AVATAR’S THE STAR
A look at Disney World’s amazing take on James Cameron’s movie adventure
It’s not a LAKE BUENA VISTA, FLA. movie set, but visitors to Disney World’s new Pandora-World of Avatar land are in for a cinematic experience.
The five-hectare land, inspired by the Avatar movie, opens in Florida on May 27 at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom.
It cost a half-billion dollars to build.
The marquee attraction is Flight of Passage, where a 3D simulator plunges riders into a cinematic world.
You feel like you’re riding on the back of a banshee — a bluish, gigantic, winged predator that resembles something out of the Jurassic era.
Wearing 3D glasses and straddling what resembles a stationary motorcycle, you’re strapped in. Then the lights go out, a screen in front lights up and you’re swooped into a world of blue, gigantic aliens called Na’vi, with moon-filled skies, plunging waterfalls, jumping marine animals and towering ocean waves.
The ride provides an enchanting and intoxicating five minutes that touches all the senses.
Blasts of air and spritzes of mist hit your face, and as you fly through a lush forest, a woodsy aroma wafts through your nostrils.
A visitor could go on the ride 20 times and not catch half the visual details.Disney designers are quick to say the new land is the star of the action, not the backdrop.
“The character is being portrayed and played by the place itself and that’s different than a set,” said Joe Rohde, the design and production leader of Pandora-World of Avatar.
Other aspects of Pandora can’t quite compete with the excitement and immersion of Flight of Passage. Much of Pandora, at least during the daytime, is hard to distinguish from the rest of Animal Kingdom, Disney’s almost 20-year-old zoological-themed park with lush landscaping, an emphasis on conservation and a Noah’s ark range of animals.
At night, though, Pandora transforms into a sea of colour with glowing lights on artificial plants and even in the pavement.
The enormous blue Na’vi aliens from the Avatar movie appear sparingly, really just on Flight of Passage and a second attraction called Na’vi River Journey. Before going on Flight of Passage, visitors walk through a tunnel in a faux mountain until they stumble upon a laboratory that includes a Na’vi floating in a tank.
Na’vi River Journey is an indoor river ride in the dark, lit up by glowing creatures and plants. The ride culminates with a Na’vi animatronic woman beating on drums as a chorus of voices reaches a crescendo.
The focal points are a 41-metre mountaintop where Flight of Passage is located, as well as “floating mountains” that appear to be suspended in air but are actually made of concrete.
Engineers use tricks to make the park appear bigger than it is. The artificial foliage gets smaller as it goes higher on the mountain to give it the illusion of distance.
Disney also is testing out a new way to order food at Pandora.
Before going to the park, visitors can pull up a menu on the My Disney Experience mobile app, order lunch and go about visiting the park.
When it’s time to eat hours later, they can go to the canteen, tap on an app a button that notifies the cooks they are present.
Several minutes later their food will be ready in a special line.
Disney has been building attractions themed on movies since Disneyland opened in 1955 with rides inspired by Snow White, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland.
Often, as with Pandora, the attractions open years after the movies debut. Avatar came out in 2009. Director James Cameron’s sequel isn’t due out until 2020.
Lands based on Star Wars are scheduled to open in Disney parks in California and Florida in 2019.
The ride provides an enchanting and intoxicating five minutes that touches all the senses. A visitor could go on the ride 20 times and not catch half the visual details.