I would have accepted anyone new as the narrator, although I think Astin did a fantastic job.
However, Whoopi was breathy, melodramatic, and talked like it was written for 6 year old kids. The previous seasons that Astin did had some melodrama, but not like this. It seemed like every other sentence was about Flower's destiny and how the entire continent knew Flower would be the one. It was just too over the top for me.
The scenery was wonderful, the footage was great, and 2 thumbs up for the meerkat actors...
However, if the Next Gen season coming up is written like this one was, I will remove it from my Tivo list.