EPCOT Reflections of Earth confirmed to be replaced by Harmonious

[HauntedPirate]

That remains to be seen, I'm not so sure.

The fact remains, however, that the show was created for anyone who buys a ticket to EPCOT, including Disney die-hards and EPCOT-nostalgists. Alienating the die-hards because they only make up 10-15% of park attendance and the remaining 80%+ of guests won't have strong opinions on the show, in my opinion, probably isn't the best business strategy. When your fanbase turns against you as vehemently as Disney's has over Harmonious, there's a problem.

And it's not like the majority of people who are posting opinions of the show online are "die-hard fans". I'd venture to say that a great many of those who have seen videos of Harm would fall into "the majority of guests" category - It's not as if Disney has kept all this under wraps until the last week. If there were a 80/20 split between positive and negative opinions so far, there'd be some validity to that line of thinking. When it's 5/95... that's not a coincidence, that's a wave crashing down.

 

[hpyhnt 1000]

Take the rose-colored glasses off. ToN was a disaster for park ops, snarled traffic around World Showcase, and injured numerous performers due to design flaws. Most guests had no idea what the hell was going on. Good music, though.

I didn't say it was a shining example of Disney parade operations! I'm well aware of its operational flaws. But it, and the Millennium Celebration in general, came from a good creative place (we'll ignore the accompanying NFL halftime show...that was rough).

And, as you say, at least it had a good music, something Harm really lacks IMO.

 

[dreday3]

They haven’t seen it and aren’t aware it’s happening.

But that's exactly my point. Most guests will be just happy to be on their big Disney trip and will watch it and enjoy it. They won't be people who have an "ideal Epcot" like some of us, they will be people just going on vacation.

I wouldn't bet my life savings on that, but I'm pretty confident.

 

[comics101]

And it's not like the majority of people who are posting opinions of the show online are "die-hard fans". I'd venture to say that a great many of those who have seen videos of Harm would fall into "the majority of guests" category - It's not as if Disney has kept all this under wraps until the last week. If there were a 80/20 split between positive and negative opinions so far, there'd be some validity to that line of thinking. When it's 5/95... that's not a coincidence, that's a wave crashing down.

There's also the fact that when it comes to the average guest, diehards can often have sway over their opinions. On multiple occasions, friends of mine have asked me to help them plan a trip to Disney because they know how much I love the parks. If they have 3 days at WDW, and I tell them to skip Harmonious for Fantasmic or for Happily Ever After, chances are they're going to listen. I imagine this is the case for a lot of people on this forum.

And that's not even taking into account the kind of sway that a planning site such as Tom Bricker's (@WDWFigment) has over the decisions that the average guest makes. Some of these sites get crazy heavy traffic, and I imagine they can be more influential than we may realize.

 

[danv3]

Watched it again this afternoon. Still pretty darn bad.

Technically impressive and colorful, yes, but the musical arrangements are not good and the lack of any kind of story is a major problem. It would also have been well-served to include an original musical theme. Perhaps many of these issues can be fixed in the relatively short term.

The ending is so bad it needs to be fixed before the show is performed again. Yikes.

 

[dreday3]

I would never tell someone to skip something just because I don't care for it. See it for yourself.

 

[brb1006]

Take the rose-colored glasses off. ToN was a disaster for park ops, snarled traffic around World Showcase, and injured numerous performers due to design flaws. Most guests had no idea what the hell was going on. Good music, though.

He was using ToN as an example of Disney being creative with their entertainment offerings at Epcot.

 

[comics101]

But that's exactly my point. Most guests will be just happy to be on their big Disney trip and will watch it and enjoy it. They won't be people who have an "ideal Epcot" like some of us, they will be people just going on vacation.

I wouldn't bet my life savings on that, but I'm pretty confident.

But that misses my point from earlier. The problems with Harmonious isn't that it doesn't fit into my "ideal EPCOT." The problems are that the show simply isn't good. That's why I'm not as confident as you that the average guest will spend their time watching it.

 

[FutureCEO]

Can you imagine spending tens of millions to have everything flop and burn.

 

[dreday3]

But that misses my point from earlier. The problems with Harmonious isn't that it doesn't fit into my "ideal EPCOT." The problems are that the show simply isn't good. That's why I'm not as confident as you that the average guest will spend their time watching it.

That's where we differ - while I don't love using Disney movie music at Epcot (I posted previously, Illuminations ROE is my favorite piece of music to ever come out of Disney) , I did think visually the show was gorgeous.

But again, I'm not hard to please when it comes to fireworks and light shows.

 

[ToTBellHop]

He was using ToN as an example of Disney being creative with their entertainment offerings at Epcot.

Sort of. For me, creativity also requires the ability to make something that actually works. RoL failed on this front and died quickly.

 

[comics101]

I would never tell someone to skip something just because I don't care for it. See it for yourself.

Your friend is taking a 2-day trip to WDW over July 4th weekend. He's going to purchase a one-park ticket for each day he's there, and wants to know which 2 parks you recommend he visits. You wouldn't tell him your 2 favorite parks? Not only would I tell him to visit Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, I'd then offer him a list of which rides he should hit and which ones he should skip in order to make the most of his time at the parks, given that it's July 4th weekend and the place is going to be a madhouse.

 

[dreday3]

It's the present day. Your friend is taking a 2-day trip to WDW July 4th weekend. He's going to purchase a one-park ticket for each day he's there, and wants to know which 2 parks you recommend he visits. You wouldn't tell him your 2 favorite parks? Not only would I tell him to visit Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, I'd then offer him a list of which rides he should ride to make the most of his time at the parks, given that it's July 4th weekend and the place is going to be a madhouse.

No.

I would tell them don't bother going for just 2 days.

 

[Mac Tonight]

Can you imagine spending tens of millions to have everything flop and burn.

All while things that actually needed to be improved (Imagination for one) get pushed further and further back.

It appears that all Chapek knows are short-term gains and blowing his proverbial wad on things that are all flash, no substance.

 

[danv3]

I’m told the in-park response was not as negative as the online response.

LOL. What is "damning with faint praise, Alex?"

 

[comics101]

All while things that actually needed to be improved (Imagination for one) get pushed further and further back.

It appears that all Chapek knows are short-term gains and blowing his proverbial wad on things that are all flash, no substance.

They did the same thing with the Innoventions West buildings. They blew money on tearing them down so that they could build new structures at the expense of spending money more wisely (i.e. on Imagination and The Seas). It's beyond nonsensical.

 

[MisterPenguin]

LOL. What is "damning with faint praise, Alex?"

There was very little rioting.

 

[mightynine]

Can you imagine spending tens of millions to have everything flop and burn.

Haaaaave you met Disney's California Adventure v1.0?

 

[waltography]

When watching the Aladdin section and the tacos and arms turned into genie lamps, all I could think is that they came up the set pieces for this moment and visual then tried to figure out what else they could do with them lol

View attachment 590154

I would also argue the Someday finale also utilized the arms really well, when all the arms point outwards when the flares start showering and then turning to the center before the showcase pyro went off.

I watched the Harmonious finale on its own this morning without the rest of the show and the finale holds up as a great bit of show; if only it didn't have 20 minutes of puzzling design choices before it.

 

[Ponderer]

I’m going to say this: what they did with Spaceship Earth and the Beacon show is more interesting to me than Harmonious OR ROE. It is *delightful.* It’s the most EPCOT-y thing that’s happened in years.