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New nighttime show 'Rivers of Light' confirmed to be coming to Disney's Animal Kingdom
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
cjkeating
Well-Known Member
As far as I am aware the show has been running more reliably than would have been expected since launch with only one reported full show stop which makes me think the show is in a good place for its nightly performances that are starting for Easter and then Pandora opening.
With this is mind does anyone know if they will be looking at testing any adjustments (after park close) to add in the future, potentially to go live after the summer vacation period when show frequencies could be reduced? I'm looking at you 100 lanterns...
With this is mind does anyone know if they will be looking at testing any adjustments (after park close) to add in the future, potentially to go live after the summer vacation period when show frequencies could be reduced? I'm looking at you 100 lanterns...
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I'll try to get mine uploaded but it's just about a minute or two. The music is really infectious though. I thought it was great and guests were really enjoying it too, drew one of the largest crowds I had seen.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I made sure that when I was there recently with a large group of high school 12th grade students, that we 'stumbled' onto the dance party as soon as it was starting.
Love all of that .... I have a video of the gentleman playing the instrument in front of Harambe Market. It was like my own little concert. So fantastic.
I was at last nights 8:30 show. It started and stopped twice and the show was cancelled.
Now as a show I can see its potential and it could be great. However because of its problems which I think may be caused by the wind and keeping the barges in specific locations it may never be possible to run it every nite. I hope to see it again in July and hopefully see the entire show.
Now as a show I can see its potential and it could be great. However because of its problems which I think may be caused by the wind and keeping the barges in specific locations it may never be possible to run it every nite. I hope to see it again in July and hopefully see the entire show.
peter11435
Well-Known Member
The show has been performing decently well since opening. I believe last night was only the second cancelled performance. I wasn't there but I know there were storms in the area last night so winds were likely a factor.
Last night was my get away night. While I love technology and completely understand and accept the technical difficulties this show presents, many others were not pleased. It was also nice to get an extra fast pass for today but its worthless since I am no longer on property and won't be until July.
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
There are still issues to be worked out. Not sure if I've seen a flawless show yet, though most of the issues are imperceptible to most people. I haven't seen a show with so many little minor issues like WoC. The other night, one show had the left 1/3 of the big screen out for the whole show, then the second show had the smaller lotuses projectors out of sync.
Small things, but I'd still like to see them fixed. At least they're not leading to show stops!
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Kman101
Well-Known Member
Wind will play a factor in the projections. I noticed it during the show I finally got to see. When the large lotus appears on the two water screens it wasn't complete and sometimes some of the other images were hard to see, but the wind was suddenly kicking up, I could feel the mist. That's unfortunately hard to avoid. It is what it is (and I know rushtest4echo has said one of the smaller ones was out and a bigger one was out completely; I was just sharing what I happened to notice). Believe me, the wind and mist felt fantastic ... lol
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
Wind made the show excellent a few weeks back. The aurora and lasers looked every bit as impressive as the ones in IllumiNations due to that wind!
The projections looked better too to be honest. Maybe it's the direction that the wind is blowing. Lets hope that at some point they can get the water to meet in the middle of the big fountain during the lotus laser. I still don't think I've seen that done properly. Seems like all they'd need to do was crank up the pumps to get maybe 5 or so more feet of stream out of both sides. Maybe the system is maxed but that doesn't explain why they can have them meet/overlap later in the show. And it's not wind conditions, because I've seen the show over a dozen times now and the first big screen elements never seem to work, and there's usually a huge gap that disappears later in the show even when there's no wind. It's very strange and takes a lot away from the usage of the lasers early on.COProgressFan
Well-Known Member
I love DAK's entertainment as well. I haven't seen RoL or the new night dance party, but I always enjoy the band in Africa, as do my kids who have a great time, even though there are no characters (nor should there be). I agree MK needs a boost in entertainment, especially at night. The horrid Tomorrowland DJ sets just need to go.
