I LOVE Wishes with all my heart. I've seen it more times than I can count. It's always been my favorite way to end a day at the Magic Kingdom (other than Spectromagic, of course, but that's another discussion...). Every time I watched Wishes, I would be in tears. I would leave the park feeling like I'd rolled in pixie dust.
In short, Happily Ever After did not impress me. I don't find it inspiring. I almost find it annoying, to be completely honest. I'm willing to give it another shot, but there were so many issues.
I loved how Wishes left so much to your imagination (understanding also that the technology was not there at the time the show was created). It was fun to just have the fireworks and the colors on the castle to represent the stories. When the Genie says "hello people! Up here!" you can really imagine him in the sky above the castle. The fireworks also compliment the music perfectly and are more noticeable without the castle being the main focus of the show. Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with projections (they work really well in for Star Wars: Galactic Spectacular at Hollywood Studios), but I don't think they worked here.
Wishes also utilized far less Disney characters than Happily Ever After does. The amount of characters (and particular characters) that appear in Happily Ever After make the show feel like a gimmick. It's a way to stuff as many Disney characters in one place as possible. There were not as many characters available when Wishes was created, but even then, there are only a handful that are heard in the show. I liked that Wishes was understated in so many ways (even if there was a spectacular grand finale at the end). Simplicity is definitely an art.
Another issue I have is the music. Happily Ever After doesn't sound like Disney. It sounds like a (hastily written) pop song that was stuck in to make the show more relevant. I will give HEA some props for including Tarzan and Tangled, because I love all those soundtracks (side note:
Disneyland's Fantasmic now includes Tangled and it's AWESOME). Wishes utilized classic Disney songs that all blend seamlessly together with an arrangement a nursery rhyme that we all know and love. Wishes sounds like Disney. Happily Ever After doesn't.
Lastly, if something isn't broken, don't fix it. Wishes could have run at least another 5 or 6 years without needing to be updated. I would have thought that they would wait until the 50th to create a new fireworks show specially for that year. Maybe they still will and we won't have to deal with HEA much longer.
This show will not be on my "must do" list for my upcoming trips. I'll get some extra rides in while everyone else is occupied!
PS-with all the characters that were crammed into HEA, where was Beauty and the Beast?