Pandora: The World of Avatar Announcement, Construction, & Preview Discussion

[shiekra38]

so you are saying if there never was an avatar movie and disney designed the land exactly the same nobody would complain?

Not exactly...If it were a compelling original concept I'm sure the fans would have received the land better

I've seen the old concept art for Beastly Kingdom and I'd take Avatar Land. Pandora is essentially what Beastly kingdom was going to have, dragons (banshees). Beastly Kingdom could've been really corny, not what AK is about.

I think they would have done better...the world will never know

BTW, do people really believe Avatar Land was a "knee jerk" reaction. A billion dollar investment is going to be thoroughly examined. Sure, it was a move to compete with universal but to call it knee jerk is illogical. No company spends that much money without the input/thoughts of hundreds of professionals.

I believe they saw how much money it made and said to the imagineers, "figure it out"...so yeah, knee jerk

 

[quinnmac000]

Anecdotal, I asked a diverse spectrum of 50 people (majority males, all participants above 18, some with family, some single, some married no kids, all spectrums of sexual orientation) what they thought of Pandora and were they excited. Most said looks cool but its whatever. Not hyped but just a lack of interest. If they are in Florida, they will go but wouldn't go out of their way.

 

[epcyclopedia]

The rides would need to be very good regardless of IP to see the growth people are saying this thing will spur.

But we know what the rides are and they seem pretty lackluster. Not inherently bad in the way Fast and Furious does as a concept, but not exciting either. A simulator and a boat ride.

 

[Alicia]

The rides would need to be very good regardless of IP to see the growth people are saying this thing will spur.

But we know what the rides are and they seem pretty lackluster. Not inherently bad in the way Fast and Furious does as a concept, but not exciting either. A simulator and a boat ride.

Disney boat rides are perhaps some of the greatest rides in the world, so most definitely, a new Disney boat ride excites me.

And if this one uses even some of the new enhancements from Shanghai's Pirates I will be even more excited.

 

[epcyclopedia]

But we know it's all screens and a single animatronic.

 

[Andysol]

But we know it's all screens and a single animatronic.

Which is the equivalent of saying we don't know sh*t.

"all screens" could've been said about Spider-Man too. I'd wait and see it then judge. And while it clearly won't be a Spider-Man- to simplify it is premature as we simply don't know yet.

 

[epcyclopedia]

Wait and see got us ROL.

 

[Alicia]

 

[epcyclopedia]

For all the touting of the views, it looks very dense which leads me to believe you won't actually be able to see it much from inside the area, like Grizzly Peak.

 

[epcyclopedia]

And if you think that's something "they" (WDI) would obviously consider and I'm being pessimistic...

Consider the story shared with me by a friend who was able to stand in the much touted WDI Cave simulator that was showing a pre-visualization of New Fantasyland. After a quick loop around, she immediately tried to sit or squat to get the perspective of someone shorter than herself.

Nothing happened, the system refused to adapt. The WDI heads asked what she was doing, as it appeared she was doing squats in the Cave at this point.

"Trying to see this from a child's perspective."

"Oh, we hadn't thought of that."

And New Fantasyland was build per the specs and had numerous sightline issues that later cost a lot of money to fix.

 

[freediverdude]

And if you think that's something "they" (WDI) would obviously consider and I'm being pessimistic...

Consider the story shared with me by a friend who was able to stand in the much touted WDI Cave simulator that was showing a pre-visualization of New Fantasyland. After a quick loop around, she immediately tried to sit or squat to get the perspective of someone shorter than herself.

Nothing happened, the system refused to adapt. The WDI heads asked what she was doing, as it appeared she was doing squats in the Cave at this point.

"Trying to see this from a child's perspective."

"Oh, we hadn't thought of that."

And New Fantasyland was build per the specs and had numerous sightline issues that later cost a lot of money to fix.

Wait a minute, these were engineers working on Disney attractions and didn't think about how a child would see the area?? What is going on over there!

