Happily Ever After (Magic Kingdom)

None of my night-time photos ever come out the way I would like, so I figured I'd just post one of my regular castle pics.

I wanted to make sure to check out the new Magic Kingdom night-time show, Happily Ever After, a few times before I wrote this. For a little back history, Happily Ever After replaced the incredibly popular Wishes show on May 12, 2017. Happily Ever After would be the combination of original music (like Wishes) / movie music sandwiched in between with the new projection mapping and lasers brought about in Celebrate the Magic. The culmination is this nearly 20-minute show.

The show starts with the original theme ("Happily Ever After") describing the beginning of one's journey. It serves as a nice upbeat 2-minute intro before going into the Wish segment of the show. Featured music for Wish are "Down in New Orleans" (Princess and the Frog), "Part of Your World" (The Little Mermaid) and "Out There" (The Hunchback of Notre Dame). I was quite happy with the fact that Hunchback gets major airtime here, as it's been mostly forgotten about. Great use of projection as Quasimodo scales the castle to ring the bell at the climax of the song.

The Adventure segment is up next, with two feature songs: "Touch The Sky" (Brave) and "How Far I'll Go" (Moana). I thought this transition was a little awkward, as the two songs are so very different in feel and rhythm. Touch is a great upbeat song while How Far is more the slow epic adventure song, felt odd. Moana features the first of the customized fireworks throughout the show.

Moana ends with a dark castle and then explodes into the Friendship segment with a long medley with the main theme being "Friend Like Me" (Aladdin). The songs I picked out of the medley included "Hakuna Matata" (The Lion King), "You've Got A Friend In Me" (Toy Story), and "The Bare Necessities" (The Jungle Book). This is an absolute melee of projection and fireworks though, that you really get exposed to way more characters and movies that I just listed (Wreck-It Ralph and Inside Out to name a few). The lasers and spotlights really shine here as they create the base design of each scene. Not too much projection movement until the Genie reprise, and like Celebrate we get the rocket launch castle. Still an incredible effect, especially with this show as the music crescendos. The "Applause" sign at the end is a funny touch.

Love is the next segment. A complaint I heard is how Disney doesn't stick to the original voices and arrangements in this show. I found it to be an incredible asset though, as they re-shape the old music into a new story. That said, "Love is an Open Door" (Frozen) has a new slow arrangement here. Thought it was an incredible intro honestly. A "Can You Feel The Love Tonight" (The Lion King) transition occurs into a "You'll Be In My Heart" (Tarzan) projection medley featuring Finding Dory, Up and The Incredibles. Like Celebrate, we get a fantastic transition into "I See The Light" (Tangled) where the castle becomes hundreds of floating lanterns. It made me wonder if the Magic Kingdom would ever invest in actual lanterns instead of a projection, would be amazing. Tangled ends the Love segment.

The Adversity and Heroes Fight Back segments seemed to be meshed to me.. at least where I've been standing for the viewings. In awesome use of pyrotechnics, Adversity lights up the castle in fire and smoke making it look like it's been incinerated in a battle. We encounter villains during this portion like Ursula, Scar and Jafar. When the Heroes Fight Back segment kicks in, we're battling back with "He's A Pirate" (Pirates of the Caribbean).

Peace Is Restored is the penultimate, with "Go The Distance" (Hercules) being the main feature. As we build with the music, a panel of the castle lights up with a hero from a movie until the castle is full of heroes. The song climaxes with a huge array of fireworks and lights, leading some to believe that this was the finale and start walking away until the narrator voice comes back on to lead us into the final segment.

We make our way back to "Happily Ever After"'s main theme with the voices telling us to 'reach for the sky, we all have the courage to fly.' I won't talk about the main reveal here, but anyone who has seen Wishes will probably know what's going to happen next. We finally hit the chorus of "Happily"'s reprise and the sky lights up with everything Disney has left in the bag. Great showing.

My initial thoughts were unsure. Something that really moved me about Celebrate was Walt's appearance ("I hope we never lose sight of one thing... that it all started with a mouse.") towards the finale. It really brought a human and humble element to it that is otherwise missing from Happily Ever After. That said, after multiple viewings, Happily Ever After has grown on me. I think overall it is far better than both Celebrate and Wishes. The medleys make sense and provide huge emotional payoffs. Technically speaking, this is the best thing Disney has done in many years, and the end reveal pushes most non-Disney people to the verge of tears. For anyone at the resort, it will be the must-see attraction for many years... or at least until Star Wars opens.

Grade: A+