HARMONIOUS SEPTEMBER 29, 2021

[Leigh L]

When did DIsney lose their ability to tell a story?
Just finished watching and really underwhelmed. Reminded me of the first time I watched Rivers of Light.
Multiple short snipets of IP does not make a story.
I keep hoping that seeing it in person will be much better. However listening to the crowd, I don't think I've ever heard that little cheering for a good night time show (especially when it was over).
Technically it looks good, just has no soul. It lacked the soul of Illuminations or Wishes.
I was hoping the show would make up for the loss of a beautiful view across the lake. It doesn't.
I may be wrong, but this looks like a one and done.
Was really hoping for more.

I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. Maybe in person, I'll feel differently, so I'll reserve judgment in that respect.

The highlighted was all I could think of when watching it. While the visuals were amazing, I'm not sure the tradeoff is worth it (unless those fountains are truly incredible).

Another thing that bugged me was it seems half of the views around WS will miss out on the projections which basically will make for a lame show. Without the pyro I was anticipating, will you even see much unless you get a good spot? (e.g. I watched HEA across from Friar Tucks recently and the fireworks show was still beautiful even though I couldn't see projections. I didn't get this impression this would be the case from last night's livestream of Harmonious).

I agree, it felt like there was no true message or story. Was also underwhelmed with the finale.

 

[MomOTwins]

WOW. I thought after Rivers of Light they would have learned that cheaping out on fireworks and just showing cartoon clips with disney songs on a lake was not going to appeal to anyone. Guess they learned absolutely zip. That was awful.

I really cannot express in words how much I hate the show. It’s name is a sick joke—the whole thing was harmonyless not harmonious—the singing was all yelling and weird mashups of songs that didn’t go together.

The “Remember me” sequence is especially hard to watch because it’s like they watched Coco and missed the whole point—in the movie, Hector’s version of the song was a beautiful song of his love for his daughter and De La Cruz made a tacky belted-out-loud show number. It’s like Disney saw thay and was like “So the point of the movie is bigger is better, right? De la cruz made a lot more money that Hector, so obviously he had the better version of the song. Well let’s one up him with an even louder showier version and we’ll make lots of money too!.” Ugh.

In case anyone wants to go back and relive something worth the price of admission ...

After how awful the Hatmonious livestream was, I did go back on YouTube to rewatch illuminations just to see if maybe it was the online video format’s fault. Nope. I had chills rewatching illuminations on youtube (on my tiny phone screen no less). That show was everything I loved about Epcot. This one is an abomination.

I should add—it is not the IP that bothers me. I LOVED HEA because it had a STORY. The songs and the clips evolved and made sense and blended beautifully with the pyro and worked playfully with the castle. And the singing in HEA was gorgeous and emotional. This show actually repeated a lot of the songs from HEA (out there, merida’s song, how far I’ll ho) but with no story progression and shouty-singing. And from harmonious, instead of blending in and celebrating the appearance of the park lime HEA did, we have the stargate and taco eyesores to deal with all day as a painful reminder of how they ruined the beautiful world show lagoon for THIS garbage.

 

[jknc]

WOW. I thought after Rivers of Light they would have learned that cheaping out on fireworks and just showing cartoon clips with disney songs on a lake was not going to appeal to anyone. Guess they learned absolutely zip. That was awful.

I really cannot express in words how much I hate the show. It’s name is a sick joke—the whole thing was harmonyless not harmonious—the singing was all yelling and weird mashups of songs that didn’t go together.

The “Remember me” sequence is especially hard to watch because it’s like they watched Coco and missed the whole point—in the movie, Hector’s version of the song was a beautiful song of his love for his daughter and De La Cruz made a tacky belted-out-loud show number. It’s like Disney saw thay and was like “So the point of the movie is bigger is better, right? De la cruz made a lot more money that Hector, so obviously he had the better version of the song. Well let’s one up him with an even louder showier version and we’ll make lots of money too!.” Ugh.


After how awful the Hatmonious livestream was, I did go back on YouTube to rewatch illuminations just to see if maybe it was the online video format’s fault. Nope. I had chills rewatching illuminations on youtube (on my tiny phone screen no less). That show was everything I loved about Epcot. This one is an abomination.

I should add—it is not the IP that bothers me. I LOVED HEA because it had a STORY. The songs and the clips evolved and made sense and blended beautifully with the pyro and worked playfully with the castle. And the singing in HEA was gorgeous and emotional. This show actually repeated a lot of the songs from HEA (out there, merida’s song, how far I’ll ho) but with no story progression and shouty-singing. And from harmonious, instead of blending in and celebrating the appearance of the park lime HEA did, we have the stargate and taco eyesores to deal with all day as a painful reminder of how they ruined the beautiful world show lagoon for THIS garbage.

I don’t think a livestream view only of Harmonious is a fair way to judge the show. Especially if you have a long history of Illuminations in person.

my opinion of it still stands, but everyone’s opinion will be different. I’m more curious how people who’ve never seen illuminations feels about harmonious.

