Habit Heroes

Habit Heroes is an interactive exhibit that ran in Innoventions East at Epcot in Walt Disney World, Florida in February of 2012. The exhibit focused on the importance of health practices, and formerly against negative health habits that could endanger the health of the individual.

The exhibit soft-opened on February 4, 2012, with the premise of participants being called up to fight the bad habits (formerly personified as villains), but following the backlash against activist groups (doctors, body-image advocates, and so on), it closed down on February 23, 2012. After some excessive consulting on experts, the attraction reopened with an entirely different premise, without the infamous villains, on January 18, 2013.

Attraction description

Original

Queue

In its early stages before closure, the attraction was initially set in a gymnasium, in which the main headquarters of the organisation (a superhero front on the lookout against bad habits) are held, and led by two of the character hosts Will Powers and Callie Stenics.^[1] Participants are explained their mission - to arm themselves with the necessary skills to defeat the 'bad habits' (personified as caricatured villains representing a negative health habit, such as Leadbottom and the Snacker)

Activities

In order, the exhibit featured three activities each respectively circulating around three issues: excessive screen time (taking place in Control Freak's electronic lair), excessive junk foods (featuring The Snacker and Sweet Tooth) and predisposition to inactivity (featuring Leadbottom).

In the first activity following the preshow, participants are led into a cylindrical room (Control Freak's electronic lair), in which the walls are decked with multiple control panels, and the aim of this activity was to sprint from one control panel to another, to switch off the falling televisions. Following the activity, participants are led into a room with an arrangement of cannons (a similar setup to Toy Story Midway Mania! and participants were to shoot down city scenes constructed from junk foods, with broccoli, carrots and blueberries for ammunition. For the third activity, participants are led into a room with a dancing grid, and participants were encouraged to partake in a physically active dance routine, and likely to get Leadbottom to dance along as well.

After these activities, the final one was a series of screens which were designed to scan participants and determine their state of health, as well as provide suggestions on how to improve their lifestyle. They were never used in their operational state.

Online Game

In conjunction with the attraction, an interactive game of the same name and premise was released. There were two versions - one being the online roleplayer game, in which players can register, create their avatar, and take on a wider range of villains to conquer and defeat, as corresponding to their negative health habits:

The mobile (although online) version of the game also consisted of miniature activities (such as a timer used to calculate the correct time spent for brushing teeth), which were supposedly designed to bring these skills to the real world.

Controversy and Feedback

On February 22, 2012, the exhibit came under fire by physicians, body image advocates, fat acceptance activists, psychologists, and some parents, ^[2] for many reasons including the reinforcement of demeaning stereotypes on certain guests for encouring bullying against overweight or children who are predisposed to obesity and for fear that the exhibit could trigger the establishment of negative health habits (eating disorders to lose weight, for instance) and suicide.

Critics also contended that the exhibit might defeat its intended purpose of educating the public concerning health habits. In addition, forums and blogs suggested that the exhibit was inferior to Epcot's previous success, Wonders of Life.

Various blogs have documented the event, including Freedhoff's Weighty Matters blog,^[3] in which he labels the attraction as "horrifying" and "demonstrating a complete lack of understanding" .^[4] Quickly, the issue spread to social networking circles and even on national news headlines ^[5] . Within two days of the exhibit's initial opening, Disney decided to close it for retooling, prior to its official March 3rd opening date, ^[6] despite the exhibit's alleged intent to teach guests about the adoption of good health habits. One writer expresses disturbance concerning "Disney and [the] Florida Blue, [chich] felt the need to cave under the loud and misguided views of people who clearly didn't understand the exhibit," and mentioned the exhibit's effectiveness in conveying this message. ^[7]

Improved

During the retooling, Imagineers at Disney have consulted various national experts in children's health, weight and nutrition, including an obesity expert from Stanford University and a nutritional scientist from Cornell University, to assist in retooling and recreating the attraction from scratch after the ordeal.^[8] During the retooling, characters Will Powers and Callie Stenics, as well as the notorious villains, have been replaced in favor of four more heroes - Director Jin, and three agents, Agent Dynamo, representing physical activity, Agent Quench, representing hydration, and Agent Fuel, representing healthy eating and nutrition. The villains have been replaced with more pestilent opponents - Blocker-Bots (opponents that hide healthy food choices), Sappers (sentient bolders that prevent people undertaking physical activity) and Scorchers (sentinent flames that can dehydrate people without their knowledge)

Activities

Although retaining the identical floorplan of the previous attraction, the improved attraction now has three activities: one incorporating exactly the same dance grid, this time, encouraging guests to practice their 'power moves' against the pestilent opponents. Next, retaining the same cannons, participants defend a city by shooting at the same opponents. In the final activity, with the cylindrical room and multiple control panels, participants defend the world targeting the same opponents as before.

The attraction is notable for its use of cast-member interaction and mediation to the guests participating in it, and afterwards, there is an opportunity for guests to receive a mission in response to their chosen health habit to improve on. Also notable is the mobile application which encourages users to improve their chosen health habit via various activities (such as a pedometer for walking exercises).

Response

Since the retooling, the attraction was cited by the SunSentinel as a "...kinder, more sensitive attraction" compared with earlier on, and despite mixed reviews, the improved attraction has been well received by guests alike. Even Freedhoff has written a follow-up blog post, praising the improvements ^[9]

See also

• Innoventions (Epcot)
• Wonders of Life, a pavilion containing a set of similarly themed attractions (now closed)

References