Bringing the Avatar world to life
DAVID BENTLEY takes a trip that is, quite literally, out of this world – to sci-fi planet Pandora
TAKING a trip to the world in James Cameron’s Avatar blockbuster would normally be quite a challenge.
Not only because it’s 4.4 light years from Earth – that’s 25 trillion miles – but also because it’s a fictional creation of the filmmaker and his visual effects team.
But now Disney’s magic and Cameron’s imagination have come together to bring the impossible to life.
The result is Pandora – The World of Avatar, a brand new attraction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park, part of the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida.
We were invited to be among the first to see this new £400 million experience based on the alien moon in the 2009 movie.
Disney licensed the theme park rights from Cameron and 20th Century Fox in 2011 and began construction in January 2014 on a site then occupied by Camp Minnie-Mickey.
At the grand unveiling, Cameron appeared with the Avatar cast, telling us: “I never thought I’d see the day when the Pandora I imagined could be made physically real. Working with Disney to bring this world to life has been an amazing experience. It really feels like you’re stepping into a dream.”
Then it was time to see it for ourselves. The 12-acre site has lush gardens where cleverly crafted Pandoran plants mingle with familiar earthly flora.
There’s a rainforest chorus of chirrups and cries and the Floating Mountains of the movie loom incredibly before your eyes, clad in jungle flora and laced with tumbling waterfalls.
Fantasy and reality merge, the real and the artificial co-exist – it’s all part of an immersive adventure.
Officials stationed around the gardens stay in character as scientists who now live on Pandora and can tell you all about the landscape and its wildlife.
In the movie, human visitors to Pandora are each linked to their own avatar – an artificial body grown in a tank to resemble one of the native people, the 10ft tall, blue-skinned Na’vi. They are then able to ride dragon-like flying creatures known as banshees.
This idea is central to the attraction’s thrill ride, Flight of Passage. To go on it, we went inside one of the mountains, strolled past a lab showcasing the bizarre science of Pandora and were then matched with our own avatars.
We mounted our seats and put on 3D glasses. And then we were off, flying on our very own banshee. The motion simulator ride plummeted, swooped, swerved and soared across the Pandoran landscape of dense jungle, deep canyons, rocky shores and glowing caves.
Heart-racing moments with colossal sea-beasts and a giant wave may give some glimpse of what Cameron has in store in the first of his Avatar sequels, due in 2020, where he has promised to explore the oceans of this world.
Wind and spray on your face, the smells of earth and sea, and the sensation of the banshee’s breathing between your knees all help to create what must be Disney’s best ride yet.
It’s not dissimilar to Star Wars: The Adventures Continue, a 3D ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but Flight of Passage is more surprising, like your very first trip to a spectacular new planet, as well as more cutting edge.
Intense, exhilarating and beautifully detailed, it’s a technological feat as well as a visual feast.
Pandora’s other ride is the far gentler Na’vi River Journey, a boat trip through a cave where you see bioluminescent plants and animals lit up in the dark and meet the Shaman of Songs, a Na’vi high priestess who is Disney’s most advanced animatronic to date.
The whole attraction can be experienced at night, when you can stroll through the luminous landscape or get the adrenalin racing again with another go on the Flight of Passage. A gift shop, restaurant and drinks kiosk can also be found on the Pandora site.
There’s ample chance for repeat rides as the attraction is open from 8am to 11pm. For those staying at select Disney hotels, it’s accessible as late as 1am until July 4. Going there early or late is an ideal way to avoid queues and there’s also a FastPass+ service which enables you to book a slot way in advance.
After a day or more at Pandora, you might need to come back to Earth for a breather – but the experience may still be exotic.
We were staying at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge, a safari-themed hotel with its own pool, gift shop, restaurant, children’s clubhouse (where you can leave the kids supervised for the evening) and more than 30 species of African wildlife wandering the grounds.
From my balcony, I had a close view of giraffes, zebras, ostriches, antelope – and some red river hogs foraging in the ground after a tropical downpour.
We made our own splash at Typhoon Lagoon, a Disney water park that actor Alan Cumming hired for his 50th birthday bash in 2015. There are aquatic slides and rides, a ‘lazy river’ to drift along on an inner tube and the fun of the wave pool. But you can just sunbathe on the sand or sip cocktails in a cabana if you fancy a more relaxed day before enjoying more sparkle and spectacle.
Going on to Disney’s Magic Kingdom, we sampled attractions such as Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean (the river boat ride that inspired the film franchise) and the rollercoasters Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Big Thunder Mountain.
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin unleashes your inner child in a shooting-gallery game where you score points using a laser cannon, and Mickey’s PhilharMagic is a 12-minute 4D movie show with eye-popping animated visuals leaping right out into the audience.
No visit to the Magic Kingdom would be complete without posing for a photo at Cinderella’s Castle, the legendary landmark of the Disney company. We returned at night to see Happily Ever After, a show featuring fireworks, projections and an audio-visual medley of Disney cartoon classics including The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, Frozen and many more.
It delivered the perfect grand finale for a day out. But there’s plenty more excitement to be discovered. The next day we were off to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, once a film and TV production studio but now a full-blown theme park.
Some rides – Rock N Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith and Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – offer
more heightened thrills. But then we took it down a few notches for the kid-friendly fun of Toy Story Mania, another shooting gallery ride for zapping moving targets.
Time then to lift off for more adventure, this time to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.
After heading into the Star Wars Launch Bay where we looked at film props, crossed paths with patrolling Stormtroopers and had a cuddle with Chewbacca, our evening concluded with Star Wars: A Galactic Spectacular, a dazzling show of projections and pyrotechnics. A whole building became a spaceship, huge flames shot up into the sky and Darth Vader’s chilling tones resonated across the crowds.
On our last day, we shopped till we dropped at Disney Springs in the Florida sunshine and I was delighted to discover the Marvel Super Hero Headquarters, a geeks’ gold-mine of comics and collectables where you can stand against green screen and be transformed into your favourite character.
But you needn’t be a superhero or sci-fi fan. Disney’s vast resort has something for all tastes, with family entertainment always in mind and Pandora its shining new highlight.