 

[MissSha]

MEH

 

[MomOTwins]

I don’t think a livestream view only of Harmonious is a fair way to judge the show. Especially if you have a long history of Illuminations in person.

my opinion of it still stands, but everyone’s opinion will be different. I’m more curious how people who’ve never seen illuminations feels about harmonious.

I don’t have a long history of watching illuminations or any real attachment to it. I saw illuminations once in 2018. That’s it—no nostalgia or anything. My point was that comparing the two, illuminations was such a better show! This really is a downgrade.

 

[samsteele]

I watched it on a live stream last night and could tell by comments picked up from the crowd around the vlogger that people were disappointed.

The ending was just not good. A clipped 'goodbye' that sounds like a 'get out'. That ending will need to change and am sure that will happen asap. The crowd couldn't figure out if the show was over and people were confused. Looked like the pathway lights were still dimmed or even off so people were stumbling into one another trying to exit world showcase.

The barges really needed to add an incredible revolutionary new dramatic element to the show to justify their hulking ugly appearance there all day. Didn't come close.

Suspect the show will be dramatically revamped. What we saw last night won't be 'it' for long.

The sleeper hit of the night really seemed to be Spaceship Earth lit up in coloured lights. That was my takeaway as the vlogger left Epcot and focused on closeups of those lights.

 

[jrgutknecht]

I so wanted to like this, but all I can think is; they ruined the aesthetic of World Showcase with those gigantic ugly barges for THIS? Ugh.

 

[patty57]

Sorry for not reading the entire thread, so if this was already mentioned...apologies. Does anyone have an opinion on whether the Epcot fireworks cruises would have a good view of all of this?

 

[JackieO]

We watched it live last night. I was hoping for something to make those terrible barges worth the ruined view. This was not it. Add this to the list of HUGE mistakes Disney has made recently. I love you, Disney, but you need to get back on track!

 

[jo-jo]

I want fireworks. I didn't care so much about seeing the globe and the water level stuff, I went for the fireworks. So you could stand almost anywhere to see those, no staking out a bench for two hours ahead of time.

 

[jknc]

Someone please say something positive about the show. I’ll start.

It has fireworks.

 

[igrsod]

I'm in the minority here. I thought it was visually beautiful and the songs were fun and uplifting. I loved the songs being sung in other languages. I agree there needed to be more of a story line to string things together better. I can't wait to see it in person.. I can see us, enjoying it and dancing.

 

[Dis Dragon]

Illuminations definitely had the ending nailed, it left you on a high note with an elated feeling while singing we go on. This was a product of the whole show building through it's original score though - I couldn't get past how a lot of the songs in Harmonius just stopped instead of blending into the next one - HEA blends so well, my wife was wondering if maybe the sound engineer from HEA was working on Enchantment.

My son saw a positive with all of this - When we stay at Beach Club there won't be as much firework booms to keep us up anymore.

 

[Tonyz]

“Someday soon greed won’t pay”???

Are you kidding me, Bob??

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Terrible

 

[Pens Fan]

It would be wrong NOT to be worried

Halfway through this show I looked at my son and said, "I'm now really afraid for what's going to happen in the MK tomorrow."

 

[fabfemmeboy]

I don’t think a livestream view only of Harmonious is a fair way to judge the show. Especially if you have a long history of Illuminations in person.

my opinion of it still stands, but everyone’s opinion will be different. I’m more curious how people who’ve never seen illuminations feels about harmonious.

I never saw Illuminations - except on youtube around the time it was closing. And I'm not much of a nighttime show person in general. But of the nighttime shows, this is already my least favourite. It's like they took the two biggest criticisms of recent nighttime 'spectaculars' (too much reliance on (water)screens and too much shoving it full of recent IP with no story) and decided to double-down on it. I don't inherently object to IP in EPCOT, though I understand those who do. But this would be underwhelming in any park.

Moreover, I really don't understand it for the 50th. EPCOT Forever had its issues, but at least it gave me a nostalgic feeling and warmth. It felt like "look at all the things we've done together!" and had a fairly nice mix of music (until the end). And again - I never saw it in person, only on youtube when it was first starting.

 

[jknc]

Halfway through this show I looked at my son and said, "I'm now really afraid for what's going to happen in th MK tomorrow."

I agree. HEA was so good.

 

[Fely the 1st]

Really disapointed, Disney always was perfect in music, Shows and storytelling. They seem to have lost this abilit.

 

[0FF TO NEVERLAND]

Final Note from me tonight:

Harmonious while it started off feeling like it'll connect to Epcot by being a 'World Showcase' of Disney Music didn't progress / transition into anything more. Felt like a neat lightshow with music playing, nothing more. Was like a watered down version of World of Color yet had chance of better music and display but didn't take advantage of it.

Epcot Forever told a better story, but lacked the light show appeal. Felt more like a staple than Harmonious by being connected to the park even without the Flair.

If Harmonious came first without the flair, and Epcot Forever second with this display, I think people would have enjoyed it more.

When epcot forever is considered better, you know the new show must be really bad