Avatar Land First Look

[lazyboy97O]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

So all we need is a Pandora mueseum and a little age and then we are good? To me realy there isn't a difference. But again I am for this project and have been so of course I feel that way. I really believe this land fits into DAK and I think it will be a awesome experience.

What culture considered Pandora to be a very real part of their interactions with their world?

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Wouldn't the same child need a reference to the imaginary dragon or unicorn though. Without seeing one in a book or on tv I would need reference to these imagined creatures.

The point is, there's no right or wrong way to draw a unicorn or dragon.

They can be fat or skinny or whatever color you want them to be.

Avatar presents very specific characters from a single movie that were especially created for that story. They're not icons.

[CaliforniaAdventurer]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

What culture considered Pandora to be a very real part of their interactions with their world?

The fan culture that developed after the movie hit the big screen?

:lol:

[biggsworth]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

What culture considered Pandora to be a very real part of their interactions with their world?

You're right no where but don't all stories start somewhere and then get re-told?

The point is, there's no right or wrong way to draw a unicorn or dragon.

They can be fat or skinny or whatever color you want them to be.

Avatar presents very specific characters from a single movie that were especially created for that story. They're not icons.

There is no right or wrong IMO of what imginary animals belong in DAK Dragons, Unicorns, or Banshees

The fan culture that developed after the movie hit the big screen?

:lol:

No matter how many ways people try to discredit the box office success worldwide there is obviously a fanbase. At Comic Con this year there were still plenty of Na'Vi running around. is it more than Star Wars no way but it's just the start IMO.

[lazyboy97O]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

You're right no where but don't all stories start somewhere and then get re-told?

Retelling is not the point. It is about how and why those stories were used. Despite never existing, yetis and dragons are/were a real part of life. That integration with culture and life has nothing to do with being old or being retold or box office.

There is no right or wrong IMO of what imginary animals belong in DAK Dragons, Unicorns, or Banshees

Then what makes the park distinct? Captain EO features a crew of aliens, would it fit inside the Tree of Life? He brings a message of hope for the future and that's a significant component of conservations, because we can change the world. Star Wars has lots of creatures. Monstropolis would be full of imaginary creatures as well as having a parallel with their energy issues. Smurfs are animals and right now as I type this the page has a "Experience the Wonders of the Forest!" ad with Papa Smurf and Smurfette. How about Frozen and its ice creatures?

[biggsworth]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Retelling is not the point. It is about how and why those stories were used. Despite never existing, yetis and dragons are/were a real part of life. That integration with culture and life has nothing to do with being old or being retold or box office.


Then what makes the park distinct? Captain EO features a crew of aliens, would it fit inside the Tree of Life? He brings a message of hope for the future and that's a significant component of conservations, because we can change the world. Star Wars has lots of creatures. Monstropolis would be full of imaginary creatures as well as having a parallel with their energy issues. Smurfs are animals and right now as I type this the page has a "Experience the Wonders of the Forest!" ad with Papa Smurf and Smurfette. How about Frozen and its ice creatures?

Well i don't know what to tell you but to me all the parks offer unique experiences. They are all imagined IMO. To me an obviously Disney the way the Na'Vi connect with nature and their planet coincides with how we do.

When i watch Avatar I can see this conenction and out of all the Disney parks it only makes sense in DAK and will hopefully be unique to just DAK. Pandora thematically fits into DAK way better than any of the mentioned above franchises. From Star Wars you could pick out different planents from the universe but do their races cherish their planets like the Na'Vi do? Maybe the Wookiees which I would be all for as well. Anyone have objections to Kashyyyk being built in DAK?

[Mr Wiggins]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Retelling is not the point. It is about how and why those stories were used. Despite never existing, yetis and dragons are/were a real part of life. That integration with culture and life has nothing to do with being old or being retold or box office.


