Changes

While an attraction inside the America pavilion had always been a part of the plans for EPCOT Center, its location and design changed frequently during the park's planning. InitiallyAs early as 1976, in there were plans for an American attraction to be one of Epcot's major draw <ref name= "vid">. By the 1978/79 EPCOT Center plans, Imagineers wanted to use the American Adventure pavilion as a bridge between Future World and World Showcase <ref> http://progresscityusa.com/2009/06/27/a-visit-to-epcot-center-1979/ </ref> <Ref name= "Martin"> http://www.martinsvids.net/?p=218 </ref>. The pavilion would have been two stories tall, with the American Adventure attraction located on the building's second floor <Ref name= "allears"> http://allears.net/tp/ep/e_adv.htm </ref>. Eventually however, Imagineers had decided that keeping America apart from the rest of the countries in World Showcase, would seem elitist and thus the whole pavilion was moved to the far side of the World Showcase promenade <ref name= "allears"/>.  Like the pavilion itself, the American Adventure attraction also went through a series of changes. When development began on the attraction, Imagineers knew that they wanted to tell the story of America, but they were not sure how to do it. Six different attraction ideas were disregarded, before the show’s final form was accepted <ref> http://2719hyperion.blogspot.com/2007/01/lost-imagineering-happy-fun-american.html </ref>. Rejected ideas for the American Adventure attraction included:

In order to help set the various scenes which were to be depicted in the American Adventure, Imagineers initally wanted the attraction to have three hosts, with each host representing one With a goal of the centuries creating a theater that America had existed for would be “alive and moving” <ref name= "Korkis"vid1”> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT8dbXhN1G8</ref>. The three men chosen to guide guests through Imagineers eventually came up with the story idea of America were Benjamin Franklin (18th century), Mark Twain (19th century), and Will Rogers (20th century). Although promoted in concept art by Disney using a “Magic Theater” <refname= "mouseplanet"> httphttps://progresscityusawww.mouseplanet.com/page/579905/ Will_Rogers_and_the_American_Adventure </ref>, it . The theater was eventually decided designed so that Will Rogers it would not appear as one of the attraction’s hosts (although he would appear in be able to combine: Audio Animatronic form in the 20th century scene)Animatronics, video, audio, leaving the duo of Franklin and Twain as moving sets to tell the sole narrators. This decision was made after Disney discovered that only 5 out story of every 150 college students knew who Will Rogers was America <ref name= "mouseplanet"/> and they could not come to a consensus on a replacement. Randy Bright later contemplated that the events of the 20th Century were too current to properly find a representative for <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>

With the infrastructure and form of the attraction now settled on, Randy Bright and his team set about writing the shows script. Early on, Bright proposed the idea of focusing on “dreamers and doers”, a theme that would guide the show's development <ref name="vid2”> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8WTTQzuDZge</ref>. Bright and professor of history at UCLA D. Allen Yarnell would meet late at night at Imagineering to work on the show. One of the concepts that they took into account was the overcoming of adversity, while also not wanting to whitewashing the country's history <ref name="vid2”/>. Bright also noted that the show focused on a series of individuals using their own words.  In order to help set the various scenes which were to be depicted in the American Adventure, Imagineers initially wanted the attraction to have three hosts, with each host representing one of the centuries that America had existed for <ref name= "Korkis"/>. The three men chosen to guide guests through the story of America were Benjamin Franklin (18th century), Mark Twain (19th century), and Will Rogers (20th century). Although promoted in concept art by Disney <ref> http://progresscityusa.com/page/57/ </ref>, it was eventually decided that Will Rogers would not appear as one of the attraction’s hosts (although he would appear in Audio Animatronic form in the 20th century scene), leaving the duo of Franklin and Twain as the sole narrators. This decision was made after Disney discovered that only 5 out of every 150 college students knew who Will Rogers was <ref name= "mouseplanet"/> and they could not come to a consensus on a replacement. Randy Bright later contemplated that the events of the 20th Century were too current to properly find a representative for <ref name= "mouseplanet"/> Although never seen by the public, the script for the beginning of the American Adventure with Will Rogers as a one of the hosts has been discovered. This version would have begun with Franklin, Twain and Rogers reflecting on the countries’ country's past:

'''Franklin:''' Now, stop that nonsense. Those good old days that everybody speaks of, they were no utopia either. Mr. Twain, those Mississippi shores you walked as a boy were also walked by slaves. And Mr. Rogers, how about the lawlessness and violence of your glorious West?…And in my time, few children lived to be adults. If I may quote you from my own Poor Richard’s Almanac: ‘The golden age never was the present age.’ Mr. Twain, if you want to go back, go right ahead, but from what I’ve seen, the 20th Century has an incredible amount of positive things that are simply taken for granted. <ref name= "mouseplanet"/>}}. The score of the American Adventure attraction was carefully created by composer Buddy Baker, who combined known, period specific songs, with new tunes written specifically for the attraction<ref name="vid2”/>. The score was then recorded by the Philadelphia Symphonic Orchestra before being mixed by engineer Bob Zalk <ref name="vid2”/>. In total, it took 18 months to mix the attraction's music, sound effects, and narration into the final sore <ref name="vid1”/>.  Like the attraction's score, the artwork used within the attraction was specifically curated. Bright noted that they did not want to use "modern art" in the 18th and an 19th century scenes <ref name="vid1”/>. Instead, Disney created new artwork that was stylized to look like it was from the correct period. In a similar fashion, photographs and motion pictures were not used until the scenes set in a time where these technologies had been invented <ref name="vid1”/>.