kevlightyear
Well-Known Member
Same thing, right?
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News Reflections of Earth confirmed to be replaced by Harmonious
- Thread starter wdwmagic
- Start date
You just need someone to get up there to turn the nozzles from stream to spray.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Excuse my crude MS Paint charts but I wanted to give a visualization as to why this show's pacing sucks. All of the modern shows have been segmented like this but this is probably the worst example.
Proper pacing keeps things exciting, builds anticipation by making you wait for what's coming, and elicits a greater emotional response. Almost all movies follow this. Even most Disney rides follow this. Flight of Passage, for example, starts off simple and gradually gets more intense as you go, with a proper pause between the opening action and ending action, which is the most exciting part. Haunted Mansion doesn't even let you see a physical ghost for the first act. Again, properly building anticipation.
Some people (simps lol) argued that the middle segment of Reflections of Earth was boring. And, while I'd agree that it needed more added to it over time than just the globe, what it did accomplish was it built a ton of anticipation for the third act. You waited for it, and boy did the third act deliver in the most explosive way.
Wishes, though using various songs and elements from different films, kept a cohesive theme throughout and arranged them in a way so that it, too, had proper pacing similar to ROE. It also tied it all together nicely with Jiminy Cricket's narration.
HEA and Epcot Forever were obviously much more segmented, but at least HEA was tied together with a cohesive theme and narration to bookend it similar to Wishes. It also had an original song. Why doesn't HarmonioUS have at least one original song to bookend it?
HarmonioUS has nothing unique to it. No overarching theme. No original song. Nothing to tie it all together. It's much more like the castle projection shows which I think are lazy.
Proper pacing keeps things exciting, builds anticipation by making you wait for what's coming, and elicits a greater emotional response. Almost all movies follow this. Even most Disney rides follow this. Flight of Passage, for example, starts off simple and gradually gets more intense as you go, with a proper pause between the opening action and ending action, which is the most exciting part. Haunted Mansion doesn't even let you see a physical ghost for the first act. Again, properly building anticipation.
Some people (simps lol) argued that the middle segment of Reflections of Earth was boring. And, while I'd agree that it needed more added to it over time than just the globe, what it did accomplish was it built a ton of anticipation for the third act. You waited for it, and boy did the third act deliver in the most explosive way.
Wishes, though using various songs and elements from different films, kept a cohesive theme throughout and arranged them in a way so that it, too, had proper pacing similar to ROE. It also tied it all together nicely with Jiminy Cricket's narration.
HEA and Epcot Forever were obviously much more segmented, but at least HEA was tied together with a cohesive theme and narration to bookend it similar to Wishes. It also had an original song. Why doesn't HarmonioUS have at least one original song to bookend it?
HarmonioUS has nothing unique to it. No overarching theme. No original song. Nothing to tie it all together. It's much more like the castle projection shows which I think are lazy.
rioriz
Well-Known Member
I totally agree I think if we had the barges and rivers of light story it could have been a success
Mac Tonight
Well-Known Member
Preface: My wife (bless her) has never been to Epcot (or WDW for that matter) in her life and her only knowledge comes through me and videos I show her. She is very much the definition of “general public”.
So I decided to show her Harmonious tonight, telling her nothing beforehand, and no joke, about 75% of the way through, she abruptly leans over and says, “Oh, I get it now. It’s international because of World Showcase”. Yep.
After that, I decided to show her ROE, which I’ve played the soundtrack of in the car before, and she enjoyed it way more.
As for Harm, she was mostly critical of the sometimes over-use, sometimes under-use of water effects. I too noticed especially during “Out there” that the water was just… there. Spraying straight up. Contrasted with how wild it gets during other parts of the show, it just felt off and made everything feel more disjointed. When it ended, she looked at me confused saying, “Is that it?” She was also not a fan of the awkward narration.
I know seeing it in person will be a different experience, so maybe our minds will change when we go in November. But at the very least, I’m excited to introduce her to Magic Kingdom International— er— I mean, World Showcase for the first time.
