[dramatic music playing]
[Jason Read] We're inside a
space that very few people
get to see.
We're 90 feet above EPCOT,
at a catwalk that runs all
the way around Spaceship Earth,
right behind the iconic
reflective panels.
The lighting design on
Spaceship Earth has been
the same since it opened
in October of 1982.
[narrator] The central
figure of EPCOT,
Walt Disney's Celebration Of The
Future was due for an update.
[Jason Read] We didn't wanna
impact the iconic structure
during the day, and what we
realized after many, many
hours of studying it, is that at
the intersection between the
panels, there was this little
opening, where we could create
this new expression that looked
like it had always been there.
Each one of these cables
connects a single light fixture
to one of the electronic
components inside.
There's over 60 miles
of this cable in total.
[narrator] Launching the points
of light on Spaceship Earth
is just one of the
innovations happening
all across EPCOT.
The park, designed to
celebrate our world and
give us a glimpse into tomorrow,
is taking a giant leap
into a new future.
[Tom Fitzgerald] We have
changes before, but never
on the scale of what
we've done right now.
[Scott Mallwitz] How do
you reinvent the center of a
working theme park
while it's still operating?
[narrator] A universe
of different worlds,
countless moving parts,
it'slike rebuilding a rocket ship
while you're flying to the moon.
You really gotta
get it right the first time.
Fire.
[fireworks popping]
[Shela Melody McDonald]
The fact that this is going to be
a huge production,
I'm gonna have to bring it.
So go ahead and
sing your song
I'll be there to sing along
[Paul Sadler] I absolutely
feel an adrenaline rush
for our show.
[narrator] Hundreds of
creators come together
to illuminate Walt's
original promise.
[Walt Disney] EPCOT will always
be in a state of becoming.
Steady are you ready,
canyou feel it, here it comes
[fireworks popping]
[Tom Fitzgerald] I was
fortunate enough to be at the
opening of EPCOT Center,
as we called it back then.
It was Walt's last
and greatest dream.
We had never done anything
other than castle parks.
Now, EPCOT was not a
park that was about magic.
It was a park about
the real world,
and the wonders
of the real world.
I was hired by
Marty Sklar as a writer,
and that was almost
45 years ago.
Marty Sklar was
hired by Walt Disney
before Disneyland opened.
Over the years, he learned how
to take Walt's visions and
put them into words.
[narrator] In 1966, Marty
co-wrote a film for Walt
where he would introduce
what was then known as
the Florida Project.
[film narrator] A project
so vast, it has already been
called a whole
new Disney World.
And now here is Walt Disney.
Welcome to a little bit of
Florida, here in California.
[Tom Fitzgerald] We knew we
had to explain to Florida and
to the world what his plans
were for Walt Disney World.
Now it's 12 miles
from here up to here,
and the whole area
encompasses 27,400 acres.
[narrator] That plot of land
was twice the size of Manhattan
and proposed at its
center was EPCOT.
[Walt Disney]
Spelled E-P-C-O-T,
Experimental Prototype
Community of Tomorrow.
Walt talked about EPCOT always
being a state of becoming,
that we will always
continue to look for
ways to keep challenging the
way we think about things.
[Tom Fitzgerald] Sadly,
Walt Disney never lived to see
EPCOT come to life.
But his vision for that was
so strong that the Imagineers
continued on with that vision.
[narrator] Disney called his
park designers Imagineers.
One of the most
influential was Marty Sklar.
[Tom Fitzgerald] His job was
to say, how do I translate
that into something
that we can build,
that we can move forward with?
Marty was a bit of a hoarder.
He saved everything.
[narrator] Marty held on
to more than 1,000 boxes
worth of Imagineering history,
from sketches, to brochures,
to handwritten notes.
[Tom Fitzgerald] These are
early days of EPCOT trying to
figure out how do you
translate it to a showcase for
the public of optimistic
ideas for the future.
