“It’s going to have floating mountains. It’s pretty cool,” says director James Cameron of “Pandora: The Land of Avatar,” a new theme park area due to open within Animal Kingdom at Florida’s Walt Disney World in 2017.
That park name comes from the lips of Cameron, who was present at the Hero Complex Film Festival on May 31, describing the theme park project in a little more detail.
“It’s a land within the park but a land is not just a ride. There will be several rides and a number of other attractions. It’s really just a place you’re gonna wanna go and hang out,” the director said.
“It’s gonna be gorgeous. Of course it’s gonna be gorgeous at night and they’re using every new trick, every new bit of technology that they’ve created.”
Construction at Disney’s Animal Kingdom park got underway in January 2014, with the finished attraction to incorporate a water ride, a flying simulation and nighttime events.
Cameron, who has “Avatar 2” due December 2016 and “Avatar 3” scheduled for December 2017, also spoke about the technical accomplishment involved in constructing animatronic models of the film’s blue-skinned humanoids, the Na’vi.
“The animatronics for the Na’vi characters are gonna be fantastic. For example, their early animatronics would use 12 axis of motion and I think the most they’ve ever done was 32 axis recently,” he recalled. “I think they’re up to 64 just in the face of the Na’vi characters. So it’s gonna be remarkable. [Disney] really see it as a major, major attraction.
Concept art of ‘Pandora: The Land of Avatar’ courtesy Walt Disney Imagineering:
