HARMONIOUS SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

[Aimeedyan]

My reaction? Meh. I had high hopes.

Disjointed, not very Epcot-y, not enough fireworks, and that ending! I was like... is that it?!

No doubt everything is better in person so I may go see it tomorrow night so I can solidify my negative feelings about it

 

[VAtink]

I wasn't a huge fan of EPCOT Forever, but now find myself wishing it was back.
Hopefully they can fix it before we get there.
OTOH, it now frees up several nights where we would have watched the EPCOT night time show.

This 100%! Never would have thought I'd want Epcot Forever to come back!

Now off to redo our next trips schedule to remove our Epcot "fireworks" nights.

 

[Kimrlav]

I enjoyed the fireworks from Epcot Forever, especially staying at a resort on Crescent Lake, but missed Illuminations. Now, I will be missing Epcot Forever. A guest has to go into the park to really experience this nighttime show - at least with Illuminations you could watch the fireworks from the Innkeeper's lounge at BWI. Love Illuminations - this was not anything close to that show. I did like Spaceship Earth at the end with the lights. I expect better from Disney.

 

[Lilias]

I guess I'm in the minority, but I liked it (except for the jarring jungle book section). I'm a little biased towards Someday, though It's the first song I ever performed, so it's special to me. It's from the Hunchback musical, and not the movie, so I didn't expect it here. I cried XD

If I had never heard the song before, I wouldn't have had that reaction, though. A lot of the songs seemed clipped and arranged in weird ways, too.

A lot of this show seems to depend on the viewer already having emotional attachments to the IPs and songs. Probably meant to appeal to my millennial nostalgia

 

[Kms943]

And, did I miss it? Didn’t they say the Torches around World Showcase would play a role in this show? I didn’t see anything involving them.

 

[Airb330]

I wasn't a huge fan of EPCOT Forever, but now find myself wishing it was back.
Hopefully they can fix it before we get there.
OTOH, it now frees up several nights where we would have watched the EPCOT night time show.

I didn’t like Epcot Forver at all besides the kites. I didn’t watch since I’ll be seeing the show early next week but I’ll have low expectations. I’ll miss “we go on” for sure.

Now I’m scared for enchantment because I did love HEA…

 

[wov305]

I always used to try to explain to others the difference between a fireworks show and a Disney spectacular. Now I won't have to because this was ...... The biggest nothing burger ever. Then when it ended I was just left with the question " Was that the end and what just happened?"

 

[Geoff_M]

You kind of wonder if they made this show to save money on fireworks. Long term the colored water must be a lot cheaper then pyrotechnics, and this show does not have much in the way of pyro. Also i it takes a lot to make me miss Epcot Forver, but yeah, I miss Epcot Forever.

You can bet on that being true. There has been a noticeable reduction in pyrotechnics at WDW in favor of projections and such. This show is Exhibit "A" for this cost cutting trend.

I'll admit that I'm biased because Illuminations was our family's favorite show... but we're big enough to admit that Illuminations had such a long run that it's time had come. I honestly wanted to be impressed by Harmonious and hoped it would be a fitting replacement of our favorite show. But it was emotionally flat for my wife and I... and it kind of ended with a whimper. I'm sure some people will like it, and more power to them. I also don't like what the set pieces do to destroy the view in World Showcase. If Harmonious had been a "home run," then large permanent barges might be worth it... but ugh. Perhaps I'll feel better when I see the show in-person, but I'm pretty sure it'll be a "one and done" for us.

 

[WickstarRunner]

We have a trip in 60 days with 4 of our friends and I'm legitimately embarrassed by this show; luckily we wont waste time seeing it since it has "Remember Me" in it and that means my wife will refuse to see it (Her mother passed three days after she saw Coco for the first time so that song is a major trauma point)

Obviously the goal here was to severely reduce the pyro bill and while they've probably succeeded they've also solidified the fact that we will not return after this trip for at least 5-8 years.

 

[k5xs]

Illuminations made me cry for all the right reasons.