[narrator] It took the
Imagineers six years to
design and build EPCOT.
At the time, it was
one of the largest
construction projects
in the world.
Walt Disney's 20-year-old dream
became a reality today.
[narrator] Opening day,
October 1, 1982,
was international news.
Now comes EPCOT.
[news reporter] Its futuristic
pavilions display the neon and
laser technology of tomorrow.
[narrator] The park was hailed
as a permanent world's fair
celebrating global culture
and a thrilling
vision of the future.
Over the years, new
attractions were added,
but Walt's desire
for EPCOT to be in
a constant state of becoming
kept the Imagineers continuously
reimagining the future.
Because it is a real-world
park, there are some of
the shows that, frankly,
became outdated.
[narrator] So, in 2016,
Imagineers put their
heads together once again
to propel EPCOT to
its next stage of becoming.
They reinvigorate the
existing World Showcase and
reimagine Future World to create
three new neighborhoods,
World Discovery for
technology and ingenuity.
World Nature for the
wonders of our planet,
and World Celebration
for community.
And throughout the park,
new attractions and
dramatic storytelling
bring it all to life.
Under the cover of night,
in secret,
Disney Live Entertainment
works to reinvent
an EPCOT tradition:
the nighttime spectacular.
[technical director]
3, 2, 1, fire.
[fireworks popping]
[Stacey Simons] We are here at
the World Showcase Lagoon,
at the center of EPCOT
[fireworks popping]
and our show Luminous:
The Symphony of Us
will be presented here nightly.
Fire.
[Stacey Simons] The story, is
that Walt Disney actually
used to refer to the fireworks
shows at Disneyland as the
"Kiss Goodnight" because it
was that final moment that
the guests got to experience
before they left the park
for the evening.
[fireworks popping]
[narrator] Music,
lasers, and fireworks
have illuminated the lagoon
since shortly
after the park opened.
And it's up to this team to
transform this spectacle
in time for Walt Disney's
birthday on December 5th.
[Stacey Simons] Luminous: The
Symphony of Us at its core,
is really a show about
the human connection,
that no matter where
you live on this earth,
there are things that
we all experience
that make us
more alike than different.
[narrator] Love, family,
friendship, and loss,
for this show, it's the
storytellers' job to
fill the sky with
those emotions.
[Steven Davison]
There's really kind of
a handful of tricks to use in a
night-time show.
Most of it's light.
If we can light it up, we
will use it in the show.
We also have lasers.
We also have moving fountains
and the pyrotechnics,
they're the biggest
piece of our arsenal.
By using texture and color and
light, we're gonna then
pull you into this world and
then let you dream within it.
[technical director] Fire.
[Paul Sadler] We want to sh**t
it to see what it looks like
and how it will respond.
See what the
wind does with it.
They also will check colors to
see if they like those colors
against the backdrops.
[fireworks popping]
-Yeah.
-The angle.
[technical director]
We need to angle it down.
[Stacey Simons] Can't really
tell that's a heart from here.
[technical director] Off every
location we have, in 3-2-1 fire.
[fireworks popping]
Wow.
[narrator] The final
trick in the bag is music.
The score for Luminous: The
Symphony Of Us is the latest
in a long line of emotional
Disney musical themes.
And at its heart, is the
new EPCOT anthem,
both the anthem and arrangements
for the spectacular are
composed by Pinar Toprak.
The EPCOT anthem was
commissioned as part of the
transformation, to be the
soundtrack that defines
the EPCOT experience.
It was really more of
the, the feeling of EPCOand an entire suite that
reflected that emotion,
and it took you
through a journey.
[narrator] A journey through
the newly transformed EPCOT.
And Pinar's task was
to create a sense of
adventure, curiosity, and fun.
[Steven Davison] It was
this beautiful thing that just
bowled me over.
And I thought, what if I could
get Pinar in and have her take
even the Disney music and
put it into that same kind of
vernacular that
only she can do.
