Oh, the music is definantly what makes the attraction. If I can't get into it from an audial standpoint... then I just have a problem with a ride.
*cough*Test Track*cough*
The music is the key thing to all of Disney. I mean, I could sit and listen to the RoE Suite, Fantasmic Soundtrack, Fantasy in the Sky... all of it, and enjoy myself simply based on the music. The visual aspects just make it that much better. I mean, would Spaceship Earth be the same without the music? Think about it... you have heard all of this stuff about how phenominal Spaceship Earth is. You have never ridden it before, but this time the music isn't there... all you get is the narration and minor dialogue. Wouldn't be the same thing would it?
I am looking at a lot of the 'over-rated' attractions and I can't help but see how a good bit of them don't seem to have a consistant musical theme (the shows excluded). Jungle Cruise, no song... Winnie the Pooh, no song... Test Track... no song (and don't tell me that mechanized whirring in the queque is a song).
The shows all come down to a matter of musical taste. I loved the Tarzan soundtrack before I saw the show. Guess what. I love the show. I hated Journey into Your Imagination. I like the new one, and besides Figment, One Little Spark does it for me.
Fantasmic... I love. Illuminations... I love. Any night time show... I love, mostly because of the music. The one exception is Main Street Elecrical Parade. I hate the music to that parade. I loved Tapestry of Nations because of the music. Tapestry of Dreams is the same music, which ruins it for me. I hear that music, I want NATIONS, not Dreams...
Anyway, look at the music of the attractions you think are over-rated. If you are not a big fan of the music for it, then chances are you will not be a big fan of the attraction.....