Then what makes the park distinct? Captain EO features a crew of aliens, would it fit inside the Tree of Life? He brings a message of hope for the future and that's a significant component of conservations, because we can change the world. Star Wars has lots of creatures. Monstropolis would be full of imaginary creatures as well as having a parallel with their energy issues. Smurfs are animals and right now as I type this the page has a "Experience the Wonders of the Forest!" ad with Papa Smurf and Smurfette. How about Frozen and its ice creatures?

Yep. For Avatarland to exist in DAK, Disney will have to completely discard the common thematic element that binds DAK together, namely, that the real and mythical animals are all of the Earth -- be it the natural world or the imaginings of humans (who are also of the natural world).

Which, of course, they'll have no trouble discarding. This is Disney Parks, where when money talks, theme walks.

[flynnibus]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Then what makes the park distinct? Captain EO features a crew of aliens, would it fit inside the Tree of Life? He brings a message of hope for the future and that's a significant component of conservations, because we can change the world. Star Wars has lots of creatures. Monstropolis would be full of imaginary creatures as well as having a parallel with their energy issues. Smurfs are animals and right now as I type this the page has a "Experience the Wonders of the Forest!" ad with Papa Smurf and Smurfette. How about Frozen and its ice creatures?

Well the smurfs don't care about the environment.. nor is the environment or conservation the core of the story. Same with Eo, or other thrown out examples. It's not just 'aliens' but a story about conservation, nature, and how creatures and nature are intertwined.

I get that it's 'not of this earth' - but I find that less significant than the undertones that DO tie the world of Pandora to the park. The park celebrates animals and nature... and those are the central elements of this story. It fits far better than Finding Nemo the Musical... whose only connection to the park is that the characters happen to be animals.

[mikelieman]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Look, I don't care if there are 9' tall smurfs riding the dragons circling around Cinderella's castle. I just want dragons circling around Cinderella's castle. And if the way to 3d real time rendered free floating holograms is to give Cameron a billion dollars and promise to use Pandora for an attraction testbed? Ok. Fine. Whatever it takes for the costumes in the park to stop being costumes and be the actual characters. And man, when the pirates start jumping onto your boat, it's gonna be great...

Like this, Hatsune Miku - MELT [Live] 1080HD - YouTube but BETTER!

[StevenW]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Mythical and fantasy animals have their own earths. They have their own state of existence. To restrict their environment to the earth, where they don't live in, is little understood. The Pandora world is clearly outside of earth, but the world is fantastic because it does resemble in some ways to earth. Did you realize that some vistas were actually filmed in China? Thus, the Avatar lore is very much earth based. It has dragon creatures and horses that are no different than what we have imagined.

Fantasy Pandora might as well be about the mythical Middle Earth with how much the stories are derived from each other. One such similarity is the portrayal of the land. It is so emcompassing. Then there is the strange creatures living there.

My perspective is Avatar is a "story that originated from Earth" as opposed to being from earth. The invaders are from earth, the United States to be precise. Anyways, there is no such Middle Earth. How can it be from earth? To be on the clear with these rules, we have to find a place of origination for these mythical and fantasy creatures. But most people won't care, and they will ignore the potential dilemma of Avatar. It is much to cerebral to contemplate.

[Mr Wiggins]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

But most people won't care, and they will ignore the potential dilemma of Avatar. It is much to cerebral to contemplate.

Having seen Avatar multiple times in its theatrical release and on video, I'd call it many things.

"Cerebral" isn't one of them.

[ScottG]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Nemo and the Lion king aren't real life either but add an animal whimsy factor that fits fine with the park IMO.
And while I think Avatar kinda pushes the limits, I'm glad Disney is adding something to the park.

[mondo]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

FYI, I haven't follow the plans for this closely. What is the exact space Avatarland will take up. I just know Camp Minnie Mickey and the Festival of the Lion King. Any surrounding areas? An image/map would be best to show me.

[mark]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Universal may have been first, but it was poorly done, IMHO.

[WDWorldly]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

People really are going to bizarre great lengths to oppose Avatar. The current thread of discussion originated because someone thought Animal Kingdom was a literal representation of the kingdom animalia. It's not -- the park isn't literally just about animals. In fact, Disney launched an entire marketing campaign to counter the idea that it was just an animal park. The confusion is understandable, but Disney fans usually know better. It's disappointing that more people don't get it because it's one of the few Disney parks that still tells a coherent, meaningful story.

