Harmonious: Thoughts

I was in person. We stood a ways back from the center (outside the crowd) and we could still see the middle and one side screen. We really enjoyed it.

Loved seeing Spaceship Earth lit up with the new lights too!

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I’ve seen some pics and video of SE on Twitter and it looks amazing!

How do you think the view would be from Rose & Crown?

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It looked pretty good from what I saw. Before going to Japan, I circled world showcase.

Rose and crown, Mexico’s qs, and teppan edo (that’s the Japan restaurant with the balcony, right?) all had good viewing positions.

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Would you add La Hacienda de San Angel to that list or is the viewing angle from the quick service better?

I would say the QS is better. When I ate in the restaurant, I could barely see out the windows with all the glare from the lights. If they dim it, it might be better?

I hope they can dim them. It was always listed as a good place to watch Illuminations so I would expect they would.

Dd and I have reservations at La Hacienda on Monday night.

My wife wasn’t able to watch earlier so we watched again tonight. I liked it much better on second viewing. I liked the opening part up through Go the Distance better.

I maintain that the middle portion was the weakest - especially I Wanna Be Like You and Reflection (a song which I LOVE). They didn’t nail the emotional high points for a while there.

But the finale is fantastic. Everything from Coco on. There was one part where flares fire from all the countries around the lagoon in a show of international unity. The show is called Harmonious, and the message of the song Someday has never been so timely.

I think one reason why this show is great is the vivid colors. It is unnatural how colorful the lagoon is. It’s the same reason I love World of Color at DCA.

I’m looking forward to seeing it in person if our kids can stay up that late next week!

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Ok I just watched it. It seemed so random! There were pretty bits that I enjoyed and bits that bored me. I enjoyed the start, I enjoyed Coco.

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I caught ten minutes of it live last night. It was the bit that is a total HEA rip-off.

It was difficult to get a clear sense of the thing as the camera view kept changing. But it did seem better than I was expecting. I didn’t really see how the images on the screens were relevant.

I didn’t watch it all because I was really tired and because I don’t want to spoil it for myself.

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On the one hand I agree with this.

On the other hand, I’m weary of referring to the pandemic in every emotional thing we say and do these days, not just at WDW but everywhere. But that’s just pandemic fatigue probably.

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I watched it late last night and this was my exact impression. There was a lot I really connected with and other parts in the middle where my eyes started to feel very heavy.

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Don’t the day-time fountains just draw attention to the enormous sightline-destroying barges? They’re kinda saying, “Look! We have giant grotesque carbuncles in the middle of our lovely lake. Look at them!”

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I echo a lot of things that have been already said. I, personally, thought the beginning was really strong and upbeat and then it felt like it lost its way a bit.

At first, with the languages, I thought they were trying to touch on each World Showcase country somehow. And they did almost I think? But they left out Germany and Canada? Or maybe just Germany if you kind of count Canada under some of the English/French elsewhere. I don’t know.

I really did not like the screen-saver style graphics on the side barges. It just felt really distracting and beneath what Disney is capable of.

Lastly, I think it’s going to be a big issue that there are going to be very good and very bad vantage points. Even the live-stream switched to off center viewing a few times and it was terrible with the fountains looking wonky and distorted video.

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They have screens and they had the 50th Anniversary on them during the day.

That makes it worse.

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Ugh, you telling me I should go and see it again tonight?

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As much as I loved HEA I struggled with this. If you are close enough to see the movie then it is hard to watch the movie and the fireworks.

I saw the Pixar fireworks at DLR and they used projections as supporting elements to the fireworks, not the narrative itself. Loved it.

I am hoping the overall effect of Harmonious in person is more “ooh pretty”.

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Watching the live stream, I thought it seemed emotionless… Disjointed. My wife summed it up when she said it was rivers of light without all the seating

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Very disjointed.

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