Figment is the beloved purple dragon that is featured in all the various versions of the Epcot attraction Journey Into Imagination and serves as the park's mascot.
He starred in a series of Epcot Educational Media short films made for schools and starred in two comic book series produced for Marvel Comics' Disney Kingdoms line. Figment's description theme can be considered in the song "One Little Spark".
Background[]
Figment is the dragon companion of the inventor Dreamfinder, created from ideas and sparks of imagination collected during his travels in the Realms of Imagination. These components include his large yellow eyes, the horns of a steer (or a dilemma), royal purple pigment, a crocodile's snout, and the childish delight found at a birthday party. Manifesting aboard Dreamfinder's airship, Figment enthusiastically begins listing all sorts of things to collect and make new things out of, filling the ship's idea bag and prompting a trip to the Dreamport. From there, Figment and Dreamfinder put their ideas to work through realms of Art, Literature, Theater, Science, and Film.
In the Imagination Institute incarnations of the attraction, Figment is described as having been brought into existence by the Institute's research, with Journey Into Your Imagination describing him as coming out of the Imagination Scanner. In Journey Into Imagination With Figment, Figment finds himself at odds with the Institute's restrictive views on imagination and makes mischief there.
Personality[]
In the original version of the ride, Figment acts like a young and curious student of the imagination to Dreamfinder.
In the current version, he is well aware of what imagination is and is mostly a prankster, pulling tricks on Dr. Nigel Channing until he is willing to listen to him and his lesson that imagination works best when set free.
In the Disney Kingdoms comics, Figment is depicted somewhere in the middle of the two interpretations. He has the same wide-eyed child-like curiosity of the world around him as the original but possesses a sharp wit similar to the current version. Overall, Figment is a manifestation of Dreamfinder's optimism and actively supports and pushes him forward when his anxieties and fears get in his way, showing a great deal of wisdom one wouldn't expect of him.
Development[]
The Journey Into Imagination pavilion was one of the last of the original Epcot pavilions to be designed. Looking for host characters, inspiration was taken from the mothballed Discovery Bay project for Disneyland. An attraction called "Professor Marvel's House of Illusions" was to have been hosted by the titular eccentric scientist, who among his other endeavors, bred dragons as a hobby. The Professor and one of his smaller dragons would soon evolve into Dreamfinder and Figment.
Figment was also inspired by a line in an episode of Magnum PI. In the episode, Higgins' garden was being destroyed by a goat Magnum hid in his backyard. When Magnum tells Higgins it's only a Figment of his Imagination, he replies that "Figments don't eat grass!". Realizing that a Figment of the imagination had never really been visualized, the dragon was given his name.
During most of the development, Figment was green rather than his familiar purple pigment. At the insistence of Kodak, who thought the green was too reminiscent of business rival FujiFilm, the color was changed to how he is seen today. Figment's red and yellow sweater was also meant to evoke the Kodak logo.
Appearances[]
Language Arts Through Imagination[]
Figment had his own series within the Epcot Educational Media line titled "Language Arts Through Imagination". In these short films, Figment would invite children to his playhouse in an imaginary realm called Figonia, exploring different reading and writing concepts in adventures mixing live-action and animation and stock footage from the Disney library. Occasionally, Figment would interact with other Disney characters, with shorts starring Peter Pan, Alice, Merlin, and the Reluctant Dragon (referred to as his Uncle Max).
Other appearances[]
A portrait of Figment appears in the Pixar film Inside Out nearby the Train of Thought. The same portrait also appears in Toy Story 4 as the marquee for the Dragon Zone carnival game.
Digital scanning experiments of clay models, including alternate designs, for an unannounced Figment related VR project developed by Disney's StudioLAB were seen in an episode of the One Day at Disney shorts, prompting speculation of their intended purpose among online communities.
Imagineering occasionally treats Figment as one of their unofficial mascots. The commissary at Walt Disney Imagineering's Glendale offices was once named the Figment Cafe, with the character being put on signs, napkins, and buttons. Figment was also used to illustrate many creative concepts and exercises in 2003's The Imagineering Way and 2005's The Imagineering Workout.
