Fans wait 4 hours to obsess over smelly, obscure Disney character

On Sept. 10, Figment, the imagination dragon, returned to Epcot as a character meet-and-greet for the first time in years — and fans were ready. They lined up as soon as the park opened its gates, and waited for more than four hours to take a picture with a purple dragon who has never been in a Disney movie, and doesn’t appear at any other Disney park. 

“It was insane and wonderful,” Daniel Becker, who creates Disney history vlogs under the name Disney Dan, told SFGATE. Becker was one of the people who “rope dropped” the meet-and-greet.

“It felt monumental,” he added. “This character is only available in one place.”

All in all, he waited about five and a half hours to meet the dragon — but he didn’t mind. He was, he said, among his people: “To be there surrounded by people wearing Figment ears and Figment dresses, with their Figment plush or their Figment on their shoulder, it was truly, truly cool.”

The wait was long, but it definitely could have been worse. Whenever a new Figment experience happens at Epcot, fans line up — really line up. When a popcorn bucket debuted at the 2022 Epcot International Festival of the Arts, people lined up for more than six hours to buy it. But why? 

“Why do we pursue experiences except to have stories?” Becker said of meeting Figment. “I love collecting experiences, that’s what life is. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.” 

Figment is … not a nice guy. The small purple dragon is mischievous, a little reckless and a lot smelly — at least in the scene in his ride, Journey into Imagination with Figment, when he pranks all the riders with a giant blast of skunk air. Even if you hold your breath, the stench is so permeating that you can somehow still smell it with your eyeballs.

But Figment is also an absolute delight. He’s fun, full of surprises — like I said, not always in a good way — and deeply endearing. His entire purpose is to inhabit and showcase the limitless possibilities of the imagination, and inspire you to express your own creativity. (For all of our sakes, don’t do it via skunk farts.)

That’s part of why he has such a huge following. But it’s definitely not the whole story.

Figment — as in, a figment of your imagination — was first created by Disney Imagineer Tony Baxter in 1983. When Epcot opened in 1982, it did so completely without characters (except hidden Mickeys, but that’s a story for another day). The point of the park was to focus on global cultures in the World Showcase half of the park, and to preview the science and technology that would form the world of tomorrow in Future World. Like how different countries each have pavilions in the World Showcase, different elements of the future have pavilions in Future World. Among others, like the Land Pavilion and the Seas Pavilion, was the Imagination Pavilion. That’s where, in March 1983, a certain dragon (and his human) made their first appearance. 

The original Journey into Imagination ride featured a steampunk-inspired character named Dreamfinder, who, as he describes on the ride, “[searches] the universe for sounds, colors, ideas, anything that sparks the imagination. … Everything I collect can inspire amazing and marvelous new ideas.” 

Along with Dreamfinder was his trusty companion, Figment. They appeared in the ride together, but also in the park. Dreamfinder would carry a puppet Figment on his arm, operating it as he interacted with guests. 

In 1999, when the ride underwent refurbishment, it changed drastically, due in large part to limited funding and lack of sponsorship. Dreamfinder was gone, and guests were now in an Imagination Institute with Dr. Nigel Channing, played by Monty Python’s Eric Idle. Figment’s role was reduced to almost nothing.

Fans were incensed. Epcot’s original character had been done dirty. (By then, other characters were in the park — Mickey and friends arrived in 1985.) Imagineers shut it down in 2001 and reopened the ride in 2002 as the current version, Journey into Imagination with Figment. We’re still in the Imagination Institute, but this time, Figment is the main character. He hijacks Dr. Channing’s lecture on the five senses and turns it into a lesson only a mischievous dragon can give. 

“The current version of the ride barely sniffs what the original ride was about,” Becker said. “This is something much simpler. The original version of the ride was truly a spectacular journey into imagination, for lack of a better word. … It really was about how imagination is in everything from math to arts to literature, how imagination fuels the world. Now, it’s about the five senses. A lot was lost in the translation to the scientific institute.”

Disney purists still don’t love it, but at least they got their dragon back. 

“Figment to me is chaotic joy,” Becker said. “He is this mischievous, funny, silly dragon who is anti-establishment … He takes over the ride and starts destroying the entire purpose of this institute that wants to teach you the senses, and he’s like, ‘I’ll show you the senses.’ It’s great.”

In the 1980s, the dragon did appear in a series of educational Disney shorts and some Epcot promotional content, but despite his immense popularity among superfans of that park, he’s never been in a Disney feature film. (Figment stans, I see you. Tiny cameos in “Inside Out” and “Toy Story 4” do not count.)

For Becker, and for many fans who prize his rarity, that’s actually a good thing. It elicits a different kind of fandom, separate from the castles-and-fairy tales kind of Disney person. To love Figment is to love not just what Epcot is today, but what the park was in the past, and all the promise of what it could be in the future. 

“It’s really fun that there isn’t some movie or franchise,” Becker said. “To be a fan of Figment is to be a fan of dark rides at amusement parks. It’s to be a fan of immersive theatrical experiences.”

“His return almost feels like an acknowledgement of theme park fans,” he added. “It’s like, ‘Oh, the park sees me for a second, I need to be there for that.’” 

The dragon’s obscurity is about to change, though. Seth Rogen’s production company Point Grey Pictures is developing a Figment feature, with the writers of “Pokémon Detective Pikachu” on board, Deadline reported.