WDW Animal Kingdom: General Discussion

[Sam]

2015/2016 - AVATAR - Confirmed - (6/26/12) Disney Imagineering has been spotted testing something very odd at a small airport north of Bakersfield, CA. It can be best described as a heavily modified Ultralight style personal aircraft, heavily themed to appear as a dragon in flight. According to the local news report sent in, the dragon’s mouth can open and close, breath a little fire, tail wag and more. Apparently Disney signed a secret deal with the airport to keep quiet about the project, which is being kept inside a rented aircraft hanger at Shatter’s Minter Field. Some believe that the flying dragon may be a wild prototype created for possible inclusion in a new Avatar themed show concept for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

This seems to confirm that the Avatar land is still on track.

 

[Sam]

Screamscape a few days ago:

(9/5/12) According to a report at IGN, there may be a delay in the start of James Cameron’s planned back to back shoot of Avatar 2 and 3. They also claim that this delay could carry over into the Pandora: The World of Avatar land at Animal Kingdom. Of course, it was just a few weeks ago that we heard that the early work for this new land was starting, and with the pressure on from Universal Orlando with attractions like Transformers and a second Harry Potter land on the way, I don’t think Disney will be willing to wait.

Screamscape today:

Despite the rumor from IGN claiming that the Avatar project may have hit a speed bump, local sources say that the early prep work projects are moving full steam ahead, with deadlines to keep.

 

[Adam James]

Whilst I think indivdual attractions related to non-Disney IPs aren't too bad (such as Star Tours/Muppetvision), there's something about a whole land that makes me loath this project.

Sure, innovation is always a good thing, but surely I can't be the only one thinking 'meh' about the whole Avatar Land idea? :-\

Thanks for the updates Sam

 

[Benzin]

Sure, innovation is always a good thing, but surely I can't be the only one thinking 'meh' about the whole Avatar Land idea? :-\

No, you're not, one of the most over-rated prententious pieces of crap bland cinema deemed good because of the visuals (which are good, but a film needs more substance than that)...

I hate that Disney have gone for it as a reaction to Potterland's success, I really do, because they could build a Pocahuntas land and it would essentially be the EXACT same, only based on actual Disney works rather than over-rated turd... Hell, bring back Beastly Kingdom...

Shame they can't build a Marvel park in Florida really...

 

[Sam]

2015/2016 - PANDORA - The World of Avatar - (10/26/12) Pandora: The World of Avatar may still be years away, but who’s ready to find out just what kind of major new attractions we can expect to find inside? From what I’ve heard so far, there are a few different proposals floating around with different offerings and different budget levels to choose from, as the final choice has not yet been made. That said, it does seem as if Disney may have selected their primary E-Ticket attraction for the land, which would some kind of new open simulator style ride using a large circular multi-story screen. While this may sound a bit like Soarin’ at first, I’m hearing that this is likely to be a different kind of beast, able to take advantage of the new style digital 3D system Disney used on Star Tours 2, and while it may be about flying around Pandora, I think we’ll see a more active and adventurous motion system used here, as travel through the World of Pandora will not involve the same mellow friendly skies we experienced from Disney’s Soarin.
Attached to this E-Ticket ride structure, which will apparently feature four different theaters to deal with the capacity problems, will be a second C-Ticket level adventure ride that will feature both indoor and outdoor scenes. I’ve heard that it may be family friendly boat ride experience (Small World of Pandora?) though I’d also got a hunch that it could be a land based dark ride system as well as it seems the early proposal may feature 6 to 9 passenger vehicles, using 3 rows of seats.
For those hoping for a little more action and adventure, I’ve also heard that Disney has drawn up some plans for a second E-Ticket ride that could use the same Vekoma MotoBike based coaster system that they are putting to use in Shanghai as a Tron Light Cycle ride. Budget is the primary factor here, as adding the launched coaster to the land would increase the budget by good number of digits. Hope to have more information to share about The World of Avatar soon… so stay tuned.

Everything about this project sounds crap.

 

[Harv]

Agreed. The whole idea should be scrapped and that 'Beastly Kingdom' thing I heard about should be resurrected. Not even sure what it involved but anything has to be better than what sounds like 2 very poor attractions. Why are Disney incapable of creating really thrilling rides?

 

[Adam James]

If somewhat credible sources are to be believed, here are the plans for the bulk of AvatarLand's indoor section..

Spoiler

 

[Benzin]

Why are Disney incapable of creating really thrilling rides?

Disney will never create complete thrill rides, it's not in their best interests, hence why they build rides with some thrill but are mostly family friendly, because their market is families and nothing else...

Avatar land is just awful though, basically grabbing the most well known and successful IP they could, because of Potterland...

Just... Urgh... It's such an awful film... So wrong...

 

[Fredward]

story is terrible in Avatar, but it does look pretty...

I do think it's a lazy idea however, especially simulators.

 

[Sam]

If Disney think they can compete against the Harry Potter expansion (and Gringotts coaster) with a souped-up Soarin' themed around a second-rate IP, I really worry about the sanity of the management at WDW.

 

[Benzin]

Bring back Michael Eisner!

 

[Alastair]

Avatar is a terrible IP. Not particularly memorable or inspiring, and certainly has nowhere near as big a following as Harry Potter or most other IP's to be honest.

 

[Danny]

I think Avatar was MASSIVELY overrated, and not to mention this whole two sequel and one prequel to the film business is going around in circles at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see what Disney could do with the theme, but that's about it. Nothing at all excites me about this project. I'm more excited about Test Track reopening soon.

