YMMV / Wondrous Journeys

• Awesome Music:
  • "It's Wondrous" can drive a fan to tears, especially as a Triumphant Reprise.
  • The "I Want" Song mash-up impressed enough viewers to generate demand for an official release.
• Harsher in Hindsight: In the last line of spoken dialogue, the narrator of the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh-inspired segment predicts, "I, for one, think what comes next will be wondrous." From the perspective of the January 2023 premiere, what would come next for the Disney Animated Canon was the release of Wish (2023), which opened to underwhelming critical and audience reception.
• Just Here for Godzilla: Fans of any of the Disney Animated Canon's most obscure movies might get a thrill out of seeing it earn its most prominent Disneyland appearance in years, if not in its entire lifetime.
• Special Effect Failure: The projection mapping for the Fantasmic! stage fails to give it a ruined appearance at the Darkest Hour.
• Spiritual Successor: Fans of both of the American Disney Theme Parks could detect an influence from Walt Disney World's Happily Ever After, which previously arranged over 10 minutes of inspirational music, projections, and fireworks around an emotional arc.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Considering Asha was created especially to help celebrate Disney100, it seemed surprising that she only appeared as a still projection on Main Street, USA; overshadowed by the Blue Fairy's flight over Sleeping Beauty Castle, and completely missed by people watching far away from Main Street. Even taking into account Wish's unpopular theatrical release, it feels remarkable that whoever decided whom to project onto the castle would choose Chicken Little, among others, over Asha.
• Too Good to Last: The original run only lasted eight months, ending well before the exact date of the Disney company's 100th anniversary, while the 2024 revival lasted for shorter than one month. Even after Disney100, some Disneyland fans wish that Wondrous Journeys and Fantasmic! would become the park's default nighttime spectaculars, even if off-season performances of the former consisted only of the projections and music.
• Unexpected Character: Wondrous Journeys occasionally makes some surprising choices at whom to put in the spotlight, such as Jim Hawkins and John Silver introducing the "Immortals" number.
• Win Back the Crowd: Compared to Disneyland's previous nighttime spectacular, Mickey's Mix Magic, and the spectaculars unveiled during Walt Disney World's 50th anniversary, Disney Enchantment and Harmonious, Wondrous Journeys earned stronger praise for its emotionally-impactful structure and stimulating coverage of Disney history.