News Reflections of Earth confirmed to be replaced by Harmonious

[techgeek]

I don’t understand what you mean by wrong location. There is no such thing as a wrong location to give movement to that adds visual appeal.

A nicer alternative would've to build a Fountain of Nations replacement in the area of the Odyssey. Something permanent but designed to be nice looking. Heck, it could've interacted with the new show. Sort of like a secondary area for people to go so they could still see screens.

No one would be complaining about a purpose built, dynamic fountain in WSLagoon. That might actually be nice. What people are complaining about is water spouting out of overscaled show equipment, not designed to be see in the light, in a half assed attempt to mask the said oversized monsters that are spewing the water. It is laughable.

The Odyssey mostly is a waste of space and has been for a long time. They're at least using it for something now, although that will be relatively short-lived.

It's guest-facing and in too prominent a position to be so underutilized.

The funny thing is, WDI seemingly was originally thinking exactly along those lines... A showpiece fountain was important, but the Lagoon is the wrong place for it - rather, as this early art showed, the right place would have been a massively re-worked area between Future World and WS.

This was the kind of all-in reimagining Epcot needed... and in an area that has suffered from being a big empty space between two great halves since the beginning. Even if some of the specifics were questionable, this now abandoned concept art fit the right tone and feel for the core of the park.

 

[trainplane3]

...And on every Disney fan forum, the company shills come trotting out to defend bad ideas...

...like clockwork.

I was thinking there was something weird.
- Someone saying barges are overexaggerated
- Look at bio, notice it's someone that says they're part of the Epcot and SSE projects
- Mention the tweet and supposed company ties here
- Still couldn't believe it so I looked them up on LinkedIn to confirm. Same profile pictures. But I leave the details out of the posts here.
- Within 12 hours the tweet is gone (along with a lot of very political ones), mention of WDI is removed from bio
- Few hours later the account is "protected", ALL info is removed from bio
- A day later their LinkedIn is edited. No more profile picture, all info ends at December 2020, no specific details of what they did at Disney (something someone else called out on here)

And I have an odd feeling said account is related to that situation. It's something else really. The answers to Martins responses read...weirdly.

I was just shocked by the sheer unprofessionalism by an "Overall Producer" when it all started.

 

[TTA94]

The funny thing is, WDI seemingly was originally thinking exactly along those lines... A showpiece fountain was important, but the Lagoon is the wrong place for it - rather, as this early art showed, the right place would have been a massively re-worked area between Future World and WS.

This was the kind of all-in reimagining Epcot needed... and in an area that has suffered from being a big empty space between two great halves since the beginning. Even if some of the specifics were questionable, this now abandoned concept art fit the right tone and feel for the core of the park.

View attachment 537092

This would have been so awesome. Looks absolutely nothing like what they are doing now. So sad. Those fountains would have been awesome.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

I don’t understand. The lagoon was a motionless space, the only sound is BGM. This creates movement to the area, adds visual appeal. The water not the barges. And adds a new sound to the area thats not music.

"Motionless" is the wrong word to describe a body of water. Unless it's Frozen.

Water is often involved in experiential design specifically for its peacefully kinetic nature.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Rivers of Light seemed doomed when they put in the theatre. People were expecting “Fantasmic” ...

It is kind of wild to think that Rivers of Light essentially had two large bays of Ampitheater benches while Disneyland's Fantasmic has basically no dedicated seating.

For sure, though, that is part of the success of their Fantasmic - the infrastructure doesn't outwardly promise anything, and then a massive show appears as if by magic.

 

[TheRealMichaelEisner]

The Odyssey mostly is a waste of space and has been for a long time. They're at least using it for something now, although that will be relatively short-lived.

It's guest-facing and in too prominent a position to be so underutilized.

The Odyssey has a lot of stuff backstage. Sodexo, offices, custodial base, storage, etc.

 

[UNCgolf]

The Odyssey has a lot of stuff backstage. Sodexo, offices, custodial base, storage, etc.

Yeah, I know. That's why I mentioned that it's guest-facing. The building serves a purpose for the park itself, but that's not enough to justify the space it takes up in that specific location. All of that could be moved fully backstage instead of having essentially a shell sitting there visible and open to the public -- they need to do something more to utilize the parts of the building that are open to guests (the EPCOT Experience was a nice idea, but that will not be around much longer).

 

[MrPromey]

No place is the wrong location. Kinetic energy is to liven up aa dead area. The lagoon in the daytime is a waste if space. Views of the pavilions aside, there’s nothing visually appealing about the lagoon.

Bob, is this you?

 

[TTA94]

Yeah, I know. That's why I mentioned that it's guest-facing. The building serves a purpose for the park itself, but that's not enough to justify the space it takes up in that specific location. All of that could be moved fully backstage instead of having essentially a shell sitting there visible and open to the public -- they need to do something more to utilize the parts of the building that are open to guests (the EPCOT Experience was a nice idea, but that will not be around much longer).

When does that go away?

 

[UNCgolf]

When does that go away?

Oh I have no idea, but as things start actually opening there won't be any reason to have a preview of them. They've already had to edit it to remove stuff.

 

[techgeek]

When does that go away?

