EPCOT's new 'Luminous' fireworks show goes for old-fashioned visceral impact

The past few years have been quite the emotional roller coaster for those in the theme park industry, so perhaps it's appropriate that Orlando's post-pandemic era has been bookended by literal roller coasters. First, Islands of Adventure's VelociCoaster opened in 2021 and helped lead the town's tourism back to pre-COVID attendance levels. Then, the Magic Kingdom's Tron finally launched this past spring, just in time for 2023's surprising summer season slump. In the months since then, the House of Mouse has mostly been mum about near-term major additions to its resort, instead teasing blue-sky future proposals; meanwhile, Mickey's competition is working to complete a new kids land in the new year and a whole theme park by 2025. But as a holiday gift to fans, Disney just dropped into place some of the final elements in EPCOT's seemingly endless makeover and ended the year by breaking the silent night with a breathtaking big bang.

I've been a frequent visitor to Walt Disney World's second-oldest theme park in the past few weeks, thanks to the annual Festival of the Holidays and new Journey of Water walk-through. But as of Dec. 5, walking into the heart of EPCOT is an entirely different experience, because for the first time in years there aren't endless construction walls blocking off the plaza behind Spaceship Earth. Instead, guests are finally free to stroll through World Celebration Gardens — a serene series of pedestrian pathways through the center of the former Future World — and join the queue at Dreamers Point for a photo-op with Walt's man-spreading statue, which sits staring off toward the international bar crawl born from his utopian dying dream.

World Celebration Gardens is impeccably landscaped, featuring a mix of open green spaces and ample shaded seating (with accessible charging outlets!) that's especially welcome in a park where you often can barely find a trashcan to lean on. Everything looks a bit generic by daylight, but the area truly comes to life after sunset, as color-changing lights embedded in the pavement and decorative pylons pulse in sync with the giant golf ball's "Beacons of Light" shows. It's unfortunate that the iconic Fountain of Nations was displaced for a planter, and the new festival center and character meet-and-greet still isn't complete yet. But the understated aesthetic is already a huge upgrade over the tacky tarps of the early aughts, and I look forward to enjoying future evenings lounging around here while waiting for EPCOT's other anticipated year-end addition.

For decades, long-running nighttime spectaculars like Wishes at the Magic Kingdom and EPCOT's Illuminations have served as must-see anchors for millions of returning visitors, but lately Disney has been reinventing these shows more regularly — with uneven results. The hyped 50th-anniversary fireworks show Disney Enchantment was shelved days after the celebration ended (although it will be trotted out in April at after-hours events), and both 2019's EPCOT Forever and 2021's Harmonious were coolly received by devotees of the retired Reflections of Earth.

At long last, Luminous: The Symphony of Us, which also officially debuted on Dec. 5, provides a nightcap that EPCOT fans old and new should be able to embrace. For starters, the new show's flotilla of fountains and fireworks barges doesn't obstruct the view across World Showcase lagoon all day (unlike the massive metal donut of Harmonious) and there are no video screens that you need to stand in a certain sweet spot to see. Second, the score by Pinar Toprak isn't overreliant on Disney's greatest hits, but incorporates fresh takes on some beloved B-sides, along with stirring original tunes sung by vocalists including Sheléa and Katharine McPhee.

Most importantly, although Luminous' narrative metaphor equating human life to a symphony is expressed with suspiciously similar structural beats to every other Disney spectacle, at least this one manages better than most to hit home in the heart and gut. The former it achieves most effectively during an elegiac duet interweaving Toy Story 2's "When She Loved Me" with Coco's "Remember Me," which will henceforth be known as the most tear-jerking scene in a theme park show since Alien Encounter disintegrated Skippy. The latter is taken care of by copious quantities of percussive pyrotechnics. While other theme park shows are using projection-mapping technology to turn down the volume, Luminous goes for old-fashioned visceral impact, decibels (and sleeping ducks) be damned. If you're standing along the shoreline, beware of blowback from the launches of low-flying rockets!

Coming on the heels of EPCOT Forever's half-baked fan-service and the ambitious but unsatisfying Harmonious, EPCOT's latest lagoon show easily leaps over the low bar that has been set for it, and sticks the landing with an earth-shaking boom. Luminous may never supplant the Illuminations of our childhood memories; however, it is EPCOT's first successor to that storied production that should stick around long enough for someone else to become equally nostalgic about it. Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay is that, unlike the last couple of shows, Luminous is worth fighting through the park's post-closing traffic jam for.