Luminous: The Symphony of Us Debuts at Epcot

[wolfpaw]

Epcot at WDW in Florida unveiled its new area World Celebration Gardens and its new nighttime firework show Luminous: The Symphony of Us last night. What do you all think of the show?

 

[Anon-P]

I have mixed reaction for Luminous honestly. While the show itself is a fresh addition, but I think I'm gonna miss Harmonious and the taco barges tbh

[JB]

I have to agree with Anon-P. It was pleasant, but not spectacular. I guess I expect more from a Disney production. It seemed like there wasn't much connection/synchronization with the soundtrack. I enjoyed the fountains and lasers more than the aerials. All in all, nice to look at but nothing special. I give it a 7 out of 10.

[RobertaME]

45 minutes ago, JB said:

I give it a 7 out of 10

6 at best, really. It was just sorta, "Meh". Not thrilling or well choreographed at all. Compared to "Remember... Dreams Come True" in DLA it was almost disappointing... decent, but disappointing.

[Anon-P]

53 minutes ago, JB said:

I give it a 7 out of 10.

Personally I'd give it 7.5/10, not much going on except in the center. Also, the lights are the ones to be the highlight in Luminous, get it?

[Kablary]

30 minutes ago, RobertaME said:

6 at best, really. It was just sorta, "Meh". Not thrilling or well choreographed at all. Compared to "Remember... Dreams Come True" in DLA it was almost disappointing... decent, but disappointing.

RDCT was an absolute masterpiece, but that could just be my pre-teen nostalgia bias speaking  I remember seeing it in person during a middle school honor roll trip in 2006, and then watching it on repeat on RU42's YouTube channel. In highschool, us Freshman had a Senior friend who claimed she would fly as Tinkerbell during the show (and also fight Maleficent as Mickey during Fan!)...unsure if she ever really told the truth about that, but we all went with it because it added some extra special magic for us.

-----

I'll echo what JB and RobertaME have said - Luminous felt lackluster. I actually quite liked the pyro, but without any projections, overall the "spectacular" fell quite flat. Fountains were small compared to the hyper-bright lighting and fireworks, which was a bummer. Seemed they went all-in on the lighting package, though - lots of fixtures to reuse from the previous tenant. 

Where Harmonious actually had a leg-up (and I cannot believe I'm saying this) was the collection of large, imposing barges. Although absolutely awful during the day, they were animated and interactive set pieces during that show, which is something that Luminous doesn't have...at least not to the same extent. Show creators course-corrected by having mobile set pieces that wouldn't disrupt the view across the water, but I think they ended up with barges that were just too small when viewed from so far away. Having only seen amateur footage, I'll let others speak to this and see if they are bigger when viewed in person. But that's my takeaway.

 

[RobertaME]

58 minutes ago, Kablary said:

that could just be my pre-teen nostalgia bias speaking

Having seen it as an adult with my two boys, it's not just pre-teen nostalgia. I've seen just about every FW display DLA has ever done and RDCT was bar-none the absolute BEST. Disneyland Forever was really good too, but it just lacked that certain something that made RDCT so great. Maybe it's my nostalgia that it hearkened back to so many good memories there... but then that's not bad. People like nostalgia, so it makes for a good theme.

YMMV.

[Cody]

Seeing it twice within a span of two weeks I still cannot form a concrete opinion. The intro is the most "Epcot-esque" section of the show. 

[Bookworm91]

Long post about Luminous: The Symphony of Us incoming.

The show message: We are more alike than we are different because we are all connected through the human experience.

The show opens with a tribal feel through drums and wordless singing.  With a large ground effect and lights forming the logs of a bonfire, we are welcomed to the “Great Gathering.”  This leads us into an Epcot tradition we haven’t seen since 1999: The Welcome Ceremony.  We are welcomed to gather around by each of the pavilions in their respective languages.  The last time this was done in an Epcot show was Illuminations 25c, the show before Illuminations: Reflections of Earth.  The last individual welcome we hear is from Walt Disney himself become everyone says it one final time.  Comet shoot around the center and as they meet in the middle, we get our first aerial effect of the show.

