AVATAR progress

[Magenta Panther]

Avatarland will be huge, more so than Carsland at DCA.

If Cameron is adding input, the man is a perfectionist, this won't be done on the cheap or sacrificed in quality. Disney mentions it anytime they can, this is going to be huge.


Jimmy Thick- The future of themed lands lives here...

Ehhhh, no. Children love "Cars". Families love "Cars". Children and families do not love "Avatar" in the same way. Just eye-candy-addicted fanbois and worshippers of James Cameron love "Avatar". FACT!

 

[danlb_2000]

His perfectionism pays off when he's actually left to his own devices and allowed to not do things cheaply. He is often allowed this leeway when he's making his own movies. That's not the case here. Disney corporate heads are in charge of approving the budget. And besides being stingy in the first place, their incredible bloat and wastefulness cause projects to cost immensely more than it should for their relative quality. Going over budget is not something Disney (modern Disney anyways) is going to allow him to do. And whatever Cameron wants to do is inevitably going to cost way more than Disney will allow. We already know from the insiders here that the expansion has shrunk a lot from some of the original concepts and proposals.

Cameron likely has little to no say in the matter of budget besides begging (and unlike Tony Baxter and probably Lasseter, he likely has no real political ammo/dirt to threaten them with to get his way). If a decent budget isn't approved (which is highly plausible and even likely given Disney's track record), there's really nothing he can do about cheapness. Even his role as a creative force on the project is probably very limited.

I wonder what kind of veto power Cameron has in this process. I can't imagine him accepting a deal where he didn't get final veto power of what gets built.

 

[danlb_2000]

Ehhhh, no. Children love "Cars". Families love "Cars". Families do not love "Avatar" in the same way. Just eye-candy-addicted fanbois and worshippers of James Cameron love "Avatar". FACT!

I would agree with this. As much as I like the Avatar idea, I am really looking forward to this being built, I don't think it's going to be as big a draw as Carsland. If it is done well, and has at least one innovative attraction it should be a solid addition to the park and stand the test of time even if the franchise doesn't.

 

[doctornick]

It's also been revealed that the e-ticket won't be a simulator.

Well, let's be more specific...

The insiders here have said that the ride will not be like Soarin' where you are suspended and just watching a screen. The E-ticket won't be a simulator like Star Tours either where you are in a vehicle that moves watching the screen. As mentioned, the leaked plans from before correspond to an option that is no longer being developed.

IIRC, the information we've gotten is that the ride would involve moving from place to place, but also would be screen based. People brought up the Vekoma ride platform called Pandora's Box and there are indications that this might be similar to that in some way (but is not that specific ride system). Personally, I'm picturing something in the Spiderman/Transformers vein.

 

[prfctlyximprct]

Can't Cameron just fork over his own money? Meh, Avatar

 

[DisneyChick123]

Am I the only one who spends a whole day at Animal Kingdom– from opening to closing– just because I love being there?

NOPE! I DO! AK is my second fave park, i go twice the week that we're there!

 

[Killnme]

We were at AK yesterday. I was talking to a friend of mine who works with the Tigers, and Bats and she said even the CMs haven't heard any more news about Avatar coming to AK.

 

[Cody5242]

I would agree with this. As much as I like the Avatar idea, I am really looking forward to this being built, I don't think it's going to be as big a draw as Carsland. If it is done well, and has at least one innovative attraction it should be a solid addition to the park and stand the test of time even if the franchise doesn't.

I think Avatar Land would be bigger because more people have seen Avatar than Cars. Home media sales were also huge with over 10.5 million sales so far. The reason why Avatar was such a hit was because of how amazing the world of Pandora was. The draw will be experiencing Pandora and its state of the art E ticket

 

[twebber55]

I think Avatar Land would be bigger because more people have seen Avatar than Cars. Home media sales were also huge with over 10.5 million sales so far. The reason why Avatar was such a hit was because of how amazing the world of Pandora was. The draw will be experiencing Pandora and its state of the art E ticket

i agree Cody i think Avatar has a chance to be huge and bigger than cars land but it all comes down to budget, cameron , and imagineering doing quality work

if avatar is uniquely themed, has a great e ticket it will be big

just my opinion

 

[GoofGoof]

His perfectionism pays off when he's actually left to his own devices and allowed to not do things cheaply. He is often allowed this leeway when he's making his own movies. That's not the case here. Disney corporate heads are in charge of approving the budget. And besides being stingy in the first place, their incredible bloat and wastefulness cause projects to cost immensely more than it should for their relative quality. Going over budget is not something Disney (modern Disney anyways) is going to allow him to do. And whatever Cameron wants to do is inevitably going to cost way more than Disney will allow. We already know from the insiders here that the expansion has shrunk a lot from some of the original concepts and proposals.

