American Portrait

American Portrait is new this summer and I haven't heard much discussion about this new night show. Just thought I'd let everyone know I can tell by watching the Pagoda cam tonight that they are testing lighting for the show.

Why wouldn't they start the shows for Memorial weekend? I found it really in poor taste not to show the new show to the many Veterans that were in attendance. I love the fact that they do the show. I thought it would be nice to start it over this past weekend.

If I'm not mistaken, all of CP's night shows have started in June. I wouldn't get too worked up over it not starting Memorial Day.

Here are some pics from the Pagoda cam. Not much, but for sure a little look at the show testing.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/155/ap1copy.jpg/
http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/59/ap3copy.jpg/

It looked as if they were calibrating some of the lights around the time MF ride time ended on Thursday night. I noticed some very "American" video of kids eating watermelon or something like that too.

This show certainly was due for a refresh. I'm looking forward to checking it out at least once.

Has anyone been to the point yesterday or today and checked out the new show? Is it any better then Hot Summer Lights (I think that's what it was called)?

I saw the show from Millies line. Once again, its no Disney. Its about 4 minutes of video, followed by a 20-30 second firework display, then another 4 minute segment.

The video itself however I think is better. Even if I didn't hear the sound, just seeing that its actual humans on screen then the animations is an improvement.

Other than that, its just $30-50 dollars worth of fireworks stretched to 15 minutes again...

The show was good. However, I would not say it was better than hot summer lights. I think there are a little more fireworks than before. It is pretty much the same though. I still miss the lazer show. They could do better. I probably will not watch it again.

did they have fire water shooting up during the show? :)

I miss that stupid screen not being there blocking the train station.

no fire water

I can easily say that I was impressed with American Portrait. The above users don't give an accurate description of the show. There were a good amount of fireworks, multiple times where I thought the show was going to end in typical CF style but alas, it kept on going. The finalies were great and having the lights and the fireworks right near you made it truly amazing, but what really made it great was the video.

To me, the video was the most important part, and the biggest disappointment, of Hot Summer Lights. This year, I really felt like the video captured the essence of what the show was supposed to be about, and American Potrait did just that, painted a picture of America. If one of the Colombians would have came over and watched the show, I could happily say that they would understand what it means to be an American, even through the short 15 minute presentation.

All in all, American Portrait is a great addition, much better than Hot Summer Lights, and I'll be sure to check it out again the next time I visit the park.

I don't know if they have ever done this, but I think they did. If not, I have no idea why I would think they used to. Anyways, several employees should go around the park and take pictures of park guests, on a daily basis, and incorporate those pictures within the show on the same day.

And yes, bring back the lasers. Pure awesomeness.

Magic Kingdom and Disneyland both have nighttime shows this year called "The Magic, The Memories, and You!" featuring photos of guests in the park.

It's a nice show. It more of a patioitic show, no glitz or anything to get the crowd charged up. Lots of military video, families, sports and kids. Some fireworks, no firewater. It ended with patriotic Lee Greenwood and Kate Smith songs like Hot Summer Lights did. It is what the title says, an American portrait.

One small complaint is when they showed sports clips they had football, soccer and basketball. They had no baseball which is still the American pastime. They did not feature any specific teams as they did in HSL. Just kids playing sports and some generic high school football.

Yeah, I like the inidividual teams, that gets the crowd going. I have to disagree that baseball is America's pasttime, as football is overwhelmingly more popular nowadays, plus most baseball players aren't even American, it seems like.

I also can remember when Snoopy used to be out there dancing around. They need to bring this back.

For the 2009 season:

Major League Baseball attendance - 73,402,524
NBA attendance - 21,549,238
NHL attendance - 21,475,223
NFL attendance - 17,469,552

More people in more cities watch MLB than any other sport. The NFL happens to be last. I think it is certainly justified to call baseball America's pastime.

Breaking that down by average attendance per game (because I'm interested :))...
MLB (2430 games): 30,206.8
NBA (1230 games): 17,519.7
NHL (1230 games): 17,459.5
NFL (0256 games): 68,240.4

And yes, I realize I didn't include playoff games. :)

I was gonna do the same thing DJ. Its not really comparable when a baseball team plays 160 some games and a football team plays 15+.

The clip-art-type graphics and animations in the show are extremely amateur-ish. I find it hard to believe that in this day and age, especially with a major sponsor like Marathon, that they couldn't have done better with the video, patriotic or not.

And that section where Abe Lincoln comes in with a James Earl Jones voice over is extremely bizarre and basically grinds the show to a halt.

At the end, Kate Smith needs to go. Just when you think the show is over, the ol' bag starts singing and people don't really know what to do - do I leave? Do I stay? Do I sing? Awkward!

But hey - the fireworks are much, much better!