I thought it was really lame. Compare this show to the previous one. Barely any fireworks and the songs in foreign languages. Since 99% of your guests speak English, I get what you were trying to do, but it failed.
Was there yesterday Oct 1st and very much loved the show. It seemed like the projection on the center barge was missing, sad the happened on the very first official show but worked the two nights before.
Disney has failed miserably with their two latest fireworks shows at EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom. They truly have a disconnect with their audience and do not understand the emotional attachment to shows like Happily Ever After. Disney needs to do the right thing and scrap the new show.
Hi Kevin. Concur – I suggest they cut their losses and go back to Illuminations, which was a more than adequate fireworks show, had wonderful music, and was more in line with the theme at Epcot.
The show was sloppy and disjointed. The colors were beautiful. The barges are and eyesore during the day. The design limits the viewing areas because if you arent just in the right place you miss a lot . No fans did not go wild. I was reading all the live stream comments and it was about 25% liked it.
Everyone’s an armchair Imagineer telling Disney what they should be doing. I saw it from the World Showcase Plaza and it was incredible. There was not any less pyro. I thought it was perfect for Epcot that they had new animations that were in the style of the countries instead of reusing film animation. That along with covering and reorchestrating the songs was a perfect choice, otherwise it’s just a medley of original songs and film clips. Now that would have been lame. Believe me, all the feels were 100% present. The show will overcome all the Disney Karens who are out in force. It’s where we are as a society. Immediately criticize everything.
It did not. Factions of shareholders are already discussing dumping their stock because the absolute failure of this show gives signs of instability in leadership, lack of propper planning, lack of understanding of guests, and a tendency towards lackluster disappointing shows that will drive guests away, rather than to the parks. In these factions, there’s a real concern about how horrid this was and what that is going to mean for the full on Epcot redesign. Some are saying let’s wait and see, others have dumped stock, and more are considering. It was a complete shock and dismay for many shareholders.
The show is good the music is horrible!! Whoever has come up with the sound score for this show and the one for magic kingdom is terrible!! Please get new music!!
We were there the day the show debuted but didn’t watch it. The barges in the middle of the lake really destroy the views around World Showcase during the day. They are so ugly! I was never a fan of Illuminations, either.
Watched it online via PC Dev, looked really impressive. Can’t wait to check it out in person next summer.
If you want to talk about failures, that Kite Tails show in Animal kingdom looks horrendous and laughable, rivers of light was a great show, should have left it intact.
But harmonious looks better than the new magic kingdom show. Weird times when Epcot starts looking like the best park.
Another example of the current (lack of) leadership at Disney parks. Illuminations with its excellent music was perfect for Epcot and did not need to be done away with. Now, they spend a lot of money on 3 horrible looking barges that ruin the once wonderful view across the lake at the World Showcase. As for “fans go wild”, I’ve yet to see review (via comments) on YouTube that even comes close to 50% approval (more like 20-30%).
Very poor choice of Subject label for this report.
In keeping with the poor choices being made by Disney leadership in recent years (i.e. replacing Splash Mountain, etc.). As a former yearly attendee to WDW who stayed in the park (Dolphin Hotel), I am more than sad to see how pitiful the decisions are and how they are removing the magic of this once unique, informational, and wonderful theme park.
Decision-making by Disney “leadership” has been poor at best in recent years. Examples: retheming Splash Mountain, Adding expensive rides to Epcot, trying to retheme Epcot in general, Making France pavilion mostly a “sing along” and pushing the interesting Impressions de France to a few hours at night, Putting Frozen in Epcot vs. another park, etc….
Basically, they are ruining WDW
People are going to see this title and think Harmonious is actually good. It’s not. It pales in comparious to other Epcot shows (Shoutout to Illuminations), and feels very “corporate.” It lacks the heart and vision of Epcot and is instead just a tracklist of Disney songs set to lackluster fireworks and overdone projections. There’s no story, no common throughline or narrative to bring the songs and effects all together. Harmonious, sadly, lacks cohesion. Because of this, it feels cheap and misses the mark of capturing Epcot’s spirit. And don’t get me started on the ugly barges being visible all day on the lagoon.
I feel like they need to go back to the drawingboard with this one. If money is an issue, surely they can find a better way to bring down costs without sacrificing the very heart of the show. Harmonious, in its current incarnation, is an embarrassment.
Epcot was gaining popularity as it was, they should have rolled with it, gave the place some much needed TLC as it was. To me it’s just another Magic Kingdom projection show without the castle. Every park needs to be unique. When I was a kid and we were to cool for the Magic Kingdom Epcot was the place to be and I had great memories there as a kid. I don’t see the need to change the place as we know it.
