Disney released a new blog post and video (below) about “Luminous The Symphony of Us.” I haven’t taken the time to think about or write about this upcoming show yet, but now’s a good time. Let’s get into it…

Luminous is the New Epcot Nighttime Show

In case you’re not familiar, “Luminous The Symphony of Us” is the new nighttime spectacular coming to Epcot’s World Showcase Lagoon. The show debuts December 5.

Luminous replaces Epcot Forever, which itself was a temporary replacement after Harmonious ended. We assumed Harmonious would be a longterm show after it debuted as part of the 50th Anniversary celebrations, but in some regards it wasn’t well-received (I didn’t love or hate it; Epcot purists hated it; I assumed most guests liked it; but Disney shut it down, so maybe my assumption was wrong).

Harmonious was, of course, preceded by a previous iteration of Epcot Forever, which replaced the fantastic IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. IllumiNations ROE was amazing and probably shouldn’t have been shut down, but it was, and here we are.

The other think I find fascinating about Luminous is it’s full name - “Luminous The Symphony of Us”. Disney almost always stylizes this as I wrote it, without a colon after “Luminous”. This continues a great trend of inexplicable (not necessarily bad) stylistic naming choices by Disney, including “Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!” and “Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run” (why yes, I guess they do).

Here’s the video about the new show that Disney just shared:

Update: If you’d like, BlogMickey also has video of a recent Luminous test. (This was taken from the Boardwalk area outside of Epcot, so it isn’t the full experience.)

Here’s What Disney Is Sharing About Luminous

I’m going to take some quotes from the Disney Parks Blog post and share my thoughts on them. (Note: I’ll try my best not to be too cheeky. I don’t usually do this sort of commentary, but I’m in a writing mood.)

Featuring dazzling fireworks, fountains, lights and music to connect us all through commonalities of the heart, this all-new show shines a light on how each of our unique melodies comes together to form a great symphony – the symphony of us.

Unsurprisingly, Luminous will rely on the four horsemen of the Epcot nighttime show—fireworks, fountains, lights, and music. I guess kites didn’t make the cut. The effects will be powered in part by barges. Last I heard, the barges are not meant to be permanent (like the obstructive Harmonious barges), but will be wheeled in and out of the Lagoon (like the IllumiNations barges).

Punctuating these movements are two original songs written just for the spectacular, as well as new arrangements of carefully selected Disney songs we all know and love.

This is, simply, the new world at Disney. It’s all about “synergy,” and taking songs from movies and putting them into theme park shows is a part of that.

I assume they’ll try not to overdo it. I’m not a purist, I don’t have any fundamental objection to the modern IP being put in the parks. But there is a problem with overdoing it. However you feel about it, the reality is that Harminous didn’t survive.

For me, when I’d watch Harmonious I’d just zone out sometime around Coco. And I didn’t zone out because I didn’t like the music that was playing. I zoned out because I listen to that music a lot anyways. Watching Harmonious basically transported me to sitting ay my desk on a Tuesday afternoon with my headphones on, running reports.

The post continues with a list of songs that will be included, wrapping them in a narrative along the way:

“You’ll Be in My Heart” (Tarzan)
“Proud Corazón” (Coco)
“You’ve Got a Friend in Me" (Toy Story)
“Friend Like Me” (Aladdin)
“So Close" (Enchanted)
“When She Loved Me” (Toy Story 2)
“Remember Me” (Coco)
“Into the Unknown” (Frozen 2)
“I See the Light” (Tangled)

Obviously they won’t be playing these songs in their entirety, it’ll be bits and clips that fit the overall “narrative” of the show. The fact is, we know from Happily Ever After that a nighttime show that’s heavy on Disney music can work, so we can’t fault them for trying.

My bottom line is that the inclusion or exclusion of music from the movies probably doesn’t matter. For me, the show will come down 80% to how the original numbers resonate with guests. To that end, the way Disney describes the narrative of the show does give me pause. Pick your topic—friendship, love, villainy—and it isn’t hard to cobble together some Disney songs to give you those feels. So when I read:

Friendship follows, with classic songs like ‘You’ve Got a Friend in Me’ and ‘Friend Like Me’ taking us back to the days of recess and friendship bracelets.

My first thought is “well, yea, those songs are about friendship, but how are the original music, the fountains, and the lights going to evoke those feelings in me?” I’m excited to see how they do it.

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