News 'Disney Enchantment' coming to Magic Kingdom October 1 2021

SoFloMagic

Well-Known Member
I wonder what the response would have been to this show had it not been a part of the wildly underwhelming 50th.

Imagine "the magic is calling" never existed and the entire celebration was about the guests and cast who've made the place magical for 50 years.

The word "earidescent" never existed. The castle was never painted those hideous colors.

Then is this show going away? I think no. Its a failure because it is the centerpiece of the 50th. I don't know how they didn't understand that's how it would be viewed.
 

Disney Glimpses

Well-Known Member
There's a deeper story than most realize, which tells the audience of chasing our dreams and the adversity we will experience along the way.

Almost There is the beginning of the hero's journey, aiming for goals and pursuing dreams, but seeing failures right out of the gate (i.e. Hercules being crushed).

We Know the Way is when you become more certain of yourself and have created a path towards your goals, beginning the journey with those you trust.

Joe Gardner takes the story into the "zone", with the Mary Blair artwork and music representing the whimsy and joy we feel when genuinely pursuing our goals. We're on top of the world with success, and feeling the joy of those rewards. This segment also covers the friendships and relationships we create along the way, which help us "fly".

Our journey to our goals will sometimes take us "Into the Unknown", where fear and self-doubt take their tolls on our motivation.

Finally, we can spiral out of that unknown into full blown defeat, as our inner demons consume us (Night on Bald Mountain)

I Am Moana then represents the moment we find ourselves and snap out of that defeat, triumphantly realizing that we once again "know the way".

The show then ends as a reminder that we cannot sit back and wait for out Happily Ever After to magically bestow itself upon us. We have to get up and chase our goals, feeling success, failure, and every emotion in between. We are the magic in our own stories, and we control our destiny.
All of this may be true and Enchantment definitely suffered from associations with unpleasant changes at the parks. I still think the show missed the mark but I agree that the consensus judgement of the show is not proportional with reality.
 

TDLFan

Well-Known Member
The reality is, it was the most significant anniversary (that most of us will live to see), in the world's most popular vacation destination, and they couldn't be bothered to acknowledge it, already having a treasure trove of audio and video to choose from over the resorts 5 decades. It was a less than half hearted attempt to push Disney plus. Nothing to celebrate the resort, the cast, the founders, the thousands of artists, engineers, ect. that created the place. Only after significant pushback did they have to put Walt and Mickey in a WDW 50th show. Its insane. Screw them. - And one more thing, this idea that Enchantment wasn't meant for the 50th, was only an excuse so they wouldn't have to acknowledge it.
 
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No Name

Well-Known Member
The reality is, it was the most significant anniversary (that most of us will live to see), in the world's most popular vacation destination, and they couldn't be bothered to acknowledge it, already having a treasure trove of audio and video to choose from over the resorts 5 decades. It was a less than half hearted attempt to push Disney plus. Nothing to celebrate the resort, the cast, the founders, the thousands of artists, engineers, ect. that created the place. Only after significant pushback did they have to put Walt and Mickey in a WDW 50th show. Its insane. Screw them. - And one more thing, this idea that Enchantment wasn't meant for the 50th, was only an excuse so they wouldn't have to acknowledge it.
Well part of the reason is that it wasn’t supposed to just be a 50th show, it was supposed to potentially be a long-term replacement for HEA, which was an insanely stupid idea.

I have faith you’ll be around for the 100th! Stay strong my friend (whose age and health I know nothing about)!
 

MagicHappens1971

Well-Known Member
The reality is, it was the most significant anniversary (that most of us will live to see), in the world's most popular vacation destination, and they couldn't be bothered to acknowledge it, already having a treasure trove of audio and video to choose from over the resorts 5 decades. It was a less than half hearted attempt to push Disney plus. Nothing to celebrate the resort, the cast, the founders, the thousands of artists, engineers, ect. that created the place. Only after significant pushback did they have to put Walt and Mickey in a WDW 50th show. Its insane. Screw them. - And one more thing, this idea that Enchantment wasn't meant for the 50th, was only an excuse so they wouldn't have to acknowledge it.
As the egg just mentioned, the paramount issue with the show was that Disney was being cheap. The show wasn’t just designed for the 50th (it barley was) but it was designed to be a long term replacement for HEA. Instead of creating a new show for the 50th and then bringing HEA or something else back afterwards, which is what they’re doing anyway.
Stupid choices = stupid consequences
(see Harmonious & Enchantment)
 

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
It also suffered because it wasn’t Remember Dreams Come True. Because of the pandemic Disney nerds like us were a far larger minority of guests when it debuted. We all expected something similar in scope and subject matter. When we didn’t get that it was already on shaky ground. Then when it debuted and seemed less grand then HEA up went all the negative reviews and we influenced the GP.
 

gerarar

Premium Member
The FL roof exploding pyro in the finale returned tonight. Better late then never I guess lol.