So I decided to show her Harmonious tonight, telling her nothing beforehand, and no joke, about 75% of the way through, she abruptly leans over and says, “Oh, I get it now. It’s international because of World Showcase”. Yep.
After that, I decided to show her ROE, which I’ve played the soundtrack of in the car before, and she enjoyed it way more.
As for Harm, she was mostly critical of the sometimes over-use, sometimes under-use of water effects. I too noticed especially during “Out there” that the water was just… there. Spraying straight up. Contrasted with how wild it gets during other parts of the show, it just felt off and made everything feel more disjointed. When it ended, she looked at me confused saying, “Is that it?” She was also not a fan of the awkward narration.
I know seeing it in person will be a different experience, so maybe our minds will change when we go in November. But at the very least, I’m excited to introduce her to Magic Kingdom International— er— I mean, World Showcase for the first time.
Tom Morrow
Well-Known Member
Oh, and another thing that sucks about the lack of pyro... with Epcot Forever and Reflections of Earth, if you didn't have a direct line of sight to the water, you weren't missing that much. You could stroll up last minute and still take in most of the show. But with this, and 75% of it taking places on the barges, if you're not right up to the water, you're missing or having a hard time seeing quite a lot.
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
I seriously can’t believe with a blank slate of ideas for new shows the new MK fireworks show, harmonious, and Kitetails were done the way they were. This does not give me good hope for the future of WDW to ever be like it once was or feel like it used to feel.
Emotion and building to a real ending is missing in the nighttime shows
Emotion and building to a real ending is missing in the nighttime shows
castlecake2.0
Well-Known Member
Also the graphics on the barges SUCKED. Looked like they were made on powtoon. Man I just can’t get over how bad this all was. I really encourage people to send disney their feedback, this really was a terrible show for this park.
ChrisFL
Premium Member
I'm surprised they didn't make the tacos and stargate collapsible so in the daytime it would just stay flat...it could have worked if engineered that way I think. Also they already did a similar thing in Tokyo for their Fantasmic show which you can see here where a VERY similar circle is collasible as part of the show:
GhostHost1000
Premium Member
EXACTLY
whoever is designing these new shows does not have the same imagination as previous show designers
Ayla
Well-Known Member
For those that don't know, they are all black. They don't blend with anything.
OSUPhantom
Well-Known Member
Just my guess, since they specifically wanted the singers from the cultures than inspired these songs to perform them and generally Pochontas was not recieved well by the Native American community they chose a different route. I actually think choosing to highlight the jazz/gospel inspired music as America's contribution was quite a good one.
SpoiledBlueMilk
Well-Known Member
After watching the video online of the show I was left feeling that I wished they spent as much time developing the show as they did building the barges.
Amidala
Well-Known Member
Finally got around to seeing it in person last night. Admittedly didn't have the best view (we were on the balcony above Mitsukoshi, so our view of the center ring was obscured but we were able to see both barges) but was definitely disappointed. I will say, I was visiting Epcot with some family members, both casual guests, and both enjoyed Harmonious and had no complaints. So, this very much seems in keeping with the new trend of nighttime spectaculars designed to please the average tourist without digging deep enough on an emotional level to satisfy long-time fans, APs, CMs, etc. I would say the same will probably go for Enchantment, but haven't watched the livestream for that one yet & am once again hoping to hold off until I can see it for myself in person!
The designs on the barges are also SO ugly at times. Certain parts were cool (the stylized Lion King section and the very end of Reflection with the Chinese characters in black and red) but the majority felt cluttered, and sometimes even...kind of cringe-y for lack of a better word? The Merida segment with the hair and the weird close-up of a CGI doll-looking Merida was downright awful.
The frustrating part is, it would be SO easy to fix this show and make it more cohesive and visually appealing:
1) Have a proper introduction and conclusion that tie together the theme (of coming to together to celebrate our different languages and cultures through song) instead of immediately diving into a cover at the beginning.
