EPCOT Reflections of Earth confirmed to be replaced by Harmonious

[Incomudro]

The barges are hideous.
Just got back from a week long stay, and they are hideous in person and far worse than I thought they would be.
I say that as I guy who more or less defends the Guardians building.
The barges look larger in the flesh than I thought they would, and completely ruin the view across the lake from many angles.
As for Harmonious, we never stopped to watch it in its entirety - as every time it was on while we were there, we were in motion going around the showcase.
What I did see, I didn't like.
It's over the top and garish.
From my perspective, I'd compare it to a Christmas light display that's over the top at a person's house vs a tasteful display.

 

[dreday3]

The barges are hideous.
Just got back from a week long stay, and they are hideous in person and far worse than I thought they would be.
I say that as I guy who more or less defends the Guardians building.
The barges look larger in the flesh than I thought they would, and completely ruin the view across the lake from many angles.
As for Harmonious, we never stopped to watch it in its entirety - as every time it was on while we were there, we were in motion going around the showcase.
What I did see, I didn't like.
It's over the top and garish.
From my perspective, I'd compare it to a Christmas light display that's over the top at a person's house vs a tasteful display.

Gosh.

Yes, during the day the barges are obtrusive. But looking past that about the show itself...

I will say I have to take my nostalgia factor for Illuminations out of the picture and try to put myself as a first timer.
Doing that...we think Harmonious is great. Yes it has IP, but it's just so fun to watch. It's quite the party to end a night.
I hate to say this, but with the upbeat music from Coco, Lion King, Princess and the Frog...Encanto will make people flip their lids.

Completely get people don't like it and I respect your opinion, so save the insults! I loved Illuminations, we were there the year it started and I still listen to the soundtrack while working, but it's gone and this show is very entertaining.

(i'll probably regret writing this and delete this post in an hour)

 

[dovetail65]

The barges are hideous.
Just got back from a week long stay, and they are hideous in person and far worse than I thought they would be.
I say that as I guy who more or less defends the Guardians building.
The barges look larger in the flesh than I thought they would, and completely ruin the view across the lake from many angles.
As for Harmonious, we never stopped to watch it in its entirety - as every time it was on while we were there, we were in motion going around the showcase.
What I did see, I didn't like.
It's over the top and garish.
From my perspective, I'd compare it to a Christmas light display that's over the top at a person's house vs a tasteful display.

Gosh.

Yes, during the day the barges are obtrusive. But looking past that about the show itself...

I will say I have to take my nostalgia factor for Illuminations out of the picture and try to put myself as a first timer.
Doing that...we think Harmonious is great. Yes it has IP, but it's just so fun to watch. It's quite the party to end a night.
I hate to say this, but with the upbeat music from Coco, Lion King, Princess and the Frog...Encanto will make people flip their lids.

Completely get people don't like it and I respect your opinion, so save the insults! I loved Illuminations, we were there the year it started and I still listen to the soundtrack while working, but it's gone and this show is very entertaining.

(I'll probably regret writing this and delete this post in an hour)

Harmonious is a great show don't regret anything you said.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Harmonious is a great show don't regret anything you said.

My family enjoyed the actual show, as well. Certainly more than DE.

Even the kids wondered why the Stargate is off-center. It’s rather distracting.

 

[Vinnie Mac]

Gosh.

Yes, during the day the barges are obtrusive. But looking past that about the show itself...

I will say I have to take my nostalgia factor for Illuminations out of the picture and try to put myself as a first timer.
Doing that...we think Harmonious is great. Yes it has IP, but it's just so fun to watch. It's quite the party to end a night.
I hate to say this, but with the upbeat music from Coco, Lion King, Princess and the Frog...Encanto will make people flip their lids.

Completely get people don't like it and I respect your opinion, so save the insults! I loved Illuminations, we were there the year it started and I still listen to the soundtrack while working, but it's gone and this show is very entertaining.

(i'll probably regret writing this and delete this post in an hour)

Don't regret having a different opinion than other people. We all enjoy Disney World in different ways, some people may not understand that but most people do. HarmonioUS is an awesome show!

 

[Incomudro]

Harmonious is a great show don't regret anything you said.

Everyone's got their own opinions and takes.
For the most part, I'm the kind of guy who likes things that are low key, tasteful, and might take some extra attention on my part - though I do love the castle projections.
Harmonious looked like A LOT.
A lot of stuff, in a relatively small space.
It's just not me.
Is it impressive?
Well, I guess - but all of the architecture is visible all day long (as I said in a previous post) and all during the show.
It better be impressive.

 

[Vinnie Mac]

A lot of stuff, in a relatively small space.

Isn't that almost all nighttime shows though? My dream nighttime show is one that involves the whole park that it is located in in SOME way but I know this isn't the most practical concept.

 

[Incomudro]

Isn't that almost all nighttime shows though? My dream nighttime show is one that involves the whole park that it is located in in SOME way but I know this isn't the most practical concept.