It is sad that Disney ends a fun show in Epcot meant to bring people together by emphasizing a divide between people rather than a solution. They should show the good in people not emphasise the few who are not!
Idk how you run an article praising this horrendous show. Barely any actual pyrotechnics compared to Illuminations and the music is awful. People like Epcot because it’s different than the rest of Disney. That’s why they go. The entire thing was disjointed, poorly timed, poorly executed, and an altogether flop. Even the most diehard fans I know are pissed. Some even dumped their Disney stock over it because to them it shows instability on the park level and shows that Epcot and Disney itself are suffering a massive identity crisis right now. It also leave little hope for the Epcot redesigns to actually be what they’re being talked up to be like.
I saw this show live for the first time last night. I’m usually a very optimistic and open minded person. When Harmonious ended it was not something I feel like I had to see again. I can count the amount of times that’s happened with me at Walk Disney World on one hand. Technically the show is impressive, but I think that part of the problem. They got way too excited about jamming as much tech into the show as they could that it makes the whole thing feel overdone. There are no transitions between segments, just stops and starts. The Disney music and characters feel like spoon feeding, this show does not spur imagination, it tells you what to imagine. This is just another shunning of the hard core fan and more going after the casual park goer. The other issue is there was an issue with the laser projections last night. It was breezy, not windy, but just a bit breezy and that was enough to disrupt the spray above the “Stargate” to where the laser projections didn’t work. There was also a large section of the “stargate” that wasn’t working during the Jungle Book section. last but not least is the only place you get the full experience of the show is from the World Showcase plaza. It’s the only place in all of world showcase you get the straight on sightline. I arrived at the park at about 8:30 last night for the 9:45 show and that area of World Showcase lagoon was already 20 people deep waiting for the show to start. This was Disney trying to hit a grand slam but instead it’s just a big swing and a miss.
Comments for Fans Go Wild Over EPCOT’s Long-Awaited NEW Fireworks Show
Mark
I thought it was really lame. Compare this show to the previous one. Barely any fireworks and the songs in foreign languages. Since 99% of your guests speak English, I get what you were trying to do, but it failed.
Stephan
Was there yesterday Oct 1st and very much loved the show. It seemed like the projection on the center barge was missing, sad the happened on the very first official show but worked the two nights before.
CJ
It was bad and the barges don’t do enough to justify being an eye sore any other time.
Kevin Tate
Disney has failed miserably with their two latest fireworks shows at EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom. They truly have a disconnect with their audience and do not understand the emotional attachment to shows like Happily Ever After. Disney needs to do the right thing and scrap the new show.
Ken Brenner
Hi Kevin. Concur – I suggest they cut their losses and go back to Illuminations, which was a more than adequate fireworks show, had wonderful music, and was more in line with the theme at Epcot.
Kathleen
The show was sloppy and disjointed. The colors were beautiful. The barges are and eyesore during the day. The design limits the viewing areas because if you arent just in the right place you miss a lot . No fans did not go wild. I was reading all the live stream comments and it was about 25% liked it.
Travis
Everyone’s an armchair Imagineer telling Disney what they should be doing. I saw it from the World Showcase Plaza and it was incredible. There was not any less pyro. I thought it was perfect for Epcot that they had new animations that were in the style of the countries instead of reusing film animation. That along with covering and reorchestrating the songs was a perfect choice, otherwise it’s just a medley of original songs and film clips. Now that would have been lame. Believe me, all the feels were 100% present. The show will overcome all the Disney Karens who are out in force. It’s where we are as a society. Immediately criticize everything.
C H
Harmonious added shareholder value. Now about the beacon of magic at EPCOT – OMG YES – I want a dessert party for that!
Ibuddy66
It did not. Factions of shareholders are already discussing dumping their stock because the absolute failure of this show gives signs of instability in leadership, lack of propper planning, lack of understanding of guests, and a tendency towards lackluster disappointing shows that will drive guests away, rather than to the parks. In these factions, there’s a real concern about how horrid this was and what that is going to mean for the full on Epcot redesign. Some are saying let’s wait and see, others have dumped stock, and more are considering. It was a complete shock and dismay for many shareholders.
Heath
The show is good the music is horrible!! Whoever has come up with the sound score for this show and the one for magic kingdom is terrible!! Please get new music!!
Ken Brenner
Hi Heath. The music for Illuminations was classic Disney, and loved by many. There was nothing wrong with that fireworks show either.