2) Use one song per country and light up the corresponding country in World Showcase while its native song is playing. Get rid of the excess, especially songs like Out There and How Far I'll Go that were clearly just carried over due to their success in HEA. Here's my ideal arrangement:
- Mexico: Coco
- Norway: Frozen. Vuelie was an inspired pick, but it's barely incorporated
- China: Mulan
- Germany: Snow White. Some Day my Prince Will Come would give the show some more needed downtime between all the upbeat songs, and also some representation for older movies
- Italy: Pinocchio. No Strings on Me? or the Snow White segment could transition into When You Wish Upon a Star for more downtime, similar to the You'll Be in My Heart/Can You Feel the Love mashup in HEA
- Japan: This is a rough one, all I can think of is BH6
- Morocco: Aladdin
- France: Ratatouille. They literally JUST made a brand new ride for it, why would they use anything other than Le Festin here???
- United Kingdom: After HEA's (superior) use of Brave, I think something from Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan would be a refreshing change. You Can Fly would be nice, they could show visuals of the children flying over London on the barges
- Canada: Another head scratcher, but the upcoming Turning Red movie is set there so maybe a 2.0 could include clips from it
- US: PaTF. Dig a Little Deeper was a nice selection, even if the cover wasn't great. Should've been the finale, end with America
3) Play the original cast recordings in the songs' native languages. This is such a no brainer
4) Either rework some of the more garish barge animation or just project clips from the movies, since that's what guests AND fans actually want to see
The designs on the barges are also SO ugly at times. Certain parts were cool (the stylized Lion King section and the very end of Reflection with the Chinese characters in black and red) but the majority felt cluttered, and sometimes even...kind of cringe-y for lack of a better word? The Merida segment with the hair and the weird close-up of a CGI doll-looking Merida was downright awful.
The frustrating part is, it would be SO easy to fix this show and make it more cohesive and visually appealing:
1) Have a proper introduction and conclusion that tie together the theme (of coming to together to celebrate our different languages and cultures through song) instead of immediately diving into a cover at the beginning.
2) Use one song per country and light up the corresponding country in World Showcase while its native song is playing. Get rid of the excess, especially songs like Out There and How Far I'll Go that were clearly just carried over due to their success in HEA. Here's my ideal arrangement:
- Mexico: Coco
- Norway: Frozen. Vuelie was an inspired pick, but it's barely incorporated
- China: Mulan
- Germany: Snow White. Some Day my Prince Will Come would give the show some more needed downtime between all the upbeat songs, and also some representation for older movies
- Italy: Pinocchio. No Strings on Me? or the Snow White segment could transition into When You Wish Upon a Star for more downtime, similar to the You'll Be in My Heart/Can You Feel the Love mashup in HEA
- Japan: This is a rough one, all I can think of is BH6
- Morocco: Aladdin
- France: Ratatouille. They literally JUST made a brand new ride for it, why would they use anything other than Le Festin here???
- United Kingdom: After HEA's (superior) use of Brave, I think something from Mary Poppins, Alice in Wonderland or Peter Pan would be a refreshing change. You Can Fly would be nice, they could show visuals of the children flying over London on the barges
- Canada: Another head scratcher, but the upcoming Turning Red movie is set there so maybe a 2.0 could include clips from it
- US: PaTF. Dig a Little Deeper was a nice selection, even if the cover wasn't great. Should've been the finale, end with America
3) Play the original cast recordings in the songs' native languages. This is such a no brainer
4) Either rework some of the more garish barge animation or just project clips from the movies, since that's what guests AND fans actually want to see
Disney Analyst
Well-Known Member
18:29 Steve Davison goes very in depth on the show, and it’s flow. It’s actually interesting to hear from him. I’ve always admired his passion and thought that goes into what he creates.
Discusses they actually created two different finales, and Someday is the one they kept.
Discusses they actually created two different finales, and Someday is the one they kept.
castlecake2.0
Well-Known Member
Pretty much exactly what I was saying to my friends. Canada could be brother bear possibly? It’s like they totally ignored the location of the show and just went off the deep end. Also does not fit the “mood” of world showcase. Felt like I was at a rock concert. The screens were totally unnecessary, would have loved just having fountains. I feel like this show just got out of control and they ran out of money to fix it and this is what we got.
castlecake2.0
Well-Known Member
Bets on how long it will take to get version2?