The Wonderful World of Motion

A Wonderful World of Motion

One of the original rides that opened with Epcot was the World of Motion, a GM sponsored ride/advertisement that centered around the history of transportation.

I realize that many of you probably don't want me to ramble on about the ride or its after ride shows any, but I am going to anyway.
As you walked up to the building, the first thing that you noticed was the outdoor portion of the ride extending up and around a center column above the entryway.

Once inside, you began your trek to discover the many forms of transportation that people have used over time. One of the first scenes that I remember in particular was the scene in which the Egyptian emperor is turning away those that have designed faulty wheels, and is welcoming the one with the round circular wheel that he had just invented.

The reason why I remember this part of the ride is because the emperor here spoke egyptian, and it was the first audio animatronic figure I had ever seen that spoke anything but English. It may seem as nothing to many of you, but when I was young, I for some reason, was impressed at how they got this figure to speak a different language. Now, as I am older I realize that it doesn't matter what language they speak, and in all actuality it doesn't even matter if what they say matches their lip movement since it is simply a track playing in the background. But as a kid, I was impressed.
There were also many other enjoyable scenes in the ride, such as the scene below with the Mona Lisa.

It was later that it struck me why this painter would be included in a ride about transportation. DaVinci was also an inventor, and was responsible for some of the wildest ideas for air flight and ground travel. It was his imagination that in some ways sparked other inventors to bring some of his creations to life.
There was also a humorous scene on the high seas involving a sea dragon.

As well as a scene involving a crash of two trucks.

This scene was probably the most impressive of the ride, since it involved the interaction of many animatronic characters in order to work well. It was particularly effective at being humorous, especially since the horse refused to budge.
Another humorous scene involved a bank robbery on a train.

The reason why this was so humorous was because the expression on the characters faces were very well done.

The architecture of the building is particularly impressive (thank God they didn't tear it down to make Test Track). I would rank it as being second only to Horizons. Actually, all of the architecture in the park is glorious, and that is the reason why Epcot remains my favorite of the parks to this day.

Once the ride finished, you were given one final view of the future as your ride car became a futuristic car you saw yourself in while looking at a mirror. This effect was accomplished via the same system as the Haunted Mansion, when the ghost rides with you in your doom buggy.
You were then let off in the final area of the ride, the post show, where you saw demonstrations of current and future automotive technology.

In addition to this the ride had two final shows, Bird and Robot and a show on future energy alternatives. Both shows were extremely humorous and very well done, and almost nobody ever stopped to see them. I remember the first time I saw Bird and Robot, I was impressed by the robots movement as he picked up donuts and played bells. What made it humorous was the robots responses to Bird's quips. The energy show was also very well done, and involved an animated movie shown on about seven screens, with different characters telling you about future energy alternatives. It was their interactions that made the film humorous.