Is it normal for the concept art to properly portray almost exactly what the final product will look like? I feel like that doesn't happen often lately. I'm glad Universal finally has a show with proper fireworks!
The berm was in the fly through renders. I think it was maybe intended to block something outside the park, maybe the Orlando Eye? Would have to see the view from the ground to be sure though.
Referring to this brief moment? It was brief so I missed it. I think it served more as a placeholder than what the final product would have looked like.
I say that is because there was that berm closer to the carousel which had a similar design in the preview video however when it came to building things out in the park it appeared they had a different plan when they constructed the weird half-circle cement structures sometime between June and August 2024. Those were eventually taken down and replaced with what's there now, which is just some trees and plants sans berm. (Best picture I could find right now from earlier.)
I suspect this structure was going to be more functional as I believe the white dots and squiggles were going to be some kind of lighting effect similar to the ones seen on the facade of the Blue Dragon restaurant. Out of everything else in the preview videos, these two area stuck out
because they were so plain-looking so I assumed there had to be more to them than what was originally shown.
The Orlando Eye is located directly west of the retention pond behind Helios so it wasn't meant to block sight lines for that; Stardust Racers and HTTYD are in the direction of the berm when looking from the carousel and I'm fairly certain those block view from outside the park already. I can't think of anything else that they may be trying to block sights from if that was Universal's intention.
Like I said before, this is one area I find particularly interesting because of how it started and what it became. Nearly everything else in the park has been built as expected from the concept art, so this is one of those mysteries that may never be solved (publicly at least).
There's definitely going to be a good side of the fountain and a bad side of the fountain to watch the show from.
I don't think it'll be that bad because even if you have your back to Helios you're still getting fireworks on the left or right. That may be exactly why they're launching fireworks from the side, so you won't miss out on that part of the show. Now if Helios plays a part in the show through something like projection mapping, then yes having your back to it might be considered a bad spot instead of less than ideal.