Reflections of Earth improvements including new lasers

[ABQ]

Woah woah, when did they remove the whistling twisty shells?! That was the best part!!! You gotta be kidding me.

Cannot tell you the exact moment they went away or with absolute certainty as to why, that's something @marni1971 could probably expand upon.
I do know that if you run this video from around 9:30 or so, you can see they are very much absent, at least this is one portion of the display where I knew they used to be.

 

[dreamfinder]

Noooo - the way the budget was achieved was done despite TDO. New lasers are nice lasers.

Sounds like someone made a budget request and TDO said no. So the techs held a bake sale, all agreed to not use the funds for their holiday party (as if they existed in the first place), or found someone closer to the resulting product(local management types) that was able to shuffle some monies between cost centers to make it happen. Good for the grunts wanting to deliver a respectable show.

 

[JediMasterMatt]

First thoughts... yeah the lasers are coming back. Second thought... they will quickly go back to broken status.

I love Illuminations; but, the newest incarnation is so bland due to all the pyro changes (granted I haven't seen it this year yet, so this is based off of my last viewing):

- Still missing the RF timed air launched opening comet>shell combo for the opening burst.
- The opening features the multi-color bursts that was the climax of the middle part of Act II instead of the matching red burst that matches the rest of Act I's creation of the earth.
- Act II's middle climax missing the above mentioned orange/green/purple/aqua shells and has been replaced with simple white pyro that doesn't match the pyro coming from the water.
- Act II's missing screamer shells (huge loss in my opinion)
- The final salvo from Act III not having any color in it at all anymore and is just a repeat of Act II's white pyro.

The current version is lacking in color, which greatly diminishes the impact of the story of the show which was symbolic of all the people of the world coming together. Quite a shame to see what it has become... but, then again you could say the same thing about EPCOT itself... and WDW as a whole.

The only improvement in my opinion in recent years with the show was them finally getting the roman candle finale back in sync so they all start and more importantly finish at the same time so they aren't still in the air when the final comets from the lagoon collapse in.

So, while I'm happy to see the lasers get added back in - I hope the pyro can get sorted out to bring this show back up to its full potential.

 

[Rob562]

First thoughts... yeah the lasers are coming back. Second thought... they will quickly go back to broken status.

I don't think the current lasers were ever in a "broken" status, but rather making them full-spectrum lasers sounded like a great artistic idea, but in practice they were very difficult to see in the air.

I'm also holding out hope that we'll see the return of the opening ALF shells...

-Rob

 

[DocMcHulk]

I like lasers

 

[Mike S]

I like lasers

I like turtles.

 

[jwieber]

We were at the World this summer and all the missing parts were evident. The emotion is gone. It is now just a big loud firework show. Hard to believe, but something so small as removing the screamers could rip the emotion out of the show, but congrats to TDO, they managed to do it.
Will be back in Nov for Thanksgiving Cruise and CP, and doing Dinner package to get seating for CP. But will probably be heading back to BCV by the time the RoE are started. Why bother.

 

[Kevin_W]

Thanks for the update - my wife is not of the same opinions, but this is by far my favorite show at WDW. I'm glad to see it getting plussed. (Like others have said, the loss of the screamers is noticeable. I usually don't pick up on things like that, but noticed their absence in June. Here's hoping they come back.)

 

[DisneyGentleman]

Noooo - the way the budget was achieved was done despite TDO. New lasers are nice lasers.

Ahh, ok - great news then.

 

[George]

Am I back in 1988 waiting to watch The Wall at the planetarium on Florida Southern's campus in Lakeland? How did laser shows become associated with planetariums? Do planetariums still do this to raise money? Did Disney realize lots of lasers could be had for cheap due to lack of laser shows at aforementioned planetariums? More incredibly thought provoking questions to come.

 

[Father Robinson]

Just one question, is ROE going away in 2016 as has been rumored by Jim Hill? I didn't put much stock in it until reading that Martin mentioned some changes besides New lasers coming to the show.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

I think this is great news!!! I just hope that the new rumored show isn't going to be about Disney characters, but about the earth and the people living on it.

 

[rle4lunch]

Good news indeed. It's funny, I was looking thru some old pics from the 80's and realized how much that show hasn't changed in 25 years.

 

[Crazydisneyfanluke]

Good news indeed. It's funny, I was looking thru some old pics from the 80's and realized how much that show hasn't changed in 25 years.

 

[Slowjack]

I like the show, but I wouldn't mind a new one. I remember when night time shows were updated from time to time.

Right there with you. I'm old-school enough to remember "Laserphonic Fantasy," which gets points for the sheer goofiness of the name. Then came the various versions of shows under the "Illuminations" title, each memorably different from previous versions. By all means, bring on another show. ROE is fine, but when it debuted it was part of a larger millennial pageant that included a wonderful parade. It made sense to keep ROE around for a few years after the parade was shut down, but they've stretched it way too long in my opinion.

 

[PhilharMagician]

Am I back in 1988 waiting to watch The Wall at the planetarium on Florida Southern's campus in Lakeland? How did laser shows become associated with planetariums? Do planetariums still do this to raise money? Did Disney realize lots of lasers could be had for cheap due to lack of laser shows at aforementioned planetariums? More incredibly thought provoking questions to come.

Ummm? Yeah

 

[ABQ]

Am I back in 1988 waiting to watch The Wall at the planetarium on Florida Southern's campus in Lakeland? How did laser shows become associated with planetariums? Do planetariums still do this to raise money? Did Disney realize lots of lasers could be had for cheap due to lack of laser shows at aforementioned planetariums? More incredibly thought provoking questions to come.

Only now it's Dark Side of the Moon.<--clicky click. I hear it's pretty cool too.

 

[aladdin2007]

Why dont they do something about all the messy junky antennas cluttered on top of Mexico? (im guessing these are related to illuminations) Its seriously been looking like the slum barrios in south america.

 

[rle4lunch]

The show is low-tech and could've used a tech refresh 15 years ago. The pics I was looking at from 1986 had a floating ball go out in the lagoon, low level fireworks, and lasers.

 

[marni1971]

The show is low-tech and could've used a tech refresh 15 years ago. The pics I was looking at from 1986 had a floating ball go out in the lagoon, low level fireworks, and lasers.

That was a laser ball, not a spherical motorised LCD screen. IllumiNations pyro product is almost laughable compared to today (before the recent cuts)

The current show is technically far more advanced. But is still rooted in late 90s tech.