 

[freediverdude]

Anecdotal, I asked a diverse spectrum of 50 people (majority males, all participants above 18, some with family, some single, some married no kids, all spectrums of sexual orientation) what they thought of Pandora and were they excited. Most said looks cool but its whatever. Not hyped but just a lack of interest. If they are in Florida, they will go but wouldn't go out of their way.

I think this is accurate for now. I do think it will see a boost once the new Avatar movie comes out. But yes I don't see this as being anywhere near the popularity of say a Star Wars area, once the newness wears off.

 

[DoubleJ]

The merchandise numbers suggest exactly the opposite. "Cars" was "Disney Princesses" for boys. Hell. years later, there's still half an aisle of Cars merch at Target, good luck finding even a DVD from Avatar.

No offense, but you think like Iger. Box office does not equal zeitgeist. "Brother Bear" outgrossed "The Little Mermaid." Do you honestly think a BB ride/meet & greet would outperform Ariel in the parks?

Merch isn't everything. There was absolutely no push from Fox to make any merchandise for Avatar. If there had been, perhaps it would have done well. For example, you can find hardly any Harry Potter merch outside of Universal or a Barnes and Noble. Regardless, many of the same arguments being launched at Pandora were made against Cars Land before it opened. Avatar was released in 2009. For 8 years, very little has been done to keep the IP relevant, therefore it has faded from public consciousness. That doesn't mean that when it does return, the public won't eat it up.

Do I think BB would do better than Little Mermaid at WDW? Absolutely not. You have to keep in mind though: domestic box office for Little Mermaid destroyed BB. It was the foreign box office that saved BB.
Inflation adjusted: Little Mermaid Domestic Gross was $215 million, Brother Bear was $111 million.

Either way: execution is EVERYTHING! As Steve Burke recently said: "Build it and they will come." IP has very little to do with anything other than initial crowds. Word of mouth is the true magic.

 

[DoubleJ]

Anecdotal, I asked a diverse spectrum of 50 people (majority males, all participants above 18, some with family, some single, some married no kids, all spectrums of sexual orientation) what they thought of Pandora and were they excited. Most said looks cool but its whatever. Not hyped but just a lack of interest. If they are in Florida, they will go but wouldn't go out of their way.

Obviously Harry Potter and Star Wars are different beasts, but what do you think would have been their reaction had you asked them about Cars Land in 2012?

 

[Miketheboss]

For all the touting of the views, it looks very dense which leads me to believe you won't actually be able to see it much from inside the area, like Grizzly Peak.

These mountains are "floating" 100 plus feet above you. There's also cliffs surrounding the show building so that's impossible.

 

[epcyclopedia]

There's no mountain hovering is space over an open plaza. They're all attached to mounds below them that guests can't really get very close to due to the design of the area - specifically to keep them from looking at them too closely.

My main concern is that it won't be particularly visible through all the flora.

The proximity to Hogwarts once you're through the JP gate is a very good approximation to size and placement. The foliage there is intentional but mostly hides the main building.

 

[Miketheboss]

I remember when I saw this concept art for the first time and thought this was impossible. Can't wait to get this perspective.

 

[epcyclopedia]

And they didn't build that concept art. No angle in the land will produce that visual because those formations don't exist like that in the land.

 

[Miketheboss]

There's no mountain hovering is space over an open plaza. They're all attached to mounds below them that guests can't really get very close to due to the design of the area - specifically to keep them from looking at them too closely.

My main concern is that it won't be particularly visible through all the flora.

The proximity to Hogwarts once you're through the JP gate is a very good approximation to size and placement. The foliage there is intentional but mostly hides the main building.

There is a bunch of open space under and in front of these mountains from some of the aerials I've seen. We're gonna have to wait and see....

 

[epcyclopedia]

There is a bunch of open space under and in front of these mountains from some of the aerials I've seen. We're gonna have to wait and see....

A few pages back there should be a groundolan of queue area and surrounding walkways. You purposely can't get very close to the stonework except at intended points.