Once upon a very long time ago, each and every park at Walt Disney World had its own theme; a concise identity, and a clear vision of what exactly it was about. Magic Kingdom made fantasy real; EPCOT made reality fantastic; Disney’s Hollywood Studios was a malleable showcase of the stories that connect us; Animal Kingdom, an embodiment of the supreme and untradable value of nature and humanity’s story as part of it.
Fans (probably fairly) criticize the 21st-century homogenization of Disney Parks, where a “Zootopia” land feels as likely to come to Hollywood Studios as it does to join Animal Kingdom; where Marvel heroes and Pixar pals are randomly sprinkled between EPCOT and Magic Kingdom; where Frozen ends up in World Showcase instead of Fantasyland, and where Mickey Mouse makes the Chinese Theater home, and where Monsters Inc. moves into Tomorrowland.
It’s still clear today that Disney’s four Florida parks are four different places built at four different times and with four different visions, but are they still four different things? Are they still about something, with a big message to convey? If Disney’s next generation of “nighttime spectaculars” is any indication, the answer might be a scary one…
The New Classics
You only need to rewind to before the 2020 pandemic to see how “nighttime spectaculars” could serve the parks they’re presented within. The most recent generation of Disney’s biggest, loudest, and most impressive after-dark shows weren’t perfect, per se, but they did exactly what any fan could hope for: they served as epilogues to a day at the park, closing the chapter with one, final, definitive statement on what the day summed up to; what the park was about, and what message guests were meant to leave with.
Magic Kingdom – Happily Ever After
At Magic Kingdom, Happily Ever After spoke for itself, literally. “It’s just the beginning! Feel your heart beat faster! Reach out and find your happily ever after!” Filled with Disney’s classic (and okay, empty) platitudes about dreams and the magic within and taking chances and going on journeys, Happily Ever After did two things really, really well.
First, it did projection mapping right. Too often, Disney uses projection mapping to basically cover park icons in abstract colors and designs or, worse, use them as very bumpy movie screens. Happily Ever After did exactly what we love – it used the castle. Waterfalls poured down its towers; vines climbed across its turrets; sails from Moana’s boats followed the peaks and pinnacles; it became a castle toy set as Toy Story characters arrived; an Imperial Palace with snowy peaks beyond as Mulan joined. Not just color and light, the castle became a set continuously transformed.
Second, Happily Ever After had a flow. Sure, at the end of the day, it was merely a “clip show;” a jukebox musical of Disney songs. But internally, the show was organized into smaller acts, each loosely themed to the “ingredients” of a hero’s story: Dreams, Journey, Friendship, Love, Adversity, and Triumph. That throughline didn’t have to be spelled out; it could be felt. It provided a loose organization to the show; not a story, but a message… and one totally fitting Magic Kingdom’s popular image of magic, happiness, adventure, and “happily ever after.”
EPCOT – Illuminations: Reflections of Earth
It’s unlikely that Disney Parks will ever again orchestrate anything quite as original, ambitious, and eccentric as Illuminations: Reflections of Earth. Debuting in 1999 (EPCOT was the heart of Disney’s Millennium Celebration, remember), the show was actually an evolution of 1988’s original IllumiNations, which was itself a redress of 1984’s Laserphonic Fantasy. But for the New Millennium, EPCOT went big.
Centered on a 28-foot tall LED globe floated into the middle of World Showcase Lagoon each evening, Illuminations: Reflections of Earth promised something ambitious: “We’re gathered here tonight around the fire as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us… to share the light… and to share a story. An amazing story as old as time itself, but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual stories to tell, a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one.”
Divided into three acts – CHAOS, ORDER, and MEANING – Reflections of Earth quite literally told the story of humanity. From the roiling, violent formation of planet Earth (ending Act I with the globe floating in a sea of stars) to the origins of life, the emergence of cultures (featuring World Showcase pavilions illuminating), and our shared celebrations, the show led up to “We Go On.” During the closing act, each pavilion’s torch would illuminate, leading the central globe to crack open, revealing a single flame of unity inside.
The bookend
Think of Happily Ever After and Illuminations: Reflections of Earth as what they were: the bookends to a day at Magic Kingdom or EPCOT – two parks with very different identities and very different “lessons” to teach! There’s a beauty to that “kiss goodnight;” the last – and arguably, strongest – touchpoint with guests, where you can state, plain and simple, what this whole day has been about.