[narrator] Music is one of the
many pieces of the puzzle that
must come together
for the "Kiss Goodnight".
Show control roll code.
Luminous go.
[narrator] To hit its mark.
[fireworks popping]
[energetic music playing]
[Brianna Pfost] The EPCOtransformation is one where
all eyes are on us.
We're just as excited to get
these walls down as the people
who are standing
on the other side.
[narrator] As part
of the multi-year
transformation of EPCOT,
each neighborhood
is being re-imagined,
from the moment
guests enter the park,
beginning with
World Celebration.
[Scott Mallwitz] Thinking
about how people walk in
to the arrival sequence
under the turnstile
up into Spaceship Earth.
There were a lot of things
that were in the way
for people to start to
engage with their experience.
[narrator] The goals were to
make the entrance more inviting.
Bring back nature.
Open up outdoor
gathering spaces,
and revitalize existing
architecture and experiences
like the new
Connections Eatery.
[Scott Mallwitz] By replacing
the walls with glass,
we're blurring the line between
interior and exterior space.
We're letting the energy,
the storytelling about really
wonderful foodways and food
culture and Connections Caf,
be visible from the walkway,
here at World Celebration.
[narrator] A neighborhood
over at World Discovery,
Imagineers have re-envisioned
a classic attraction
that's out of this galaxy.
Guardians of the Galaxy:
Cosmic Rewind was our first
rollercoaster attraction
at EPCOT.
We knew from the beginning
that this attraction was
gonna be the anchor to our
World Discovery neighborhood
that we were developing as part of
the overall transformation of EPCOT.
And so, it was very important
for it to take the experience
above and beyond that.
[narrator] The plan included
installing Disney's first
reverse launch coaster.
Where ride cars blast off
backwards and give guests
the experience of flying
through space just the way
the characters did in the movie.
But to house the Cosmic Rewind,
they needed to build a
massive concrete foundation
capable of holding a
five-and-a-half
million-pound rollercoaster.
[Alex Wright] It meant that we
had to determine very early in
the process where we
intended to place anything
that was going to be
set into the slab.
[Rachel Weston] We had over
200 anchor bolt cages
that had to be cast into
the concrete to which
our ride columns would mount.
Each of those had to be located
within a five-millimeter
radius of tolerance.
So very tight, we're talking
a quarter of an inch or so.
Being outside of that can be a
really big issue when we go to
put the track together.
We really gotta get it
right the first time.
[narrator] Cosmic Rewind
is just the kind of
Imagineering challenge
Walt would've dreamed of,
and speaking of Walt...
[Brianna Pfost]
Welcome to Dreamer's Point.
This is one of the areas
I am truly, like,
the most excited about,
because it's our new
installation of a Walt statue
that is unlike
any of our others.
[narrator] "Walt the Dreamer"
will be one in a series of
sculptures displayed at Disney
parks around the world
that tell the story
of Walt's career.
"Storytellers" shows a young
Walt arriving in California
for the first time.
"Partners" depicts
an older Walt,
showing Mickey all
they've created.
[Scott Goddard] This one we
decided would be about Walt
when he was dreaming of EPCOT,
when he was about 60,
and later in life.
Then I had to find every
wrinkle on Walt's face,
the way he combed his hair,
every detail that
says this is Walt.
Walt's actual height was five
feet, ten and a half inches.
But if we were to sculpt
him at exactly that size,
he would appear small.
We actually sculpted him
at about six foot one,
six foot two.
He is a little bit
larger than life,
which describes Walt perfectly.
[Brianna Pfost] What we're
celebrating is the idea that
he had this grand vision for
EPCOT where people could come
and have their
imaginations sparked.
[narrator] A place where all
guests will be able to
dream with Walt when
the statue is in place
and the space opens,
hopefully in time for
Walt's birthday on December 5th.
