News Wishes to be replaced with new 'Happily Ever After' nighttime spectacular

[Clamman73]

Wishes seems boring after watching HEA.

 

[AndrewsJ]

Jimmy sure put me in the mood

Me too. I will miss him the most. The fireworks in HEA are the most beautiful I've seen except at the Eiffel Tower in Paris on NYE.

 

[Castle Cake Apologist]

So no Mickey Mouse or did I just miss it? If Jiminy had narrated I would give it 5 stars but without I give it 4.

No, no Mickey. Just like there wasn't any Mickey in Wishes either. Has he ever been in a castle fireworks show at WDW?

 

[Kman101]

Of course, every Lifestyler/Blogger/podcaster/known name on the Disney Tweeter was there last night ... it's all about some weird 'cred' you earn by being at the first (or last for that matter) of any event.

Like how they all suddenly had castmember friends to try and be the first in Pandora. Was almost sad seeing them beg on Twitter.

 

[AndrewsJ]

No, no Mickey. Just like there wasn't any Mickey in Wishes either. Has he ever been in a castle fireworks show at WDW?

No he wasn't in Wishes I had just heard he would be featured in HEA. I'm not complaining just think it would've been a nice touch.

 

[aladdin2007]

No he wasn't in Wishes I had just heard he would be featured in HEA. I'm not complaining just think it would've been a nice touch.

agree, and or I would like to have seen some sort of nod to the Magic Kingdom whether it had been in the music or narration or show effect etc, instead of just movie after movie...but maybe for the 50th one can hope.

 

[ToTBellHop]

agree, and or I would like to have seen some sort of nod to the Magic Kingdom whether it had been in the music or narration or show effect etc, instead of just movie after movie...but maybe for the 50th one can hope.

To be fair, most castle park fireworks shows focus on the films. I agree the 50th show should be about the park. It'll be a challenge to make it adequately different from RDCT however.

 

[AndrewsJ]

You could hear fireworks going off when they just showed projections so that's probably where the lack of pyro complaints are coming from.

The lack of pyro comments come from the same complainers that can never be pleased. I hate when I accidentally forget to log in and all of the cry me a river folks aren't being ignored.

 

[Daveeeeed]

The lack of pyro comments come from the same complainers that can never be pleased. I hate when I accidentally forget to log in and all of the cry me a river folks aren't being ignored.

I think it's because it feels slightly less as the time is longer. I've yet to watch it as I'll be seeing it soon as to not spoil it, but that would make the most sense.

It really is odd though... the same people that complain Disney never updates anything does a major update (one that probably will only last until 2021 mind you) and people complain even though it has even more pyro. Yes the pacing probably isn't perfect due to the nature of using songs in the clip format they do, and yes projections weren't necessary, but for a projection show that doesn't have to be watched with projections... (that from what people say is really good) is a win win in my eyes!

It's different, and I'm guessing I'll prefer Wishes, but it was in need of a change. EPCOT's Illuminations on the other hand I think just needs updates.

 

[EvilChameleon]

EPCOT's Illuminations on the other hand I think just needs updates.

If you would have told me, oh, 10 years or so ago that I would like the Magic Kingdom show more than Illuminations, I would have said you were crazy. This is my new favorite fireworks show at the resort.

Hopefully, when the time comes, they give just as good of an update to it as they gave to the Magic Kingdom show. Just keep the balls to the wall 4th of July/Christmas/NYE tags, and I'll be good.

 

[MerMom1981]

Like I get the thing of the future is these projections, they are on the tree, they are on the Chinese theater, they were on the castle preshow.. but I just don't know. At some point, it's overkill. It seemed to lack that childhood innocence that becomes restored when you're in a Disney park. I could barely hear the narrator, guess I should hold judgement until I can see it in person and actually hear, but I just felt bored.

I agree. The projections are a cool element, but they really dominate this show. Overkill and overproduced. It's dazzling to the eye, but didn't grab my heart.

I'm an old fashioned girl. I appreciate the simplicity of a lovely fireworks show with a heartwarming soundtrack.
Somehow, when I am instructed to be inspired, it doesn't feel super inspirational.

I really REALLY hope I'm wrong and that the live experience blows me away.

 

[tirian]

Yes, Dreams was absolutely amazing. And it's pyro worked perfectly for DLP. Obviously WDW can ramp it up a bit.

This show is certainly a derivative of Dreams, although we can probably trace back projection mapping effects for a pyro show to Tokyos Starlight Magic in 2000.