I'm referring to the clutter of the apparatus (day and night) that makes the show possible, coupled with what's kind of a too much production for me.

 

[dovetail65]

It would be nice if the clutter in the lake was under water then rose up for the show, then went back down. Other than that the show is just as good as any other Disney has had for us. It's still better than our towns yearly fireworks by huge margin so when some people post how bad Harmonious or any other Disney show is is I often wonder what their town fireworks are to compare to. I must live in some weird place where people wait 12 months then hours in line and in their cars to see a 4th of July display that mist times is not near as good as Harmonious, a show we can see each night.

I mean yeah Vegas 2000 and 2001 were some cool fireworks displays or Chicago or New York a few years had some major shows, but even those, being there we could not take it all in unless at a TV because it went around the entire city, river or lake. The shows at Disney aren't even full Fireworks Displays, they are more like shows with the water, movies and sound. The entire concept of Disney and near everything they do is over produced and that is by design, we are at WDW not a regular resort. So for people that don't like over produced or simple things why go to WDW in the first place it's all it is!

Disney Studios nightly show we didn't like. It is just movies on buildings for us, nothing more than okay and not worth missing an attraction over. So after the first time seeing that we walked on ROTR while other guests did their time watching those.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Apparently guest surveys are suggesting this show is not resonating with guests as expected. The most frequent comment is unhappiness around the movies included in the show and the musical choices have not been well received. No 'Encanto', but expect musical changes and maybe a Pixar movie addition. Still doesn't fix the fact that it needs to be completely torpedoed.

 

[dovetail65]

Apparently guest surveys are suggesting this show is not resonating with guests as expected. The most frequent comment is unhappiness around the movies included in the show and the musical choices have not been well received. No 'Encanto', but expect musical changes and maybe a Pixar movie addition. Still doesn't fix the fact that it needs to be completely torpedoed.

With every type survey and review the people that don't like it scream the loudest, the people that do like it don't even answer. I didn't respond to any of the surveys we got while there, I was having too much fun. I would get notifications while in park to answer surveys I blew them off.

I was at WDW 51 days and just home one day now. Each night at EPCOT Harmonius show all I heard was massive applause and not a single boo. Anything can be better, but my fear is a small minority complaints they take it away and we have nothing at all for months or years while they rework things. Like River's of Light, I would rather have River's of Light back then nothing at all as we have now over there at AK. Oh yeah Kite tails, now there is a topic for discussion.

 

[bcoachable]

Finally got to watch in person...
Two of my three kids cried- real tears...
of sadness...
Kind of made me proud.
They grew up on Illuminations. When they were younger, we would walk
out of the park hand in hand talking about how cool the show was and what each scene represented (to us),
as we walked on/past the lit up sidewalks, hoping from square to square.
The youngest is 18 now.
She reached for my hand, as we walked out the other night.
We talked this time about how we tried to like it.
Then compared all the columns in the World Showcase, naming them as either Doric, Ionic or Corinth.
It is just a show- The feels can still be the same if you care to find them!

 

[Rob562]

My family enjoyed the actual show, as well. Certainly more than DE.

Even the kids wondered why the Stargate is off-center. It’s rather distracting.

Was the Stargate designed off-center on purpose so that it faced the events pavilion building-on-stilts straight on for their upcharge fireworks events?

-Rob

 

[James Alucobond]

Was the Stargate designed off-center on purpose so that it faced the events pavilion building-on-stilts straight on for their upcharge fireworks events?

-Rob

I thought someone said it was because they didn't want to move the electrical for the central piece of the infrastructure, which is obviously now much bigger than it used to be with previous shows.

 

[peter11435]

I thought someone said it was because they didn't want to move the electrical for the central piece of the infrastructure, which is obviously now much bigger than it used to be with previous shows.

Correct. It’s docked and anchored to the same structure that the much smaller earth globe utilized. Since it is much larger this causes the structure to be off center

 

[Raymondraymond]

I watched the show for the first (and second) time. I was somewhat pleased with the show, though it wasn’t as good as my memory of ROE from the last time I viewed it (2016).

A few thoughts:

1. The hardware in the center of the lake is horrible during the day; I was shocked at how bad it looked. I don’t think that most guests notice, but it bothered me. Standing in Mexico and looking at the Morocco pavilion is just a shame. I will refrain from commenting about the new gravity building on the other side of the World Showcase horizon, as I don’t have the energy (all pun intended).
2. I personally was NOT bothered by the inclusion of animated film music, but I did find it forced and peculiar. The show didn’t make sense; the theme of the show was legitimately unclear. A good high school English teacher would categorize this problem in an essay as having a poor thesis statement and not having a supporting argument (perhaps even a “run-on-sentence version of a nighttime Disney show”).
3. The visuals were appealing. Though the hardware is an eyesore in daylight, it is an asset after dark.
4. The show length was decent, too. I was curious if it would be too short.
5. The music was, for the most part, good. Again, the problem was that the music choices were random and had no effective transitional elements. More narration could help this problem.
6. My party consisted of seven folks from ages eight to 65, and everyone preferred MK’s New show to Harmonious with one exception. Previously, this group would have been split down the middle (adults with ROE, kids with MK).