With musical
arrangements in hand,
and their December
deadline looming,
recording for Luminous
The Symphony Of Us
begins in studios
all over the world.
First stop: Glasgow, Scotland.
[Anthony Parnther] Ready ah!
For a score of this level
of epic-ness, we're using
a gigantic orchestra.
So, there's 85 musicians.
They're incredible
sight readers.
Nobody rehearses
anything ahead of time.
We're recording it over
a period of two days,
but we've separated
all of the major groups
of the orchestras.
We've started
with the strings.
Then we moved on to
the woodwind section,
and then the brass section,
and then the percussion section.
But they all essentially
are doing this in
three to four hours, so
we're moving at light speed
throughout the two-day process.
[narrator] In New York City.
Like a river of love when
your heart's wide open
So
[narrator] Shela MelodyMcDonald
is one of the many
creators contributing
to the vocal tracks.
Shela is the singer and
co-writer of the song that
will open the show.
You are a part of me
And I am a part of you
This song is such a reminder
that we can all be connected
through joy, and we can be
connected through music,
and there's so many ways
to make us feel like we
have this one heartbeat.
So go ahead and sing your song,
that's when you can
really say, go ahead.
Okay, okay.
[narrator] Shela also
performs in the grand finale.
[Shela Melody McDonald]
The choices that I make vocally
have to be as grand as
this show is going to be.
[vocalizing]
[narrator] She'll have to be
soulful and emotional,
while still shining as bright
as the fireworks that will
light up the sky.
[Shela Melody McDonald]
When I'm in the studio,
I'm gonna have to bring it.
[vocalizing]
[vocalizing]
-Yeah!
-Great, that's gorgeous.
[jaunty music playing]
[Tom Fitzgerald] When we started
work on the transformation
of EPCOT, one of the things
we wanted to look at was
how do we update the story?
How do we broaden the story?
[narrator] World Showcase,
with its 11 pavilions
featuring countries from
across the globe,
is one of the places
they decided to start
answering those questions.
World Showcase is a
celebration of music,
of culture, of art, of history,
and so why not the
art of storytelling?
[narrator] Designers once
again went back to
Walt Disney for inspiration.
In 1918 post-w*r France,
a teenaged Walt served
in the Red Cross
Ambulance Corps.
There, he was enchanted by
French art and architecture,
starting a lifelong
appreciation that
influenced Disney designs
for decades to come.
Those years of French
influence culminated
with a singular
four-legged movie star,
who became an expert
in haute cuisine.
[Remy] Paris?
All this time I've
been underneath Paris?
When we look at films,
we look at them in a
different way as Imagineers.
We're looking at them as, "Is
there an attraction in here?"
The sequence in the film
Ratatouille where Remy falls
through the window and winds
up in the busy kitchen space,
and watching that
the first time,
it's like, that's a ride.
Tom Fitzgerald called and said,
I have an idea.
I think that we can make
an extraordinary attraction
inspired by Ratatouille.
He's ruining the soup!
[narrator] The trickiest thing
would be to create
a virtual environment that
felt as visceral as the
moments in the film.
We gotta tell
someone that he's--
We knew foundationally,
we wanted to fall
off that skylight,
plunge to the floor
of Gusteau's kitchen.
We started blocking out the
camera movement for the scene.
We were really trying to work
out what is all the action
that we're going
to bring to life?
3D animation,
it's a long process.
A really talented animator
in a week might create
three or five seconds
of animation.
So, we have to really go into
this not improvisationally.
[narrator] Animators added
details like clothing, fur,
and lighting to create a
fully developed scene.
Now how do you give
people the thrill of
being a character in the movie?
I want you to feel like
you're Remy in that kitchen.
How do I do that?
This is a ride that uses
what we call moving eye point,
which means I'm moving you
through a physical environment,
and the media that
I'm projecting is
changing its perspective
with your vehicle movement.
It's a really complex trick,
and that ultimately
led us to saying
I need a ride
vehicle that is free-range,
that's not on a track.
