News Epcot Forever to debut as interim show before full Reflections of Earth replacement

[itsy bitsy spider]

Geez, bring on Harmonious. This is... to put it nicely really, really awful and more boring than Ferris Bueller's teacher.

 

[PirateFrank]

I say this with the disclaimer that I fully understand commenting on this, without seeing the fireworks show in person is dubious.

But I just watched the show online....and I am disgusted. What crap! I can't even expand beyond that blanket statement. The whole thing is garbage. We went from RoE, arguably the greatest fireworks show I've ever seen as an adult....to this garbage. I'm sick to my stomach.

We loses wishes to HEA - a cheap show filled with IP, devoid of any strong theming.....then we lose RoE to this garbage. I never thought I'd be emotionally raped by a bunch of TDO blowhards that don't know what they're doing....It might be time to postpone my next visit until they start bringing back quality.

 

[Disney Villain]

We watched this Friday night and plan on seeing it again this week. It definitely feels like a temporary show. Overall we enjoyed it. We just wanted something more.

Every time we heard a song and began to feel that emotional connection, boom, they move on to something else. I wish they let songs and scenes linger a bit longer. The kites were a nice touch, especially during the American part.

The Whole New World section didn’t feel out of place, as it is the future of Epcot. I wish they could have mixed something Epcot with ‘A Whole New World’. Maybe mix it with ‘We Go On’ to have a more impactful finale.

The child narrators were an odd choice. This show was the perfect opportunity to have Epcot characters, like Figment, host. Had I never been to Epcot before or had little to no knowledge about Disney history, I would have found the show odd and confusing.

It’s nothing spectacular but it’s nice.

 

[RSoxNo1]

@lentesta - I know you're just the messenger here, but the explanation of how Aladdin / A Whole New World fit into this show is laughable at best. If you were to list 500 things about Epcot that people would want put into an Epcot tribute show, the Aladdin VR experience wouldn't be on any of those lists. Devoting 2 minutes of the show to Aladdin was tone deaf. They couldn't have done a better job trolling Epcot fans if they tried.

 

[wdwmagic]

Since seeing the debut showing in person that night in the Park, now that I am back home I have gone back and viewed a couple of videos of 'Epcot Forever' to see how it translates on the screen.

I watched two videos, the Disney Parks Blog broadcast and WDWMagic's video of the Show and in both cases much of the laser effects are barely visible.
In person, the sky is literally alight with many laser beams and twisting patterns of light.
Very VERY little of that shows up in videos.
So for those who haven't yet had the opportunity to see this in person, rest assured that there is a LOT more going on during some of the segments then appears to be by watching video versions.

As I've mentioned before, the laser elements were cool.
A shame they don't photograph well as looking at those videos after seeing it in person makes it look like a completely different production.

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The visibility of the lasers is hugely dependent on atmospheric conditions and the viewing angle. Our video is very representative of the show as seen from that location. The lasers were barely visible to the naked eye just as seen in the video.

this has always been the case since they switched to the colored lasers years ago.

 

[lentesta]

@lentesta - I know you're just the messenger here, but the explanation of how Aladdin / A Whole New World fit into this show is laughable at best. If you were to list 500 things about Epcot that people would want put into an Epcot tribute show, the Aladdin VR experience wouldn't be on any of those lists. Devoting 2 minutes of the show to Aladdin was tone deaf. They couldn't have done a better job trolling Epcot fans if they tried.

It was, as the kids say, a stretch.

 

[RSoxNo1]

It was, as the kids say, a stretch.

It sounded like they wanted to use "A Whole New World" and came up with an excuse to use it. The good/bad thing about that song is that it's message can be interpreted a multitude of different ways if it was never previously used in Aladdin.

I agreed with most of what you said, but thought you were too generous in your B+ grade. I wasn't expecting a technically superior show, but I expected the music to be on point. It wasn't. This really bothered me.

 

[KevinPage]

I myself am going to reserve judgement until I see it at least 2 more times and give it a month or so for my brain to digest it all.

Trying to follow up ROE is an impossible task, even knowing going in it’s a temporary nostalgia romp. I also think a lot of us had inflated expectations for this show. It feels like a a stop gap and do expect something much more “whiz bang” to close out a night at EPCOT.

My raw, emotionally drained opinions about opening night (being the 3rd straight long day closing a park after an emotional Monday of ROE and panel discussion with the creators)

1. Enjoyed the kites, nice and different touch

2. Thought the pyro was pretty decent, didn’t stand out as inferior or superior than what I’m used to at Disney.

3. Didn’t really mind the kids singing. I’ve known plenty of guests (and multiple kids of family members) who don’t associate Epcot with Disney and they want more of what they are accustomed to at MK. So trying to hook in kids (with songs only adults know), I view as trying to keep interest in 2 demographics.

4. I didn’t think of Whole New World as their devious attempt to “plant a seed” for the next show. I can see how from a PR sense it serves a dual purpose: its over 20 years old, it’s an IP, they can fall back on the VR Epcot thing but also being a nod to the future (and again something newer generation of kids will know). Yeah it sticks out too much compared to everything else and ideally can still be used, but lessen the amount of time it hangs around.