Edit: not exactly tonight, but they came back last week on the 21st (did some digging on livestreams since then).
 
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brb1006

Well-Known Member
Well part of the reason is that it wasn’t supposed to just be a 50th show, it was supposed to potentially be a long-term replacement for HEA, which was an insanely stupid idea.

I have faith you’ll be around for the 100th! Stay strong my friend (whose age and health I know nothing about)!
Heck, Disney Enchantment didn't make their fireworks show relevant to WDW's 50th until near the end of the celebration by adding a new introduction by Mickey Mouse and a short montage of various attractions.
 

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
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mattpeto

Well-Known Member
I seriously don’t understand the hate for this show. This type of hate should be reserved for Mix Magic level!
The hate for the show is probably not warranted. It’s a got a nice theme song, and any projection and pyro will look lovely over CC.

But it followed up a fan favorite that had a short-run overall, off the heels of Covid restrictions.

But the main reason it deserves hate is the original version had nothing to do with WDW.
 

SaucyBoy

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
This was actually the first Magic Kingdom fireworks show I never saw. When I was in the park last July, we got drenched in an afternoon thunderstorm that turned into one of those annoying all evening rains. I couldn't be bothered to go back out after I went back to the room to change. Part of me regrets not giving it chance but suffice to say I'm glad HEA returns tomorrow.
 

gerarar

Premium Member
I seriously don’t understand the hate for this show. This type of hate should be reserved for Mix Magic level!
  • Nothing to do with the 50th. No Mickey, Walt/Roy, or anything WDW really. Took them ~10 months and immense guest feedback to finally do something about it. That alone is just ridiculous.
  • Meh covers on songs. The Frozen 2 "Into The Unknown" was the worst cover of the entire show imo, and I really like that song.
  • And on the topic of songs, might as well rename Disney Enchantment to "Moana, featuring some Disney songs".
  • Using the "I Am Moana" climax as a replacement for Mufasa's "Remember Who You Are" was a losing battle. It works in Fantasmic, so at least there's that.
  • Tink emotional buildup is nonexistent. 10 secs and it's over.
  • Shows original runtime was 12 mins, and with the extended intro and finale (compared to HEA's), the actual content of the show was small.
And that's not to say there were some pros.
  • The lighting was fantastic, and the Hub light rigs were actually improved with DE.
  • Lasers were reportedly upgraded and their full potential can be seen during Into The Unknown and Moana reprise.
  • The pyro and shells were simply beautiful, although the syncing in some sequences and parts were questionable. Two new launch sites were even built as part of Project Nugget.
Good thing is that the new lighting and lasers were incorporated into HEA 2.0's return, along with the return of pre-pandemic pyro. So now DE's (few) successes and new infrastructure gets to continue on.

Just like Harmonius, DE was set up to fail before it even premiered on October 1, 2021. They hoped to replicate HEA by utilizing the same template and structure, and well the show suffered bc of that. DE is a good show by any means, but it was a hard task to follow up to its predecessor. They should've focused on creating an anniversary show for the 50th, instead of a permanent replacement for the MK.
 
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MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
  • Nothing to do with the 50th. No Mickey, Walt/Roy, or anything WDW really. Took them ~10 months and immense guest feedback to finally do something about it. That alone is just ridiculous.
  • Meh covers on songs. The Frozen 2 "Into The Unknown" was the worst cover of the entire show imo, and I really like that song.
  • And on the topic of songs, might as well rename Disney Enchantment to "Moana, featuring some Disney songs".
  • Using the "I Am Moana" climax as a replacement for Mufasa's "Remember Who You Are" was a losing battle. It works in Fantasmic, so at least there's that.
  • Tink emotional buildup is nonexistent. 10 secs and it's over.
  • Shows original runtime was 12 mins, and with the extended intro and finale (compared to HEA's), the actual content of the show was small.
  • The projections down Main Street were awful
    • They didn't have the 'turning to gold' effect that the concept art showed
    • They weren't on half the time
    • They were flash animation type animation, with characters looking like they were made on Microsoft Paint
    • There were noticeable gaps in the coverage of the facades
 

gerarar

Premium Member
  • The projections down Main Street were awful
    • They didn't have the 'turning to gold' effect that the concept art showed
    • They weren't on half the time
    • They were flash animation type animation, with characters looking like they were made on Microsoft Paint
    • There were noticeable gaps in the coverage of the facades
I never got to see the projections along Main Street. Only had the opportunity to see DE twice during my last trip and both were from inside the hub. Hence I didn't comment on it.

But from the numerous videos I have seen, I tend to agree. Although I liked the projections during the finale when they "swipe" through the different colors of the castle, aka HEA style.
 

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