To start, I actually love the new pre-show more than the old one. Patrick Warburton is back, but beforehand is an Indiana Jones-style map with a red line tracing from destination to destination across the world. It's accompanied by a very newsreel sounding rendition of the Soarin' theme that I freaking love. One small detail I miss is the airline ding when Patrick starts his spiel.
The movie itself is lovely, of course. My favorite scenes are the Matterhorn, Sydney, Neuschwanstein Castle, the Great Wall, Paris, and (of course) EPCOT. None of the CGI was bad as I had feared EXCEPT the entire Taj Mahal scene is so fake it is incredibly distracting. I personally find the transitions completely unnecessary. I also think the pacing isn't anywhere near as good as before, especially towards the end. The California film had a sense of acceleration and crescendo as it reaches the finale, and climaxes perfectly, but this one fell kind of flat. The pacing is especially apparent if you pay attention to the score, whereas the Jerry Goldsmith score flows perfectly, this new Bruce Broughton score kind of emphasizes how disjointed it is. He did a fantastic job adapting the Soarin' theme and doing his own thing with it. Again, not as good as Goldsmith's score, but I can't wait for Disney to release the new track so I can give it a few good in-depth listens. The new smells are completely uninspiring, nothing that really hits you like the pine, orange, and ocean scents did before. I did notice that the smells are MUCH stronger in Concourse C (the new third theater).
One thing that kind of sticks in my craw about the film is the EPCOT finale. It's in the complete opposite direction from what would seem logical. It just seems like it would be perfect to fly right over or around Spaceship Earth revealing the park behind it and ending with the IllumiNations fireworks over World Showcase... an all-too-fitting ending for Soarin' Around the World. But instead, you come flying from the middle of the park towards and over Spaceship Earth, ending over the freaking parking lot, and you never even see World Showcase at all! Just seems like a very strange creative decision to me, made all the more stranger by how incredibly they improved the Disneyland finale by leaps and bounds. Everything is very well lit and vivid and bright in the new Disneyland finale, but EPCOT looks a bit dark, dim, and dull somehow. Also kind of annoyed by Tinker Bell, doesn't really jive with the park, would have been a great opportunity to use Figment, but modern Disney being what it is I'm not at all surprised by it.
We'll miss you, Kronk.
