I'm going to nitpick here because I love what I see.
I think the show has a great variety of visually interesting elements, but it suffers from lack of contrast. There are plenty enough props and effects, and the show could be improved greatly simply by rearranging things, reorganizing when certain effects are used, and clearer and more dramatic art direction.
For example:
- Start the show with just the shamans on the boats, using only yellow "incandescent" or "fire" light, sort of as it already does. Instead of having the boats aimlessly circle, have them start at each end of the river and travel to the center. Keep them here. Dim the lights for the opening narration. Do not introduce any other effects or colors.
- in Parade of the Animal Spirits, the boats are still centered. Have the shamans/helpers start drumming. Bring out the animal floats per normal, move shaman boats out of the way. Halfway through this segment, suddenly introduce new color schemes and introduce water screens all at once. Animal floats retreat, as they do.
- Dance of the Lotus and We Are One work well one-after-the-other. The former makes good, restrained use of the lotus fountains, the introduction of the big lotus is dramatic, and the latter contrasts well with its huge scale. No changes.
- At the beginning of the section titled Rivers of Light (starts around the last block of narration), revert to the natural lighting and color scheme from the beginning of the show. No water screens, no fountains, just the shaman boats, with the rest of the floats dimmed. Have the shamans return to their docks, raise the sails or something to indicate they're done, and the show is just about over. Then, as the narration ends, cut all the lights again so that it's completely dark. Then go crazy: raise the lights on the floats, start up the fountains again, light the big lotus on fire, grand finale, and end the show.