[Roger Gould] Now, suddenly,
you can really be like a rat
and scurry and slide
around and never know
where you're going to go next.
[Tom Fitzgerald] Do I spin, do
I back up, do I go forward,
do I shake, do I tilt, and where
are the other vehicles cause
they're traveling
in a pack of three.
So, it's a very
sophisticated system.
[narrator] The Imagineers
seamlessly put us
into Remy's world.
Now, they're almost ready to
launch us into another galaxy
at World Discovery.
The housing for the new
Guardians of the Galaxy:
Cosmic Rewind coaster
is complete.
Imagineers turned their
attention to developing a
first-of-its-kind ride system,
the high-speed omni-coaster.
[Alex Wright] The Omni Coaster
system that we developed for
this attraction was really
a unique new tool in our toolbelt.
We could rotate the vehicles
in any direction at any given point
along the way, which
enabled us to tell stories on
a rollercoaster in a way
that we never could before.
[narrator] The ride car
rotation is powered by
what's called a yaw system.
[Rachel Weston] Yaw is a
technical term that we use to
describe that rotation
motion about the Z axis,
pitch, and roll which is
either moving front and back
or side to side.
Yaw is what we have
on our coaches,
rotating individually
throughout the ride.
This is not teacups in space.
We're not gonna be
just spinning around.
It was really a deliberate
rotation to put you
into the action.
[Alex Wright] We have scenes
on our ride that stretch out
over the course of, in one
case even, 13 seconds which is
really kind of unheard of
in rollercoaster terms.
[narrator] The omni-coaster
technology is truly immersive.
All to serve their top priority,
keeping us captivated with
the Guardian's story.
To make sure that happened,
the team needed to try and
experience the ride
before they built it.
[Rachel Weston] We partnered
with our ride manufacturer and
created a test track
at their facility,
a small town, kind of
amidst some cornfields.
[Alex Wright] We had a chance
to go and experience that
a couple of years before we were
going to be able to ride the
real vehicle on the real
track here at our site.
[Rachel Weston] The track
can be smooth all day but
if you're experiencing
high vibrations,
because of the yaw system,
that wouldn't be a good
experience for our guests.
[narrator] With the complex
movements working,
the team had a real
engineering puzzle,
how to move nearly
a mile of track
into a confined space.
It was the world's most
difficult game of Tetris.
[Rachel Weston] It got to
a point where we just had
10,000-pound pieces of track
that are 30 feet long with
no foreseeable way of
how to install them.
[narrator] The clock was
ticking and there weren't
a lot of options.
[Rachel Weston] We repurposed
two coaches from the test track
and used them as a
mule of sorts to load in
a new track, kind
of railroad style.
[narrator] It was an
ingenious solution.
[Rachel Weston] You spend
so much time working on
something, thinking about
millimeters, tolerances,
and surface finishes, to come
out the other side of this
machine that you've
made is just joy.
[narrator] From space
at World Discovery,
back to Earth at World Nature,
the Imagineers wanted to
take us on a journey
where water conservation
could be fun.
So, to create this experience,
they looked for inspiration
in the magical movie
world of Moana.
See the line where the
sky meets the sea?
[Reid Ekman] Guests have a
great connection with Moana,
and she has a great
connection with water.
So, with all of those ideas,
we used that film
to tell our story.
This is EPCOT,
this is a real place,
and when we come here we want
you to learn while having fun.
[narrator] Could the
Imagineers design an
experience where people
can play with water
just like Moana does?
The team set out to develop a
system that sensed motion
to trigger the water's reaction.
[Chelsea Whikehart]
The water had to feel alive.
It's really easy for
things to feel binary.
That, like you hit a button,
and it goes,
and it's on, it's off and
we couldn't have that.
Even a millisecond counted.
[narrator] The first
round of testing
didn't work for everyone.
[Chelsea Whikehart] Why are
really tall people
or small children
having a harder time?
