Credit: DisneyThere are several Disney attractions that appear in various forms across several Disney Parks, both national and international. Perhaps the most iconic is “it’s a small world” or Haunted Mansion. However, back in the 1990s and early 2000s, there was another attraction that had some iteration at four of the Disney Parks.
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience first appeared in Walt Disney World at EPCOT in 1994. It was located in the Imagination Pavilion, replacing Captain EO and eventually being replaced by the expansion of Journey Into Imagination With Figment and the Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival. The ride was based on the popular franchise, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989).
Using 3-D goggles, riders would enter the theater under the premise of seeing professor Wayne Szalinski, the father from the films, receive the Inventor of the Year Award. However, things go awry, and he ends up shrinking the entire audience. Technically, the ride operated as more of a 4-D attraction as the seats moved the audience, simulating various movements and moments during the show.
Due to the success of the attraction, other Disney Parks soon followed suit. A version of the ride opened in Tokyo Disneyland in 1997, with Disneyland’s opening in 1998, and Disneyland Paris opening theirs in 1999. Each version of the ride replaced the Captain EO attraction within each Park, and lasted until 2010. After Michael Jackson died in 2009, each Park replaced Honey, I Shrunk the Audience with a limited tribute run of the Captain EO experience, making it the only attraction in Disney history that was replaced by the same attraction it had previously replaced.
EPCOT Guests can still see a hint of the old attraction in Journey Into Imagination With Figment as Professor Szalinksi is seen on one of the walls in the queue area, along with Professor Phillip Brainard who created Flubber, and Dr. Nigel Channing who’s now a main character in the current iteration of Figment.
Honey, I Shrunk the Audience still holds a soft spot in many Guests’ hearts. Given the success of the original films and Disney’s latest trend of rebooting their films, it’s possible Guests could see the attraction make a comeback over the next several years.
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