Cranium Command preshow & Wonders of Life pavilion - April 2003 - Epcot

The Wonders of Life pavilion at Epcot opened on October 19, 1989. It was sponsored by MetLife until 2001, and focused on health. The main attraction was Body Wars, a motion simulator ride through the human body. Cranium Command was a show that took us through the mind of a teenage boy. The Making of Me was a short film about the reproductive system. The pavilion had a number of hands-on exhibits to play with as well. On Jan. 4, 2004 the pavilion was opened seasonally and on Jan. 1, 2007 it closed and was used as a festival center until 2018. It was going to be Disney’s “Play Pavilion,” but that project got cancelled.

In this home video from 2003 I take a walk around a very empty Wonders of Life pavilion. You will see an empty Anacomical Players theater, where improv actors would act out health skits using audience suggestions. Pure & Simple quick service restaurant. The Sensory Funhouse, where guests got to feel and listen to different things. Frontiers of Medicine I didn’t walk into, but there were stories about the brain and medicine on little screens. The front entrance of Cranium Command, which I will enter later. The Wonder Cycles, which I loved because when you peddle the bike you got to ride through Disneyland. The Coach’s Corner batting cage with no one in it. An empty front entrance to Body Wars. Well and Goods gift shop. An empty Goofy About Health theater showing Goofy cartoons about health. A display screen promoting the attractions in the pavilion (filmed in 2004). Then I walk into Cranium Command.

Cranium Command opened with the pavilion on Oct. 19, 1989. The show was directed by The Brave Little Toaster director Jerry Rees. The preshow film was directed by Beauty and the Beast directors Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. I video taped the front entrance and carpeted hallways of the queue line, which displayed posters to recruit guests to be Cranium Commandos. There were also brain teasers and gags in the hallway. A clock counted down when the next show will start. The preshow theater also had carpeted walls, a sloped floor, and doors on the left to the main show. The animated preshow featured General Knowledge (Corey Burton) getting his new recruits ready to pilot human brains. A little soldier, Buzzy (Scott Curtis), was given the hardest job, piloting a teenage boy’s head. At the end of the film we are led into the main 200-seat theater and we get to see an audio-animatronic Buzzy pilot the brain of adolescent Bobby. No video taping was allowed in the main show, so I had to stop there.

Cranium Command took a humorous look at all the workings of the brain, with top comedians of 1989 acting out different functions of the body. There was serious left brain - Charles Grodin, silly Right Brain - Jon Lovitz, Stomach - George Wendt, Bladder - Jeff Doucette, Adrenal Gland - Bobcat Goldthwait, Heart’s Left & Right Ventricles - Dana Carvy & Kevin Nealon (Hans & Franz), and the monotone Hypothalamus - (director) Kirk Wise. The body parts interact with animatronic Buzzy during the show as teenage Bobby goes through his day - Waking up, missing the bus, meeting a cute girl Annie, dealing with bullies, going to the principal, and the girl falling for him at the end. I also fell for the same cute girl, Natalie Gregory, back in the 1985 TV movie Alice in Wonderland. What is she doing now?

Inside Out director Pete Doctor was an animator for Cranium Command in one of his first rolls for Disney. You can see how this attraction influenced that film.