That’s my take. Perhaps not at “crash and burn” as I had expected after reading the boards, but there are certainly some opportunities for big improvement.

 

[FigmentForever96]

I watched the show for the first (and second) time. I was somewhat pleased with the show, though it wasn’t as good as my memory of ROE from the last time I viewed it (2016).

A few thoughts:

1. The hardware in the center of the lake is horrible during the day; I was shocked at how bad it looked. I don’t think that most guests notice, but it bothered me. Standing in Mexico and looking at the Morocco pavilion is just a shame. I will refrain from commenting about the new gravity building on the other side of the World Showcase horizon, as I don’t have the energy (all pun intended).
2. I personally was NOT bothered by the inclusion of animated film music, but I did find it forced and peculiar. The show didn’t make sense; the theme of the show was legitimately unclear. A good high school English teacher would categorize this problem in an essay as having a poor thesis statement and not having a supporting argument (perhaps even a “run-on-sentence version of a nighttime Disney show”).
3. The visuals were appealing. Though the hardware is an eyesore in daylight, it is an asset after dark.
4. The show length was decent, too. I was curious if it would be too short.
5. The music was, for the most part, good. Again, the problem was that the music choices were random and had no effective transitional elements. More narration could help this problem.
6. My party consisted of seven folks from ages eight to 65, and everyone preferred MK’s New show to Harmonious with one exception. Previously, this group would have been split down the middle (adults with ROE, kids with MK).

That’s my take. Perhaps not at “crash and burn” as I had expected after reading the boards, but there are certainly some opportunities for big improvement.

I don’t mind this sarcastically at all but I find it odd people aren’t picking up on the theme of the show. Music is international and connects us all. That’s simplifying it I suppose but I feel it’s just as clear as ROE was in its story. I can’t think of anyone outside of maybe one friend who actually knew what each segment of ROE represented story wise.

I get it when people say they can’t see the story and j think the lack of flow can add to this feeling but I also feel like it’s fairly obvious. Once again, not snarky at all!

 

[Raymondraymond]

I don’t mind this sarcastically at all but I find it odd people aren’t picking up on the theme of the show. Music is international and connects us all. That’s simplifying it I suppose but I feel it’s just as clear as ROE was in its story. I can’t think of anyone outside of maybe one friend who actually knew what each segment of ROE represented story wise.

I get it when people say they can’t see the story and j think the lack of flow can add to this feeling but I also feel like it’s fairly obvious. Once again, not snarky at all!

I honestly think you make a good point for some complaints; but from my memory, I recall the following: the theme of ROE was in my opinion a much simpler idea of world harmony. It even had a theme song and a clear visual display (internal globe torch) of unity among the nations toward the end to wrap it up. I left understanding motifs of conflict and chaos overcome with progress and peace along with a vision toward the future.

Harmonious has a lot of songs that have different messages. Several of them don’t have any coherency in the act. They would if we just had an overture and an a narrator add transitions. I think the improvement could be that simple. The current theme conveyed (not intended) is that Disney theme songs are written from multiple cultural contexts. I guess one could say that humans share similar contexts? But that seems a stretch…

 

[MisterPenguin]

The theme of Harmonious is: People like music.

And by "music" we mean our Disney IP music.

Because that's our theme: People love Disney music.

And by "people" we mean everyone around the world.

And so, we get people from around the world to sing the Disney songs which are not at all representative of everyone around the world; instead, it's almost exclusively representative of European Western Music. Including problematic songs just so we can say "from around the world."

Because that's our theme: The people of the world united.

And we talk about dance, too, even though many of the songs aren't danceable and just about no one breaks into spontaneous dance. And of the two dancing animations, one of them is the problematic one.

And we crank the volume and intensity up to eleven, because, that's what the kids like at their raves... so they will dance.

Everyone around the world is dancing. Because that's our theme: Everyone around the world dancing together.


(I'm such a shill!)

 

[Vinnie Mac]

I don’t mind this sarcastically at all but I find it odd people aren’t picking up on the theme of the show. Music is international and connects us all. That’s simplifying it I suppose but I feel it’s just as clear as ROE was in its story. I can’t think of anyone outside of maybe one friend who actually knew what each segment of ROE represented story wise.

I get it when people say they can’t see the story and j think the lack of flow can add to this feeling but I also feel like it’s fairly obvious. Once again, not snarky at all!

I don't really get it either. Sure, there's not a direct "story" (I made up my own story for the show lol) per se but there is a message and that message is fairly easy to pick up on.