Current Discussion
From Crazedpyrotechnicians
On this page, we look at diffrent firework shows every week or so. You may edit this page with your comments about the show under the heading User Comments.
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Current Discussion
Today's discussion is Illuminations: Reflections Of Earth the nightly show at Epcot in WDW. Held on the World Showcase lagoon every night at 9:00PM, Illuminations lights up the night sky with fireworks, fire, lasers and fountians. The show is divided into 3 parts:
- Chaos
- Order
- Meaning
Let's go through this section by section, with pictures.
The Sections
Chaos
The show starts off with Jim Cummings (voice of Tigger, and many other Disney characters) welcoming us to the show with a quick narration.
"Good evening and welcome. We've 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. I hope you enjoy our story tonight. Reflections Of Earth."
After he's done, he "blows out" all the torches and lights around the lagoon. Then, a drumbeat starts. It gets faster and faster and once it hits the peak, a comet streaks across the lagoon, and explodes, symbolising the big bang.
The Inferno barge in the middle flares up (as of right now, the barge is out of order) shooting flames high into the night sky.
Fireworks shoot off with the flames creating a smokescreen, yet you can still see the FX.
Everything calms down as we transition into
Order
The Earth barge slowly moves to the center of the lagoon. Images of humans, monuments from around the world and other stuff shows as fountians dance to the music.
After all is said and done, some white fireworks shoot off, and we go into the section where Disney made 4 new colors just for the show.
Then, the music calms down, and a ring of white comets shoot off around the lake. Once the comets make their 3 round, the music goes into sort of a drumroll, as the music hits the peak, high fireworks explode in the air, along with palms that gently flow down. Once this happens a few times, the fun begins! The music goes faster with comets from all around the lake and blue bursts.
Then, finally we transition into
Meaning
Everything calms down, and we focus on the Earth Barge agian. "We Go On" a song by Kellie Coffey is sung, pictures of people carrying torches and candles are on the Barge.
As the song gets sung, the torches around the lake light agian, lights in the lake light up, and the Earth Barge starts opening up. If you thought the Earth Barge was useless, you were wrong!
Once it fully opens, a torch in the center starts rising, it gets lit, symbolising the new millennium (there are 19 torches around the lagoon, each symbolising 100 years, the 20th is the one in the Earth Barge). 2 Bursts of white comets shoot from the middle of the torch.
As the corus and Kellie Coffey say "We Go On...", they hold that last note, and 1,000 fireworks shoot off from the lagoon, lighting the lagoon up. Another term used for this is the "Thousand Points of Light". This part deserves a few pictures from various points around the lagoon.
And there you have it.
Extra Endings
These extra endings are played for certain holidays.
- 4th Of July
- Christmas Season
- New Years Eve
These endings add-on to the show after the "TPOL". These are described in more detail below.
4th Of July Ending
In the most recent video I have seen of the Fourth Of July Ending, the show adds two songs. "Yankee Doodle" (without singing, of course) and "Stars and Stripes Forever".
The extra ending starts with "Yankee Doodle". Lasers dance across the lagoon to the starting drumbeat. Then, fireworks shoot off from behind American Adventure!
Then focus shifts back to the lagoon, where the music gets upbeat, and it looks like the fireworks are marching to the drumbeat!
Then after the song ends, we transition into "Stars and Stripes Forever". This part gives lots of cheers, and provides lots of good pictures too! This picture is of the flute solo, where sparklers across the lagoon start sparking.
Fireworks start going crazy as the music falls into the finalie.
Then, as the music hits it's final part, tons of fireworks shoot off and explode, creating such a smokescreen and such loud noise, that you'd think a bomb was going off! This, just like the "Thousand Points of Light", deserves a few pictures!
The music ends, and the huge smoke cloud trails off.
Christmas/Holiday Season Ending
This is the Christmas ending. This part runs from about Thanksgiving untill December 30th. It adds the song "Let There Be Peace On Earth" after the "Thousand Points of Light". This, just like the 4th Of July ending, has a great finalie, but we will get to that after we go through the show itself. The show starts with sparklers around the lagoon to start the calm music.
From now on, untill some parts I can actually document, I'll just show pictures.
After this, "Peace on Earth" and "Good Will To Men" is said in various languages. When a certian countries language is spoken, that country lights up.
Then, Walter Cronkite comes in and says a nice holiday greeting.
"During this glorious time of year there is one message that rings out around the world in every language. Peace on earth. Good will to men is a wish to hold in our hearts throughout each passing year. A gift of immeasureable value. A treasure being handed down with care, from generation to generation. And so our holiday wish is that everyone, everywhere share in the spirit of the season. Peace on earth, good will to men."
Then the song continues. And here are more un-interupted pictures.
Then, once more, just like the 4th Of July Ending, tons of fireworks shoot off, creating that smokescreen.
And that's that!
New Years Eve
This version of the show I have no current pictures of. But when I get some, they will certainly be added! I can however, give a good description.
There are amazingly, two showings of Illuminations on NYE. The first one ends after the "Thousand Points of Light". I belive it starts at around 7. Then, the castmembers re-stock everything, reset the Earth Barge, and all that good stuff. The next showing is at 11:45. They do everything the same as before, only after the "TPOL", a lady comes on the loudspeaker and says what countries have already celebrated the new year. And in that order, fireworks shoot off from either behind the certain country, or in front of them on the lake. In the video I have, it's hard to tell. Then, once all the countries celebrate, the person on the loudspeaker says the coolest thing ever. "And now it's our turn!" She starts a countdown, fireworks shoot off in groups of whatever number the countdown is at. Once the clock hits 12:00AM, thousands of fireworks shoot off and explode! Even more than the finalies for the 4th Of July and Christmas!
Music
The music for the shows are as follows.
- We Go On (In all shows)
- Yankee Doodle (Fourth Of July show)
- Stars and Stripes Forever (Fourth Of July show)
- Let There Be Peace On Earth (Christmas show)
Show Info
Besides the stuff listed up there, there are many other facts about the show. There is alot of behind the scenes info. For instance, did you know there were 6 diffrent versions of Illuminations counting the one we are covering? Here are some more quick facts.
- Four new colors were added for the show; Lagoon Blue, Mint Green, Pumpkin Orange, and Lavender.
- A special system is used to launch the starting 2 fireworks (the comet and the big bang) called ALF, or Air Launched Fireworks. This, just like the Inferno Barge, is not working. However, they do launch the comet and the Big Bang diffrently, but it's not timed as good as the other system and the magic is lost.
- The four fountain barges pump out 4,000 gallons of water per minute!
- The Inferno Barge weighs a whopping 150,000 pounds! There are 37 places where the fire can be shot out of. 300 gallons of propane are used for the barge. And every night after the park is closed, (or not depending on when the park is closed) they release the leftover propane, resulting in a big fireball. Of course, if the park is open, they make an announcement first.
- The Earth Globe weighs a massive, huge, 350,000 p-o-u-n-d-s.
- 15,000 LED's cover the globe.
- 2,800 fireworks are used every show, and remember, this show is on everyday of the week! Which means if it is a normal week, they use 19,600 fireworks! If it is a normal month of 30/31 days, they use 84,000/86,800 fireworks! And, figuring in 365 days a year, not counting the extra finalies they add for holidays, they would use 1,022,000 fireworks a year! That's not a small number!
