Epcot New Film Reviews: The Good & Ugly
Walt Disney World has debuted three new films during the Epcot Festival of the Arts: Awesome Planet, Canada Far & Wide, and the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along. Here we’ll review each new movie and recommend whether you should incorporate them into your park itinerary.
Let’s start with Awesome Planet, which is located in the Land pavilion upstairs from Soarin’ Around the World, right next door to Garden Grill. Awesome Planet showcases Earth’s beauty and diverse natural landscapes in a 10-minute film featuring some in-theater lighting effects and an original musical score. It’s breathtakingly shot and the score is relaxing.
Awesome Planet highlights the majesty of Earth and its varied environments, before pivoting into how these are under threat thanks to rising sea levels, temperatures, and more intense weather. In typical Epcot fashion, Awesome Planet presents a relatively upbeat perspective on climate change and does so in a widely-palatable way that could make it better received by guests who need to hear this message the most (it’s presented without delving into causes or ascribing blame). However, it’s the narration that truly elevates Awesome Planet…
Actor Ty Burrell offers his sales pitch for planet Earth as a place to live, drawing a clear but unstated parallel to his role as realtor Phil Dunphy on Modern Family. Awesome Planet‘s conceit is that you’re looking at various biomes to call home, and Burrell is offering the benefits and drawbacks of Earth.
It’s a clever nod for those who are fans of Modern Family, but it doesn’t distract or detract from the movie for those who are unfamiliar with the character. There are no direct call-outs to Modern Family or the Dunphys. It’s like a throwback to 90s era Epcot with celebrity tie-ins, but done in a more subtle way that shouldn’t age poorly.
Awesome Planet‘s amusing narrative premise coupled with the film’s overall sense of optimism while educating guests about something grim is impressive. It’s also quintessentially EPCOT in that regard, following a rich history of other attractions tasked with doing the same. (Often, while dancing around the corporate interests of sponsors.) It’s a winner.
Due to its short duration and location in a place you’ll definitely walk past (probably more than once), Awesome Planet is probably the easiest to slot into an Epcot itinerary. Do it before or after Living with the Land, following lunch at Sunshine Seasons, or literally whenever it’s convenient.
Next, there’s Canada Far and Wide in Circle-Vision 360 in World Showcase’s Canada pavilion. This is an update to the previous O Canada! film–with Martin Short removed, additional scenes & footage added, a new musical score by Canadian composer Andrew Lockington, and new narration by award-winning actors Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy.
We absolutely love Martin Short, but his performance in O Canada! wasn’t the best. It had some light chuckles, but leaned too heavily on his celebrity at the expense of the experience. Canada Far & Wide remedies this, with the whirlwind tour of Canada’s natural beauty, cosmopolitan cities, and multiculturalism on full display.
Catherine O’Hara and Eugene Levy provide narration with a bit of personality, but never once make it about themselves. (In fact, I forgot they were the narrators and kept trying to recall who was narrating throughout the movie.) Unlike O Canada!, which sometimes played a bit too much into outmoded cliches about Canada, the new film subverts them.
For some, Canada Far & Wide will be an eye-opening look at our neighbor to the north. I’ve always felt that the best World Showcase attractions make you want to visit their host countries, and that’s absolutely the case here. It’s well worth checking out, and can be added to your itinerary for a midday break from the World Showcase sun and heat.
My only quibble with both Awesome Planet and Canada Far & Wide is that the footage isn’t exactly memorable or unique. It’s beautiful, but it could be stock scenery. One of the things we love about Impressions de France is the little details, like the various quirky people and creatures that inhabit the film.
Neither of these new films really have that. This is probably at least partly by design–what I’d like to see is also the type of thing that can date film footage. (No worse than including the NBA Champion Toronto Raptors, though.) However, more unique and some quirky footage helps to endear a movie to its audience, giving it a passionate fanbase that’ll return to repeat viewings.
