News EPCOT's Harmonious to be replaced with new nighttime spectacular Luminous

[Squishy]

A more immersive show would help mitigate the fact that, with year-round festivals, great views of the center of the lagoon are rather limited, especially if you are shorter than 5 feet tall.

They attempted giant tacos and the world’s largest donut and we balked. So they’ll need to try something(s) else. And whatever they try will need unobtrusive infrastructure.

Thousands of drones forming both 3D models & a 2D content screen surrounding the outer perimeter of world showcase above backstage roads & buildings would be the most impressive & immersive option but Disney accounting is not ready for discussing such a thing. But I guess it would also lead to disappointment during decent wind gusts.

 

[pdude81]

Thousands of drones forming both 3D models & a 2D content screen surrounding the outer perimeter of world showcase above backstage roads & buildings would be the most impressive & immersive option but Disney accounting is not ready for discussing such a thing. But I guess it would also lead to disappointment during decent wind gusts.

I assume they wouldn't want to since too much money into a preshow, but a drone pre-show to warm people up while getting ready for fireworks would be a great add. In the spirit of the limited OUAT we used to have in MK. And if there were wind or technical issues, it's just a warm up and could be cut. No refund on the dessert party if the drones don't fly

 

[marni1971]

How many Years was IlllumiNations(any Show)with GE????? GE or Siemens wouldn't help with that???

Disney - not a sponsor -wouldn’t do it for Harmonious.

Ehh, did they really from across the lagoon?.

IMHO yes. But they were large, simple projections. Not the bling-fest video you’ll see during HEA.

 

[jrhwdw]

Disney - not a sponsor -wouldn’t do it for Harmonious.

IMHO yes. But they were large, simple projections. Not the bling-fest video you’ll see during HEA.

My point is....Disney never thought about Norway Lights until Harm???

Norway was opened 6 Months into 1988 IllumiNations!

 

[Epcot82Guy]

I always thought an immersive section during I:ROE's globe section could have done wonders. It would have been one time where people looking at the globe, at the buildings across and the buildings near them could have worked. Then you pull attention back to the center with the fireworks. I realize this would never happen with modern Disney, but repurposing the ROL Lotuses (in a much larger area now where they could have had their own "zones" and projection mapping the buildings to better explain the "globe's story" could have been a pretty cool upgrade IMHO.

 

[Rich Brownn]

Didn't all the WS pavilions receive popcorn lighting for the original IllumiNations? IIRC, the only pavilions without the popcorn lights are Morocco and Norway. Morocco because its facades are based on religious buildings and Norway because it's directly opposite Morocco across the lagoon (to maintain symmetry).

One of my favorite moments was when "Illuminations" premiered without the lights in place for England. The music played, but the pavilion was dark. Someoneone yelled out 'Insert England Here!' and the crowd roared.

 

[aladdin2007]

A little discussion on Twitter that is happening is the potential of World Showcase Pavilions projections for the new show. I don't even know how the infrastructure would work, but I'd welcome something more immersive than a show with just pyro and lasers as the visuals (eg - Epcot Forever).

They use to with IlluminNations, remember when Germany was turned into a gingerbread castle? No reason why they cant do this kind of thing again, it was ahead of its time back in the 90s. But I would worry all they would do is project giant in your face characters on the pavilions and nothing to do with the country itself....they even had pop up lit lighting effects that rose up off the roofs, moulin rouge for France, a clock for Germany, dragon for China, etc.

 

[bcoachable]

A little discussion on Twitter that is happening is the potential of World Showcase Pavilions projections for the new show. I don't even know how the infrastructure would work, but I'd welcome something more immersive than a show with just pyro and lasers as the visuals (eg - Epcot Forever).

But the projections would be so hard for us all to see…
I’ve got it!
Maybe they we could just project on screens that are spread out in the lagoon? Maybe the screens should be some geometric tear drop shape to create a vibe? We could add big fountains to waterfall from the top to help hide them during the day…

 

[SoFloMagic]

They attempted giant tacos and the world’s largest donut and we balked. So they’ll need to try something(s) else.