 

[mark9]

Just... Urgh... It's such an awful film... So wrong...

Playing devils advocate here, Cars and Cars 2 aren't exactly Pixars best films and yet look at the quality playing out at California.

I care neither way for Avatar but judging an area based on a film doesn't always work. IMO they should ditch Avatar and go for Brother Bear or Pocahontas. Same ideas but relevant to the Disney company. 8)

 

[Benzin]

But the worst Pixar films are still leagues ahead against many other films... I'm also quite sure that Cars Land (which looks exceptional) was built with the whole high selling merch viewpoint as well...

Cars 2 has more character development and better plot than Avatar as well mind...

Would love a Brother Bear or Pocahontas area, Disney related themed areas sound much better, some people are finding it difficult enough to cope with a potential Marvel Disney park, so how Avatar is not being laughed out the building I have no idea...

 

[Tim]

I don't think this proposed Avatarland is actually going to be taking the story from the films. What was compelling about the film and why everyone was talking about it at the time was its setting; the land of Pandora with all of its colourful wildlife. Hence why the area is being referred to as Pandora: The World of Avatar.

Would I like to see Disney try and copy that? Definitely, that would be one of the most spectacular themed environments ever made. Will it fit with the Animal Kingdom? It should do as that park is all about the beauty of nature, be it real, prehistoric or with this expansion other worldly.

This is why the Soarin’ ride makes sense but I'll admit that the other rides sound fairly uninspired. The MotoBike Launch Coaster especially just seems like a ridiculous idea. But then I'm waiting to see what Shanghai Tron ride is like before casting judgment.

 

[Sam]

2015/2016 - PANDORA - The World of Avatar - (10/29/12) I wasn’t sure if I was going to post these right away, but since other sites have also obtained most of these same pictures, I’ll show my hand as well. What you see here is supposed to be early layout plans for the 3D flight simulator ride planned for Avatar: World of Pandora. From studying the plans myself for a few days, which seems to indicate three different floors in the building, I can verify the 3D aspect of the attraction plans, as the lower floorplan, which also shows off a boat ride layout for a C-Ticket attraction, has one room in the center of the four theaters labeled as the room to clean the glasses, complete with a pair of “chutes” up to the next floor, which seem to link up with what looks like pre-show rooms. This same second level piece of artwork, which I have yet to see anywhere else, also shows off the layout of the attraction’s themed queue which would be built on top of the indoor portion of the C-Ticket Boat Ride.
What has been bothering me post is the layout of the individual theaters, as they seem to feature a large circular screen, but also two more screens above the main screen that appear to have a gap of some kind in between them. Putting a “hole” in the middle of your view screen seems a bit crazy to me, at least in terms of a normal simulator style ride experience, so this may be something a bit out of the ordinary.
For one possible idea I came across that would perfectly fit into this concept very easily was something shown off at IAAPA 2011 by a company called Simtec called HEXaFLITE. It was their own take on creating a more dynamic version of the Soarin’ style flight simulator experience, but kind of flipping everything around, top to bottom. While you would load in the horizontal position, as you do in Soarin’, your seats were connected to the floor instead of inverted coaster style. Then at the start of the ride, your entire theater platform would move forward and drop into a vertical dive posture… as if you were going over the edge on a vertical drop coaster, except your seats would roll forward with you to keep you level and upright. Best to see the concept art that Simtec was showing off to really get a firm idea of what I’m talking about. Simtec said that the they could customize the system to have everything from a very mellow and simple (ie: Soarin’) range of motion, up to a fully dynamic 6-DOF full range of motion controls.
Now while I have not heard about any official connection between Simtec and Disney regarding this project, the similarities in the ride’s overall design style are close enough to lead me to believe that I may be on the right track here by pointing out this Simtec design. I also find if very interesting that Simtec has a rather humble website that doesn’t even attempt to flaunt this amazing new ride system concept on the front page, but instead has opted to bury it deep in the back end rather than try to promote it to the world. Could an exclusive use deal with Disney be pending? One has to wonder…

This project is so indescribably boring!

 

[Sam]

I love how this project is so boring that nobody even bothered commenting on my last post, even though it contained detailed ride plans.

2015/2016 - PANDORA - The World of Avatar - (11/9/12) A weird new rumor floated my way, offering up some interesting details about that C-Ticket Boat Ride attraction seen in the leaked Avatar plans. According to our source, this slow family ride is intended to essentially server as a crash course in PANDORA 101, a way to bring all guests up to speed on the world of Avatar, and why humans have traveled across the stars to visit.
Intended as a sort of informational family attraction, the overall tone of the ride’s theme may actually have a bit in common with one of the Edutainment rides at Epcot. In short, this of this as a Pandora version of “Living with the Land”, showing guests the various plant and animal lifeforms of this new world.

'Living with the Land' is so boring it's almost good. It's actually genuinely funny how worthy and tedious and 80s it is.

 

[Alastair]

I thought it was pretty entertaining and informative - seeing all of the different fruits and vegetables and how they're grown in isolation. Obviously I had no idea what it was when I went on it, but I was pleasantly surprised, being a change from the fantasy themes of many of the other rides.

 

[Adam James]

I love how this project is so boring that nobody even bothered commenting on my last post, even though it contained detailed ride plans.

...or someone could have posted it previously in some spoiler tags

With the recent buyout of LucasFilm, could a Star Wars Land work well in the Animal Kingdom?
If there isn't going to be a superhero-themed Disney park in the near future, I'm sure it would be much more popular than using a generic IP such as Avatar.