Can’t they give us more than 1.5 seconds of TOMORROWS CHILD?!?!?! (And for the record I’m PRO Jeremy Irons, not Cronkite)

 

[Kman101]

Appreciate the kind words. It also shows that what they put out there isn't that far off from being worthwhile. Changing the last 2 1/2 minutes to something and making fireworks tweaks would be more than satisfactory.

But one of the problems is, everyone wants different things. Some think more fireworks makes a better show. For me it's the entire presentation. I enjoyed most of it.

I also think Epcot purists and fans wanted whole songs. Not choppy cuts and poor transitions.

I certainly didn't want A Whole New World blaring, but if anyone read spoilers they knew IP would be included in the end, did they not? I knew.

Is it "I wanted more" or is it "truly a bad show"?

One of the problems we all tend to have is we put our expectations on something and if they're not meant, it's suddenly a terrible show. But ... is it? (I'm more mixed than anything but I don't think it's nearly as awful as some are making it out to be, but YMMV and it depends what you wanted and what they gave you).

I had no expectations because I knew what to expect, so I wasn't as disappointed as others were.

And they just aren't going to invest as much in a temporary show (doesn't mean I agree with it, just ... how it is). IIRC didn't this get a budget INCREASE? So imagine what it would be like if they didn't ....

They could have done nothing for six-nine months ...

 

[TimeTrip]

The visibility of the lasers is hugely dependent on atmospheric conditions and the viewing angle. Our video is very representative of the show as seen from that location. The lasers were barely visible to the naked eye just as seen in the video.

this has always been the case since they switched to the colored lasers years ago.

This is so true. Finding a good place for laser viewing is so hard. It was quite windy the premiere evening, which meant the smoke wasn't really lingering either.

In general, i've found that the showcase plaza, and the area b/w france and morocco is pretty good. I've always had a terrible time catching lasers around Italy/germany, or over by china/norway/mexico. I watched illuminations (sunday before last show) from Germany and was terribly disappointed, as I thought Canada had a main laser, but I couldn't see anything.

I also wonder if the mexico -> italy stretch is more likely to have their opposite of the lagoon lasers shut off because of air traffic. Do they still disable lasers due to this?

 

[brb1006]

The latest episode of Disney Dish actually explains how "A Whole New World" got into this show. You can blame the executives and Bob Chapek for this decision.

 

[Disney Analyst]

I say this with the disclaimer that I fully understand commenting on this, without seeing the fireworks show in person is dubious.

But I just watched the show online....and I am disgusted. What crap! I can't even expand beyond that blanket statement. The whole thing is garbage. We went from RoE, arguably the greatest fireworks show I've ever seen as an adult....to this garbage. I'm sick to my stomach.

We loses wishes to HEA - a cheap show filled with IP, devoid of any strong theming.....then we lose RoE to this garbage. I never thought I'd be emotionally raped by a bunch of TDO blowhards that don't know what they're doing....It might be time to postpone my next visit until they start bringing back quality.

I mean. Go off I guess? But HEA > Wishes.

just wait for the actual ROE replacement... you’re gonna steam from your ears when that debuts.

 

[FigmentJedi]

We loses wishes to HEA - a cheap show filled with IP, devoid of any strong theming.....

But Wishes was also a cheap show filled with IP. The only difference is that it was way more sugary and laden with kid voices.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The latest episode of Disney Dish actually explains how "A Whole New World" got into this show. You can blame the executives and Bob Chapek for this decision.

I was going to anyways. It was an awful choice.

 

[The Empress Lilly]

And just like that, with one wave of the hand, you've got a perfect interim fireworks show.

 

[brb1006]

Figment was the original proposal for the narrator of Forever.

According to Martin, Figment was planned as the show's narrator.

 

[mikejs78]

According to Martin, Figment was planned as the show's narrator.

They obviously made the wrong choice.

 

[jrhwdw]

Oh! This week is going well!!!!! EF was cannceld tonight! From what i got from Twitter, EF was delyed with very little info, not a lot of Announcements and Finally canceled at 10:47! People are NOT HAPPY with the lack of communication the last few days!! For the record I got this from Twitter. I'm nowhere near FL now, so someone can correct me in the situation.
This isn't good guys! WDW NEEDS to get their communication under control!!(if there was really was a lack of delay announcements)Most likely this was a 1 night fluke but if WDW can't keep Skyliner and EF running.... Something has to change and heads needs to roll!

 

[note2001]

According to Martin, Figment was planned as the show's narrator.

Which version of Figment though? 1.0 would work but not so sure I'd want the annoying brat version narrating.

 

[Figments Friend]

Epcot Forever was cancelled tonight, as a respectful moment of silence for the disassembly and removal of the former Earth Barge fixture elements the other day.

Rest in pieces, dear circular 'globe" show element made of steel and LED bulbs....


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