News Reflections of Earth confirmed to be replaced by Harmonious

[THEMEPARKPIONEER]

From the makers of the same company that made water screens the side of the screens and mechanical arms and props that can come apart you think they would be competent enough to make that ring in 2 pieces so it can break down to floor level during the day and piece together during the show just like those stupid arms for the lighting.

 

[DCBaker]

 

[Thelazer]

To many folks nodding there heads in meetings, instead of saying "Well, yea.. but...."

 

[flynnibus]

View attachment 535895

Probably the visualization they used to say "oh yeah, that's not bad at all'

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Atleast you will be able to view the water screen from around the whole lagoon and not just from 1 angle in front of SSE.

Spoiler: Spoiler

Sarcasm.

 

[Brer Oswald]

See y'all there opening night.

Not likely.

 

[TTA94]

Zach described this as a compass... what does any of this have to do with a compass? Lol or am I missing something?

 

[gerarar]

So the Disney that recently designed/built a truly immersive land such as Galaxy’s Edge (and Pandora not so long ago) is the same Disney that designed/built this? It’s honestly mind-boggling.

They cared about almost every single sight line in SGE and Pandora, but clearly not here.

I just wished I took many pics of the lagoon during my last visit. Little did I know..

 

[trainplane3]

So the Disney that recently designed/built a truly immersive land such as Galaxy’s Edge (and Pandora not so long ago) is the same Disney that designed/built this? It’s honestly mind-boggling.

They cared about almost every single sight line in SGE and Pandora, but clearly not here.

I just wished I took many pics of the lagoon during my last visit. Little did I know..

Pandora does have the ugly outside of park view but it's obvious Rohde cared about every single small detail inside the land. GE was a huge deal and they knew it had to compete against other "land" expansions.

They know people will come to Epcot for booze so why try anymore? It's not competing for anything. Maybe "largest spectacular" or some marketing crap like that? It's obvious they spared no expense when it came to the hardware. Everything else? Screw it. It's a big shiny thing and bloggers will love it.

Also, just wait till they connect the rest of the scrim around the screen. It's partially connected in this picture:

Lower left and right. You can see the scrim around the outside still rolled up past those areas.

 

[wdwmagic]

Weren’t they out recently?

Yep

 

[WondersOfLife]

So the Disney that recently designed/built a truly immersive land such as Galaxy’s Edge (and Pandora not so long ago) is the same Disney that designed/built this? It’s honestly mind-boggling.

They cared about almost every single sight line in SGE and Pandora, but clearly not here.

I just wished I took many pics of the lagoon during my last visit. Little did I know..

Yea the same company that basically erased all of the character off of the sides of the muppets buildings did this. Fascinating.

 

[marni1971]

Eisner had a wrought iron staircase removed in Euro Disney pre opening since it blocked a relatively modest sight line in Discoveryland (I won’t quote the gazebo incident since I’m not a ‘what would Walt do‘ kind of person)

This desecrates dozens of sight lines of half a theme park.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

So the Disney that recently designed/built a truly immersive land such as Galaxy’s Edge (and Pandora not so long ago) is the same Disney that designed/built this? It’s honestly mind-boggling.

They cared about almost every single sight line in SGE and Pandora, but clearly not here.

I just wished I took many pics of the lagoon during my last visit. Little did I know..

Lucasfilm and James Cameron were in on the design process of those.

This is WDI on their own.

 

[Sir_Cliff]

It's not about Epcots pasts. It's the fact that the theming and immersion standards of disney's past have gone down the drain.

When Tower of Terror was built, it was themed to blend into Morroco from the Mexican pavilion.

Can you see the ride building for POTC or Splash from inside the park?

Space Mountain was designed to look good from all angles.

Now we get this and Big box rides like Guardians, soarin, rat, tron.

Standards have been lowered.

Yes, without trying to be too dramatic, I feel the same sorrow at this.

The Internet algorithms found me yet again and my weakness for coffee table books led me to buy a few at a Taschen online sale a few weeks ago. I was just looking through the Disneyland book today and marvelling at the amount of thought that used to go into these parks. Now that consideration too often seems to extend as far as painting a giant show building blue or putting a massive fountain over visible show equipment to make them a little harder to see.

Decisions like this make you wonder if anyone is left at the company who understands what made Disney parks great, or if they just have a vague notion that it's bigger budgets and more details.

 

[Brer Oswald]

I’m not a huge World Showcase fan. Overall, I’m not that upset due to not really caring. But this seems like a major design failure.

World Showcase was arranged around the lagoon for a reason. From one country, you were able to look across the water (usually without fail) and see other countries. These sort of promoted the “small world esque” message of World Showcase.

Now, there’s a giant metal rig that blocks many of these views. All for a show that will take up 30 minutes of the 12-16 hour park day? I get that they want to sell toys and Disney + subscriptions, but there are less intrusive (and CHEAPER) ways of doing so.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Yes, without trying to be too dramatic, I feel the same sorrow at this.

The Internet algorithms found me yet again and my weakness for coffee table books led me to buy a few at a Taschen online sale a few weeks ago. I was just looking through the Disneyland book today and marvelling at the amount of thought that used to go into these parks. Now that consideration too often seems to extend as far as painting a giant show building blue or putting a massive fountain over visible show equipment to make them a little harder to see.

Decisions like this make you wonder if anyone is left at the company who understands what made Disney parks great, or if they just have a vague notion that it's bigger budgets and more details.

The coffee table books you mention are often about the original designers who wrote their own rules when it came to park design. They were also influenced by Walt himself, or his direct successors who knew what he liked.

The business model of today's Disney does not allow for the passing of information and ideals from one generation to the next. The designers are contracted out on a per project basis. Management regularly changes hands and has no direct experience with the parks or hospitality in general. What they know is surface level spectacle...and that they won't be here for very long. The uncritical tourists and biased market research acts as confirmation that no matter what happens, people will like it, even if what they really liked about their Disney trip wasn't the latest thing developed by WDI or TDO but older experiences or the service they received from front line CMs.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Another level of detail in WS is the river between France and UK. Symbolizing the English Channel.

 

[Browncoat]

Anyone else thinks this looks like the “stargate” they use in Big Hero 6? If it was covered it wouldn’t work, Maybe that’s why it has to be out in the open like that

 

[TTA94]

Found this video again for those who may have never seen it. Some of us probably don’t need a reminder lol.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Found this video again for those who may have never seen it. Some of us probably don’t need a reminder lol.

That's right, It's IPCOT!

If I was there I would have let out the biggest boo.