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
At least they finally turned down the low end volume. For years I cringed when I heard "thump thump thump" from that monstrosity all the way over in Frontierland. It really got under my skin. Horrible.
dreamscometrue
Well-Known Member
I love show control room photos for some reason. I find this stuff neat.
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
^ That vantage point is really the only place to see the show with all of the effects actually aligning. We've seen the show from pretty much every position possible in and outside of the theaters (including right next to the control booth) and it's painfully obvious that they (once again, like World of Color) designed the show for the people right on center. A hundred feet off center? You get a 90% show. Another hundred feet off center (which is really where the regular guest seating is) you get an 80% show. By the time you're near the end of either theater, you're getting a 50% show. More than half the theater seating really is a subpar experience if you'd like to see everything.
Pretty lame if you ask me. Again, most of it is imperceptible to guests but it still stinks. Fantastmic was more like a 100% show for about 50% of the audience, and a 90% show for almost everyone else. Even at Disneyland most people saw nearly all of the elements. Not so on Rivers of Light unfortunately.
That back screen through... what a disaster. Of the 30+ shows I've seen of RoL, I'd say 25 of them I'd rate the back screen as "awful", and only once or twice (of course both times right at the control booth), the screen was what I'd call "good". Half the shows they haven't even been able to get the two water streams to meet even close to uniform in the middle. Last night was abysmal.
Hope they eventually solve that issue, although it's not going to make the off-axis viewing any better for the majority of the people watching. I still don't comprehend how they figured out that off-axis viewing was a bad idea for Fantastmic in the early 1990's and yet they felt fine doing it on a massive scale with fickle falling water on Rivers of Light and expected it to be decent. Just terrible unfortunately. What were they thinking?
Pretty lame if you ask me. Again, most of it is imperceptible to guests but it still stinks. Fantastmic was more like a 100% show for about 50% of the audience, and a 90% show for almost everyone else. Even at Disneyland most people saw nearly all of the elements. Not so on Rivers of Light unfortunately.
That back screen through... what a disaster. Of the 30+ shows I've seen of RoL, I'd say 25 of them I'd rate the back screen as "awful", and only once or twice (of course both times right at the control booth), the screen was what I'd call "good". Half the shows they haven't even been able to get the two water streams to meet even close to uniform in the middle. Last night was abysmal.
Hope they eventually solve that issue, although it's not going to make the off-axis viewing any better for the majority of the people watching. I still don't comprehend how they figured out that off-axis viewing was a bad idea for Fantastmic in the early 1990's and yet they felt fine doing it on a massive scale with fickle falling water on Rivers of Light and expected it to be decent. Just terrible unfortunately. What were they thinking?
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
I've pointed out all of the things right with Rivers of Light plenty of times too, I think it's a solid show through and through with some severe problems that have yet to be sorted out. The back waterscreen was something tested and cancelled in Glendale and at DCA back in the early 2000's and it was agreed on back then that they weren't going to develop that projection/water technique any further because it just didn't work. Then they used something similar on a very small, tightly controlled scale at Tokyo's Fantasmic (which works fine, but isn't very impressive), and from there I guess they thought that they had solved the issues and went back and scaled it up massively.
I've already harped on the back screen enough in the above (and previous posts), but really- if they can't manage to get it right most of the time- they need to just go with another effect. And it's something that could be retrofitted over the course of a few weeks without closing/affecting the show. Just toss in a few oversized "traditional" water screens and be done with it. You could even still use the 1/2 size movable ones on the sides if you placed the emitter on a servo and spun it. They already do that with smaller fountains/projections in World of Color.
It just pains me to see such a poor presentation with such an overall great show. Between the back screen and the pitiful "fire", the show just really has some elements that need large scale improvement. But again, if I didn't like the show then I wouldn't be seeing it so often. I've already seen Rivers of Light (counting back when they were just toying with it) more than I've seen DHS's Fantasmic over the past decade.
