Avatar land coming to Animal Kingdom!!

[max'sdad]

One thing that gave me pause is how much this would appeal to kids. I won't let my 9-year-old see it - too much violence and profanity.

However, I must say that something amazing will probably come from Disney Imagineers working with James Cameron.

I recall seeing the documentary on the making of "The Abyss," which is still my favorite Cameron movie. It's amazing the lengths he went to capture his vision - what went into building an underwater set, and filming underwater, not to mention directing. They showed how he would spend whole days underwater directing, and then would have to go through decompression so he didn't get the bends. The actors talked about how it was the most difficult shoot they had ever been involved in.

I have no doubt that Cameron will push Imagineers beyond any of our expectations. I think that's enough to make me excited about seeing what they'll come up with.

 

[Anjelica]

You're right we are not visionaries or imagineers but we are PAYING guest who have dislikes and likes and when you are a customer based industry, you get customer who get to say what they think about your ideas.

And let's not act like disney has never laid an egg before. Can we say the godawful Captain EO or the equally as horrible "Stitch".

I totally forgot about that "mistake" Captain EO. I had the luxury of seeing this during our past trip as I was "mis-fortunate" enough to miss it the first time it was around. There is 15 minutes of my life gone.......

 

[LPZ_Stitch!]

I come down on the positive side of this. I think Disney will be able to do amazing things with Pandora.

I'll grant you that the first Avatar movie was basically just Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves or Ferngully set in a sci-fi world ... but what a world!

The plot and specifc main characters might have been forgettable, but the world itself is not. The Navi are instantly recognizable as are most of the very cool (and internally "consistent") creatures.

I'd absolutely love to see a walkthrough, like the Pangoni Forest or Maharaja Jungle Trek, but through Pandora landscapes! That would be amazing!

A very cool ride would be simulating the Avatar-effect; going from a sterile and sci-fi "hospital/lab" setting and then suddenly leaping and flying through the terrain of Pandora ... maybe a little like Dinosaur!

And, the internal message of Avatar is completely consistent with the message of AK.

 

[eliza61]

I totally forgot about that "mistake" Captain EO. I had the luxury of seeing this during our past trip as I was "mis-fortunate" enough to miss it the first time it was around. There is 15 minutes of my life gone.......

LOL. I'm harsher than that, I think they should have given fastpasses to anyone who wasted the time to see that thing!!

 

[wasabi girl]

I'm not even a rabid LOTR fan, but I've read the trilogy and The Hobbit and really enjoyed the movies. From a lasting impact, LOTR has a much more robust fanbase and will continue for decades to come. With all the appendicies in the books, Middle Earth is a much more realized work than Pandora, and woul probably fit in much better to a Beastly Kingdom theme. And a collaboration with Peter Jackson and WETA would be just as great as a Cameron / Digital Domain venture.

I just think WDI has gotten stale over the years. I'm not sure why ... maybe budget and timetable constraints? But it seems like all the new projects just aren't busting the envelope on ride technology. Toy Story added 3D to the Buzz Lightyear formula ... The new Star Tours adds 3D the old Star Tours ... the new 7 dwarves coaster maybe adds an interesting car concept to the Big Thunder idea and the Little mermaid is just another dark ride ... none of these new rides have a huge wow factor. Sure they're fun, but they're not revolutionary. Even Everest is just a plussed Big Thunder, and the Yeti that makes it cool is busted. Where is the next Mission:Space or Tower of Terror?

While I'm not a huge fan of AVATAR or Pandora, this is where I'm excitied about Cameron's involvement. I hope he somehow has a lot of pull in the development of the attractions. I want someone who has the guts to push WDI to develop new technologies that could create entirely new experiences for the park goers ... not just add 3D, or make a bigger form of an existing attraction.

Three visionary filmakers I always wanted to callaborate with WDI - James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Guillermo del Toro. Disney has snagged one of them, and now lets see what they can do!

I agree.
I hope it works out to be a better collaboration than it would appear. I've never quite gotten all the hype of Toy Story Mania either, it isn't really that fabulous of an attraction, nothing especially new or groundbreaking...hopefully whatever they do will focus on the idea of a new world and not on the story, and please don't give us a themed play area, a meet and greet, and a simulator...please make it better than I can imagine...

 

[ToddRN]

Ok, I am fine with them doing an Avatar land in Animal Kingdom (my least favorite park by far, it needs some new content!). But if you are going to build an entire land based on Avatar, where the heck are my Indiana Jones and Star Wars lands?