Now, not the only one, but one of the major themes of Disney’s Animal Kingdom is this intrinsic value of nature, this idea that nature itself has a value, which is a greater value than anything else you can put on the other side of the ballast. Nature’s value is greater than money, nature’s value is greater than convenience, nature has intrinsic value, a value in and of itself. I don’t have to save the environment because it’s good for the watershed, I can just save the environment because it’s got value. So, if this is one of the fundamental values of Animal Kingdom, and we decided very early on if you were going to have animals, by default, it’s gonna be, you’re gonna have this theme of nature, and the animals can’t be strangers in this environment. This has to be a place where animals make sense, and animals don’t behave like theme park audio-animatronics, they have life, they have will, they do what they please, they live, they have babies, they eventually die. So, if you are going to have a place that is about animals, it has to be about the very idea at the very bottom of animals, which is the intrinsic value of nature.

Joe Rohde

When accepting his Golden Globe Award for best picture, for example, he said: “Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth. And if you have to go four and a half light years to another, made-up planet to appreciate this miracle of the world that we have right here, well, you know what, that’s the wonder of cinema right there, that’s the magic”…..Cameron repeated this theme, adding, with delight, that at the climax of the film the audience had come to take the side of nature in its battle against the destructive forces of an expansionist human civilization. Here, without using the terminology of contemporary environmental ethics, Cameron expressed an affinity for deep ecological or biocentric theories, in which nature is considered to have intrinsic value.

from Avatar and Nature Spirituality

[Mr Wiggins]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

To me, the only thing more eye-rolling than the derivative plot, stereotypical characters and banal dialogue of Avatar is the self aggrandizing manner in which its director has attempted to elevate its embarrassingly simplistic, tedious preachiness. It's unfortunate that Imagineering has been pressed into service as a mouthpiece for Cameron's self serving Spin-A-Thon, but it's to be expected given the nature of the beast (no pun intended).

[poohmeg]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

I also wonder what kind of animals would come out at night for the safari and how they would get the animals on and off the safari trails and switch them out like that. Sounds complicated and dangerous!

Each species in Kilimanjaro Safaris is trained to respond to a different sound cue (drums, bird call, etc.) when it's time to go in for the night - they already go in one group at a time, and some go back to the barns in inclement weather more frequently than others. So it wouldn't be as big a stretch as you might think to have a "shift change." Although I too am hard-pressed to think what nocturnal African species they don't already have that could be introduced in that kind of setting (ie not enough containment for leopards, civets are tiny and would be hard to see from a moving vehicle, already have lions). I think it would be more an issue of removing the "early to bed" species at an appropriate time and probably rotating out some of the individual animals who have already been onstage all day for some who have been backstage and then adding the night vision element. Regardless, I am very excited to see what they do - assuming that it's actually an enhancement to the standard guest experience and not just another upcharge tour. As much as I love Disney, I save the upcharge animal-related stuff for the Wilds, since it's closer to home and needs the money more.

[FigmentJedi]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Anyways, there is no such Middle Earth. How can it be from earth? To be on the clear with these rules, we have to find a place of origination for these mythical and fantasy creatures.

Tolkien wrote Middle Earth as an ancient mythological history for our world with the Shire having become England.

[StevenW]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Tolkien wrote Middle Earth as an ancient mythological history for our world with the Shire having become England.

The Shire looks more like Ireland; however, my point was the Middle Earth with the Hobbits, Elves, dwarves, and Orcs don't seem to be from the earth that we know. It is an alternative earth.

[Dapper Dan]

Re: Avatar Land First Look

Can we please drop the Animal Kingdom is about conservation myth? What part of Dinoland USA is about conserving anything?

In what culture have people ever believed that Pandora or the creatures that live there are real? That is the real message of the Animal Kingdom, the relationship we have with these animals and what they mean to us.