AVATAR land - the specifics

RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
One might be tempted to say that it looks like Disney has decided to cut its losses with Avatar.

We know the two E-tickets were downsized to an E and a C, and that the E is less "ambitious" than most of the other E's that Disney has opened at other resorts in the last five years, especially in Asia. (Or was the original plan for three attractions?)

The previous talk about having walk-around characters, more interactive plants and trails, more groundbreaking nighttime tech...

Plus the fact they've jettisoned plans to build Avatar at other resorts...

All of that - plus some of the other critiques -- suggests Disney on some level phoned this in and decided to do the minimum, maybe the minimum that James Cameron would approve.
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As far as I know, the second E-ticket didn't get very far at all. The E and C have seemingly remained largely unchanged since the blueprints leaked.
 
RSoxNo1

RSoxNo1

Well-Known Member
One thing that will definitely be a problem is flash photography on Na'vi River Journey. Everybody wants to take a picture and very few people know what they're doing. If you're using a flash on an attraction like that it's going to look awful.

I swear I yell at someone now on 90% of my rides on Pirates to turn the flash off on their camera.
 
Figment2005

Figment2005

Well-Known Member
Derrit said:
Sorry to ask, but Im really confused due to the conflicting reports. What is the range of motion of these vehicles? How much movement will be involved in this ride?
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They are attached to a Kuka arm type of contraption. Same range of motion. If you did watch the load video you will notice what looks like cutouts under the seats. This is where they extend from the load platform to allow for their motion.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Tahu said:
Avatarland had high expectations attached to it, even with all the heckling that's been going on through its entire development cycle.

I don't think anybody really cares about Toy Story Land. Everybody's already expecting a cheap piece of crap because that's all these Toy Story Lands have ever been.
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Not to mention the fact that Disney World has already had two Toy Story attractions for years.
 
TalkingHead

TalkingHead

Well-Known Member
doctornick said:
I don't get the sense at all that FoP is not being "ambitious". In fact, they seem to have gone all out in trying to convincingly simulate what was probably the seminal experience of the film -- having an Avatar join with a banshee to fly around Pandora.

As for the second attraction, it seems that it is a C the way it always has been. There was never a third attraction or multiple E's or any of that -- any concept in that vein was blue sky and never approved for funding. The leaked blueprints which was before final approval only called the two rides an E and C.
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Pretty sure the original plans included more than Flight and the boat ride, or maybe the boat ride was originally supposed to be longer. Presumably those plans didn't get to the blueprint stage, but that doesn't mean the plans weren't scaled back.

Either way, I've noticed that no one has referred to Flight as a "best ride at the resort" contender whereas Mystic Manor and Shanghai's Pirates have generated that kind of discussion.

I'm sure it will be an anchor E-ticket, but I suspect it's not groundbreaking (and consequently ambitious) like the Spider-man or FJ's Kuka ride systems.
 
M

Matt Stevens

Member
Magicart87 said:
I imagine it's already being tweaked, or will be. There's a slight macabre-feel about it that others have noted. I'm fairly sure they'll be addressing it. You know what it is? I think i's the lack of perceived oxygen, or breathe. There's the twitch of a leg here and there to show movement and life but dead things twitch too. I can see how certain people might perceive a mad-scientist Doc Frankenstein undertone to it, unfortunately.

I think it's the lack of a breathe tube that provides the visual disconnect. But would a breathe tube make sense? It is an Avatar right? Idk. I think too we're predisposed, conditioned to what a dead body looks like and this AA approaches that thanks in-part to it laying horizontal casket style. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.

The uncanny valley and uneasiness some are sensing might can be fixed easy enough with a few more lights, bubbles, a possible breathe tube and a twitch of the eyes or something. Does it need to be fixed? I don't think it does personally but I understand those comments toward it. Not that they will (or should) but I wonder if they'll find a way to animate it more while still keeping it in a lulled stasis dream sleep.
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Think of him as a baby in a womb... that's pretty much what he is :)
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
RSoxNo1 said:
Is the amount of times we see the Na'vi and/or an Avatar of a Na'vi any real different than the amount of times we see Harry Potter in the two worlds?
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No, but Harry himself isn't equivalent to the Na'Vi. Harry would be equivalent to Sully or one of the specific characters from the film. They're nowhere in the land, and that's fine - the characters in Avatar aren't really the memorable part. But the Na'Vi community, like the wizard community, is the unique, more or less fully realized community that the IP centers on, and both the Potter stories and Avatar spend much of their run time introducing us to this world through a surrogate (Harry or Sully) and revealing its inner workings. Learning how these unique communities function is one of the main points of both works. That's why its a bit odd the Na'Vi community is tangential to the land.

As to your earlier post - yeah, I think the Lava Monster and Yeti are great examples of the "AA as isolated spectacle" thing.
 
Casper Gutman

Casper Gutman

Well-Known Member
Tahu said:
Avatarland had high expectations attached to it, even with all the heckling that's been going on through its entire development cycle.