Like I said, in depth analysis, haha

We then move into the first portion of narration that sets up what we will see tonight.  “Everyone on this Earth is part of the great symphony of us” throughout this narration you can hear a heartbeat and the lights on the lagoon pulsing in time to it.  “A rhapsody of rhythms that unites us and connects us through commonalities of the heart.” And with three taps of a conductor’s baton to catch the attention of all the musicians (us), the symphony begins.  First strings, then winds, and  finally voices come together.  At first it is discordant and clashing but in a matter of seconds everyone comes together just as we do in life when meeting someone for the first time.

The next section, titled “Heartbeat Symphony” is one of the original songs written for this show.  It does everything you want in an introduction piece in a firework show.  It allows the barges to give you a taste of what they can do without giving too much away.  It also musically cements the message of the show. “You are a part of me, and I am a part of you! Just like a symphony, different melodies live in harmony. So go ahead and sing your song, I’ll be there to sing along.  And all of the world will become a symphony.”  Throughout this section, the small barges release different ground effects synchronized to the music and drum beats.  We also get a really cool double release effect in the center with gold mines and blue aerials just above them that then reverse on the never phrase.  This section really sells that this show is very color based and will give each part a unique feel.  This number is predominantly blue and purple with gold accents and willows.

We then look towards the center as the narrator talks about how our song as we enter this world is a raw noise and we begin to tune ourselves to the world around us.  They then release an effect I have only seen in video prior in a Disney show called “LuminAria,” a slow rising sparkle effect.  This is accompanied to a baby’s cry.  This is when we are introduced to our first IP song of the show “You’ll be in My Heart” from Tarzan.  It starts off as a solo in English then it begins to change languages and representing mothers all around the world cradling their newborns.  It slowly becomes a five part harmony of female singers all singing in different languages while occasionally switching to English.  All the while we get bursts of blue and pink fireworks.  As the song ends, we reach our first transition section representing the passage of time.  There is a shift with the lasers, a child laughing, and the new Epcot theme playing.

The narrator talks about how we tune ourselves and learn what our instrument can do.  We learn how we can add to our family’s melody and pass on our song.  This moves us into “Proud Corazón” from Coco.  This section is a beautiful representation of the different countries around the world as the fireworks burst and quickly change to different flag colors.  Once again using pyrotechnics that Disney has never used before.  The section with the Coco music uses the colors of the Mexico flag.  We then return to the Epcot melody and the green, white, and red are joined with fireworks of red, white, and blue.  Not only are these USA and Mexico colors but also many of the other countries in World Showcase share these colors.

The next section is my least favorite song choices but the tight firework synchronization is a sight to behold.  The narrator talks about how as we go into the world, we improvise our song as we meet other people with unique melodies “music becomes play.” This leads into You’ve got a Friend in Me” from Toy Story and “Never had a Friend Like Me” from Aladdin.  The songs aren’t bad, they are simply overused.  Disney puts them in nearly every show.  This section is SUPER colorful and organized chaos at its finest.  Every mine and aerial effect is timed perfectly to the beats of this section and create beautiful layers of flashes and sparks.  I love how they hide the launches and pre-bursts of the orange and green fireworks so that they appear in the sky out of nowhere.

Now it is time for the love section.  Opening with “Can you feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King, the narrator talks about how sometimes we will meet someone and our melodies blend and we become a duet.  This is my favorite IP choice of the entire show.  “So Close” from Enchanted begins and the fountains dance together on the water.  Gold comets with white and pink sparkles circle the barges.  The music swells and we get two white comets shooting and crossing each other in the middle.  Aerial fireworks with willows and more pinks and whites sparkle above as the song takes a melancholy turn and the section ends with a thunderclap.  THIS is why I love this song choice.  So Close is a love song and a song of loss.  It is the perfect song to transition us into one of the saddest loss sections Disney has ever made.

