Within the Disney community, the buzz on the unnamed Avatar Land, also known in the film as Pandora, at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (DAK) is lackluster at best. Perhaps just reading this article’s title had you groaning and shifting uncomfortably in your seat. Perhaps you had to guiltily hide that framed photo of Uncle Walt in your desk drawer before clicking this link.
But Avatar Land? Do we really need an Avatar Land?
Although not slated to open until 2017, Avatar Land is bringing just about every opinion to the Disney dinner table; some folks don’t like the film, some don’t think it has potential as a theme park land, a few really like it, and some just don’t understand why Disney would want a non-Disney film in the parks (I will get to that in a second). I was a skeptic when the project was first announced, too, but I have decided to take a stance on the positive aspects.
With that in mind, here is a countdown featuring ten reasons that Disney fans should look forward to Pandora aka Avatar Land (even if they haven’t seen the film):
10. Success of other non-Disney attractions – A few folks I’ve talked to about Avatar Land coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom state in awe, “Wow! I didn’t know Avatar was a Disney film!” Well, it’s not. It’s a little something called a “contractual agreement.” For those who say that Pandora and Avatar have no place in a Disney theme park, they should consider the following attractions: American Idol Experience, Star Tours, Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and even Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. These attractions had aspects that were not Disney (some are now), and they were all successful franchises, series, or names before coming here.
With only one film, Avatar has won three academy awards, was the first film to gross over $2 billion worldwide, and still holds the top place for the domestic box office record at over $760 million. Don’t think Avatar Land can bring in money. Disney did so the execs said, “Let’s make a theme park attraction!”
9. Avatar will be a tetralogy– “But this film came out in 2009…Why are they building a major land that won’t be completed until 2017?” Hollywood, baby! Expect three more Avatar sequels that, according to iMDB.com, are slated to open 2016, 2017, and 2018, respectively. Perhaps the hope here is that a huge blockbuster success with a combined theme park destination will bring in the big bucks. Hmm, that sounds like déjà vu down I-Drive…
8. Pandora has a gorgeous environment – For those who have not seen the film, the clip below gives you a great idea of the environment that Imagineers will be creating. The floating mountains, the Tree of Souls, and the bioluminescent waters are absolutely stunning. It’s surprising how natural most of the landscape is, albeit being from a different planet. You can see how all this with Avatar Land would complement DAK:
Many of you may remember the Discovery River Boats that took Guests past mythical dragon ruins, or the fact that the park entrance still has a dragon’s head as one of the statues above the ticket booths. Pandora will bring new creatures such as direhorses, banshees, viperwolves, and woodsprites, all of which are very colorful, magical, and diverse. A full list of Pandora’s creatures can be found here, and a lot of these will likely show up in Avatar Land.
6. James Cameron is pretty excited – Director James Cameron is fully on-board with this project, and has previously been seen milling about the park with Imagineer Joe Rohde. Known for several cinematic and technological masterpieces, Cameron has produced and directed several hit films, including Titanic and the Terminator films. In a recent interview, Cameron gave some unofficial insight as to what fans can expect for the opening of what he calls “Pandora: Land of Avatar.”
5. New attractions to make Guests happy – DAK currently houses seven theme park “rides” and four shows, with the rest of the attractions being trails or animal exhibits. It can be arguably said that the park only has two E-ticket attractions: Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris. Pandora would bring with it at least 2-3 new attractions, with at least one new E-ticket. Remember the community response to Disney’s multi-billion dollar MagicBands: We want more attractions!
Well, Avatar Land can bring them!
4. Pandora (Avatar Land) will turn DAK into a full day park – Following suit here, some Guests claim that DAK is only a half-day park. Perhaps they only do the main attractions, like Kilimanjaro Safaris, Everest, Dinosaur, and only one or two of the shows, while skipping many of the animal exhibits altogether. Pandora will be its own land, adding to the Oasis, Discovery Island, Dinoland USA, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, Africa and Asia sections of the park. Director James Cameron claims this will be a place you can “hang out.” In addition to new attractions, we can probably expect food, merchandise and plenty of room to chill in your ten-foot avatar (am I right)?
3. The land will fit with DAK’s message of conservation – Avatar centers on the struggle between the Na’vi, their land, and the humans. Set in the 22nd century, humans infiltrate the Pandora moon, mining the precious mineral, unobtanium. The Na’vi and their land are in danger because of the humans and their ruthless tactics used to acquire the unobtanium, which include military warfare and forest fires.
Jake Sully, the main protagonist, wants to save the Na’vi and protect their land. Conservation is a main theme at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Kali River Rapids, Rafiki’s Planet Watch, and Kilimanjaro Safaris are three of the main attractions that showcase conservation, but it can be argued that every attraction at DAK teaches it to an extent. That is exactly what Avatar Land plans to do.
2. Rumored ultra-sophisticated AAs – Director James Cameron claims that the new Na’vi audio animatronics will be state-of-the-art. This is easy to believe because of the Disney idea of “plussing,” which essentially means that the Imagineers are always trying to outdo themselves in terms of creativity, authenticity and technology (just check out those cool new facial projections on our friends over at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train)! We can expect some pretty fascinating technology to come out of Pandora. Cameron claims:
The animatronics for the Na’vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they’ve ever done was 32 axis recently. I think they’re up to 64 just in the face of the Na’vi characters. So it’s gonna be remarkable. They really see it as a major, major attraction.
1. Imagineer Joe Rohde is awesome (Doctor Disney’s note: I agree with this 1000000%)– Joe Rohde was the leading Imagineer for the look and design of Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Fans of the Expedition Everest attraction know that he was the creative force behind the attraction and that he designed most of the detail-oriented work.
Rohde is all about authenticity and story. Just check out the queue for Everest and many of the details inside the ride, such as the shrine and the Yeti. Rohde has led several hands-on field trips to Everest and Asia for Imagineers to study. And what about the authenticity for a science-fiction fantasy film? Rohde claims to have gone to Pandora himself, using an avatar and all. If Rohde is excited, then so am I:
I think this sounds cool and from seeing the movie I bet whatever Disney puts together will be amazing. I hadn’t heard about it until your article. Sounds like another place for me to take more pictures of fake animals than then real ones. Haha.