I don't think anybody really cares about Toy Story Land. Everybody's already expecting a cheap piece of crap because that's all these Toy Story Lands have ever been.
Click to expand...

Yeah, TSL is just... there. It represents a lot of negative trends at WDW and missed potential in the MGM redo, so people (and me) will grumble, but it never held any promise. Avatar did, and I actually think its realized quite a bit of it, so the spots where it missed or cut corners are more obvious and grating.

Now, if SWL isn't a grand slam, Potter Swatter, best-of-all-timer... THEN people will erupt.
 
M

Matt Stevens

Member
TalkingHead said:
One might be tempted to say that it looks like Disney has decided to cut its losses with Avatar.

We know the two E-tickets were downsized to an E and a C, and that the E is less "ambitious" than most of the other E's that Disney has opened at other resorts in the last five years, especially in Asia. (Or was the original plan for three attractions?)

The previous talk about having walk-around characters, more interactive plants and trails, more groundbreaking nighttime tech...

Plus the fact they've jettisoned plans to build Avatar at other resorts...

All of that - plus some of the other critiques -- suggests Disney on some level phoned this in and decided to do the minimum, maybe the minimum that James Cameron would approve.
Click to expand...

The new E-ticket attraction is far from "less ambitious"... it's actually an extremely complex ride system...one of, if not the most complex on property
 
T

twebber55

Well-Known Member
TalkingHead said:
Pretty sure the original plans included more than Flight and the boat ride, or maybe the boat ride was originally supposed to be longer. Presumably those plans didn't get to the blueprint stage, but that doesn't mean the plans weren't scaled back.

Either way, I've noticed that no one has referred to Flight as a "best ride at the resort" contender whereas Mystic Manor and Shanghai's Pirates have generated that kind of discussion.

I'm sure it will be an anchor E-ticket, but I suspect it's not groundbreaking (and consequently ambitious) like the Spider-man or FJ's Kuka ride systems.
Click to expand...
for the record Sandra Pedicini was asked if it was better than Forbidden Journey and she said "ooh that's a tough call, visuals better in avatar but i like FJ mix of physical sets and screens"
sounds like they re very close in her book
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Casper Gutman said:
No, but Harry himself isn't equivalent to the Na'Vi. Harry would be equivalent to Sully or one of the specific characters from the film. They're nowhere in the land, and that's fine - the characters in Avatar aren't really the memorable part. But the Na'Vi community, like the wizard community, is the unique, more or less fully realized community that the IP centers on, and both the Potter stories and Avatar spend much of their run time introducing us to this world through a surrogate (Harry or Sully) and revealing its inner workings. Learning how these unique communities function is one of the main points of both works. That's why its a bit odd the Na'Vi community is tangential to the land.

As to your earlier post - yeah, I think the Lava Monster and Yeti are great examples of the "AA as isolated spectacle" thing.
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Interestingly, in both lands the guest becomes the fictional character.
In Diagon Alley, you can acquire gear and training to become a wizard.
In flight of passage, you get transferred into a half-na'vi body.

...now that I think of it, how does that work exactly? If in flight of passage we jump right into an avatar body as it begins to go through a banshee-riding coming-of-age ritual, who was the poor schlub who had to do the hard work of climbing the mountain in those bodies and wrangling onto a wild banshee, just to hop out when the fun part starts?

And how are there enough Avatar bodies up there to ensure a compatible DNA match with all the guests Alpha Centauri Expeditions wants to accommodate? Do they keep a big pile of them sleeping up on the mountain, stacked up like cordwood? Do they have to pay some Na'vi to shoo away all the banshees that try to eat them? Is there a big conveyor belt set up to return all the Avatar bodies to the top of the mountain once the guests are done with them, like at a tube slide at a water park?
 
FigmentForver96

FigmentForver96

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
Interestingly, in both lands the guest becomes the fictional character.
In Diagon Alley, you can acquire gear and training to become a wizard.
In flight of passage, you get transferred into a half-na'vi body.

...now that I think of it, how does that work exactly? If in flight of passage we jump right into an avatar body as it begins to go through a banshee-riding coming-of-age ritual, who was the poor schlub who had to do the hard work of climbing the mountain in those bodies and wrangling onto a wild banshee, just to hop out when the fun part starts?

And how are there enough Avatar bodies up there to ensure a compatible DNA match with all the guests Alpha Centauri Expeditions wants to accommodate? Do they keep a big pile of them sleeping up on the mountain, stacked up like cordwood? Do they have to pay some Na'vi to shoo away all the banshees that try to eat them? Is there a big conveyor belt set up to return all the Avatar bodies to the top of the mountain once the guests are done with them, like at a tube slide at a water park?
Click to expand...
Kind of like in Dinosaur when we're the only ones going on the special mission so don't tell anyone ;)
 
T

twebber55

Well-Known Member
1000x563

somehow i think this land is gonna make it
 

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