“Inevitably in life the accompaniment drops out and we experience great loss.  We find that the melodies we cherished are gone.  And for a moment we are playing alone.”  The show then plays “When She Loved Me” from Toy Story 2 and “Recuérdame” from Coco overlaying each other.  Most people hear this section and think it is only about death, but it is more than that.  This also represents the end of a relationship.  Disney really did not pull any punches with this section and the only firework in the entire section is a lone white comet that streaks across the sky as if looking for someone to cling to.  The fountains that were once moving together are now individually moving.  As the two singers sing their own songs, the smaller fountains become candles on the water and the only instrument playing is a lone piano.

As at section ends and darkness, the narrator reminds us that we are never truly alone. “Sing out so others can hear you. The music we make echos back at us in chorus, in concert, in symphony!” This is accompanied by “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2.  The fountains slowly come back and the countries light up to echo the call from the center.  And the narrator says that we can come together if we listen to the sounds of each other.  While she is saying this, copper comets and aerial bursts are coming from the center with blue lighting.  This is a recreation of the section from Harmonious when the comets shoot from the arms in the finale.  The section ends with “At Last I See the Light” from Tangled.  Comets soar into the air from every barge and the country perimeter comets shoot to the center.  “How miraculous that we exist on this planet at the same time.  And yet it’s the human connection that unifies us.”

And we have come full circle and returned to the hearbeat of humanity.  The finale begins and a new original song begins: “The Beating of our Hearts.”  The lights on the lagoon imitate a heartbeat in time to the song.  The first part of this section has some really pretty harmonies and pyrotechnics but nothing we haven’t seen before in an Epcot show.  The lagoon really takes its time to build into the finale, slowing increasing the number of effects.  You can feel it is building to something as they start shooting comets to the center and then the center explodes with a barrage of comets.  If you look closely, you can see the box that houses this never before seen effect rise up as the music swells.  It shoots off 5 sets of comets before the next unique effect shows up.  Out of each of the center barges, around 10 to 12 mines are shot out towards the audience forming the shape of a heart.  This effect happens while the music is singing “the beating of our hearts.”  Once this is over we get glittering fans and heart shapes aerials as the music continues to grows and stops as two red fireworks explode to a heartbeat rhythm.  Then a lone firework shoots toward the sky as the narrator states “In the great symphony of us” and the perimeters shoot into the lagoon one last time.  The sky is then filled with comets shooting from the small barges and white fireworks explode overhead in a classic Epcot finale using the Epcot theme to close out the show and one final “We’ll become a symphony” from the into song.

Luminous: The Symphony of Us is a unique show that has firmly established itself in the upper ranks of Epcot shows.  It takes what I loved from Reflections of Earth and Harmonious and put them together.  I truly hope this show sticks around for a long time.

[wolfpaw]

Really pretty shots @Bookworm91!

[Cody]

Finally got to reading this and here is my synopsis. Sorry if it jumps around a bit, there are some sections I feel that are stronger than others. I will say I agree with a lot of points @Bookworm91 makes. I know we have been messaging back and forth on Discord to share our pictures from our spots.

After seeing this show twice and listening to the music repeatedly there are a lot of strong sections for such an IP heavy show.

Starting at the beginning, the welcomes from the different countries with Spaceship Earth lighting up in the background is the most "Epcot" section of the show. This section always gets me super excited and when I first saw it in a live stream of the premiere it made me cheer and there was someone cutting onions in the room. The perimeter launches only unite the countries for the new nighttime spectacular and brings a glimmer of hope that this is going to be an Epcot show.

Leading into the first original song, it is a nice song and they got creative integrating it into the show with the singers harmonizing beforehand. In the preview videos they pretty much played the full song, which I had assumed would have been partially the finale but was pleasantly surprised.

The first IP and one of the ones that touched me personally (why was it first) "You'll Be in My Heart." A beautiful rendition of the song, the Happily Ever After version and this one are in a war for who did it better. This version is nice to integrate multiple languages, which is something Harmonious did with every section. The thing with Harmonious was that it was built to have IPs and weave in multiple cultures from its concept to its finished product. Going into this show, I was not expecting the designers to implement this type of blend as we were not told too much about the show other than it is a "symphony of us."