Harmonius makes me cry because it has no soul, it has no discernable message, it has zero transition between segments, and it has no climax. It was just a hyper-compressed Disney animation short film collection projected on spraying water. Maybe it belongs in MK, but I doubt it.

Technically it was great, but I expected that.

I hate seeing myself growing negative feelings toward Disney, but this was truly a horrible step backward from what was a highlight of every evening at Epcot.

Congratulations, Chapek. You've successfully trashed another iconic WDW landmark.

My wife completely agrees.

 

[tinkerhon]

Was it just me or were the vocals on "Arabian Nights" cringe inducing? Wow, it sounded bad !!!

 

[rpfennig]

i Didn’t quite catch the full lyrics of the last song, but ‘fair-er‘ and ‘greed’ are among them.

The last song was Someday from the "Hunchback of Notre Dame"

Someday
Life will be fairer
Need will be rarer
And greed will not pay

Yeah... Bob Chapek is trolling us now... (I think I did a spit take when those lines came up)

I didn't like the mishmash of Moana/hercules at the beginning

That actually stood out for me, I enjoyed that overlay of multiple songs as kind of a playful way of showing the common threads with the different stories. I was surprised that they started with that and then I don't think they did it again (? may have missed other instances) with any of the other songs. Similar, with how they started with having the songs sung with different languages and then that disappeared later on.

 

[wov305]

Was it just me or were the vocals on "Arabian Nights" cringe inducing? Wow, it sounded bad !!!

I think they are hoping no one will have an ear for music and will miss that and most of the transitions.

 

[qv09vvp]

Deliberately didn't watch but couldn't waiT to check here t get the groups reaction. wow. Sounds like the beginning of fantasmic but it never ends. I love the fireworks so I'm super sad to hear those have been cut.down so much. Well, I guess I can count on some earlier nights for our stay in 60 days. I loved illumination and having each country light up. This sounds just out of place for epcot.

 

[Princess Merida]

We are definitely in the minority. My daughters and I just watched and we loved it. I think it will be even better in person. I liked the different languages and projections. My daughters loved the movies that were represented. I do hate the barges out on the lake but I wasn’t a fan of Epcot Forever and think this will be beautiful as long as the water effects stay working properly. Rivers of light went from pretty good to terrible as time went on so hopefully that won’t happen here. I’m excited to see the Enchantment show tomorrow night. I was a huge fan of Wishes… cried every time. HEA was good to me but was definitely no competition for Wishes IMO.

 

[Marionnette]

I missed watching it live and just watched the replay. I'm glad that I missed the live broadcast because I was able to fast-forward the replay. I can honestly say that this was the first fireworks show at Disney where I was asking when it would be over. And for this, they ruined the view around the lake.

Disney, you continue to disappoint.

 

[sarah-jane]

I had such high hopes but my goodness...that was a lesson in managing my expectations (I really should know better at this point). Cohesive storytelling felt completely absent. And what was with that odd "goodnight" at the end...?

 

[SealedSeven]

Similar, with how they started with having the songs sung with different languages and then that disappeared later on.

That was confusing. I enjoyed the Music at the start with different languages as it felt as a good World Showcase piece. And then, they stopped doing that and just became bland....

 

[tinkerhon]

Honestly--- as someone else mentioned---- at least I dont have to worry about spending money on an Epcot dessert party !!
I cant believe that THIS is what they came up with ! Oh, to be a fly on the wall when this project was coming to life !!
Let me preface by saying that we absolutely love Fantasmic! , but this reminded me of "Fantasmic 2.0", and not in a good way !! Seems totally cheap, and thrown together by a HS drama club- (no offense to any students !!!).

Really missed the message of "Illuminations", the narrations, "THE GLOBE" and "We Go On" !!!

 

[portocall]

What a disappointment. Evidently, my impression of what Epcot is and Disney’s impression no longer agree. That show doesn’t belong in Epcot. I understand saving money on fireworks. That could have easily been done if there was a story to get the audience invested in. Colored water can only go so far on its own.