At Magic Kingdom, the lesson is that the path from “Dream” to “Triumph” is a long one, and that “Happily Ever After” comes to those who work for it. Sure, we know that Magic Kingdom is so much more than Disney World’s “fairytale” park, but in terms of a centering message to be projected on Cinderella Castle, there are few stronger than Happily Ever After’s.
That’s true at EPCOT, too, where Illuminations: Reflections of Earth was quite literally performance art; a big, heady, intellectual journey through 4.5 billion years of Earth’s history and 11,000 years of human civilization, somehow tying in both the countries of World Showcase and the promises made in Future World, all pivoting around the New Millennium.
To be sure, the same can be said of Fantasmic! – an imaginative exploration into the worlds of Disney animation perfect for Hollywood Studios – and even Rivers of Light – an Illuminations-flavored celebration of nature and humanity’s evolution alongside and within it, simply hampered by being unable to feature the “spectacular” part of nighttime spectaculars. (See also, the definitive Fantasmic at Disneyland and the sensational World of Color at Disney California Adventure as day-ending odes to imagination and optimism, respectively, each filled with flow and emotion.)
Four parks, four identities, and four very different bookends to match. But as anyone who’s been following Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary will tell you, that just changed… Read on…
Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary celebration began October 1, 2021. The 18-month promotional event is joined by a global marketing campaign, inviting anyone who’s been a part of Walt Disney World’s half-century story to return for “The Most Magical Celebration on Earth.” Of course, beneath the golden gleam, Team Disney Orlando is also dealing with the sobering reality of diminished tourism in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, where slashed budgets, canceled projects, reduced capacity, and new upcharges are unfortunately sure to be on the top of minds of guests returning from vacation.
Put another way, the resort’s 50th Anniversary is certainly not the year Disney expected a quarter of Theme Park Tourist readers to declare that they’ll never return to Walt Disney World, and this time they mean it.
Two bright spots in the year’s frustrations were two of the big-budget holdovers of the 50th – a new nighttime spectacular at EPCOT and another at Magic Kingdom. As with any big-budget Disney Parks project, a whole lot was riding on Harmonious and Disney Enchantment… Not only did they need to be homeruns in their own right, but they needed to be at least as good as their respective predecessors – Illuminations and Happily Ever After – and probably better. They needed to bookend a day at Epcot and Magic Kingdom just as perfectly… and it wouldn’t hurt if they actually celebrated, y’know, fifty years of Walt Disney World.
But that’s a task Disney Imagineers knowingly undertook, right? So… did they succeed? Well…
EPCOT – Harmonious
At least in name, Harmonious sounds like a show perfect for EPCOT… one with a central message of togetherness, unity, and harmony. Even when all that was known about it was its name, it was a foregone conclusion that Harmonious would include Disney songs and characters. It’s 2021, after all, and EPCOT – where Disney characters were once purposefully excluded – is now in the midst of an open-ended, multi-year reimagining that literally hinges on Disney, Pixar, and Marvel characters. With Frozen already in place in Norway, Ratatouille in France, and reportedly a whole lot more on the way, it made sense that whatever Harmonious ended up being, it would be more World of Color than Reflections of Earth.
On paper, then, fans were braced for Harmonious, even as five massive black barges – a floating “Compass” made of four 88-foot long LED screens and a central, 60-foot tall upright ring – were moored permanently the Lagoon’s center. Hey – at least Disney was going big. Even if the cost was daytime views, at least Harmonious would be larger than life, innovative, and astounding in its scale in a way not seen since World of Color at Disney California Adventure.
When Harmonious officially debuted on October 1, 2021, the reception was… well… mixed. Far, far too mixed for a production of its size and budget.
The show begins strongly, in what’s been called “Act I – Gather.” After a warm-up comprised of vocal selections from Frozen, The Lion King, and Moana, Act I hinges on a very strong mash-up of “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana and “I Can Go The Distance” from Hercules, both leaning into the show’s multi-lingual aspect. It crescendos and reveals much of the show’s arsenal of lights and fireworks early on. (Disney still hasn’t quite matched the slow build of a show’s technical capabilities as found in World of Color, eager to set off every light, fountain, and flame in the first 90 seconds instead.)
