IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
| IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth | |
|---|---|
| Park | EPCOT |
| Land / area | World Showcase |
| Type | Nighttime spectacular |
| Opened | October 1, 1999 |
| Closed | September 30, 2019 |
| Designer | Walt Disney Imagineering
|
| Status | Closed |
IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth was a nighttime spectacular performed nightly at EPCOT at Walt Disney World in Florida from October 1, 1999, to September 30, 2019. Staged on World Showcase Lagoon, it told the story of Earth — its creation, the rise of human civilisation and the hope of a shared future — using fireworks, fountains, lasers, fire effects and a huge rotating globe covered in LED screens. It opened as IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth for the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration, and proved so popular that it outlived that celebration by nearly nineteen years. The defunct show is still widely regarded as one of the finest nighttime shows Disney has produced.
History
The show was created and directed by Don Dorsey, who had been involved with EPCOT's nighttime entertainment since the park's early years. It replaced the previous IllumiNations show on the lagoon and was the headline entertainment of the Millennium Celebration, which ran at EPCOT from October 1, 1999, to January 1, 2001. Its companion piece for that celebration was the Tapestry of Nations parade, a procession of large puppets around World Showcase with music, like the show itself, by Gavin Greenaway. Elements of both were also presented in the Super Bowl XXXIV halftime show in 2000.
When the Millennium Celebration ended, the "2000" was dropped from the title and the show continued unchanged in its essentials for the rest of its life, apart from seasonal and holiday variations and tag endings added for special occasions. Few Disney nighttime shows have run so long with so little alteration, and its score, recorded in London, became one of the most familiar pieces of music in the parks.
Disney announced in 2018 that the show would end as part of EPCOT's multi-year transformation. Its final performance was given on September 30, 2019, twenty years to the day after it opened, before large crowds around the lagoon. It was replaced the following night by EPCOT Forever, an interim show, which in turn gave way to Harmonious in 2021. The Earth Globe was dismantled shortly after the final performance.
Show
The show was narrated by Jim Cummings, who invites guests to gather around the fire, as people have done for thousands of years, to share a story. It was divided into three acts. In the first, Chaos, an explosion represents the creation of the planet, with fireworks and the Inferno Barge — a barge carrying a large fire effect — filling the lagoon with flame and smoke.
In the second act, Order, the Earth Globe glides to the centre of the lagoon. The globe was a sphere about 28 feet across, mounted on a barge weighing around 350,000 pounds, and wrapped in curved LED screens — the first spherical display of its kind. As it rotates, the screens show images of the natural world, of famous places and faces, and of human achievement in the arts and sciences, turning from the colours of a cooling planet to blue oceans.
In the third act, Meaning, the nineteen torches around the lagoon — one for each of the first nineteen centuries of the common era — are lit, and the song "We Go On" plays as the globe opens like a lotus flower to reveal a twentieth torch at its centre. A large fireworks finale follows. As guests left, the song "Promise" played, and the continents were at times projected by laser onto Spaceship Earth.