AVATAR land - the specifics

Rteetz

Rteetz

Well-Known Member
egg said:
Anyone know anything about Djuan Rivers? As in, whether park fans should like him? He seems like a cool guy, but it must be tough being vp of Animal Kingdom right now with the whole Rivers of Light thing going on, and the uncertainty of how successful Pandora will be.

As for these videos... I understand that we're still over two months out and they don't want to give away too much. But it would be nice if they focused on something other than how it fits the park. I don't think pushing the connection for a third time is much use, when most fans have their pre-opening opinions set by this point.

These videos make me worried that the land won't do a good job fostering the connection between Earth and Pandora on it's own. And that's why they're so heavily explaining it. Hopefully my suspicion is wrong.
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Djuan is the VP of AK and most CM's I have seen talk about him like him. I don't believe he has held that role very long.

The videos may seem a bit pointless to us but many in the general Disney fan community have complained that they don't think Avatar fits in AK. These videos help get the message out to those people. It's all in the marketing.
 
TyrantBossMedia

TyrantBossMedia

Member
As I listen to these videos I notice that the people always focus on the same things, floating mountains, giant waterfalls, flying on the banshee, the Na'vi river and a bioluminescent forest.

I hope I am wrong, but I have sneaking suspicion that this is not going to very exciting. It may be pretty boring much like New Fantasyland. I really hope I am wrong, but Disney has not been known to inject much excitement in their newest projects as of late.
 
Daveeeeed

Daveeeeed

Well-Known Member
TyrantBossMedia said:
As I listen to these videos I notice that the people always focus on the same things, floating mountains, giant waterfalls, flying on the banshee, the Na'vi river and a bioluminescent forest.

I hope I am wrong, but I have sneaking suspicion that this is not going to very exciting. It may be pretty boring much like New Fantasyland. I really hope I am wrong, but Disney has not been known to inject much excitement in their newest projects as of late.
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Have you heard of Cars Land?
 
Disneyhead'71

Disneyhead'71

Well-Known Member
TyrantBossMedia said:
As I listen to these videos I notice that the people always focus on the same things, floating mountains, giant waterfalls, flying on the banshee, the Na'vi river and a bioluminescent forest.

I hope I am wrong, but I have sneaking suspicion that this is not going to very exciting. It may be pretty boring much like New Fantasyland. I really hope I am wrong, but Disney has not been known to inject much excitement in their newest projects as of late.
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About as exciting as watching fake grass grow.
 
danlb_2000

danlb_2000

Premium Member
TyrantBossMedia said:
As I listen to these videos I notice that the people always focus on the same things, floating mountains, giant waterfalls, flying on the banshee, the Na'vi river and a bioluminescent forest.

I hope I am wrong, but I have sneaking suspicion that this is not going to very exciting. It may be pretty boring much like New Fantasyland. I really hope I am wrong, but Disney has not been known to inject much excitement in their newest projects as of late.
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What makes a land "exciting" for you?
 
aladdin2007

aladdin2007

Well-Known Member
Rteetz said:
Djuan is the VP of AK and most CM's I have seen talk about him like him. I don't believe he has held that role very long.

The videos may seem a bit pointless to us but many in the general Disney fan community have complained that they don't think Avatar fits in AK. These videos help get the message out to those people. It's all in the marketing.
Click to expand...

I remember when he was given the title there was a lot of hoopla about whether he was fit for animal kingdom, because he had came from either a former position heading up transportation or something to do with merch etc,,,, I don't recall now. anyone else remember what his previous job was in the company?
 
Rteetz

Rteetz

Well-Known Member
aladdin2007 said:
I remember when he was given the title there was a lot of hoopla about whether he was fit for animal kingdom, because he had came from either a former position heading up transportation or something to do with merch etc,,,, I don't recall now. anyone else remember what his previous job was in the company?
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http://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt-...kingdom-as-josh-d'amaro-moves-to-new-role.htm

Djuan Rivers has previously served as the general manager of Aulani, and as a vice president, Hotels and Business Solutions at Disneyland Paris. Most recently at Walt Disney World, he had served as general manager of Disney's Wilderness Lodge, and vice president, Downtown Disney.
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Incomudro

Incomudro

Well-Known Member
TyrantBossMedia said:
As I listen to these videos I notice that the people always focus on the same things, floating mountains, giant waterfalls, flying on the banshee, the Na'vi river and a bioluminescent forest.