Printed media[]
Disney Kingdoms: Figment[]
In his Disney Kingdoms appearance, Figment is introduced as having been Blairion Mercurial's childhood imaginary friend. His testing of the Mesmonic Spark Convertor results in him being brought to life from those childhood memories. However, with Blair's position at the academy being threatened by a lack of results in researching new energy sources and Figment not being an ideal thing to present, Blair decides to keep him a secret and the two keep working on the machine. Eventually, this results in the creation of a portal into an entire realm of Imagination, which the two are sucked into.
After befriending a large beast known as the Chimera, being captured by the Sound Sprites and escaping with a misfit known as Fye the Flawed, the friends become trapped in a realm known as the Nightmare Nation. After becoming separated, the Nightmare Nation hivemind breaks his optimistic spirit and disembodies him after declaring that Blair doesn't believe in anything anymore. Figment's spark survives and descends down to find Blair and gives him the boost to start believing in himself again, turning him into the Dreamfinder.
Dreamfinder uses his newfound courage to blast a path through the Nightmare Nation with the power of light and open a portal back to London and the academy. However, they find that the city is overrun by the Singular and its robot army, which was unleashed by Chairman Illocrant's attempts to stop the unstable portal with a demand for order. Dreamfinder creates his iconic blimp vehicle to fight this army, but eventually, Figment and Dreamfinder have to trap the Singular and his robots with another portal, though the energy drags them in with them.
While Illocrant, Fye, and the Chimera stay in London to honor Dreamfinder's sacrifice and have the Academy move in a more creative direction, Figment and Dreamfinder have emerged on the other side flying over a lush landscape with Spaceship Earth rising over the horizon.
Disney Kingdoms: Figment 2[]
Figment 2 picks up immediately from the ending of the previous series, with Figment and Dreamfinder arriving at Academy Scientifica-Lucida's new Florida campus. The two soon draw a crowd of students and faculty and when the new Chairman arrives on the scene, thinking they are trespassing imposters. An elderly Fye arrives and verifies their identity and tells them that a century has passed since their original adventure. They soon learn that Spaceship Earth is an enigmatic object that appeared on campus in the 1980s that they have been using as a power source, though they have been seeking alternatives as the sphere has a habit of disappearing and reappearing at random times. Dreamfinder offers to demonstrate the power of mental energy through a flight demonstration with the Dream Machine, but it malfunctions and crashes. Fye offers them the chance to try again the next day with the Mesmonic Convertor, which has been kept in storage all this time.
While Dreamfinder is plagued with doubt over his ability to adapt to this new world's technology and feeling like a relic, Figment maintains an optimistic attitude that everything will work out okay. However, things go wrong at the demonstration when the Mesmonic Convertor has trouble working properly and Spaceship Earth disappears. The Chairman blames Dreamfinder and his fears become manifest and possess him, becoming the Doubtfinder. Figment makes an escape to go get help in freeing his friend and eventually finds Capri, Dreamfinder's great-great-great-grandniece. The young prodigy and inventor is eager to jump to the cause as she's been trying to apply at the Academy for some time. The two return to the Academy to try and steal back the Mesmonic Convertor helmet and end up joined by Spark, Capri's own imaginary friend. When the three are caught by the Doubtfinder, Capri uses the Mesmonic Convertor to open a breach inside him, allowing them to go inside to free Dreamfinder.
Inside the Doubt, the three travel through twisted versions of Dreamfinder's childhood memories and make their way past the Doubt's defenses to find Dreamfinder. They free Dreamfinder by reminding him of his good nature and how much he has inspired people. When they return to the real world, the Doubt has become a giant monster. After trying to keep the Mesmonic Convertor helmet away from him, Dreamfinder unleashes the power of the device and destroys the helmet, allowing everyone to dream, freeing them from the Doubt's control. Everybody begins bringing their own imaginary creatures to life and Figment leads the charge in finally defeating the Doubt. Capri is offered entrance into the next semester and Dreamfinder is offered a role as a professor. However, he and Figment want to explore more realms of imagination before settling down and they take off into the sunrise aboard a rebuilt Dream Machine, assuring Capri that they'll always be around in her dreams.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Figment can be seen among the cases in the Collector's Fortress in Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission: BREAKOUT!.
References[]
External links[]
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