We were trying to find that
happy balance that all people
could be seen and interact.
People wave all
different ways.
They wave up high,
they wave low.
We have what we
call our baby wave,
and we have watched
thousands of people
and they all do it differently.
[narrator] The technology was
trained to recognize all those
movements so,
no matter the wave,
everyone could join in the fun.
Imagineers succeeded in
transforming water into
an EPCOT experience.
But now can they
transform the night sky?
[fireworks popping]
[curious music playing]
[narrator] At Disney Live
Entertainment, the creative team
is hard at work on
the nighttime spectacular.
We're at that point
where it's so important
for us all to be together and
to really work
together that way.
[narrator] Working with
virtual software that
simulates the show, the
creative team is able to
imagine exactly
what they want.
VPE basically stands for
Virtual Programming Environment.
It's where we take all the
devices that we're using,
put them into a computer
setting that does CGI,
and will replicate the show
as close as it can get,
probably within 95% of
what you'll actually see
out in the facility itself.
[narrator] It's a powerful
design tool that allows
the team to keep shaping
the effects before
going into the field.
[Steven Davison] Here's a
thought for you, right there.
Sing your song
Do we, do we keep it,
'cause right now it's like,
we have a lot of
do we simplify it?
You are a part of me,
I'm a part of you
It's like it said,
like just do one and hold it,
do another one?
I feel like it should be
opening out, but right now
I'm coming in.
I'm going "Steady, are you ready?",
and I feel it should be,
"Steady, are you ready,
can you feel it?" Like...
Yeah, it's gonna take
us another two hours
to revamp this, but
it will be better
overall to do it.
And it's warm and
real and bright
And the world has somehow
Those aren't going there
We have recently been given
a version of the music
for the show so
this is more playtime for us.
Layover.
And then altogether
to that pretty look.
And come together, yeah, so
1-2-3, and 4 is together, yeah.
Okay.
I never sleep. Basically,
I'm always thinking about,
can we do that one better?
[narrator] With it's new
design, the icon of the park,
Spaceship Earth, is
another character in the show.
[Joey Reynolds] He's ready.
So we just have kind of a
remote connection to get us
inside, and then once that
is inside, it travels through
wire connections
to all the lights.
[narrator] This sphere's
nearly 2,000 points will
sparkle as part of
the spectacular,
and at other times of the night,
are programmed to fit
the theme of EPCOT's
three new neighborhoods.
[Cole] All right,
put us in ambient 2.
[Joey Reynolds] Yes, let's
name that ambient 1,
World Discovery.
And then 2 will
be World Nature.
[Jason Read] You can see
Spaceship Earth from as
close as 13 feet away,
but you can also see it
from the back of the park
which is a couple
football fields away.
It needs to look great from
any of those different
viewing locations.
[narrator] Back at World Nature,
Journey of Water,
inspired by Moana
is close to opening day,
and Te Fiti, goddess with
the power to create life,
has settled
into her new home.
Her presence is meant to
inspire guests to be
stewards of the water.
Te Fiti really started
as a concept sketch.
We knew we wanted her
as a large element.
We started with a sculpted
model to really refine that
pose and her personality.
For a short while, we did truly
investigate her being made of
live material.
Knowing how we wanted to
really control deeply
her essence and her physicality
from the film to the site,
we decided to go
into a themed route.
[narrator] Themed foliage
is made of urethane and
stainless steel,
perfect for creating a
powerful presence.
With Te Fiti in place and
water features operational,
World Nature's transformation
cycle is complete.
A 1-2-3 and...
Oooh oooh oooh oooh
[narrator] Back with the team
at the Disney Live Entertainment
Music Studio in Florida,
a local choir is adding
emotional textures to the score
of Luminous: The Symphony of Us.
[vocalizing]
[narrator] Their voices are
present for much of the show.
And there's a lot of work to do.
