Harmonious Debuts At EPCOT
Credit: Disney
Last night, after what has been years of anticipation, Disney finally gave us a look at EPCOT’s newest nighttime spectacular; Harmonious.
Harmonious is the newest nighttime entertainment offering located in World Showcase at EPCOT. Announced back in 2019, Disney claimed that this would be the biggest show ever created for the Walt Disney World Resort. Using 5 massive barges that would have a permanent home in World Showcase Lagoon, Harmonious would feature fountains, lasers, screens and lights all moving in time with Disney classic music reimagined with voices from around the world in a way that would be. . . in a word. . . harmonious.
Since the original announcement, we’ve had a taste of what we might expect from the show both in the form of behind-the-scenes looks from Disney Parks and daytime testing of the barges at EPCOT. While all of these little morsels weren’t enough to paint a good picture of what we might expect from the show, there was a lot of speculation as to what exactly it is we would be getting from the show. Of course, we got our answer last night.
According to the folks at Walt Disney World, Harmonious is a “beautifully crafted medley of classic Disney music and visuals reinterpreted by a culturally diverse group of 240 artists from all around the world”. The show makes use of a “combination of floating giant screens, choreographed moving fountains, lights, pyrotechnics and lasers” in what is claimed to be a 360-degree view. Of course, the music for Harmonious consists of Disney songs which “hop from language to language as the show brings people from different parts of the world together to unlock the magic of possibility”. While the description of the show [as found on the Walt Disney World website] paints a picture that must have worked wonders in a pitch meeting, the actual final product that we saw last night is a completely different story.
Harmonious is a disjointed and clumsy collection of Disney song clips that seemed to have been curated by someone who was unfamiliar with the music and motion pictures that Disney has available to them. While some of the choices seemed to work in the space they were plopped into, more often than not, I found myself wondering if there had been any thought put into the show at all. There was a complete lack of creativity [such as slapping a few scores from opening credits of Disney films together for an opening medley. . . or closing the show with an end credit song from the 90’s] and no cohesive story or message. [Sorry, but singing songs in multiple languages isn’t the same as having a story, message or even a theme.] The show also didn’t include any original music, such as a title song or an original theme.
Something similar can be said for the visuals and projections that were used throughout the show. Whereas one might assume that Disney would have used clips from the animated features themselves, they opted for clip-art style visuals that were [in some cases] only loosely connected to the films they were meant to represent.
This all having been said, I think it is important to say that the barges and technical aspects of the show were fantastic. Of course, I say that having seen the stream and not having been there in person where I’m sure it would have been absolutely breathtaking. The colors and choreographed fountains were everything I was hoping that they would be during the evening hours. . . . . now here’s hoping that the daytime fountains are just as impressive.
At the end of the day, while there are some very impressive aspects of Harmonious that I am eager to experience in person during my next trip to EPCOT, I think that it’s important to be honest and call a spade a spade. Harmonious is one of the laziest and poorly put together productions that I’ve seen come out of Walt Disney World Imagineering in quite some time. It is honestly a wonder to me that a company like Disney, with some of the brightest and most creative minds in the country on their payroll, would cobble together something like this and call it “done”. . . . especially given the delays and the 50th Anniversary Celebration. While I hesitate to use excuses like “the past couple years have been difficult”, I’m hoping that there are plans to improve upon this show and make it something that is on par with the quality and storytelling of a nighttime spectacular that those visiting Disney have come to expect.
Of course, we’d love to hear what you think of the show. We’ve included a link to the stream below so that you can watch it for yourself and we’d love if you’d join the jamboree and share some of your thoughts with us. See you there!