This is a minor quibble about two films that are each marked improvements over their predecessors. They still have engaging narration, scores, and music to give these films distinct personalities. They’re also wonderful additions in the spirit of EPCOT Center. Both are quintessential edutainment, and Canada Far & Wide is the kind of travelogue that, like Impressions de France, will inspire guests to visit Canada.
In other words, two very good to great additions to Epcot that deserve far more praise than we’ve seen for them thus far. With that said, if you’re looking for a positive and optimistic article about Epcot, just pretend the post ended here and close this browser tab now…
Finally, there’s the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along, which makes Stitch’s Supersonic Celebration look like a Walt Disney World masterpiece by comparison. We hadn’t heard much about this new film prior to seeing it, and I’m honestly a bit surprised. Walt Disney World hasn’t debuted anything that rises to this level of atrociousness in a while–maybe ever. In a way, it’s impressive.
Before we wade into that, there’s a new exhibit in the lobby here: “Tales as Old as Time: French Storytelling on Stage and Screen,” which replaces the old window displays of Notre Dame Cathedral’s architecture. To Disney’s credit, the new exhibit features ornate costumes, music, and artwork dedicated to the adaptation of French literature in cinema, theater, ballet, and opera. This is beautiful and interesting–another exemplar of edutainment at Epcot.
As for the show itself, rather than simply remixing clips from Beauty and the Beast with sing-along lyrics, this is actually much more ambitious. It’s a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Come to find out, LeFou is actually the unsung hero of the story, having worked behind the scenes as the puppet-master who brought Belle and Beast together. That’s right–LeFou.
As you’ll find out in the sing-along, LeFou worked his magic to lure Maurice into the forest and towards Beast’s Castle. It was LeFou who got Belle to follow him there. Wonder how Belle got her iconic ballgown? Turns out LeFou made (and wore) it! LeFou did a bunch of other great things, apparently. In this ultimate yarn of revisionist storytelling, LeFou also did not actively lead, instigate, or even know about the more “questionable antics” of Gaston and his angry mob.
This plot might sound like some trolling fanfic, but that’s offensive to trolls. It would’ve been one thing to offer a lazy direct-to-video caliber sequel or prequel, but to retcon elements of the classic story with this is truly perplexing. It’s not plausible or clever, and only offers 2-3 laughs as the ultimate payoff. It’s like the team behind this saw the trailer for Cats and said, “hold my beer.”
The sad thing here is that actual effort was put into this by a crew of talented people. It required new animation, narration by Angela Lansbury, voiceover by Jesse Corti, and was directed and produced by Don Hahn. I almost feel bad being so harsh, but it’s not like they didn’t know what they were making.
For our first and last viewing of Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along, the theater was about one-third full. To my surprise, the audience reaction was fairly tepid and unenthusiastic. I don’t present this as “evidence” that my opinion is right. Kids love all sorts of stuff, and I don’t doubt that includes this for some.
Rather, that the source material here isn’t ideal for a sing-along. I had never thought about this, but several of the songs in Beauty and the Beast are quick and lyrically complex. “Tale As Old As Time” is the major exception, and most of the audience was singing along to that. It also doesn’t help that whatever momentum or flow the musical numbers might otherwise have is clumsily broken up by the narrative gymnastics done to explain how LeFou was the matchmaker behind Belle and Beast.
Now, you might be thinking that I’m a poor judge of this because, as a middle-aged man without kids, I’m far from the target audience. Perhaps your kids loved this. Fair enough. Even the Emoji Movie has a 7% on Rotten Tomatoes, meaning that–against all odds–9 critics enjoyed it. There’s no accounting for taste.
I’ve positively reviewed numerous Walt Disney World attractions aimed at children in the past. Most recently, I gave a glowing review to Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, which is very good for what it is. Same goes for Dumbo, Turtle Talk, and even the Frozen Sing-Along Celebration.
Perhaps most notably, I’ve repeatedly called Enchanted Tales with Belle underrated and not given enough credit, even though it’s definitely not for me. I strive to review attractions as objectively as possible, taking into account how kids and their parents might feel about a particular attraction. In my view, Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along is objectively awful.
