This isn’t going to be a review, really – more of a collection of my thoughts and impressions now that I’ve seen World of Color.

My overall impression: I really liked it, but I’m really looking forward to seeing it when I’m not trying to get pictures/video of it.

So even though I’ve now seen it twice I don’t really think I can give a “review” of it. The first time I saw it was from our room at the Grand Californian, where we were off to the side and could see the fountains but could not see the mist screens (and the projections on them) at all.

The second time was at a dress rehearsal, when I was in the actual viewing area, but to be honest I watched most of it through the view finder on the video camera, so I really don’t feel like I experienced the show – I saw more of it when I watched the video after I got home than I did in person!

But I enjoyed what I saw, and I’m anxious to see it again. The scale of it is just enormous, and even from the viewing area you can’t actually see the whole thing at once – there are things going on in front of you, and things going on off to the side, too. And so much happening all at once that my brain just couldn’t process it all. For example, one thing I noticed on watching the video is at the end of the “UP” sequence: as the house pulled by its thousands of colorful balloons flies up out of sight there is one solitary “Mickey” balloon that floats under it.

A lot of what Disney has posted on-line has been computer generated images, so I have to say I was a little disappointed that the actual projections on the mist screens were not nearly as crisp and clear as I was expecting. But the projections add a lot to the experience, and the show was much better when I saw it from the front where I could see the projections than when I viewed it from the side with no projections.

But the fountains are amazing – there are so many of them, and they do so many different things, and in so many colors. They dance and play and sway and pop and seem to float in the air. I have to say that the ones that go really, really, high are just awesome. They put an exclamation point on certain sequences.

We got a lot of information on World of Color and things that we could expect to see in it last May, and then again at the D23 Expo in September. But a fair number of those things are actually not in the final version – like the Alice in Wonderland sequence with the paper sculpture animations and the “Little Squirt” fountain character. Some things that were added are characters from The Princess and the Frog – Tiana and Prince Naveen, and Dr. Facilier – the “balloon house” from UP and the Genie from Aladdin.

The music is terrific – selections from classic Disney animated movies as well as newer ones – Under the Sea, Friend Like Me, April Showers, and Night on Bald Mountain, just to name a few. Some very different arrangements of Part of Your World and April Showers. And of course there’s the signature “Wonderful World of Color” which opens and closes the show – and just a warning, it has serious earworm potential. 🙂

In addition to the projections on the mist screens, there are also projection domes that rise up out of the water, and images are projected on those – sometimes it’s a smaller (and clearer) version of what’s on the main water screen, and sometimes it’s completely different.

There are some light-hearted moments with Dory and Marlin, Wall-E, the Genie, and Buzz and Woody, and more touching moments with Mufasa and Simba, Belle and the Beast, and Wall-E and Eve.

The fire effects during the Pirates of the Caribbean sequence are really cool.

I was surprised to see lights on Mickey’s Fun Wheel at certain places in the show, but they serve to accent everything else that’s going on.

One of my favorite moments is towards the end, when the projection of Sorcerer Mickey seems to be conducting the fountains.

The finale is terrific, a reprise of Wonderful World of Color, where many of the characters we’ve seen throughout the show return, almost like they are taking a bow. But the real stars of this show are the fountains!

We’ll be posting a short video with highlights from World of Color to youtube tonight at 9:00 – you can either find it on the AllEars channel: http://youtube.com/allearsnet or keep an eye on the main page of AllEars where we will have a link to it.

World of Color Picnic Meals went on sale this morning at www.disneyland.com. I ordered ours for Saturday night – it was very quick and easy. If you’re an Annual Passholder and logged in to their site with your user name and password then you get a discount – $12.99 instead of $14.99. So it makes it an even better deal!

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