I hope I am wrong, but I have sneaking suspicion that this is not going to very exciting. It may be pretty boring much like New Fantasyland. I really hope I am wrong, but Disney has not been known to inject much excitement in their newest projects as of late.
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It's supposed to be like Animal Kingdom park is:
Geared for people with an attention span longer than 30 seconds.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
danlb_2000 said:
What makes a land "exciting" for you?
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Personally? 1) variety 2) built environment 3) lots of things to explore and do, most often shops, rides, and restaurants 4) intricate detail - these are in no particular order and, obviously, they all interconnect.

As for Avatar land, it doesn't seem to have a great deal of variety - the landscape they've shown us (and that featured in the film) looks fairly uniform - and both rides seem to explore that same landscape from slightly different angles.

In general, I find built environments far more interesting then landscapes, and I suspect much of the general public is the same. Even in Animal Kingdom, a park focused on human interaction with nature, every area except the Oasis (not an area in which most folks linger) derives most of its interest from human architecture. Even the nature walks wind their way through extensive fake ruins. Again, the closest comparison to Pandora seems to be Jurassic Park at IOA, and Universal recognizes that as a "dead zone" in the park and keeps trying to add interest to it, most recently via Kong. Perhaps one of the most surprising things about Pandora is that Disney didn't find a way to let us explore a Na'Vi village, and in fact wrote the story specifically to make that impossible. Now that I write that, it seems really odd - such a village seems like the #1 thing guests would want to see and the first thing you'd start with when designing the land.

Number 3 is where Diagon Alley and Cars Land excels, of course - you can spend hours exploring the space. That's great from Uni's and Disney's perspective, since it encourages you to buy, buy, buy! As far as I know, Pandora has one restaurant themed to a made-over mess hall, a shop, the cave queues for the rides, and a few outdoor food and merch stands.

I have no doubt the land will be full of intricate details. I'm sure Disney nailed 4.

I actually think NFL gets a slightly bad rap - it only really falls down on number 3. If they had expanded Belle's Village, added another village area, and put in one more dark ride, I think it would have been great.

In short (yeah right) Pandora looks like a neat area to look around for a few minutes, ride the rides, and then take off, probably for the far more intriguing Africa area. In the modern, "immersive" theme park business environment, that's not what you want from a very rare expansion that cost a billion bucks.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
Rteetz said:
Djuan is the VP of AK and most CM's I have seen talk about him like him. I don't believe he has held that role very long.

The videos may seem a bit pointless to us but many in the general Disney fan community have complained that they don't think Avatar fits in AK. These videos help get the message out to those people. It's all in the marketing.
Click to expand...
Djuan became VP of DAK in August of 2014.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Incomudro said:
It's supposed to be like Animal Kingdom park is:
Geared for people with an attention span longer than 30 seconds.
Click to expand...

This is a bit silly. I love AK, but it's still a theme park, not avant garde theatre. How long is the "elite" guest meant to spend staring at elevated rocks?

Also, if it's geared for people with more than 30 second attention spans, maybe the ride should have been longer than 4 minutes.
 
Incomudro

Incomudro

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
This is a bit silly. I love AK, but it's still a theme park, not avant garde theatre. How long is the "elite" guest meant to spend staring at elevated rocks?

Also, if it's geared for people with more than 30 second attention spans, maybe the ride should have been longer than 4 minutes.
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Silly?
If you view what was constructed there as simply "elevated rocks," then there's your problem right there.
Might as well call Cinderella's Castle a fiberglass building.
So, when you walk through AK - it's exciting?
Heck, the Magic Kingdom, and Epcot aren't exciting on the surface either.
Is the World Showcase exciting?
They are beautiful, detailed and intricate lands with some exciting rides in them.
AK in particular is highly detailed, and is a park designed to be immersive and to be one where time is spent to take ones time and look around.
Not just look at things, but look for things.
When my family goes to AK, we walk all the trails. We look for the animals. We go to the aviary and identify the birds and watch them.
We see Flights of Wonder.
We watch the Gibbons.
Nature is like that, it's not all excitement all the time.
Perhaps you need more stimulation?
Maybe the park, maybe Pandora is not for you.
You've got other choices, so why continue to trash something you haven't seen because you believe it fails to meet some excitement level you require?
 

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