Watched from Italy (in park) and here are my initial thoughts:
- for context, Illuminations was my favorite thing Disney has done. Promise is our wedding song, nothing will top that nor do I expect anything to or judge it against that. I was also OK with it being replaced as it had a 20yr run and allows me to miss it now and think of it fondly.
- I saw Harmonious opening night and about 7-8x. I didn’t love or adore it. Felt it was OK, overall. I disliked the inclusion of typical Disney movie music the most, yet the way it was used felt like the best way possible by giving it an EPCOT flair. I did love the few bits of original music and the fireworks themselves. From a technical perspective it was super impressive and the arms shooting fireworks out was my favorite part along with the finale. I didn’t mind nearly as much as everyone else about the barges and ring messing up views on the lagoon. Didn’t love that part but it wasn’t a sore point or deal breaker for me.
- I went in with an open mind to Luminous thinking “OK Disney heard the criticisms and spent the $ to make a change”, no small feat indeed. Yet when it was announced there was Disney music AGAIN my 1st thought was, “they think the barges/ring were the biggest problem?” (It wasn’t for me).
- Show starts and right from the get-go things feel off. Everyone saying “Welcome” sounded robotic, stiff and forced. Narrator was boring, reading from a dry script. The whole thing came across as cold, calculated and corporate. Yeah they are trying to tell a message about unity between all people, which in theory I like and 100% fits the theme/ethos of EPCOT, but manner in which it was done did not “land” with me.
- The bits of Disney movie music they used fit the story they are trying to tell and sometimes used sparingly, other times went on way too long. It came across like they are trying to serve two masters at the same time: Disney corporate, who desperately requires IP in it but also trying to make you not realize they are doing that. It felt sneaky and trying to pull the wool over my eyes, dare I say it felt insulting. Like a bunch of PR people trying to shovel some phony “hug your neighbor moments”.
- say what you will about Harmonious (Jungle book & Tiana sections did NOT work well at all), but it was not trying to be something it was NOT. I appreciated its honesty even though I didn’t care for that direction. It was a Disney music concert with cool fireworks and something NEW/DIFFERENT.
- Luminous tries to appease everyone and fails on all counts. It really needs to pick a lane and decide what it wants to be. Trying to be a sappy weepy feel good presentation run up the chain through multiple corporate suits signing off on it feels sterile. There are ZERO “wow” moments in the show. Nothing unique about the fireworks themselves (yeah yeah they did
, color me unimpressed). The 2 new songs also sound like something you’d hear on the radio and overall fairly “lifeless”.
- To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. I want nothing more than EPCOT to have a great show as that park is my favorite to close out the night in.
- I will give this more viewings in the coming weeks/months and hope I learn to love it and have that eureka moment where I’m like “OK I get it now”, certainly not ruling that out and would be glad to be dead wrong. But these are my feelings after tonight. On a more positive note, I did enjoy the new spine of EPCOT, it’s a vast improvement over what was there 4 years ago (though I do miss the Fountain of Nations) but understand why it was removed.