Dreams was clever in using a narrative in both music and dialogue. Plus Peter Pan and Wendy covered two languages. Tying in his shadow and the second star held the show together. Something HEA is slightly missing. Again, not to lessen the technical accomplishments in the MK but the show currently is a little loose story-wise around the edges. It's there if you go looking for it, some may say like RoE, but Wishes managed to spell it out better.

Today I showed the video to some friends who asked, "Why'd Disney use random songs from lesser movies? Why didn't they use the classics?"

Whereas I appreciate the musical variety, I now wonder if public opinion will miss the recognizable, classic Disney songs.

 

[tirian]

Somehow, when I am instructed to be inspired, it doesn't feel super inspirational.

That's the exact reason I don't think Pixar is the end-all, be-all of animation. Sometimes I want a story to organically make me feel emotions, not hit me over the head while shouting, "Be sad!"

 

[tirian]

Some people complain about the "weak story" compared to Wishes. That doesn't really bother me. The structure reminded me of World of Color and people don't complain about the weak narrative there. Though I guess it comes down to your taste.

Anyway, I LOVE when the projection turned the castle red with yellow lines! It was mesmerizing to watch!

I really like this new fireworks show, but have to clear up that line about WOC. Guests do mind the weak narrative at WOC; it's one of the most common complaints about the show.

I think HEA has a decent storyline by simply following various themes. Fantasy in the Sky, the original fireworks show, had no storyline whatsoever and people loved it until Wishes premiered.

 

[jrhwdw]

Tried watching Periscope and Streaming Disney for the second night of HEA. Seemed to have a lot of network problems in MK tonight. Form what I saw, HEA looked the same as last night. Streaming Disney was going to do OUAT but cancelled it because of network issues Has anyone seen OUAT the last two nights? Is it the same or upgraded?

 

[AEfx]

Today I showed the video to some friends who asked, "Why'd Disney use random songs from lesser movies? Why didn't they use the classics?"

Whereas I appreciate the musical variety, I now wonder if public opinion will miss the recognizable, classic Disney songs.

That is my reaction.

I have no problem with the visuals whatsoever. I loved the projections, and more pyro is always better but I thought there was almost enough of that as well. My only real gripe was I wasn't terribly impressed with the spotlight/laser things - they need some color, they just kind of look too Studios to me.

But the music? I felt like at least half of it was like sitting on a bench having a smoke at (again) the Studios and listening to Radio Disney through an atmosphere speaker. I personally didn't know most of the songs. And I wasn't impressed with what I heard. Thing is, the music/narration is really what makes the show special. I've seen more impressive fireworks before, but I always feel like, "nah, it's just not right, only Disney does it right" and it's the music (along with the Castle itself, of course).

The majority of the music is way too pop ballad-y, over the top, cheesy, fake-heartstrings nonsense. With the vocals, it was almost like some of those Scientology propaganda songs. It's very...late 1980's, and not the fun 1980's - it's reminiscent of the part that started to get bland as we turned into the 90's, and comes across as utterly void of feeling.

You can hear it in the audience reaction. What are the parts they cheered at? The Genie music. Ursula. Pirates. Tink. What do they have in common? The only stuff that had music they somewhat recognized and/or related to Wishes.

As super-fans who want fresh, variety, etc., because we pay way too much attention to this stuff, I see why some like it. It certainly is...different. But if we are gonna be real about it, the one time to give people what they want and serve up the real classic Disney, it's the Castle Fireworks. The one time to pile on all the nostalgia and be unapologetic about it. Most people are only going to see the legendary Magic Kingdom Castle Fireworks once, or maybe a handful of times in their lives.

I agree it was far overdue for an update. Disney should be updating at some of the music yearly. Instead, they just pretty much started over, and in an attempt to get away from Wishes, they took out many of the things that are the very essence of what makes the Castle Fireworks a legendary thing to begin with.

 

[fractal]

One thing I will say; It's going to be a bit more challenging photographing a long exposure shot of the show with the projections constantly changing.

 

[InsideDisney]

So far I think WDW and toyko have the best character/movie experience, like Hea has alot of the disney movies that other parks don't show like brave, DL doesn't have brave.

 

[NearTheEars]

I've been following along.. it is soooo difficult to NOT watch this on YouTube.. I'm trying to hold out though!!

Same here. We went last weekend to see Wishes one last time. Hopefully will go next week to see this new show. I try to avoid the videos at all costs.

 

[NearTheEars]

Yes, it really is.

Anyway, do me a favour! I can finally talk about this in public

I'm late to this, but didn't someone say the melody plays a few different times?