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

[Bender123]

A “playful” nod to what the park will lean towards in the coming years.

Funny thing about using this song for that purpose is you have any number of actual EPCOT songs that get the same message across..."New Horizons", "Tomorrows Child" and "Making Memories" are all songs that could literally be reworked with zero effort and still sell the idea of a bright new future for Epcot.

Put me in the game, Bob! Im ready to Imagineer!

 

[trainplane3]

Many of the original Epcot songs featured children’s voices so those don’t really bother me. I feel they need to update the announcements both for content and narrator, and then ditch A Whole New World

Those are the 3 issues I have with the show. When the kid announcer came on at 730, everyone startled chuckling. I felt that said what everyone thought of it.

With a Whole New World, I get how it ties into Epcots' future but it still feels awkward. My friends (not big Disney people) were asking me why they were playing Aladdin music. We've Just Begun would've been just as good of a fit if we're talking about the park changing.

I don't hate it but it could be a much better show with a few tweaks.

 

[Rich Brownn]

So, was it really cringeworthy or was it just a subtle nod to the fact that they’ve been doing that to all of Future World for about 20 years now?

Yeah, as I remarked in another thread, we went from where Disney characters were not to be in the park, to where Disney characters are the attraction

 

[MrHappy]

Anyone have a link to where I can listen to the pre/post show music?
(Sorry if this was discussed already. I exhausted the search feature here and on google and youtube).
I think the music is excellent.

 

[tparris]

Anyone have a link to where I can listen to the pre/post show music?
(Sorry if this was discussed already. I exhausted the search feature here and on google and youtube).
I think the music is excellent.

Forget that, I want a clean version of the actual show audio.

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Those are the 3 issues I have with the show. When the kid announcer came on at 730, everyone startled chuckling. I felt that said what everyone thought of it.

With a Whole New World, I get how it ties into Epcots' future but it still feels awkward. My friends (not big Disney people) were asking me why they were playing Aladdin music. We've Just Begun would've been just as good of a fit if we're talking about the park changing.

I don't hate it but it could be a much better show with a few tweaks.

This is the key. If they had done the One Little Spark transition and the Whole New World chrous there. Then it went into a mash up of a Whole New World, Tomorrow's Child, New Horizons and We Go On. Which, if you use WNW's double meaning, would overlap in theme. You could have had a really nice transition. Could you imagine having that, then the very ending of Illuminations: ROE (right after the white lights from the torch). But add Walt's narration right before the big fireworks. There's just so much that could have been done with these very ingredients. But, it feels phoned in and totally misses the joy of the source material.

It's the Nightime Show equivalent of the Tiki Room under New Management.

 

[RSoxNo1]

The whole new world bothers me but I think it bothered me less in person. Its certainly not a perfect show by any means. I do know that many of those who worked on this show are sort of upset by how much bashing this is getting by the fans. Its okay to not like it of course. I think it may be hard for Disney to justify fan service in the future if this is the sort of response things get. This show is also gauging how some things will go for Epcot nighttime shows in the future. Hence the higher level pyro. That is completely intentional. Gotta sell rooms at Riviera.

I didn't have an issue with the pyro, my argument was that Epcot never had "BIG" pyro. Having said that, following the first show I had the following exchange with a friend:

Me: I wasn't a fan
Friend: Me neither
Me: The pyro was fine, the music was awful
Friend: The pyro wasn't fine
Me: Epcot never really had big pyro
Friend: They did it last night.

While a good line by my friend, I maintain that it never had huge shells there and Illuminations definitely played up lower level pyro. That's not the issue for me, the audio choices absolutely were what has me hating on the show.

 

[RSoxNo1]

Many of the original Epcot songs featured children’s voices so those don’t really bother me. I feel they need to update the announcements both for content and narrator, and then ditch A Whole New World

Yes, including Tomorrow's Child where instead of children, they used adults. For Listen to the Land they went instrumental.

If they ended with an Epcot appropriate song I would have said it was mediocre but I would have been fine with the attempt. The kid singing was an odd choice, but an argument can be made that it was well intentioned. A Whole New World was insulting and shows an utter lack of understanding of what the concept of fan service means. If they're getting cold feet on future fan service shows because of this one, they're not understanding its issues. This is 100% on them for delivering an awful product and not on the fans that are criticizing it.

 

[RSoxNo1]

This is the key. If they had done the One Little Spark transition and the Whole New World chrous there. Then it went into a mash up of a Whole New World, Tomorrow's Child, New Horizons and We Go On. Which, if you use WNW's double meaning, would overlap in theme. You could have had a really nice transition. Could you imagine having that, then the very ending of Illuminations: ROE (right after the white lights from the torch). But add Walt's narration right before the big fireworks. There's just so much that could have been done with these very ingredients. But, it feels phoned in and totally misses the joy of the source material.

