Exploring The Music of Epcot's Future World

Welcome to this month’s Blogorail Green Loop. Today we are taking a closer look at the fun you can find in Future World at Epcot, including the music of Future World!

One of the things that makes me feel most at home when I’m at Walt Disney World – and in Walt Disney World when I’m stuck at home – is the background music from the parks and resorts. There is none I have loved more over the years than what is played in Epcot’s Future World. In fact, there is something so special about these particular songs that I fell in love with them while listening to hundreds of hours of park music in anticipation of our first throughly planned Walt Disney World vacation in December 2005. Despite my love for all things Christmas, I was actually really sad to arrive at the parks only to hear a totally different soundtrack than I had anticipated!

If you’re getting excited about your first trip, longing for a return to your happy place, or just looking for the most perfect background music for anything you’re doing today, you’ve found a good place to start.

I think part of the beauty of the Epcot soundtrack as a whole, is that most of it was not created just for the park. I know, I know… usually the details I rave about hold places of such esteem because they’re unique to Disney destinations. In this case though, choosing from the entire world of music allows Disney imagineers to perfectly match whatever they want to convey – which is especially important in a location so varied.

The music around Future World ranges from movie scores to famous classical compositions to mainstream relaxation music, plus songs written specifically for the park by Disney legends such as X Atencio and the Sherman brothers. If you don’t care about geeking out over the details, here is a wonderful overview for your listening pleasure. This particular video has lots of popular titles, as well as some instrumental versions of songs that first appeared in now-extinct attractions. Or hey, you could also put it on in the background while you join me in exploring the Disney details.

Music of Future World: Background/Area Music

If you’ve been in a Disney park, chances are you either love the area music and recognize it anytime you hear it playing anywhere, or you have never really noticed it. I assure you though, if it were turned off (changed to something like your local mall’s Muzak channel) your experience would be completely different.

Note: Most of these titles are YouTube links, so you’ll probably want to right click (or Command-click on a Mac) to open these in tabs in the background…. lest you have 50 different songs try to play at once! 🙂

ENTRANCE AREA/INNOVENTIONS
Main Entrance Medley
Legacy (Woods)
We’ve Just Begun to Dream
Papillon (on the Wings of a Butterfly) (Arkenstone)
(… plus my favorite version, Tom Ameen’s piano cover!)

UNIVERSE OF ENERGY / ELLEN’S ENERGY ADVENTURE


Energy (You Make the World go Round) (Moline)
Energy Adventure Medley (Broughton)

WONDERS OF LIFE


Wondercycles
Carousel a Day in the Park
Celestial Soda Pop (Lynch)
Forgotten Yesterdays (Yanni)
Behind the Waterfall (Lanz)
Wild Kids (Benoit)
Grasslands (Checkfield)
Summer Shuffle (Checkfield)
Icarus (Buehner/Schroeder)
Sundial (Checkfield)
The Oh of Pleasure (Lynch)

THE LAND


Farewell Neverland (Williams), from Hook
Big Fish Main Titles (Elfman), from Big Fish
Main Credits from Waterworld (Howard)
End Credits from The Cider House Rules (Portman)
Tennessee (Zimmer), from Pearl Harbor
Over the Moon (Williams), from E.T. The Extra Terrestrial
Will Hunting (Elfman), from Good Will Hunting
Double Divide (Newman), from The Horse Whisperer
I Had a Farm (Barry), from Out of Africa
Soarin’ Skyway Atmosphere (Queue Music)

IMAGINATION PAVILION

Makin’ Memories (Sherman/Sherman)
Journey Into Imagination Area Music
Flight of the Imagination
Electronic Philharmonic
Imagination Institute Queue

THE SEAS WITH NEMO & FRIENDS / THE LIVING SEAS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVzdy-zIQdw
Finding Nemo Score (Newman)
Living Seas Main Theme
Aquaculture
The Seas with Nemo & Friends Area Loop

FOUNTAIN OF NATIONS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHd6OkxO6Zw
Standing in Motion (Yanni)
Day One (Tesh)
Theme from The Rescuers Down Under (Broughton)
Theme from The Rocketeer (Horner)

Music of Future World: The Attractions

It’s no secret that the soundtrack of Soarin’ over California is one of my favorite pieces of music anywhere. I’ve mentioned its ability to calm a rapid heart rate and lower blood pressure, and the ability my brain has to think it’s smelling oranges at just the right moment in the score – despite being 950 miles from Epcot. It’s kind of ridiculous how much I love it. Really though, the original Soarin’ theme isn’t the only wonderful song found in the attractions of Epcot’s Future World; I’ve collected a number of great ride soundtracks over the years. While some of these attractions are no longer in the park, you may still hear the songs (usually instrumental versions) in the area music!

Theme from Soarin‘ (Goldsmith)

One Little Spark from Journey into Imagination (Sherman/Sherman)

Listen to the Land from Living with the Land (Moline)

Tomorrow’s Child from Spaceship Earth

New Horizons Medley from Horizons (Wilkins)
Space from Horizons (Bells Bellis?)

Test Track Medley (Wilkins)
Test Track 2.0

Destiny from Mission Space (Masterson/Rawlings/Torch)

Universe of Energy (Kasha/Hirschhorn)

The Computer Song from The Astuter Computer Revue (Sherman/Sherman)

It’s Fun to Be Free from World of Motion (Atencio/Baker)

Kitchen Kabaret Medley (Hennessy/Baker)

Food Rocks

Magic Journeys (Sherman/Sherman)
With the popularity of Epcot music among Disney fans, I cannot understand how there has only been one official album released to date that consisted solely of Epcot park music (plus an additional celebrating the Tapestry of Dreams/Tapestry of Nations). I did come across an incredible resource while updating this list though, one that I hadn’t seen even when I used to have lots of time to dig into uber nerdy stuff like background music. If you love Epcot music (or art, or history…) check out Epcot Legacy. And don’t forget to bookmark all of our other favorite park music sources!

Do you have a favorite park-specific song?

Here is the map of our Magical Blogorail Green | Discover Future World Loop:

• 1st Stop – My Dreams of Disney | Rediscovering the Imagination Pavilion
• 2nd Stop – Magical Memories with the Mouse | Go Under the Sea Figuratively (or Literally!) at Epcot’s The Seas with Nemo & Friends
• 3rd Stop – Heidi’s Head | Everything You Need to Know about The Land
• 4th Stop – Superheroes and Teacups | Spaceship Earth: The Heart of Epcot
• 5th Stop – Frontierland Station | Discover Future World: Test Track
• 6th Stop – Disney Nouns | Universe of Energy
• 7th Stop – The Delightful Life | Discover the Music of Future World
• 8th Stop – My Dreams of Disney | A Child’s Innocence on Mission SPACE
• 9th Stop – Rolling with the Magic | Innoventions & Festival Center