Oh I have no idea, but as things start actually opening there won't be any reason to have a preview of them. They've already had to edit it to remove stuff.

The closest historical analog is California Adventures “Blue Sky Cellar”... which, years later (Covid closure aside) is still operating, albeit with updated content for the Pixar Pier project.

 

[UNCgolf]

The closest historical analog is California Adventures “Blue Sky Cellar”... which, years later (Covid closure aside) is still operating, albeit with updated content for the Pixar Pier project.

From what I just read about it, it was closed from 2013-2018 before reopening with the Pixar Pier stuff. It also looks like it has some other stuff beyond just a preview for upcoming attractions.

I can't see any reason for Disney to keep operating the EPCOT Experience once everything opens -- there's nothing else to it. Maybe they'll update it whenever they decide to actually do something else to the park, though.

 

[marni1971]

From what I just read about it, it was closed from 2013-2018 before reopening with the Pixar Pier stuff. It also looks like it has some other stuff beyond just a preview for upcoming attractions.

I can't see any reason for Disney to keep operating the EPCOT Experience once everything opens -- there's nothing else to it. Maybe they'll update it whenever they decide to actually do something else to the park, though.

Maybe they’ll reopen it when they start fixing the mess they’re currently making.

Or maybe not.

 

[LorangeJuice]

Maybe they’ll reopen it when they start fixing the mess they’re currently making.

Or maybe not.

Maybe they'll move the EPCOT Experience to WS Lagoon during the day so we can see the same previews on the stargate and the tacos. Scratch that. I don't want to give them any ideas...

 

[Brer Oswald]

First, DisTwitter is cray cray. There's no moderator to reel in the most absurd and disrespectful and even hateful tweets. Anyone thinking that DisTwitter is representative of the Disney park fanbase doesn't know DisTwitter and it's excesses in both pixie dusting and Disney nerdrage.

Second, all Chris did was call out the use of telephoto shots of the barges/ring. And that's because the telephoto shots are a lie. People who use them are absolutely not making a good faith argument, and they deserve derision for that visual exaggeration. Chris just lol'd at their use of telephoto. He didn't say any of the mean stuff about them that I'm saying about them.

Third, for so much nothing of an issue (i.e., calling out telephoto shots as a false visual), it's disgusting to see the pile-on on Chris and people hoping he'll get fired. There's your cancel culture at work. Such delicate snowflakes for having their telephoto malarkey getting called out. Jeez, grow a spine.

Mind you. I've never defended the barges. But I will call out bad faith exaggerations unmoored from reality.

Missed this. But yes. Every word of it.

 

[Brer Oswald]

Ego, pure and simple. The modern WDI mantra is “no one can touch us,” no matter how delusional that is.

Also this. Nobody should be fired for a tweet like that, especially since the entire company is egotistical. But they need to tone down their ego in order to maintain their strong relationship with the consumer. Like everything in life, this can be worked on in a way that makes both parties happy.

 

[UNCgolf]

First, DisTwitter is cray cray. There's no moderator to reel in the most absurd and disrespectful and even hateful tweets. Anyone thinking that DisTwitter is representative of the Disney park fanbase doesn't know DisTwitter and it's excesses in both pixie dusting and Disney nerdrage.

This is true of all Twitter. DisTwitter may be worse than some other groups (calling for people to be fired over a tweet is silly), but thinking Twitter is a good representation of just about any group of people (other than, you know, Twitter users) is a really bad idea. There just aren't enough users that actually post/reply to things, and even the ones that do are a self-selected group that tend to amplify only the people that agree with them.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Also this. Nobody should be fired for a tweet like that, especially since the entire company is egotistical. But they need to tone down their ego in order to maintain their strong relationship with the consumer. Like everything in life, this can be worked on in a way that makes both parties happy.

If by “all parties” you mean large shareholders, then yes.

 

[flynnibus]

This is true of all Twitter. DisTwitter may be worse than some other groups

Disney twitter is especially bad because a large portion of the influencers are both financially and personally vested in the topic. People who have moved to be close to Disney, people who have worked for Disney, people who now make their living being Disney parasites, people aspiring to make their life be supported by online Disney content, etc.

So many are in so deep it drives extremes. And add in the lifestyle angle? It's a bubble of insanity.

Contrast that with say, most Car fanatics or Sports Teams fanatics... most don't dream or change their life to be closer to the team/company

 

[UNCgolf]

Disney twitter is especially bad because a large portion of the influencers are both financially and personally vested in the topic. People who have moved to be close to Disney, people who have worked for Disney, people who now make their living being Disney parasites, people aspiring to make their life be supported by online Disney content, etc.

So many are in so deep it drives extremes. And add in the lifestyle angle? It's a bubble of insanity.

Contrast that with say, most Car fanatics or Sports Teams fanatics... most don't dream or change their life to be closer to the team/company

That makes complete sense.

My overall point was more that using Twitter to gauge much of anything with regards to the general public is a flawed proposition. I saw another example of this a few weeks ago with something completely unrelated to Disney -- there was something mentioned in a golf article that basically everyone wanted this individual to succeed and nobody disliked them. The comments were full of people who disliked the individual in question; the article's author said that they were basing it off Twitter reactions and apparently that wasn't accurate. No kidding.