The next few IPs are ranked somewhat low for me in the show. The Coco section is pretty, nothing negative. I am trying to determine where I rank it compared with its Harmonious version. The weakest section for myself (before reading the summary above) was the "You've Got a Friend Like Me" and "Friend Like Me" section. This seemed to me that this was an afterthought to try to integrate another two styles of music. This is comparable to the Princess and The Frog section in Harmonious to me as that section had me questioning why it made it into an Epcot show. The same question goes for these two songs being included. I love the songs, but in this show they are just filler for me.

The rest of the show for me is strong! The romance section with the inclusion of "So Close" from Enchanted takes the cake. We have not had this song used in a Walt Disney World show at all, it has prominently been featured in World of Color at Disney's California Adventure. This portion of the show is beautiful and really takes advantage of the fountains. One thing this show makes me think of is World of Color during the "buffers" where pyro is not present and is one of the main reasons why I call this an "Epcot World of Color." After romance comes loss in this show and personally, I was dreading this section after reading the description for the show provided by the designers on Disney Parks Blog. "When Somebody Loved Me" was used during a loved one's services so from the narration to the end of "When Somebody Loved Me" is a real tearjerker for myself and for a lot of people after seeing it in person. Mixing it with "Remember Me" also brings in the thoughts of loss and grief. That is something Harmonious lacked was that touch to the heart for many people unless you found deeper meaning in the songs from that show. 

Leading into the finale is "Into the Unknown" and "See the Light." Including Frozen is almost a given in most shows, but they really played with the lighting and the story to begin a pretty strong finale. The bridge between the two shows is a nod to Harmonious with the many flares shooting from the barges. A very nice thing to see as that was one of my favorites (and meme-worthy) parts of that show. "See the Light" is already a beautiful song, and this version is perfect. From where I watched this show both times, I made sure I could see Spaceship Earth light up during the finale because it adds a really nice visual to the show and should not be missed. The use of the perimeter launches during this section is one of the most exciting things as they were scarce during Illuminations Reflections of Earth and Epcot Forever. During Harmonious they were used during the finale, which was beautiful, but Luminous takes things further.

The final original song has a lot of heart and shows it through the pyro effects. Spaceship Earth with its not to Illuminations Reflections of Earth is something all Illuminations fans need to see. The designers knew they had to have some subtle nods to past shows. The center barge is something unique and definitely adds to the pyro collection. Progressing further, the hearts made out of mines is a creative effect and is something we have not seen before. It makes use of the barges in a creative way as there are no other visuals to this show. The finale is beautiful, and an original song is always welcome in Disney shows. Throughout the show, the new Epcot anthem is used which unites the park's new vision of possibility across World Showcase Lagoon. I think it is a beautiful piece of music and the integration into Luminous is flawless.

Other thoughts for this show are that I feel this is what Disney was trying to do with Harmonious, but we all know things happened to limit it. What Luminous does well is it has original songs to open and close the show and tries to integrate Epcot concepts that are the backbone of the park and its lore. Harmonious was a mix of Disney IPs from start to finish without any original music. The technology for this show is modern yet simple. Lot of fountains to make-up for the lack of visuals, but there is plenty of pyro to keep the show alive. Luminous also has narration to keep the story going and integrates each section as this show is a "symphony of us" from start to finish.

As far as an Epcot show, this is different than what we have been exposed to. It is a good show and should be seen a few times to get a concrete opinion. Try a few locations as this show can be seen from anywhere much like Illuminations and Epcot Forever. For the full effect, the Japan, American, or Italy pavilions are great locations to see Spaceship Earth light up during the show. I personally have only seen the show in the Japan and American pavilions, but by location Italy is another that would be a good spot. I enjoyed this show, I do not have a full opinion on it as far as loving/hating it. Comparing it to others, I love what it does, and it have very few weak points to it compared to others. 

 

Edited January 15 by Cody