It's the Nightime Show equivalent of the Tiki Room under New Management.

Not far off from what I did, but I obviously couldn't change the fireworks in the last two minutes.

 

[wiredforflight]

Forget that, I want a clean version of the actual show audio.

The Disney Parks live stream had that.

 

[TimeTrip]

Not what we wanted to hear, but I understand the holiday tag has, indeed, been cut. Apparently its funding has instead allowed for holiday upgrades elsewhere, including DAK’s new package, new fireworks at MK, improvements to JB:JB, and additions to the resorts. Disappointing for Epcot, but nice everywhere else. I’m led to believe HarmoniUs will get a holiday version next year. They are knowingly shifting focus from Epcot right now as it’s objectively a mess.

That's really a shame. In addition to the loss of a great tag, it would have been neat to say "the real reason they redid the PoE audio to children's voices was because they knew they were prominently featuring children's voices in Epcot Forever"

 

[NoChesterHester]

So, was it really cringeworthy or was it just a subtle nod to the fact that they’ve been doing that to all of Future World for about 20 years now?

I don’t find it subtle.

 

[trainplane3]

The Disney Parks live stream had that.

No it didn't. You still had fireworks noises and the show audio wasn't great quality at that.

 

[wiredforflight]

No it didn't. You still had fireworks noises and the show audio wasn't great quality at that.

Interesting as I found its audio to be far superior than any other. Yes it did have fireworks noise but that felt like it was on a different channel vs music audio. As for the video part, yeah as always their stream sucks.

 

[MrHappy]

Just to keep it top of mind. Can someone capture the audio of the pre/post show music. IMHO, it rocks. Thanks in advance to the music soldier who can pull this off and post the link here

 

[jaxonp]

The whole new world bothers me but I think it bothered me less in person. Its certainly not a perfect show by any means. I do know that many of those who worked on this show are sort of upset by how much bashing this is getting by the fans. Its okay to not like it of course. I think it may be hard for Disney to justify fan service in the future if this is the sort of response things get. This show is also gauging how some things will go for Epcot nighttime shows in the future. Hence the higher level pyro. That is completely intentional. Gotta sell rooms at Riviera.

Actually people that worked on this show, many of whom came from the ROL team, have been down on this show from the beginning.

 

[TTA94]

Anyone know who’s in charge of Harmonius? Was rumored at one point to be Steve Davison.

 

[SuperStretccch]

Saw this a few days ago. I thought it was pretty decent for a temporary show, and the LED kites were a nice touch. At first glance I thought they were drones, but seems not! it was a fine distraction otherwise considering we have no globe now.

I don't have an intense connection to old Epcot like most here but I can totally see why people were bothered by the ending. Personally I didn't feel it was anything to get worked up about, and at least the other 95% was all original epcot tunes. Overall maybe it could've been better, but imho it also could've been much worse

 

[TrainsOfDisney]

Anyone know who’s in charge of Harmonius? Was rumored at one point to be Steve Davison.

I can hope. In my my opinion he always delivers a solid product even if his hands are tied with IP heavy shows.

I also think the attitude at TDO is that he’s the “old fashioned” designer and TDO can do it better.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I saw the show for a second time and my initial reaction pretty much still stands. From a technical standpoint, if this were basically any other place in the world, this would be an amazing show, but for Walt Disney World, and following in the footsteps of ROE's legacy, it's somewhat average. There are definitely some nice touches, like the spinning "sparks", the kites, the final perimeter launch, and re-using elements from ROE like the torches and illuminated countries. However, the bulk of the pyro is presented in a rather uninspired way, launching certain shell types for allotted segments without much synchronization or style. At least, that is my takeaway from it after two viewings. It bothers me that hoards of people will remember ROE for "the boring part with the globe" but not remember how dazzling the choreography of the pyro really was.

Originally I called the soundtrack "Kidz Bop-esque" but that's really only true for a few segments. The child announcers and Whole New World ending really do damper what would otherwise be an acceptable, average show, though.

Also, this time I listened to the entire pre and post-show music. I was a huge fan of the two ROE pre-show playlists and was happy when it was revealed that Epcot Forever's playlist would also be "worldly" and not IP or something. However, something occurred to me while listening - I think this might just be all stock music? None of it is bad, but it's mostly very forgettable. The tracks also all have a very similar tempo/pace which becomes somewhat monotonous compared to ROE's playlists, which changed things up with every new track.