mirage, CA, near Palm Springs, with the first residents having moved in by late 2025. Designed for all ages, including a 55+ section, the 618-acre development will feature up to 1,900 homes, featuring a 24-acre lagoon, club amenities, and a design aesthetic inspired by Walt Disney's former desert retreat
@joehopfield
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
pullman and fordlandia about racist exploitation, violence and murder.
@ckobersteen
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
6:22 walt saying all that like our childhoods weren’t all affected by what happened to bambi’s mom which he was DEFINITELY around for
@DimitriBitu-x1x
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
me as an architect and urbanist seeing mistakes every 10 seconds
@percebus
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
This is my 3rd watch throughout like 9 years. And every time I watch it I become a better person. There is so much wisdom in this story, that you have to have gone through things for it to click
@Crosroad
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
"why would I run for mayor, I am already king" god damn
@watches-on-FF
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
AN RKO RADIO PRODUCTION hahahaha
@ShahroozSmith
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
The most scary part about all this for me is the fact that I can actually see the reasoning behind Walt's ideas for creating EPCOT. I can understand some of the ideas and some of them like the underground tunnel road system is actually genius; like a subway system but for actual cars and trucks to cutdown on traffic… [except the teenager section… ] but at the same time I could hear the warning bells going off in my mind that this man wants to have control over everything down to a person's behavior which is impossible… but that's not what scares me about all this.
What scares me the most is that I don't sense any ill-will or intention of evil behind Walt's goal. He isn't a power hungry megalomaniac or wants to see himself as some emperor. He just wants to do something good for the world… I was almost convinced to get behind his idea despite how insane it sounds because anyone could get behind it, but at the risk of giving up free will to think and act because he decides everything… even when he was on his death bed saying where he wants to put a park bench where his wife would watch the people walk by made feel bad for Walt.
…It's this sickening conflicted feeling of loss and dread that I can't describe of a dying man's ambition to do good for the world.
@Sizzolsongs
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
I remember reading about this in a florida travel guide a few weeks ago. didnt know the lore ran this deep.
@juliethebardicprincess
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Around two and a half years ago, my best friend and I joined a campaign inspired by the history of Epcot and Disney which used a TTRPG system based on JoJo's Bizarre Adventure and Shin Megami Tensei Persona, "Eidolon: Become Your Best Self".
The game was set in an alternare history where a Walt Disney expy named Baltimore Bisney(many of the movies and characters were changed slightly as well – Mickey Mouse was instead Oliver Owl) made Epcot in a place of supernatural significance, only for one of his closest business partners, who we the players only knew as McArthur, betrayed him and effectively took over the city.
My friend's character was named Charlie Denith, and his Eidolon(the Stands/Personas of the system) was a Vanguard(the RPG class, Vanguards are your typical punchy punchy Stands. Most Personas are Vanguards) named Sir Lancelot, which eventually became Sir Galahad, who obliterates his enemies with his sword and holy power.
Another player character was Shepherd(forgot his last name) with the Navigator Eidolon [Fireflies], which could sense people's emotions.
The GM's boyfriend played Vincent Ozwald, who's Beast Eidolon(Beasts are usually animal characters, but Vincent was human) named [Wildside] helped him achieve his Instinctive desire for freedom by letting him turn into animals.
My character was an Inhuman, referred to in Eidolon as Shades – these were like Shadow party members from Persona, like Teddy or Morgana. She was Bisney's forgotten toon, meant to be something of an Oswald expy named Fiona Fox, and her Eidolon [Pretty in Ink] gave her ink manipulation powers. She eventually became human, taking on the name Victoria Voss, and her Eidolon changed classes to Conductor and was renamed to [The Greatest Living Show], which warped reality by invoking toon force.
Our party were the frontrunners of a rebellion, trying to free everyone who'd signed their souls away to McArthur from Epcot.
The campaign ended with Victoria inheriting the company and marrying Charlie, and they had twins. Vincent also married his husband and had two sons, which went unexplained.
A year later, after I ran my own Eidolon campaign, our wonderful previous GM returned for a follow up focused on the characters' kids and based on Gorillaz of all things – Eidolon Epcot 2: Cracker Island.
It was also super fun. :3
I never realized how much he had put into Epcot 1 until now. Bisney's Eidolon was [Feed The Birds] even! This video gave me a newfound appreciation for my GM, fellow player, and new friend's game, and I just wanted to share that story. ^^
@timohaer_tf2
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
American arcadia
@bucksdiaryfan
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
9 month residencies? What a stupid idea. "Hey boss, I'm taking a 9 month sabbatical to live in EPCOT"… it kind of shows that the people were a secondary nuisance to Walt's vision of a world that he could design and control
@watermxrk
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Imagine what he could’ve done with the internet and AI truly a visionary genius
@euboy6
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
gorgle what is the difference bwteen disney land and disnkey wold
@euboy6
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
google city of tormotow
@jasonk795
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Sounds like a Nazi.