Nevertheless, Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along will probably be reasonably satisfying filler for kids who are often bored while traversing World Showcase. So mission accomplished in that regard, I guess. However, I’m unconvinced that kids wouldn’t be just as satisfied sitting on a random park bench watching ~15 minutes of literally any Disney+ content on your phone. By contrast, Awesome Planet and Canada Far & Wide are movies worth seeking out. Both are beautifully shot, amusingly narrated, and will nicely break up your day at Epcot with bit of time relaxing in a dark, air-conditioned environment.
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Your Thoughts
If you’ve seen the new Epcot films, what did you think of them? Have a favorite? What about a least favorite? Do you agree or disagree with our reviews? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Sounds like we need to bring back Captain EO!
As someone whose mother tongue is French, I find the making of LeFou as the hero thoroughly puzzling. Before delving into this endeavour, did the makers of this piece not realize that the name LeFou is a pretty obvious play on “le fou”, which translates to “the fool”? A fool as the hero? Pretty unlikely – I’d call that a hard fail.
Saw the Beauty and the Beast “remix” while in Epcot yesterday. Horrible, just horrible! I have more faith in humanity than Disney does because I’d like to believe that not only would we all enjoy a beautiful film about France over a revised version of one of our favorite Disney movies but I believe Disney guest expect quality. This was not it! I don’t care who worked on it…this is embarrassingly awful.
Like everything else on our recent (26th) visit to Disney World (EXCEPT Flight of Passage but INCLUDING Rise of the Resistance) these new movies were a huge disappointment! Many of the scenes were generic and the singalong rewrite was beyond horrible. The crowd level was awful (think thousands of cheerleaders and incredibly rude Brazilian tour groups.) There were too many rides and attractions desperately needing maintenance and updating – some, like Pirates, having whole scenes cut, and others like ROR rewarding wasted days and hours for a SEVEN MINUTE ride were downright ridiculous! I am utterly amazed by all the ROR reviews praising this new ride and would like to reassure those who have limited time that the ride is so !! NOT !! WORTH the effort. Unlike Disney in Walt’s, Roy’s, and even Eisner’s time, absolutely EVERYTHING has been monetized to an unbelievable extent. Disney hotel guests no longer receive much in return for the prices charged. We loved the Gran Destino Tower but were so disappointed in almost every other respect that most likely this will be our last Disney trip. Our problem may be that we remember how Disney used to be. I hate to think what more unhappy changes for future guests may be in the works, but a return to paying extra for popular attractions will probably be next – read up on it!
It’s ROTR, not ROR.
“It’s like the team behind this saw the trailer for Cats and said, “hold my beer.”” Funniest thing I’ve read on the Interwebs today… LOL!
Yes! I woke up my husband as I laughed very loudly at this one. too funny.
Maybe having been a 16-year old theatre nerd when Beauty & the Beast debuted makes it impossible for me to imagine that all Americans don’t automatically know the words to those songs. I mean, it’s not Aladdin, or anything. (I also know all of those lyrics by heart.). I’m already not a big fan of singing along, in parks, to movies that I can watch for free at home, (don’t even get me started on paying for park tickets and then being expected to watch Pixar shorts or extended commercials for upcoming releases). I’m utterly appalled at this bizarre LeFou contortion. I’ve yet to find Tom making an Epcot-related observation that I do not agree with, and, as such, will be pleased to skip the sing along during future visits.
I changed a dinner reservation next month just to make sure we have time to fit in Impressions in the evening. Even with young girls, we were already planning to skip the sing a long (and we do love Beauty). Definitely sounds like the right plan.
What?!?!? Beauty and my Beast is one of my favorite Disney movies and this whole revisionist take is so bizarre and unpleasant. So Disney simultaneously found a way to insult me as a world showcase fan (since this has nothing to do with France) and a Beauty and the Beast fan (since this apparently has nothing to do with the actual movie either). Good grief.