[Tricia Holloway] The choir is
bringing a beautiful fullness
to the theme song,
particularly as we transition
into the big backend
finale of the Spectacular.
All that we are
[Bryson Camper] Can I hear that?
1-2-all that we are.
All that we are
Our gospel sessions were
just maybe the most fun that
you can ever have in a session.
Feel it in the beat
of our heart
[Stef Fink] And they were just,
full of joy and happiness.
[vocalizing]
[Bryson Camper] Perfect.
[applause]
When somebody loved me
We have a beautiful arrangement
of these two songs uh,
"When She Loved Me"
from Toy Story
and "Recuerda Me" or
"Remember Me" from Coco.
So was I
[Stef Fink] And it is just,
it takes your breath away.
Recurdame
When somebody loved me
Hoy me tengo que ir, mi amor
Everything was beautiful
Recurdame
Every hour spent together
-No llores, por favor
-Lives within my heart
[Pinar Toprak] We wanted to
make sure the audience feels
connected when they
hear these songs.
Cause you'll be in my heart
The tune of
"You'll Be in My Heart"
immediately creates a certain
connection and feeling.
You don't have to
have the entire song,
but just that little bit is
going to take you there.
More
[Stef Fink] Woo girl!
Copy that, show control
please roll code and audio.
[narrator] Out on the lagoon,
rehearsals for Luminous:
The Symphony Of Us
are in full swing.
With the couple of
days we have left,
we're doing all the fine-tuning.
We're making sure all
the timings are correct,
making sure colors are right.
[narrator] After months
of virtual work,
seeing the show live requires
some adjustments.
I don't mind it actually.
It feels well.
When we get it out here,
we get to see how
that's translating and we go
from a flat environment
into a full realized version,
and one of the things we noticed was
we wanted
everything to be bigger.
We wanted
everything to be bolder.
[fireworks popping]
[Paul Sadler] We have over
1,400 pieces of pyro product
in the show and
over 1,300 cues.
[narrator] 1,300 moments
to make perfect,
and they only have
two nights left.
Every time we make a change,
there's more changes
that come with it.
It's kind of like a cascade.
It's such an intense light, and
that's what's great about it.
Would you add more even?
[pyro designer] If you
wanna try it, we can literally
double what's there.
We just had that flash.
That's ohh, that's nice.
We have two more nights
to get it just perfect.
[narrator] Across the water,
the music team is experiencing
their work outside and out loud.
[announcer] Welcome
to the great gathering.
[narrator] On hundreds of
speakers, that all have to be
perfectly balanced.
We basically have gotten
to the point
where we're bringing the recording
studio out in the wild.
[Stef Fink] There's about
1,000 tracks in our session.
The sheer organization
of it alone is a beast.
-Dan, which way is that one facing?
-[Dan Scott] Yeah?
[Dan Scott] Towards me.
Anywhere that the
show can be seen.
The show needs to
be heard equally.
And we're covering over a mile
worth of speakers around
the lagoon, and they're facing
in all different directions.
There's water, there's
buildings that throw all sorts
of reflections everywhere.
[muffled music playing]
[Stef Fink] I hear nothing.
[Dan Scott] It's not out-out.
[Stef Fink] I think
this is coming from that.
[Dan Scott] Oh yeah, it's out.
Rob, can we get pink noise?
[pink noise static]
[narrator] They blast out pink
noise, a type of test signal
that's the best way to
balance out the levels
in all the speakers.
Both high and low frequencies
that humans can hear.
This is pink noise.
Aaah! Pink noise.
So we're running it left and
it's supposed to be
going to right and it's not there.
So that is something we'll
have to alert
the maintenance team about
and have them take a look and hopefully,
you can get it sorted
out by tomorrow night.
[narrator] After years
in the making,
EPCOT's latest transformation
is almost complete and
ready for showtime.
[anticipatory music playing]
[narrator] At World Celebration,
a special delivery has finally
arrived at Dreamer's Point,
Walt.
