No characters at Epcot early on

[Big Disney Fan]

Believe it or not, while the Disney characters do appear in all the parks, there actually was a time when, at the time of Epcot's opening in 1982, they did not have any Disney characters in that park at all, on the grounds that they clashed with the serious, scientific identity of that park, that it and the Magic Kingdom were two separate, distinct parks and that any characters that inhabited them should also be separate and distinct. Thus, Mickey and the gang were to be only in the Magic Kingdom and nowhere else. This was partially the reason why Epcot received such classics as Figment and Dreamfinder, as well as the short-lived Children of the World that appeared in World Showcase. But there were no familiar characters in Epcot as people knew them. Oh, Mickey did show up for the opening day of Epcot, but after that, neither he nor anyone else was seen there for two years! But as with Pirates of the Caribbean not being included at the Magic Kingdom early on, guests complained about the lack of any familiar characters.

By the time the aforementioned two years had passed, Michael Eisner had moved in and demanded that the familiar characters be added to the park, and the designers, who really wanted the characters to be restricted to the Magic Kingdom, gritted their teeth and let the characters come in. Mickey and the gang would be dressed in very '80s spacesuits in Future World and various international garb in World Showcase, such as kimonos, lederhosen and sombreros, depending on the pavilion in question.

They sure learned their lesson about barring classic Disney characters from any park simply because of that park's identity and theme, didn't they?