FastPassed it last night, so got to see the show 1.5 times in person. Tl; dr: a few interesting elements that may have worked elsewhere but sum of the parts deeply flawed.
First off, crowd control is bad. Tape boxes on the ground at any location where you might see a piece of the show without a golden wristband/FP. Reminded me of the "homeless boxes" they had a few years ago downtown. Tacky AF.
I showed up when my FP said I could--45 minutes prior to showtime. The theater already had many dozens of people. So realistically, with exit crowds, even with a FP you're looking at a 75 - 90 minute chunk of your day. That said, a lot of FP guests must have bailed, because FP theater was far from full--probably not even 90%. But with standby on the other side of the park, they didn't have a line of standby guests ready to go at 7. People dribbed and drabbed into the theater for the next 20 minutes (yes, 5 minutes into a 12 minute show they were still trying to sit late-comers, annoyingly). Never achieved anywhere near 100% capacity--only way I see them doing that is starting load earlier. So even more time spent on this.
The preshow is incredibly boring. Just the lilypads moving into place and an occasional, hard-to-see projection on the trees in the back. It feels like it's supposed to be a part of the show, tho, so already the crowd is getting antsy.
As for the show itself, I didn't mind the boats. A little sparse with just 2 actors aboard each, but they did fine. My favorite moment of the show involves the boats.
A tiger shadow puppet on the sale turns into an animated tiger, then jumps off the sale onto the big water screen.
It was the only moment in the show that made me gasp.
The animal floats are the clear stars of the show--unfortunately they are just do a cameo appearance. They have zero relevance to the non-plot. Float out, disappear, re-appear to change colors in the finale. If there were more of them, they could make for a very cool updated Electric Water Pageant, either here or Seven Seas Lagoon. But wasted in this show.
The projections are horrible. Couldn't identify what half the animals were supposed to be. I've not seen WoC in person, but both Cinematic Spectacular and Poseidon's Fury 20 years ago managed to do much cleaner, crisper graphics on a water screen. Meant to be the focus of the show, but don't deliver on the level they need to.
There is no plot, no semblance of story. The music is ... not my speed. Basically a world beat remix of illuminations, sounds like something your hipster 5th grade music teacher would come up with for Multicultural Awareness Day. Or maybe a Kidz Bob take on Ladysmith Black Mambazo
. The dialogue is ponderous. Borders on parody. Pacing is off, the show feels longer than it is. And they left in the line at the end re: "stars" that was clearly intended to introduce the drones--now it kind of just hangs there, an anti-climax.
The fountains and fire effects are striking. They'd work really well in the Sea World or EPCOT lagoons as part of a once-an-hour show you just sort of stop walking by and watch. Would work even better with fireworks. But you don't wait an hour to see just fountains and a fire tower.
As has been reported, the first show stopped halfway through. As soon as they announced there would be a 15 - 20 minute delay, a third of the FP theater got up and left. Mostly people with little kids. To me, that's the most honest review you'll see.