[Scott Mallwitz] The process
seems very slow, at times,
because we've got to be careful
with a very heavy object.
It's a one-of-a-kind
piece of artwork.
If you can hold
it there, David,
we're going to
have to reposition.
[Scott Mallwitz] It's a little
bit of measure three times
and swing once and then lift and
measure again and swing again.
So, then he's done?
I believe he's made it.
I think so.
[narrator] Walt's statue is
installed just in time
for his birthday, December 5th,
and all around him
final touches ready
World Celebration Gardens
for their debut.
[Scott Mallwitz] Let's let
the guests in, let's let them
enjoy it, experience it,
and see what they think.
[narrator] And from
his perch, Walt sees all.
I think the statue
really does represents
his hopes and his dreams of
what EPCOT was to become.
[narrator] Day turns to night,
and the new lighting
design comes to life
right on cue,
to usher in the big show.
Armor 1, you're clear to arm.
Tonight is the premiere of
Luminous: The Symphony of Us
and I can't be more excited.
We don't open these
things all the time.
And it's happening.
It's happening tonight.
Are you excited?
I'm crazy excited.
-Are you really?
-I am!
I'm seriously gonna
try not to cry tonight.
I'm so, so excited.
Lasers how ya looking?
We're going all the
way up to the wire.
This is our first time
doing our systems checks
in real-time.
Show control, roll code,
Luminous go.
[Luminous intro music plays]
[vocalizing]
[drumming]
[vocalizing]
[drumming]
[announcer] Welcome
to the great gathering.
[UK voice] Welcome!
[Stef Fink] We had welcomes
from all around the world.
[France voice] Bienvenue!
[Morocco voice] Marhaba!
[Japan voice] Yokoso!
[Stef Fink] We had a last-minute
idea to put Walt in the show...
[USA voice] Welcome!
[China voice] Huanying!
...and we snuck him in
there right at the end.
[Walt Disney] Welcome.
[Stef Fink] We knew it was
perfect the second we heard it.
[Luminous voices] Welcome!
Can you hear the sound
of a world in motion
Mmm
The wind through the trees
[Shela Melody McDonald]
It's just the most incredible
pinch-me moment.
Can you feel the beat
of a million hearts
All in time
[Stef Fink] There's nothing
like getting to see
your work come to life.
You are a part of me
And I am a part of you
And all of the world
will become a symphony
[Chelsea Whikehart] The team has
worked for years to get to
this moment and we're so
excited to welcome guests.
We'll become a symphony
Come stop your crying,
it will be all right
[Kartika Rodriguez] Walt
talked about EPCOT always
being a state of becoming.
I think we're living that.
[Rachel Weston] Feeling part
of something that's so much
bigger than yourself,
something so much more than
any one of us could
have done on our own,
it's really powerful.
'Cause you'll be in my heart
Yes you'll be in my heart
[Roger Gould] It's this
wonderful dynamic, always,
of what can we add and make it
even better than it was?
As long as there's imagination
in the world, we're not done.
For once was small,
you seem so strong
[Scott Mallwitz] These parks
are living things and
they need to be cared for and
supported and I just expect
more great things to continue
to happen here at EPCOT.
[Paul Sadler] I don't even
think about this show as
a fireworks show,
but this gathering
moment for all of us.
And that's what Walt
wanted the parks to be.
Steady are you ready, can
you feel it, here it comes
Ohhhh
It's in all that we are
Ohhhh
[Tom Fitzgerald] EPCOT is
really Disney's celebration
of the progress of ideas.
We're already starting to
think about what's next.
Woah
It's in all that we are
Feeling in the
beat of our hearts
It's the beating
of our hearts
[announcer] In the
great symphony of us.
[Walt Disney]
But where do we begin?
How do we start answering
this great challenge?
We'll become a symphony
[applause]
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EPCOT Becoming (2024)
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