We’ve had LOTS of exciting things happen in EPCOT lately, and now EPCOT’s new nighttime show is finally HERE!
Luminous: The Symphony of US
In between more of the construction walls coming down, seeing Walt’s statue gazing out into the park, and an all-new light experience that you just have to see to believe, it’s hard to believe that EPCOT dropped yet another big change on us. The NEW fireworks show has officially arrived, but its debut performance has critics talking.
There has been lots of hype and mystery surrounding EPCOT’s newest nighttime spectacular and the day has finally come to see it in person. The new fireworks show is called Luminous: The Symphony of Us and pulls off an impressive display of spouting water fountains, fireworks in the sky, and beautiful music to tell the story of, well, us!
The new show
When we sat down with a few of the show’s creators to learn more about what we could expect before seeing the show on its debut run, they told us that the music is really the driving force of this experience. They wanted the music to carry the storyline of people as they’re born, grow, fall in love, experience loss, and showcase the beautiful harmony of what can be achieved when people come together.
Luminous: The Symphony of US and Sheléa Melody McDonald
You may be thinking, “Ok, enough with the tearjerker stuff,” but we found all of this to be true. The music woven together in this performance was incredible. In fact, it seems like the showrunners achieved what they set out to do, and the musical score was the one resounding piece of the show that everyone we spoke to and overheard just couldn’t stop talking about. The show is bookended by two new songs (one at the opening and the other at the closing) while also creating space to showcase familiar tunes from Disney films while telling the story of a human’s journey.
WOW!
However, that seemed to be the only thing everyone could agree on. The fireworks were dazzling (but it’s also hard not to be impressed with massive fireworks displays), and while there were no visuals on the sides of the barges, we felt like they played more of a part in this story than we originally expected.
Water barges
The new barges have been revamped, possibly in response to critical remarks of how huge and distracting the previous versions of them were when they were used and displayed in the HarmonioUS nighttime show. Now, it appears their only function is to spout water when the show calls for it. While the fountains are magnificent and the barges are used throughout the show to continue to move things along, some people were disappointed to find they were such an instrumental piece once again.
So many effects!
We have been told repeatedly that as long as you had a view of the World Showcase Lagoon, there really wasn’t a bad place to watch the show; however, from our experience, if you really wanted to get the full display of the power packed into Luminous, you’d really want to make sure you’ve got a good vantage point of everything that’s offered — including the water barges.
Toy Story section of Luminous: The Symphony of US
Another critique that we kept hearing after the show had wound down is that people missed the visuals on the huge Harmonious barges (ironic, huh?) The previous barges had displays of digital imagery and projections that went along with the show’s storyline to soften the transition and add another element to the display; however, that wasn’t the case for EPCOT’s new show.
We’re interested to see if this is just because the use of the barges throughout the show is similar and since HarmonioUS did run for 18 months maybe we’re just relating this new show a bit too much to what was offered in the past.
Beautiful display of fireworks
Overall though, the show is truly a wonder and it well exceeds expectations from what we thought we would be getting out of it. If you were a fan of the aesthetic of Illuminations, loved the music from HarmonioUS, and enjoyed a few extra flashes of colorful lights like the ones that are featured throughout Happily Ever After, this is a show you won’t want to sleep on!
Stay tuned with us for more Disney news and updates soon!
A NEW Fireworks Show Has Debuted in EPCOT! Come With Us To Watch Luminous The Symphony of Us!
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Are you planning to see Luminous The Symphony of Us on your next EPCOT visit? Give us your thoughts in the comments.
Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Recently, we were invited by Disney World to attend their media preview of Luminous: The Symphony of Us. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ
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People being disappointed is ridiculous. Disney can do two things in this situation. They can perform a nightly EPCOT fireworks show or they could do nothing. People need to stop complaining and just enjoy the show.
I agree with Marcus.
The music is horrendous for 2 reasons. First, it’s musically painful. Second, it’s typical Disney marketing their newer stuff or stuff with upcoming sequels.
The narration is bad too. Everything is so over the top any more; I miss the simple shows.
I am excited to see this show when we go to Epcot on Christmas Day.
Fireworks – definitely better than no fireworks.
I’d love to see Disney do a set of some kind of hydraulic fountainheads that could disappear except for the actual fireworks show. What’s there now is at least less obtrusive that the previous clutter.
Well, if I had read the story a few places down, I would have been less upset. When we were there last week we saw barges in the day. So maybe we’re okay!
I was delighted there were no projections, aka difficult to see blurry images that funnel everyone into a smaller area. This show is very colourful and effective and easy to view from most areas around the lagoon not directly behind an island.