I like your thinking!!!

Spend money to license rights to build a Star Wars land and people will flock in thousands!

Yup!

I am happy to see them do anything with that garbage park. I didn't even like Avatar but Animal Kingdom can't get much more lame. Its a zoo with a roller coaster and a dinosaur carnival. I think as long as it doesn't go in Epcot or Magic Kingdom I'm fine with it.

Very good insight!!!!! I live in Omaha, and the Zoo here is far superior to the "zoo" experience at AK... Just not excited about bringing in Avatar.

Avatar seriously? That's horrible. How about a Cars land at DHS then it will get interesting.

Yeah, why not bring some of what's going on at Disneyland to Disney World? And there is SO MUCH of the Pixar genre which could be incorporated as well, which has real "Disney" roots!!!!

 

[KellyNY]

My God, this thread. I may pretty this up later, but for now here's the quick-and-dirty three minutes in P-shop edition (he lost his tail in... um... The War.):

So... things that happened since last time:

And why she is not wearing bra, she must be from Europe.

 

[Babbletrish]

And let's not act like disney has never laid an egg before. Can we say the godawful Captain EO

You do know "EO" is an older attraction that got brought back, right? Shall I point out the irony of Disney fans complaining when Disney takes a step towards making Journey Into Imagination more like it was when they were little? I mean, we've already spent most of the thread complaining about Disney actually giving us something new.

 

[Babbletrish]

And why she is not wearing bra, she must be from Europe.

She?

I... may be done with this thread (at least for now), but before I go let me have two Disney stars comment on my behalf on one other thing I saw mentioned here and there and forgot to comment on:

Not-sarcastic wishes for a Twilight theme park

No. Just... no.

 

[ScoJo15]

Jim Hill posted an article that gives some background on how this project came to be and a little bit about what the vision is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/avatar-park_b_973615.html

 

[Buffalo2Disney]

Its gonna be funny when this opens up at Disney and it has some E-Ticket ride that features brand new technology yet to be seen in a ride before and the wait times are as long or longer than TSM ... then we will see if people still hate this idea.

 

[absolutepunt]

for those who are bringing up lord of the rings:

"The ultimate irony to the Disney-Tolkien scenario is that Tolkien simply despised Disney's interpretations of fairy tales and fantasy literature. In a letter from 1937 that discussed illustrations for an American publication of The Hobbit, Tolkien stated the he would " . . .veto anything from or influenced by the Disney Studios (for all whose works I have a heartfelt loathing)." In later years, Tolkien would continue to hold in contempt anything he perceived as Disney-fied, and seemed to make it quite clear he would never grant Disney rights to any of his literary properties. But, it could be said that the Disney Company in fact had the last laugh in the matter, albeit briefly, when the film rights to The Lord of the Rings were held by Disney subsidiary Miramax for a short period of time in the 1990s."

 

[Wadecool]

I don't know if Cameron is any less of a control freak than Lucas... but yes, there could be any number of reasons why they can't/won't/don't build a Star Wars Land up to and including the simple inability to hammer out a bigger deal with Lucas.

In any case, it's almost certainly not as simple as "they should've just built Star Wars Land instead" as seem people seem to argue.

I guess we can gauge that on how often Cameron changes Avatar over the next 30 years. If Lucas keeps it up, it won't be long before Darth Vader says "Come here son!" and gives Luke a warm embrace at the end of Return of the Jedi.

 

[DCTooTall]

You're right we are not visionaries or imagineers but we are PAYING guest who have dislikes and likes and when you are a customer based industry, you get customer who get to say what they think about your ideas.

And let's not act like disney has never laid an egg before. Can we say the godawful Captain EO or the equally as horrible "Stitch".

I don't understand why if we don't like a particular idea all of a sudden we're "haters". Why is it that if you don't partiuclar agree with evey thing disney does all of a sudden we're "complainers, negative, have no faith or uniformed".

Um... To be fair... Captain EO was a ground breaking attraction when it was first released, and an INCREDIBLE improvement over what it replaced. It's only now, with the revival, that people are questioning it.... and that i think is only because 1. it seems incredibly dated these days, and 2. it replaced a show (also quite dated) that had been in place for over 15yrs so there are a large population of guests who are nostalgic for HISTA and don't understand why they replaced it with something w/ MJ.

As for Stitch.... I miss Alien extraTERRORestrial. See what happens when guests complain? We lose a great attraction to get a subpar one.

