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

[MisterPenguin]

A Closer Look at Impressive Centerpiece Barge Hardware for 'Luminous The Symphony of Us' Fireworks Show at EPCOT

During a recent visit to EPCOT, we noticed that the impressive centerpiece barge was extended as crews were preparing it for the show

blogmickey.com

 

[Tom Morrow]

When Luminous debuted I was really negative about it ITT because I was going through some things.

Well, I finally saw it in person. I can't say that I love it, but it's significantly better in Harmonious in so many ways. While I believe an Epcot night show should be all original music and no IP, the music and the way its presented in this feels at least somewhat appropriate for Epcot. It feels tastefully chosen. It does not feel like a Disney greatest hits marketing singalong like Harmonious did (with the exception of the You've Got a Friend in Me segment which should be cut). The narration prevents the show from feeling segmented which is a problem that plagues all the other recent nighttime shows.

Another major improvement over Harmonious is that the show doesn't have all the different visual elements fighting for your attention the entire time. It smartly directs your attention from one element to the next, rather than having them all on blast constantly which got boring very quickly. Harmonious felt like it was doing the same thing the entire time. This also makes the show very much about the pyro, and this has probably the most impressive pyro at WDW.

15 minutes I feel is an appropriate show length for this type of presentation as well. Harmonious was such a slog.

The way the pavilions are incorporated into the show is cool.

The pre-show music is cool as is the way it runs into the main show.

Most importantly, this show actually attempts and succeeds at making you feel emotions about life. Making you confront the fact that losing someone is an inevitable part of life? Very bold choice, something I was not expecting current Disney to do, and I like it.

I do think it needs to pull one final "trick" yet unseen for the finale, as the finale was a bit unremarkable. But other than that, this is probably the best show we could have gotten from current Disney Parks, and by that I mean something still much more appropriate for Epcot could have been made, but I'm surprised they bent even a little bit in that direction with this show.

 

[Chef idea Mickey`=]

Anybody here curious as I am about the delay over Pinar Topraks arrangement. My question is was it 70% needed to be redone based on how the version sounded or what it was meaning are we counting the entire soundtrack was there no disney music songs then or was there and it's just the arrangements that Disney disliked... I'm so curious as to something disney would dislike unless they really were scared not to have a Harmonious 2.0 but the singers were great.

 

[Andrew25]

All the barges outside of the center one, were not present in the lagoon earlier today. Looks like they finally finished all the work they needed to do?

 

[mattpeto]

Anybody here curious as I am about the delay over Pinar Topraks arrangement. My question is was it 70% needed to be redone based on how the version sounded or what it was meaning are we counting the entire soundtrack was there no disney music songs then or was there and it's just the arrangements that Disney disliked... I'm so curious as to something disney would dislike unless they really were scared not to have a Harmonious 2.0 but the singers were great.

I don’t know if I buy any of those rumors from Corless or Brayden. Nobody here validated it IIRC.

 

[mattpeto]

We do really need the soundtrack and the original songs. I believe Scott Gustin was told we would get them at some point, but nothing so far.

 

[TTA94]

We do really need the soundtrack and the original songs. I believe Scott Gustin was told we would get them at some point, but nothing so far.

Yeah I hope it gets released soon. Unfortunately it’s possible Disney is waiting till more people see the show during the busy Spring and Summer before they release it.

 

[JD80]

We do really need the soundtrack and the original songs. I believe Scott Gustin was told we would get them at some point, but nothing so far.

I'm slowly making our home videos from our recent trip and I could really use the soundtrack for my video editing.

