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

[Disone]

So tonight I noticed that multiple points in the show have a steady beating heart in the background, even just the quiet narration.

Yes. Now here I'm surprised you're just now noticing it because I noticed that out the gate. Especially at the very beginning of the show. You definitely hear the heartbeat.

This just goes to show you they were 100% focused on giving Epcot its heart back

 

[TheEPCOTHistorian]

 

[SaucyBoy]

So tonight I noticed that multiple points in the show have a steady beating heart in the background, even just the quiet narration.

Yes. Now here I'm surprised you're just now noticing it because I noticed that out the gate. Especially at the very beginning of the show. You definitely hear the heartbeat.

This just goes to show you they were 100% focused on giving Epcot its heart back

Probably old news to you both, but at the beginning of the show during the narration, there are red lights on the small fountains that "palpitate" with the heartbeats.

 

[Disney4family]

Expialidocious

 

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

What I don’t care for is “The Symphony Of Us” part. I get thats the theme of the whole show but they may as well not have even called it Luminous. To me they make it sound like Luminous was the prior show and this is a new version. Like Rivers of Light: We Are One was the second version. I guess they did not want to call this Harmonious: The Symphony Of Us.

Might as well call it Illuminations symphony of us like they did with all the other versions on Illuminations.

 

[Disgruntled Walt]

Might as well call it Illuminations symphony of us like they did with all the other versions on Illuminations.

That would make it too obvious that Harmonious was a failure. Had to make it a tribute to both shows of the past. (but in that case they left out quite a few other ones from before Illuminations)

 

[ToTBellHop]

Might as well call it Illuminations symphony of us like they did with all the other versions on Illuminations.

My understanding is they were afraid it might fail after Harm and didn’t want to tarnish the IllumiNations name so they went with a similar word.

They played it safe on this show in several ways because Harm and EF received the responses they did.

 

[montyz81]

Another Disney failure. Being a Disney fan is almost exactly like being a New England Patriots fan right now. 20 years of positivity followed by four years of straight disappointment. My expectation balloon has a lot of holes in it!

 

[TheEPCOTHistorian]

My expectation balloon has a lot of holes in it!

Are you sure those are holes or is it just deflated?

 

[flyerjab]

Just saw the show live for the first time and WOW did we love it! I appreciated the idea of the use of story with actual beats. Emotion was effectively conveyed with music, either original or known songs completely recomposed. The Frozen 2 section is rather epic, and the last section where the central barge is used to propel the shells out towards the audience was fantastic. Great use of pyro, fountains and lights all around. Harmonious was basically an advertisement for Disney IP with this hideous creature parked in the lake all the time. I hated that thing.

With this show, the beauty of the lake is restored, the night ends with an emotional story, and there is both originality and creativity on display. Well done Disney.

 

[jmvd20]

The IP in Luminous is really well done, even the “ Play” segment that might be one of the weaker parts of the show is completely salvaged by the incredible pyro and lighting that takes place during that segment. The videos do not do these effects justice.

Watched it in person last night from the East side of the theater and noticed quite a few new things. Only complaint from that spot is we missed the first 20 minutes of the pre show music since the speakers were off for the Processional. I’m still not ready to say it’s better than ROE but Lumonous is a great show that I want to see each night I’m at Epcot. That alone is huge win for the park.

Edit: Just a note regarding the perimeters, I have seen the show in person with perimeters and with the comets being launched from the barges. The initial welcome is way better with the perimeters and it takes nothing away from the finale when the perimeters go off. Shows need to grab your attention and say here I am in the opening, and in the finale. Luminous does both very well.

 

[FutureCEO]

I am not yet sure it's a home run.

HEA was a home run, and this definitely not that level.

HEA did not have to grow on me.

For me personally : Out of the gate, this show had a better first impression on me than Harmonious. While Harmonious absolutely grew on me with subsequent viewings I really wanted to love my first viewing of Harmonious and I really just didn't. I had a bad view, too easy to do with the set up for Harmonious, and more then that the show just bored me. I felt the only reason why it had "more fireworks" was it was much longer. But it's firepower per minute definitely, in my opinion, was very weak. Even during big numbers like Dig a Little Deeper and it's finale the firepower in both just underwhelmed. I walked away kind of scratching my head wondering what snoozefest did I just see?

Now my first viewing of Luminous I absolutely enjoyed it. I thought the finale was fantastic, the best of out of Reflections of Earth, Harmonious and Luminous.

Having said that I also like to listen to the crowd's reactions. This entails listening to the final reaction of applause/cheers and also actively listening to what people are saying about around me post show.