In the end though, these are mostly just fan/nerd issues. Most people seem to really be enjoying the show, myself included.
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Kman101
Well-Known Member
And I should have said I wasn't really even disagreeing with you. I'm glad you like it and agree it deserved a little better. And serious question but what can they do about the back/large/main waterscreen? I agree wholeheartedly it's a problem.
rushtest4echo
Well-Known Member
Replace it. Falling water does not and will not ever be suitable for those sorts of projections. Disney knew this almost 20 years ago. I'm not sure why they felt the need to do such a thing when the alternatives are proven, impressive, mature, and easy to do. Not even one in one thousand people would notice if they went for the traditional water screens. Well that's not true, everyone would probably notice how vastly superior the quality of the screen would be after the change.
There's a few seconds during the end of the show where the projections "follow" the screen as it moves/stops/starts but those projections would be great on regular screens too. Wouldn't take much at all to change things. Another minor annoyance is that from the Dinoland side, none of the rear projections on the foliage are visible. I'm not sure what's preventing them from doing projections on the other foliage in view of the Dino side, but I wish they'd address that too. I know the Siamangs and the guest walkways are there, but even a few light projections and more colored lights would vastly improve the backdrop over there. I'm sure they could angle stuff in a way that wouldn't bother the animals or people on the walkways. Another minor annoyance, but one I'd like to see addressed at some point.
Small stuff isn't really worth them addressing- but that back screen is a major element in the show and one that usually looks really bad to most people. Even when it works perfectly, more than half of the theaters won't see much more than color blobs due to off axis viewing. I don't know how they'd fix that, since all water screens have a very limited viewing angle (which is why Fantasmic and World of Color angle them towards different areas so more people can see). Not sure why the effect is there at all for that reason. Going to traditional screens won't solve that problem. Maybe they could just add a projector and go with two smaller screens that are angled properly for each side of the stadium.
Kman101
Well-Known Member
I agree about the Dinoland side. I haven't seen it from there yet but it clearly doesn't give the same view as the nicer side. It could have been designed to be a "full" theater experience. I've even heard the bridge is a better vantage point! LOL. For something in the works for so very long, and delayed for so very long, some of these things shouldn't even be an issue. I get that side of it.
Dizney Crew
Active Member
Finally saw ROL this past wknd (been trying to get a FP for this as I figured that would be the best seating). I read plenty of reviews and saw multiple videos of the show beforehand, and honestly I didn't set my expectations that high. And unfortunately this show for me fell flat and uninspired. The setting is awesome and once you see the firefly's light up during the pre-show the anticipation level goes up for sure. But the show overall for me did nothing, which was a shame cause I had hoped it would be better live and it wasn't. For me the soundtrack was the best part, I thought it was pretty good, but everything from the actors on the boat who we couldn't make out, the hard to follow story, blurry projections and how the show just comes to an abrupt stop without a big finale is just odd to me. People were walking out 10 mins into the show which should tell you something.
I just find it odd that this "stadium" was designed for this show and yet they can't seem to get the projections right is mind blowing. Especially after seeing World of Color at CA and how amazing their projections are, so I know it can be done. Also the "fountain" show is just so bland to me, I mean the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas is 1000X better and thats what 15-20 years old now?
This show really needs to be scrapped and go back to the drawing board for something different. Its a shame cause I really wanted to enjoy this show but sadly it was borderline terrible IMO.
I just find it odd that this "stadium" was designed for this show and yet they can't seem to get the projections right is mind blowing. Especially after seeing World of Color at CA and how amazing their projections are, so I know it can be done. Also the "fountain" show is just so bland to me, I mean the fountain show at the Bellagio in Vegas is 1000X better and thats what 15-20 years old now?
This show really needs to be scrapped and go back to the drawing board for something different. Its a shame cause I really wanted to enjoy this show but sadly it was borderline terrible IMO.