Giant crunch wrap and world's largest Danish

 

[Epcot82Guy]

Giant crunch wrap and world's largest Danish

It will be the shape of a large wine glass, beer stein and martini glass...

...Barmonious...

 

[TTA94]

I so badly want the new show to be like WoC and have that Wow factor that it has. Of course it would need to be done by movable barges. I know not everyone finds the WoC fountains to be that exciting but surly that type of show would be very well received at Epcot. I also wouldn’t mind a copy or similar theme song like “Start A Wave”. Overall I do believe they could top WoC in World Showcase Lagoon if they wanted to. The potential is there.

 

[TQQQ]

I so badly want the new show to be like WoC and have that Wow factor that it has. Of course it would need to be done by movable barges. I know not everyone finds the WoC fountains to be that exciting but surly that type of show would be very well received at Epcot. I also wouldn’t mind a copy or similar theme song like “Start A Wave”. Overall I do believe they could top WoC in World Showcase Lagoon if they wanted to. The potential is there.

No thanks. Rather bring back illuminations

 

[WorldExplorer]

It will be the shape of a large wine glass, beer stein and martini glass...

...Barmonious...

You can tell how unpopular Harmonious was because no one made this shirt.

 

[Andrew25]

I say this as someone who hates Harmonious and is waiting patiently for the removal of the barges.

You can tell park executives are not spending time in the park because the general public does actually like Harmonious. I might be wrong and they probably have data to back up their decision to remove Harmonious from guest satisfaction scores, but I always observe lots of happy people dancing/singing during the show and saying how cool it was after it ends.

 

[thundermtnGOAT]

Content-wise, I think Harmonious was a good 2-3 revisions away from being a perfect show. Had the show opened with more cohesive narrative moments between the sections like it had during the Disney+ special, I think it would have solved lots of issues about the lack of a defined story or thru-line that connected each segment together.

Unfortunately content updates won’t matter compared to the incredibly shortsighted decision of permanently anchoring such ugly fixtures in the lagoon. Early concept art made it seem like these platforms had sculpted pieces on them to at least give them some sort of visual aesthetic, but nope. Just black rigging.

 

[Touchdown]

I say this as someone who hates Harmonious and is waiting patiently for the removal of the barges.

You can tell park executives are not spending time in the park because the general public does actually like Harmonious. I might be wrong and they probably have data to back up their decision to remove Harmonious from guest satisfaction scores, but I always observe lots of happy people dancing/singing during the show and saying how cool it was after it ends.

That’s not the whole story, because that’s only the people who watched it. You have to sample the evening attendance of Epcot in its entirety. A significant portion of that crowd does not watch the show. That’s the issue, Illuminations captured far more people.

 

[Mickeynerd17]

A significant portion of that crowd does not watch the show. That’s the issue, Illuminations captured far more people.

Bingo.

IROE was always a must-do whenever I visited. I saw Harmonious once and decided exploring the pavilions late at night was a better use of my time.

 

[WorldExplorer]

I know current management doesn't care, but I'd argue "people sing and dance to it" is absolutely not what you want from a night time show. At least not one in this location.

It's not supposed to be a DJ. It's not supposed to be karaoke night. It's not supposed to be a rave.

They insist Harmonious has a heart and important things to say. They spent millions on the visuals.

And people are just treating it like a dance party, singing along to songs they already knew.

That's a lose in my book. Especially in a location like World Showcase, following something like Illuminations.

 

[Bocabear]

I wanted to love it...especially after permanently mooring those barges... but when I watched it for the first time, withing 4 minutes it was like.... yeah...it is soul-less. I noticed people excited as it began and after a few minutes they were looking elsewhere....
It's these Movie clip shows.... They don't engage people... It's just a sing along set of clips broadcast from the barges...They need a good show writer...

 

[bcoachable]

My take on the two shows, as a former coach:
Harmonious is what you would expect to hear from a coach during the post game interview with the media.
IROE is what you would expect to hear from a coach if you were IN the locker room with the team.