@LieutenantColumboLAPDD
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
25:09 Imagine mickey mouse coming to tell you you have an incurable disease.
@s.p.1434
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
So an out of touch, racist, nazi-sympathizing rich white man, surrounded by 'yes men', who idolized Capitalists wanted to create a fiefdom where he essentially had complete authoritarian control and dreamed of creating a utopia for white folk with zero thought about the actual logistics or experience as to how to actually make or run a city. And he misunderstood the cause for all of his frustrations with other cities, AND it was all enabled in a Republican state. And it failed?
Gee, I wonder why?
@alexjang1661
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Self sufficient homes but multiple golf courses?? I fear king did not take a single sustainability class
@Lolwrecked
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Among other issues… you mean his burning antisemitism and what not
@Nathan_Tanner
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Walt Disney is truly a citizen Kane.
@BrendanJSmith
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Walt Disney’s last spoken words are still a mystery, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they were just “Epcot”, as depicted in this video.
@lithigos
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Any good artist will know that limitation is not the enemy of creativity or ambition.
@GALAXY-o4r
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
15:41
@VisualTedium
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Start the video with an annoying sound, smart
@jasonroach4812
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
epcot = disney's animal farm
@sectorzisnumbuhone
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Man. Walt Disney was a mad lad! Great video!
Also, everyone here is making comparisons to Rapture from Bioshock (which is definitely justified lol) and I'm just thinking of American Arcadia, which was directly inspired by EPCOT and the Truman Show. lol
@NuclearAutism
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
So Andrew Ryan is Walt Disney and Rapture is EPCOT.
@dc5592
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
i love your videos and am enjoying watching this rn while i eat my lunch but i wish the subtitles were not auto generated ones :/
@NoReplyAsset
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
40:18 "a chance for American companies to show the world how the problems of traffic and housing could be solved…" ironic, considering the anti-pedestrian attitudes and homelessness in America still prevalent to this day. it's so self-centered. other countries have solved these things. hell, the Soviet Union had eliminated unemployment and built cheap housing for the working class during that time.
@evanschulz7375
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
White flight was and is to escape the behavior of blacks. Their massive influx into the once great northern cities are what destroyed them.
@skibot9974
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
I think Walt Disney might’ve been a communist
@DeinonychusCowboy
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Man this dude was fuckin insane, we should remember him for that
@kamalindsey
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Walt was an extremely ambitious man. It was very hard to move him from his convictions because he had been right so many times. First, people told him that an animation studio could never be a success. Then people told him that an animated feature film would NEVER work in a million years. Both the studio and the movie were massive successes. The movie became the highest-grossing film of all time up until that point, finally beating out "The Birth of a Nation" which had held the spot until then.
People then told him that a theme park would never work. Even if they admitted it might work, they argued it wouldn't work the way he envisioned it. They said he needed to have all these mature elements, or that it couldn't be for families. Once again, he told the naysayers to knock it off, and Disneyland became a huge success.
CalArts is another example. Although it didn't really get made the way he envisioned, the idea itself was still pushed back on by many people internally who saw it as a waste of money and time. Once again, the venture was a great success and became a pipeline for Disney to draw talent from.
Walt's story is really about a man who gets very obsessive about a thing and goes all out, with surrounding people only able to rein in slight aspects of it. He was constantly in conflict with the "business" side of his company, and I kind of include labor relations there as well. He despised and constantly fought anything that was an obstacle to what he wanted to do.
But there are so many things like this where Walt pushed for an ambitious idea and it paid huge dividends for him. So I don't blame him when everyone says "this is insane" and he goes "No, this will be great." But this is where I think the naysayers were obviously correct.
@bennymora3086
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
I would’ve loved to live in EPCOT. I mean, THERE WOULD BE NO CRIME, SLUMS, OR TRAFFIC.
@CogTheBoss
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Wall was such an incredibly ambitious man. Nobody dreams like this anymore. It's all scared and small minded committees of risk-averse nobodies
@SpiderdayNightLive
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
ohhhhhh its City City
@Canoflegumes
February 17, 2026 at 9:15 am
Look, I know we can all agree Walt would have been a tyrant dictator with an iron fist, but his idea with a space for teenagers at 26:20 is kinda way ahead of its time.
Comments are closed.