 

[𝕴𝖒𝖆𝖌𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖊𝖗97]

Haven't posted the poll in a while, but I'm sure more people have probably seen it in person now, so feel free to change your votes accordingly if your impressions have changed:

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/luminous-the-symphony-of-us-poll.982619/

Current snapshot:

 

[JD80]

Haven't posted the poll in a while, but I'm sure more people have probably seen it in person now, so feel free to change your votes accordingly if your impressions have changed:

https://forums.wdwmagic.com/threads/luminous-the-symphony-of-us-poll.982619/

Current snapshot:
View attachment 764290

I dislike the way you wrote the "Great Show" line because it doesn't really promote on a scale of 1 to 5 because it's a 4 rating with a negative connotation to it. So I think your results are going to be off.

However, based on this small sample size, the results of Video only and In Person are pretty much the same:

	In Person		Video
1​	1​	2%​	4​	5%​
2​	6​	12%​	10​	12%​
3​	11​	21%​	16​	20%​
4​	31​	60%​	51​	62%​
5​	3​	6%​	1​	1%​
TOTAL	52​		82​

 

[monorail81]

Finally saw it in person on Saturday. Better than Harmonious. Visually stunning. The big problem for me is all the narration kills any momentum that gets built.

 

[ToTBellHop]

I dislike the way you wrote the "Great Show" line because it doesn't really promote on a scale of 1 to 5 because it's a 4 rating with a negative connotation to it. So I think your results are going to be off.

However, based on this small sample size, the results of Video only and In Person are pretty much the same:

	In Person		Video
1​	1​	2%​	4​	5%​
2​	6​	12%​	10​	12%​
3​	11​	21%​	16​	20%​
4​	31​	60%​	51​	62%​
5​	3​	6%​	1​	1%​
TOTAL	52​		82​

Agreed. It’s not a very objective survey. When you combine a subjective question with subjective answers, the results are largely useless. Especially when the administrator bolds their own response.

 

[Andrew25]

Every single showing I've seen (15 now) of Luminous has been met with applause, something Harmonious never really got.

 

[Vinnie Mac]

Every single showing I've seen (15 now) of Luminous has been met with applause, something Harmonious never really got.

Disney is now realizing that people actually like original music with a unifying message and good pyro instead of massive oversized barges

 

[wbostic12]

Haven’t been truly been paying attention to it, but have the barges gone to a full nightly roll out since the end of the holidays? I know there was one point where they were still leaving the central barge, but wondering if anything has changed.

 

[wdwmagic]

Haven’t been truly been paying attention to it, but have the barges gone to a full nightly roll out since the end of the holidays? I know there was one point where they were still leaving the central barge, but wondering if anything has changed.

It is still variable. Things are still new, so the things have not yet settled into the regular pattern.

 

[gerarar]

DVC Moonlight Magic at Epcot was held tonight (1/25).

There was a short 5 mins firework show. This marks the first time the Luminous barges were used for such exclusive show. Pretty decent usage of fountains, lights, pyro, and perimeters (only half the lagoon launchers were used seems like). The hydraulic finale rig was not used.

 

[wbostic12]

DVC Moonlight Magic at Epcot was held tonight (1/25).

There was a short 5 mins firework show. This marks the first time the Luminous barges were used for such exclusive show. Pretty decent usage of fountains, lights, pyro, and perimeters (only half the lagoon launchers were used seems like). The hydraulic finale rig was not used.

I saw some different pyro in there, with plenty of EPCOT Forever pyro used, so for a one off show definitely not bad. Some original Illuminations and Illuminations 25 mixed with tapestry is a pretty good score. Can’t tell myself, but did anyone notice if all of that pyro was shot from Luminous barges, or were there some others used?

 

[MisterPenguin]

DVC Moonlight Magic at Epcot was held tonight (1/25).

There was a short 5 mins firework show. This marks the first time the Luminous barges were used for such exclusive show. Pretty decent usage of fountains, lights, pyro, and perimeters (only half the lagoon launchers were used seems like). The hydraulic finale rig was not used.

Anyone know where that music is from?

 

[monorail81]

Anyone know where that music is from?

I heard some Tapestry, Illuminations 25, and some Fountains of Nations show music. There could have been more but I had to walk away for a second and can’t go back and rewatch at the moment.