Frostysnowman
We were there the day the show debuted but didn’t watch it. The barges in the middle of the lake really destroy the views around World Showcase during the day. They are so ugly! I was never a fan of Illuminations, either.
Randy W
Watched it online via PC Dev, looked really impressive. Can’t wait to check it out in person next summer.
If you want to talk about failures, that Kite Tails show in Animal kingdom looks horrendous and laughable, rivers of light was a great show, should have left it intact.
But harmonious looks better than the new magic kingdom show. Weird times when Epcot starts looking like the best park.
Ken Brenner
Another example of the current (lack of) leadership at Disney parks. Illuminations with its excellent music was perfect for Epcot and did not need to be done away with. Now, they spend a lot of money on 3 horrible looking barges that ruin the once wonderful view across the lake at the World Showcase. As for “fans go wild”, I’ve yet to see review (via comments) on YouTube that even comes close to 50% approval (more like 20-30%).
Very poor choice of Subject label for this report.
In keeping with the poor choices being made by Disney leadership in recent years (i.e. replacing Splash Mountain, etc.). As a former yearly attendee to WDW who stayed in the park (Dolphin Hotel), I am more than sad to see how pitiful the decisions are and how they are removing the magic of this once unique, informational, and wonderful theme park.
Ken Brenner
Decision-making by Disney “leadership” has been poor at best in recent years. Examples: retheming Splash Mountain, Adding expensive rides to Epcot, trying to retheme Epcot in general, Making France pavilion mostly a “sing along” and pushing the interesting Impressions de France to a few hours at night, Putting Frozen in Epcot vs. another park, etc….
Basically, they are ruining WDW
Jonathan
People are going to see this title and think Harmonious is actually good. It’s not. It pales in comparious to other Epcot shows (Shoutout to Illuminations), and feels very “corporate.” It lacks the heart and vision of Epcot and is instead just a tracklist of Disney songs set to lackluster fireworks and overdone projections. There’s no story, no common throughline or narrative to bring the songs and effects all together. Harmonious, sadly, lacks cohesion. Because of this, it feels cheap and misses the mark of capturing Epcot’s spirit. And don’t get me started on the ugly barges being visible all day on the lagoon.
I feel like they need to go back to the drawingboard with this one. If money is an issue, surely they can find a better way to bring down costs without sacrificing the very heart of the show. Harmonious, in its current incarnation, is an embarrassment.
Mikey
Epcot was gaining popularity as it was, they should have rolled with it, gave the place some much needed TLC as it was. To me it’s just another Magic Kingdom projection show without the castle. Every park needs to be unique. When I was a kid and we were to cool for the Magic Kingdom Epcot was the place to be and I had great memories there as a kid. I don’t see the need to change the place as we know it.
Jack powderley
It is sad that Disney ends a fun show in Epcot meant to bring people together by emphasizing a divide between people rather than a solution. They should show the good in people not emphasise the few who are not!
Ibuddy66
Idk how you run an article praising this horrendous show. Barely any actual pyrotechnics compared to Illuminations and the music is awful. People like Epcot because it’s different than the rest of Disney. That’s why they go. The entire thing was disjointed, poorly timed, poorly executed, and an altogether flop. Even the most diehard fans I know are pissed. Some even dumped their Disney stock over it because to them it shows instability on the park level and shows that Epcot and Disney itself are suffering a massive identity crisis right now. It also leave little hope for the Epcot redesigns to actually be what they’re being talked up to be like.
Theo
I saw this show live for the first time last night. I’m usually a very optimistic and open minded person. When Harmonious ended it was not something I feel like I had to see again. I can count the amount of times that’s happened with me at Walk Disney World on one hand. Technically the show is impressive, but I think that part of the problem. They got way too excited about jamming as much tech into the show as they could that it makes the whole thing feel overdone. There are no transitions between segments, just stops and starts. The Disney music and characters feel like spoon feeding, this show does not spur imagination, it tells you what to imagine. This is just another shunning of the hard core fan and more going after the casual park goer. The other issue is there was an issue with the laser projections last night. It was breezy, not windy, but just a bit breezy and that was enough to disrupt the spray above the “Stargate” to where the laser projections didn’t work. There was also a large section of the “stargate” that wasn’t working during the Jungle Book section. last but not least is the only place you get the full experience of the show is from the World Showcase plaza. It’s the only place in all of world showcase you get the straight on sightline. I arrived at the park at about 8:30 last night for the 9:45 show and that area of World Showcase lagoon was already 20 people deep waiting for the show to start. This was Disney trying to hit a grand slam but instead it’s just a big swing and a miss.
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