“Act II” is referred to as “Celebrate,” but it’s essentially all of the show except the introduction, and this is where Harmonious loses any sort of flow. Some insiders alleged that like Rivers of Light, Harmonious’ production had been plagued with issues leading up to a complete reshuffling and re-editing just weeks before its debut. Though unconfirmed, that would make sense. Unlike Happily Ever After, Harmonious feels like a clip show – one where Imagineers scoured the archives for Disney movies that aren’t Euro-centric and shuffled them together in discrete singalong segments.
Don’t get me wrong – representation, inclusion, and global culture are absolutely essential for The Walt Disney Company and Disney Parks. They’re also a really, really great foundation for EPCOT and its World Showcase. But does Harmonious actually represent and include global culture in a meaningful way?
Songs from Aladdin are, I guess, supposed to celebrate the culture, music, stories, or region of the Middle East. (Nevermind that several of Aladdin’s songs were edited upon re-release for containing harmful depictions of the Middle East – this, after all, was a movie produced long before Disney’s fabled extensive research trips and their later determination to work with advisors to get cultural depictions right).
India is then spoken for by songs from The Jungle Book; China by Mulan’s “Reflection” (even though Mulan was a famous box office bust in China, and largely rejected by Chinese audiences at the time of its release). The Lion King checks off the continent of Africa somehow, then France (Beauty and the Beast and Hunchback) and Scotland (Brave). In the quietest of the show’s moments, it’s peaceful and poetic. In most, though, articulating arms, sputtering novels, whipping fountains, and screen-based visuals create a cacophany of color and chaos.
“Act II” concludes with the most fun segments, representing Latin America (with Coco and Saludos Amigos) and the United States (using the New Orleans-set Princess and the Frog). It’s hard to tell if each musical segment is meant to celebrate a story from a given region (i.e. Beauty and the Beast for France), a musical style (i.e. jazz for America), the role of music in a culture (i.e. Coco for Mexico) or just the abstract idea of a place (i.e. Mulan for China), or maybe all four at different times?
Then the show closes with an “Act III,” comprised of “Someday,” a reflective song cut from Hunchback of Notre Dame, but amped up to an anthem here. It still feels a whole lot less like a grand finale than a return of “How Far I’ll Go” and “I Can Go the Distance” would’ve. Even as colors, fireworks, LED screens, and fountains dance, Harmonious ends awkwardly, leaving the crowd with a hum of “Is it over?” No one would expect Harmonious to have a story or plot per se, but like Happily Ever After, World of Color, or Illuminations, even a flow – a defined structure, clear chapters, and a custom theme song to both begin and end the show – would’ve helped big time.
If you haven’t seen the show yet, we encourage you to review Disney Harmonious here:
Harmony
Don’t get me wrong – Harmonious is big, it’s bright, it’s bold, and it has some very, very strong sections. But what does it mean? Or more to the point, why is it in Epcot? Because it features Disney movies set in other lands? Couldn’t Harmonious be projected on Cinderella Castle to exactly as much effect? Couldn’t it be set in the Hollywood Hills Amphitheater with videos projected on fountain screens rather than barges, and be cast as a “clip show” of popular Disney songs to end a day at Hollywood Studios? Couldn’t it be projected on the water at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, wrapping up a day of exploring distant lands?
It’s easy to imagine that Harmonious’ media could just as easily be pulled from those LED screens and reuploaded to Animal Kingdom’s; that its hardware could simply replace the Fantasmic set at Hollywood Studios; that it could be projected onto Cinderella Castle without a second thought. What happened to parks with such strong identities that they needed strong bookends to convey their message?! Harmonious is only half the battle… Read on…
For just a moment, let’s rewind. In 2005, Disney Parks around the globe launched “The Happiest Celebration on Earth,” all centered on the 50th Anniversary of the original Disneyland Park in California. To commemorate the event, Disneyland launched a “Homecoming” campaign, inviting guests back to the place where it all started. After a very dark period for the parks (and tourism as a whole), the 50th Anniversary decked the resort out in gold. Sound familiar? Here’s where the story diverges…
Disneyland’s 50th Anniversary was a beautifully nostalgic campaign. Each of the park’s Opening Day Originals was highlighted, painting a single vehicle of each – one Dumbo, one Peter Pan’s Flight pirate ship, one Snow White’s Scary Adventures mine car, etc. – in gold. The Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, and the Enchanted Tiki Room were refurbished to perfection and the Main Street Electrical Parade returned.
