The sad part is, those songs are all fantastic.. aswell as the movies they come from. But itāll forever baffle me that they wouldnāt just get the incredible talent that wrote & performed those songs to produce brand new, original content thatās distinctly EPCOT. I get āwhyā that isnāt happening (narrow minded upper management).. but at the same time, itās like.. even if they are looking towards their financially successful films for creative inspiration, seems they really lack the knowledge of āwhatā exact qualities made those movies so successful to begin with in order to implement those same qualities into new EPCOT content thatād make the same impact.
Not to mention when you have IP songs, some people won't know the songs, little kids will almost undoubtedly not know Hercules nowadays, but when the music is original, everyone is on the same playing field making the show idea easier to convey.
It seems they no longer want a permanent nighttime show with a story. Illuminations music was its story, even with Wishes, its narration about believing in wishes and not letting them go was spread throughout the entire show with the "evil" parts trying to steal the wishes.
Some may argue that HEA has a storyline with its 6 music chapters but it's really just the quote of finding your own HEA and the "conflict" of the show is random Lion King/Pirates of the Caribbean/Ursula/Mulan scenes moshed together with no connection whatsoever.
Nighttime shows shouldn't be about seeing a collage of movie scenes, there's little creativity to that, it should be about being invested in a story, a plotline, etc. For me, Fantasmic is likely the best representation of this. If they don't watch what they're doing, Harmonius will be no different than HEA or a similar MK nighttime show other than location and physical show tech.
It isn't to say that they aren't capable of producing such a show, however, as recently Minnies Wonderful Christmastime Fireworks is not IP based and the show has a story of sharing memories with family that is narrated throughout the show.
I just looked at Disneyās posting for Harmonious on the official site and they said in big letters āA Musical Tour-de-Forceā. They must have seen the comments from @marni1971 Lol. Except he said Technical not Musical lol. Iām sure itāll be both but I thought it was funny.