Having seen the show a few times now I don't feel the post show Luminous crowds are as energetic as Harmonious. That's a head scratcher for me because this show absolutely out fire powers Harmonious especially during the finale yet the post show buzz seems more tempered.

I do enjoy reading all the love Luminous is getting on this forum. It's nice to read positive things about EPCOT, nice change indeed.

I think Harmonious had the cards stacked against it. It was the rebound relationship if you will. No matter how great it was it was never going to be better than Reflections of Earth, because well, Reflections of Earth . And for that reason alone Harmonious was doomed to fail. Now with that failure out of the way a new show can come in, expectations have been reset, understanding that reflections of Earth is now gone has definitely taken root, and as long as it was better than EPCOT Fornow, it will be accepted. Luminous checks all that and a lot more. But I would still stop shy of calling it a home run.

Happily Ever After is nice and has grown on me but we typically avoid the Castle/Main Street area due to all the people. So points off for 5 million people in close quarters.

I've watched Luminous twice and I can't get over the awful IP and I don't like the original songs so there is that.

 

[flyerjab]

The IP in Luminous is really well done, even the “ Play” segment that might be one of the weaker parts of the show is completely salvaged by the incredible pyro and lighting that takes place during that segment. The videos do not do these effects justice.

Watched it in person last night from the East side of the theater and noticed quite a few new things. Only complaint from that spot is we missed the first 20 minutes of the pre show music since the speakers were off for the Processional. I’m still not ready to say it’s better than ROE but Lumonous is a great show that I want to see each night I’m at Epcot. That alone is huge win for the park.

Could not agree more. You can’t truly judge this until you see it in person. This can be said about most things though I suppose.

I will say also that my wife loved this show, and she did not like Harmonius at all. And she is not one to post on fan sites but even she noticed the difference between this show and its predecessor. She loved the creativity of the entire show and felt that the music was very original as opposed to whatever Harmonious was.

And there were multiple times that the crowd reacted positively to what they were seeing. Just a really great show and worthy successor.

 

[Disone]

Probably old news to you both, but at the beginning of the show during the narration, there are red lights on the small fountains that "palpitate" with the heartbeats.

They do. And yes I get what they were going for. Having said that, it looks a little bit more like runway landing strip than anything else but I still appreciate the attempt.

 

[Disone]

Happily Ever After is nice and has grown on me but we typically avoid the Castle/Main Street area due to all the people. So points off for 5 million people in close quarters.

I've watched Luminous twice and I can't get over the awful IP and I don't like the original songs so there is that.

Thankyou for sharing but a bummer you're not getting any enjoyment out of either of the two shows. No show will ever be perfect for everyone. But there is no denying he has a home run for the masses. Luminous to be determined. I hope both continue to grow on you.

 

[OSUPhantom]

When I first watched it Tuesday I honestly didn't like Beating of our Hearts; it sounded too poppy. Now I can't stop listening to it.

 

[Starship824]

When I first watched it Tuesday I honestly didn't like Beating of our Hearts; it sounded too poppy. Now I can't stop listening to it.

It's been stuck in my head for 3 days now lol

 

[cgersic]

I saw the show this past Friday for the first time. I was at the Port of Entry plaza just to the left of the Joy stage, to the right of the dessert party. I was able to see the majority of it, but really wished I had been closer to one of the sides to get the full affects of the "arms". I've seen many shows at Epcot, and I have to say this one was really, really good. I agree that the music is lacking at points, but I didn't feel that the narration was too much. The pyro however is just Amazing! The colored lasers add a lot, and the piece that comes up from the middle section literally made me "WOW" out loud. I was truly disappointed when I didn't get to see it again on Sunday night, but between the weather and my tired legs, I wasn't able to. And that's the first time in a very long time I was that disappointed about not making it back to Epcot at the end of the day! I'm calling this a Win.

 

[wbostic12]

AFAIK, no recordings exist. Mine should be edited this week, drum circle included.

Can you let me know when you get it out and how to find it? Will there be a show recording as well?

 

[markham]

I was not such a fan of Hamonious, but really like Luminous from the videos I’ve seen online. The original music is so much better IMO than We Go On, which as a teen when ROE debuted, made my skin crawl. It was a cheesy piece of music that sounded like it belonged on Delilah’s radio show. Don’t get me wrong. I loved the ROE show, especially the Big Bang, Building up of society/culture story and the orchestrated music was played non-stop on my old cd player, but that last song did not live up to the rest.

That said, and if I haven’t dated myself enough already in this post, I always thought a cool upgrade would have been all the planets, not just earth, in high def new tech and no ocean screen cutouts. This scene since the closing of the Barcelona Olympics has always been seared into my brain. Sorry if it’s too armchair imagineering for this thread, just a thought I think often haha.