Best of all, though, the resort launched a new fireworks show called “Remember… Dreams Come True.” Narrated by Julie Andrews, the E-Ticket show was a celebration of Disneyland. Literally. Through projections, lights, music, and more, the show started on Main Street, then encircled the park clockwise, with segments of the show themed to Adventureland, New Orleans Square, Frontierland, Critter Country, Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland. (The transition between the Tiki Room and Indiana Jones Adventure in the Adventureland section is particularly incredible.)
It’s no surprise to anyone who’s been following it that Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary is pretty nostalgia-free. There are few if any references to Walt Disney World’s past. Of the resort’s 50 golden statues, just two are dedicated to characters created for the parks (and they’ve been replaced by movie characters in the accompanying McDonald’s Happy Meal toy roll out). But at Magic Kingdom – the place that’s turning 50! – surely a show called “Disney Enchantment” will celebrate the generations of memories made in the world’s most visited and recognizable theme park! … Right?
Magic Kingdom – Disney Enchantment
If you didn’t get enough singalong clips from Harmonious, head up the Monorail to Magic Kingdom and catch a showing of Disney Enchantment – the 50th Anniversary replacement for Happily Ever After. Don’t let the 50th Anniversary fool you, though. Aside from being projected on Cinderella Castle and narration by Angela Bassett referring to it, there’s no indication whatsoever in the show that Walt Disney World is turning 50, much less that this show has anything to do with it.
Like Happily Ever After, Disney Enchantment is first and foremost a clip show with singalong sections dedicated to Disney animation. Unlike Happily Ever After, it’s just not very good. It features songs from The Princess and the Frog, Moana, Beauty and the Beast, and Aladdin (which is literally – literally! – the exact same movies featured in Harmonious) plus “Into the Unknown” from Frozen II (which you might’ve actually expected to be in Harmonious given that World Showcase is where Disney World’s Frozen ride is).
During the jukebox musical, it manages to flash clips of Soul, Raya and the Last Dragon, Toy Story, and The Little Mermaid, but the show exclusively highlights Disney films from about the last decade, which is a really strange thing for a 50th Anniversary show, right?
And back to what made Happily Ever After a great production, Disney Enchantment, unfortunately, misses in both regards. First, it largely uses the castle as a “bumpy movie screen,” with little portals opening to show movie clips, and second, it has no narrative “flow” or order; no overall message or progression. It’s quite literally just songs and clips, with the new “You Are the Magic” song opening and closing the show. It’s not really a show about anything, much less the legacy of Walt Disney World and the people it’s inspired.
And more to the point, it could just as easily be projected on the Chinese Theater, on World of Color’s water screens, or – given the films it includes – could be projected on Harmonious’ huge barges! Why not! And that’s the issue both Disney and its fans need to contend with.
If you haven’t yet, you can catch a video of Disney Enchantment here:
Nighttime Same-taculars
It’s really not entirely the fault of Disney Imagineering or Entertainment that Harmonious and Enchantment received mixed reception at best. As most readers here know, it’s a different time at The Walt Disney Company and at Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products. The “IP Wars” have redefined what a Disney Park is to those in charge. As succinctly put by Twitter user @MadnessKingdom, the Parks have been recast from content in their own right to a content delivery system – a physical place where Disney stories come to life, right alongside movies, books, toys, and music.
Who at Disney Parks, Experiences, and Products would greenlight an IP-free Illuminations – and one that’s a tough sell to customers of today, if Rivers of Light is any indication – when Harmonious offers a dozen mental hyperlinks back to movies you know and love? Why should it matter that Disney Enchantment neither celebrates the history of Walt Disney World nor contains the strength and inspiration of Happily Ever After? Its job was to highlight the hottest films of the last decade… and it does!
Look, both Harmonious and Disney Enchantment are good shows. They’re fun to watch. They’re bright and colorful. They have great song selections. They’re both good enough. It’s just that “good enough” wasn’t what fans had in mind to replace Illuminations and Happily Ever After, much less to kick off Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary celebration. More to the point, the relative weakness and interchangeability of these two shows speak to a growing issue with Walt Disney World’s parks and the “cartoonification” they’ve all experienced…
Each park’s “bookend” has become interchangeable perhaps because each park has. Of course the nighttime show that plays at one park in 2021 could just as easily be reformatted and wedged into any of the other three… As their identities have weakened, they’ve all become places where singalong clip shows are the only things that make sense… and that’s a loss for us all.
