News EPCOT's Harmonious to be replaced with new nighttime spectacular Luminous

Squishy

Well-Known Member
Reiterating what others have said, it has some quality bones. Which feels like a mini-miracle after these last few years. I do worry about if/when there will be future changes to the show, it pushes farther away from *the Epcot Spectacular* I hope for. It feels close. I can sense actual pride and heart that was put into this, which seems like a small feat sure, but gives me some revitalized hope and joy. Trying to not let the most recent disaster of Harmonious cloud my opinion and thoughts, but it's close.
Same, I feel like the opening & finale are almost perfect, I really hope they don't touch that. Its the middle of the show IP & narration that needs help tweaking to flow smoother.
 

TTA94

Well-Known Member
Looking at reviews outside this forum and they appear to be much more negative overall, mainly do to musical score and flow.

So many want and miss that Illuminations fit and feeling and I don’t blame them

Well that’s not good. Will be interesting to see how the negativity compares to Harmonious or if it will become strong enough where they will come up with a new show yet again in a year or two. At least this time they probably won’t need to touch the barges, just the soundtrack.
 

Notes from Neverland

Well-Known Member
Initially I feel like it's a better fit in EPCOT than Harmonious. I tend to agree there's a bit too much narration. I see why it's there, but if you have to narrate constantly for guests to understand why a certain song is there ... well, maybe your story isn't very strong.

That said, I'll hold making any firm opinions until I've seen it more.
 

Cmdr_Crimson

Well-Known Member
Looking at reviews outside this forum and they appear to be much more negative overall, mainly do to musical score and flow.

So many want and miss that Illuminations fit and feeling and I don’t blame them
All the Illuminations lovers at Guest Relations after the show..
16ceebc9-9827-48f0-b183-f6172a9d2966_text.gif
 

FigmentForever96

Active Member
Beautiful, and as someone who loved Illuminations and accept IP will be part of EPCOT going forward, this is the show the park needed.

It’s so funny seeing people outside the forum say they want illuminations yet are panning this show for the gaps in pyro lol. Shows that many went in ready to hate the show or didn’t know illuminations

The tech is fantastic and the opening is stunning. Narration was a bit much but honestly it works and felt very Epcot but I can see what people are saying. Not a fan of the Toy Story bit but the Coco arrangement with the Epcot anthem is 10/10

Having the songs tell an actual story versus just somgs in other languages is a huge upgrade and the overall story is very much in line with the Epcot message.

Overall I’m willing to call this a win and something worth staying around. However, they can’t keep letting shows go on for 15-20 years. No show needs to be immortalized to the point of it almost seemed irreplaceable.
 

Nland316

Well-Known Member
I actually really like this show! Maybe a little bit too much IP for my taste, but I think it is integrated in a much more nuanced way than Harmonious.

Out of all nighttime shows, EPCOT’s are hardest to judge because of structure of the lagoon.. but even off of a YouTube video the show kept my attention very well and was super entertaining. Harmonious was always boring to me.

The fountains look beautiful, great usage of fireworks, and I LOVE the human moments like the heartbeats, baby cries, etc. I think they are clever devices/symbols.

Definitely a success in my opinion!
 

llewmmu

Member
I wish that when they did these IP shows since we have to have IP in them; that they would at least not use the same IP in different parks at the same resort, or at least not the same song. Friend Like Me and Friend in Me should not be at more than one park's nighttime spectacular. The shows will become homogenized in people's minds when you do that. The choice of using a song from Enchanted was a good one since that plays *nowhere* else.
 

stuart

Well-Known Member
I enjoyed this watching very early this morning, but even more so watching Steve's video again after some kip, perhaps as it was by our usual viewpoint.

There's many obvious corrections that have been made for this show which have served it well. Not showing all it's tricks at once is a big one.

I think the narration is fine, and as has been said already, is probably another correction for those who need it and failed to understand what Reflections of Earth was about for example (philistines 😉). Could it have worked better as a pre-show narration, maybe, I don't know. Initial thought was it being similar to the style in SSE, obviously not Dame Judi or Jeremy Irons but I thought the narrator's voice suited it well.

I also think they have made a correction in the tone of the show. It maybe isn't just as sophisticated / classy in a way as RoE was, but it's certainly a quieter, reflective show with emotion to it and clearly made for a target audience of adults which in many ways RoE was too. A show designed to end a day. One they've tried to give a message to It's a very clear step away from the loud HEA style of Harmonious and gives the park a different show to Magic Kingdom.

The Friend in Me section is a bit like the above, and I wonder if something else would have fitted better there, but its 2 mins of the show and can see past that.

To me, and my taste, it was certainly better than Harmonious which sometimes I passed up for photos at the front of the park, and sometimes walked in just for the finale. I actually feel I want to see that again - as I did with Epcot Forever actually.

As has been said, the opening and finale are excellent and I really like the chorus echo effect at the start of Into the Unknown. Volume up helps, but i'm really taken with this show.
 
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IMDREW

Well-Known Member
I dreamt that the show had all original music like the new background loop of Pinar. And out of the center barge, for the finale, came a huge hot air balloon. Which lit up and floated above World Showcase Lagoon. Fireworks surrounded it with a message of soaring over the world.
 

monothingie

❤️Bob4Eva❤️
Premium Member
It’s so funny seeing people outside the forum say they want illuminations yet are panning this show for the gaps in pyro lol

It’s not an apples to apples comparison.

20+ years ago Illuminations filled the gap with the best tech available to them at the time. It was incredible then but compared to current tech and suffering from years of decay, it certainly wasn’t cutting edge and as exciting at the end.
 

danlb_2000

Premium Member
First reactions after seeing a live stream video of it....

I liked it. I really appreciated that they had a story to drive the song choice instead of just being a "clip-show". I loved the opening with each county saying "welcome". Nice use of Spaceship Earth as a replacement for the Illuminations Earth barge. It solves one of my biggest complaints with Harmonious which was the over use of technology. This might have trimmed the tech down to much, but I think I will need to see it in person to judge if that is the case or not.
 

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