I loved ROE so much, and Epcot is my favorite park. As soon as we knew IP would be all over this, I was afraid of how bad it would be. I also hate the World Showcase sight lines getting messed up for these barges and set pieces. So I had low expectations going in. And I’m still so much sadder than I thought possible.
As a show on its own, it’s good. The fireworks were decent, and they mercifully kept the launches from the various pavilions. The tech is impressive. As THE show for Epcot, no. I don’t like this at all.
ROE had such a spirit to it, and it was IMO a beautiful way of showing how the human experience ties together, no matter where in the world a person comes from, what language they speak, etc. This simply reeked of “Listen to how our movie soundtracks sound all over the world! Somewhere out there [my apologies to An American Tail for dragging that movie’s lovely song in to this], other Disney fans are hearing and singing our songs in other languages!” If the songs had solely been in the other languages vs. switching back and forth to English, maybe this wouldn’t have bothered me as much. As it is, I felt like Chapek’s mug was going to pop up in a projection at any second and cackle “You can’t escape our IPs!” vs. this having much of anything to do with celebrating the countries represented in Epcot, the people, or the world. Not to mention the original spirit and purpose behind Epcot.
Soulless is exactly how I would describe it too, in the context of Epcot. Plop it in Seven Seas Lagoon or Bay Lake, or even a non-pyro version in Animal Kingdom (adjusting the songs and movies used accordingly), and I would probably mostly happily enjoy it.