You do know "EO" is an older attraction that got brought back, right? Shall I point out the irony of Disney fans complaining when Disney takes a step towards making Journey Into Imagination more like it was when they were little? I mean, we've already spent most of the thread complaining about Disney actually giving us something new.

Also worth noting, I do believe EO was the first of the "4D" attractions, and is therefor the predecessor of HISTA, Muppets 4D, PhilHarMagic, ITTBAB, etc.

The "Magic Eye Theater" originally brought us Magic Journeys, which pioneered the 3D film experience (and cameras) that pretty much all 3D films since and even modern cinematic 3D camera's are descended from.

EO took that film technology, and was the first to add synchronized effects in the Theater, such as the lasers shooting across the theater.


When people complain about the film being dated or a mistake, they seldom realize that so much of what the film introduced and was cutting edge at the time from a technical standpoint, is pretty much taken for granted today.


Honestly, in a way, I'm glad it's back. It's not often you get a chance to go back and experience a Disney attraction that was such an innovation in it's time. (like say... Flight to the Moon, Adventures in Inner Space, etc).

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Jim Hill posted an article that gives some background on how this project came to be and a little bit about what the vision is:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-hill/avatar-park_b_973615.html

that is a good read and definitely what I was hoping the vision was _> utilize Disney imagineering to bring people to the world that Cameron created ....

... not just a Voyage of the Na'vi ride and some blue icing covered mickey rice krispy treats

 

[Yubbie]

If Walt Disney himself came back from the dead and posted his own grand idea for new attractions, there would still be a whole hoard of whiners and moaners on this board, saying how much they, "DON"T LIKE IT", "HATE IT", "THIS IDEA IS RUINING MY MAGICAL DAY".

 

[DCTooTall]

that is a good read and definitely what I was hoping the vision was _> utilize Disney imagineering to bring people to the world that Cameron created ....

... not just a Voyage of the Na'vi ride and some blue icing covered mickey rice krispy treats

One of the things I read that REALLY got me thinking and excited.... The mention of projections and holography to help you become immersed in the world of Pandora.

Think about it.... Imagine using the technology of the Magic Memories and Me Castle show at the MK as a general after dark atmosphere tool to bring the world of Pandora after dark to life! That could be EXTREMELY impressive!

 

[morethananyonex]

Why do people feel the need to get so defensive when people don't act like every single idea out of Disney is the most amazing pixie dusted covered ball of awesomeness they've ever seen?

Seriously, people are allowed opinions ranging from the above to the exact opposite.

 

[JimmyV]

Why do people feel the need to get so defensive when people don't act like every single idea out of Disney is the most amazing pixie dusted covered ball of awesomeness they've ever seen?

Seriously, people are allowed opinions ranging from the above to the exact opposite.

Of course people are entitled to have (well-reasoned) opinions. But it is hard not to get defensive when so many people say (in not these exact words, but the meaning is clear): "I haven't seen the movie. I won't see the movie. It's left-wing pro-environmental crap. And I am miffed that Disney would ever consider incorporating it into any of its parks." Pretty hard not to strike back against such sentiments. If you've seen the movie and don't share the vision for a ride or two and a gift shop, more power to you. But if you haven't seen the movie, it is hard to come out so strongly against the new proposal.

 

[Babbletrish]

Ah, it keeps sucking me in, LOL!

Many words RE: "Captain EO".

Thanks for this. Couldn't have said it better myself.

If Walt Disney himself came back from the dead and posted his own grand idea for new attractions, there would still be a whole hoard of whiners and moaners on this board, saying how much they, "DON"T LIKE IT", "HATE IT", "THIS IDEA IS RUINING MY MAGICAL DAY".

Soooooo much this. Do I have to post it again? I think I do (if for no other reason than I went in a fixed a few things):

Why do people feel the need to get so defensive when people don't act like every single idea out of Disney is the most amazing pixie dusted covered ball of awesomeness they've ever seen?

It isn't that so much (and goodness knows I myself thought that many of Disney's ideas through the years were terrible). It's the vitriol. Go through the thread and you'll notice that reasonable arguments as to why this may not be the best course of action for WDW or AK are so very far outnumbered by "I HATE THE IDEA SO MUCH I HATE IT EVEN THOUGH WE DON'T EVEN KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT IT I HATE THE MOVIE TOO NO I DIDN'T SEE IT I STILL HATE IT ANYWAY I HATE EVERYTHING NEW HATE HATE HATE!!!"