Wait…no rereview of impressions of France in supposedly stunning 4K? Does it look better?
Saw the earth movie….felt like a bunch of stock video slammed together…like a promo video for a new GoPro 4K camera. Was not impressed as it was all over the place.
Unfortunately, we still haven’t seen it! We’ve done an evening at Epcot 4 times since it returned, and each time we’ve either missed it due to dinner (or once because we forget).
It would’ve been far and away the best of these films before, though.
I’m so sad about the Beauty & the Beast singalong. For some reason my brain thought it was going to be more of a “Waking Sleeping Beauty”-esque look at the making of Beauty & the Beast and how the songs were important to the film with Don Hahn as the host and the singalong punctuating. I don’t actually know where I got that impression from but I was really excited for it. Now I am feeling pretty deflated that it’s just another jamming in of IP in to EPCOT. And by the sounds of it, poorly done at that.
The theatre kid in me wants to object to the idea that Beauty And The Beast’s songs aren’t sing-a-long-able, but then I realized that, they are pretty wordy musical theater type songs, that’s part of what made them so revolutionary. But when you’ve learned “Modern Major General” from Pirates of Penzance and “I Wish” from Into The Woods, “Be Our Guest” is darn quaint in lyrical content.
I wasn’t planning on seeking out the sing-a-long on my next trip but I’m glad to here the Canada film is good, as I wouldn’t miss Levy and O’Hara’s narration. Even if I wish they were narrating as Johnny and Moira Rose and not themselves.
Tom, I’m confused by the “and even Frozen Sing Along.” Did you not like frozen Sing along? Most of the audiences that have seen it are laughing hysterically to it. Not that you can’t, and didn’t, like it but I was confused by the statement.
As for Beauty and the Beast, we literally just saw it today. I’m hoping it was more of a tongue in cheek absurd retelling of the story. It was cute, I suppose, but definitely on the absurd. Probably one of those one and done attractions.
In regards to the Beauty and the Beast sing-a-long, I was excited to take my 11, 8, and 5 year old (seemingly Disney’s target ages?) inJanuary. Afterwords, I could tell they were internally just sort of scratching their heads at the retelling, like “huh? That’s clearly not what happened?”. And we were all disappointed at the beginning song, which is fun to sing, being cut-off midstream. The whole thing was just a silly mishmash, which my kids have no desire to return to, whereas they are happy to repeat any other show at Disney..
I 100% agree with all of this. The sing along is just awful. I’m still laughing at your “Cats” comment. In a way I’m glad that it isn’t good though. Hopefully it means “Impressions de France” is safe from getting completely cut.
I’m pleased (and surprised) you think Disney have found a positive way to approach climate change. It’s hard to imagine a topic on which we are more divided (without wanting to get too political, I blame both sides for that – the deniers obviously, and also some proponents who insinuate that the only way to avoid climate change is to rip apart our entire system). I’m very interested to see how Disney approaches it. If done well (as opposed to leaving the audience on a downer), it could well be my favourite 2nd-tier attraction (as was CoL, after EEA closed).
Don’t get too excited. We’re talking about maybe 3 minutes of a 10 minute movie.
Personally, I think it’s a savvy approach for climate change messaging, but others might feel it’s a cop-out and that Disney should’ve presented the message more aggressively. (I find that’s not how you change minds, though.)
My husband and I did all 3 this past week since all 3 were walk-ins. We weren’t thrilled with any of them & will only see this one time. I was very disappointed with Awesome Planet though. In fact, while writing this post, I really couldn’t remember it. Now I’ll have to go back to remember why I didn’t care for it LOL! But I give all 3 a MEH!
Thanks for the reviews of the three new movies. I agree with you for the most part, particularly when you opined that the footage for Awesome Planet and Canada Far & Wide “isn’t exactly memorable or unique.” Awesome Planet is the best of the three new films, but it doesn’t hold a candle next to the original film, Symbiosis.
