There is a new 360-degree Circle Vision film at EPCOT's Canadian Pavilion but unlike the new pavilion surroundings, Canada Far and Wide is not worth checking out.
Oh, Canada! There is so much beauty in the Great White North. There are so many cultures to showcase, and so many talents, and yet, the new 360-degree film highlights almost none of it.
Narrated by Catharine O'Hara and Eugene Levy, Far and Wide is a massive miss. Frankly, not a single part of the short film makes me want to visit the country and that is terribly sad because for many Americans, Canada is easily accessible.
There is too much focus on the major cities of Toronto and Calgary and, well, honestly, I don't even remember the other cities that were shown. The 360-degree screen isn't a single panoramic view but instead, each of the nine screens tends to show different images all the time. That means as you focus your attention on the screens you can see, you are missing the ones behind you.
When you turn to check those out, they change, as do the ones in front of you. I found myself constantly turning in circles and missing everything, connecting to nothing.
Lost in it all was the lack of connection to the vast communities that make Canada what it is. As the film takes you through the nine regions of the country, you connect with none of them because the transitions from one to another are hardly noticed.
The narration wants to be cute and funny but it becomes quite boring and you almost long for the narration of the previous shows Martin Short. The tag-team duo of O'Hara and Levy is more confusing than anything else.
While other World Showcase films show their large cities, they tend to concentrate on the ground level of those cities, Far and Wide takes a higher view, and honestly, by the time you see a second city, it looks like one you already saw, in fact, some of the transitions from one region to another seems like the same shot you were introduced to in the previous region.
Where are the coastal communities and mountain towns that are vast and beautiful? The opening of the show, which is 12 minutes long, promises you a journey through one of the most diverse countries in the world yet we hardly get a glimpse of any of it.
When the narrators talk about the French influences that make Quebec so special, we never learn why France has influenced this region so much, and just as we are starting to get a feel for that city, off we go to another.
There is a desert in Canada, who knew? You still won't know anything about it because they don't tell you anything more than the fact they have one or why it is considered a desert despite the green vegetation that the film shows.
Overall, it's a mess and unlike other shows of a similar nature throughout World Showcase, guests were exiting the doors before the film concluded. Something I did not see at the other two.
If you are hoping to learn something here, you won't. The best part of the show is the panoramic view of the forest that you are greeted with. Of course, maybe the entire thing is designed to make you come back and watch what you missed behind you, or in front of you when you turned around. Then again, you may not want to spend 12 minutes of your day watching it.
On the upside, it's out of the sun.