Canada Far & Wide is more stitched together old footage than it is anything new. It’s also about 4 minutes shorter than the old film (and maybe 9 minutes shorter than the original movie.) I wish Disney would just make an entirely new movie for Canada. Canada needs some sponsors in order to get any Disney love.
Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along ticked my wife off in how they changed the story. My boys found it less painful than they had anticipated. On the other hand, I’m angry that Disney shows this the overwhelming majority of time instead of Impressions de France. Impressions haunts my dreams… it’s nearly a perfect movie. Maybe somebody’s at Disney will use their brains and realize that the original Mary Poppins is the best movie for a sing-along. Perhaps they can utilize that fact for their new attraction in the United Kingdom pavilion and make the Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along a temporary misstep.
Your reviews match what I’ve read elsewhere, and I look forward to seeing the Canada movie and Awesome Planet. I’m torn on the B&tB sing along – everything I’ve read say’s it’s objectively awful. One one hand, I feel I should see it for myself to form my own opinion. But on the other hand, I didn’t drink bleach for myself to determine it tastes terrible.
I can’t recall – what the current story with the new China movie? Does it heave a debut date?
“I can’t recall — what the current story with the new China movie? Does it heave a debut date?”
There is no official story, and no debut date. The unofficial/rumored story is that this being done at the behest of Disney’s Chinese partners (I’m not sure if it’ll play at Shanghai Disneyland, but I believe so), is more ambitious, and they’ve had issues with the seamless 360-degree technology.
You saying you don’t drink bleach is one of the most hilarious things I’ve ever heard !
I like Awesome Planet, which is engaging, entertaining and nicely shot. Canada Far and Wide is fine, I guess. It’s an improvement over it’s predecessor, but it’s not particularly innovative, engaging or memorable. In fact, I saw it just a few days ago and I can’t remember a single thing about it, save for the Raptors shout-out.
I’ll comment because I’m always irritated when I read statements regarding Climate Change. Way back 50 years ago, when I was attending Jr High, My Science Teacher taught us our closest Star, our Sun is Yellow Drawf, Cylic Star. It goes through continuous decades long cycles of increased and decreased activity. What do you think happens during these cycles? The Earth Heats and Cools depending on the Suns output, it’s what drives our Weather! So next time you hear some political assumptions about climate change, you might remember those facts.
You are right that the sun’s activity level varies through a 11 year cycle. However, this website from NASA demonstrates that global warming is not caused by variation in solar radiance :
https://climate.nasa.gov/faq/14/is-the-sun-causing-global-warming/
NASA is. Government Agency, Not Motivated By Political Bias? Hmmm
Ah yes, very likely that your junior high science teacher had a better understanding of climate change 50 years ago than 99% of modern scientists in the field.
I might break away from my family of boys and watch the beauty and the beast sing-along. It sounds hilarious! (Although probably not in the way they intended.) Cringe-worthy stuff is right up my alley. And this looks like so much second hand cringe.
50 years ago, we had a fresh law requiring cars have seat belts, people could smoke anywhere, women drank freely while pregnant, the civil rights act had only been recently passed, and we were fighting a divisive war. There were an estimated 250 million cars around the world in 1970 versus 1 billion today. The world population was 3.7 billion versus a current 7.7 billion. Comparing the state of the world in the year 1970 to the year 2020 is weak argument at best. What your middle school science teacher taught, while it may be correct in regards the our sun’s cycles, is not the answer to the current state of our planet’s climate.
I usually let things go, but… AOM–the Sun is 4.6 billion years old. Do you really think the significant trend that has been noted taking place in approximately .000000001 percent of that time is a normal fluctuation? I’m not a scientist, but I’m pretty confident that it is a statistical impossibility that the changes seen in my lifetime are related to normal fluctuation.
But, I am guessing if your position is that all of the scientists who have noted the trend and study climate change for a living are less knowledgeable than your junior high science teacher (or, alternatively, making it up to further a political agenda) than I am confident that my arguments are not going to convince you either. And, this is precisely why I feel despair when thinking about the planet my children are going to inherit.