Cameron likely has little to no say in the matter of budget besides begging (and unlike Tony Baxter and probably Lasseter, he likely has no real political ammo/dirt to threaten them with to get his way). If a decent budget isn't approved (which is highly plausible and even likely given Disney's track record), there's really nothing he can do about cheapness. Even his role as a creative force on the project is probably very limited.

I still think Cameron can push for quality. Didn't Carsland go pretty far over budget? When the right people push for it, TWDC will spend.

 

[Gabe1]

Well, let's be more specific...

The insiders here have said that the ride will not be like Soarin' where you are suspended and just watching a screen. The E-ticket won't be a simulator like Star Tours either where you are in a vehicle that moves watching the screen. As mentioned, the leaked plans from before correspond to an option that is no longer being developed.

IIRC, the information we've gotten is that the ride would involve moving from place to place, but also would be screen based. People brought up the Vekoma ride platform called Pandora's Box and there are indications that this might be similar to that in some way (but is not that specific ride system). Personally, I'm picturing something in the Spiderman/Transformers vein.

Lol. If true, what irony.

 

[englanddg]

Lol. If true, what irony.

Very sad irony...

 

[englanddg]

I think Avatar Land would be bigger because more people have seen Avatar than Cars. Home media sales were also huge with over 10.5 million sales so far. The reason why Avatar was such a hit was because of how amazing the world of Pandora was. The draw will be experiencing Pandora and its state of the art E ticket

Viewing is not a reflection of recollection.

I've seen Avatar more times than I've seen Oliver and Company, but I can still hum along to the Billy Joel song, but can't recall the main theme music of Avatar at all...

Going even further, I've seen Stargate exactly once in my lifetime, but I can still explain the plot, and yet I own Avatar on DVD and can't name a main character, much less the details of the plot, outside of it being a high tech Fern Gully...

While I'm sure my state is not universal, I'm quite sure it is not exclusive.

While sales does deserve a crown, sales is a very short sighted "king"...

 

[RunnerEd]

I would agree with this. As much as I like the Avatar idea, I am really looking forward to this being built, I don't think it's going to be as big a draw as Carsland. If it is done well, and has at least one innovative attraction it should be a solid addition to the park and stand the test of time even if the franchise doesn't.

I think you really nailed the concept. I'm not a huge Avatar advocate and can think of a lot of things that I would rather see built, if this is it, then I hope they blow my mind. I recent

 

[Californian Elitist]

Avatar Land will be huge, more so than Cars Land at DCA.

Fixed.

You haven't even seen concept artwork for Avatar Land, so how can you make this statement?

 

[billDozer]

i think a few at wdi jumped the gun when they heard people were having avatar depression because they couldnt be in pandora

 

[MerlinTheGoat]

I still think Cameron can push for quality. Didn't Carsland go pretty far over budget? When the right people push for it, TWDC will spend.

Lasseter was apparently one of the people who ensured Cars turned out as well as it did and got the budget needed. And apparently one of the reasons he was able to do this is because he is a high tier figure at Disney and has collected a lot of political leverage and dirt to threaten the corporate heads with. I doubt Cameron has anything like that kind of power to get the job done right. There were passionate creative people who actually had political power at Disney that fought to get DCA the quality it needed to succeed. And besides Tony Baxter and perhaps a few others (who still haven't been very successful at turning WDW around so far in spite of their efforts), there don't seem to be many people interested in standing behind WDW. I doubt Avatar is going to have anyone with that sort of political power willing to fight for its quality. It doesn't matter how creative, charismatic or good at begging you are. As mentioned in regards to Tony Baxter on these forums, what matters at Disney is how much dirt you can dig up and threaten the leaders with.

There's also the fact that DCA was in a truly dire state attendance wise before the makeover. I don't know the exact numbers offhand, but while i'm sure it's lower than it needs to be, i'm guessing AK still isn't in as bad of a situation as DCA was pre-makeover. Disney is also well aware that modern WDW guests are easier to please and manipulate than Disneyland goers, they have lower standards and don't band together to protest for quality like Disneyland goers do (this most likely because a huge amount of modern WDW guests probably never even visited the parks prior to EPCOT's mutilation or have little to no experience with any other Disney park to know better). The corporate heads know that what they can't easily get away with in CA, they can much more easily get away with at WDW.

So basically my point is that there were a lot of factors ensuring quality at the DCA expansion that i'm very doubtful are also all present involving Avatar Land.

 

[space42]

Link please

“I definitely want to do a flight attraction of some kind,” the director said, citing the “Soarin’ Over California” flying ride at Disney’s California Adventure Park in Anaheim as a personal favorite. “Flying is a big part of the movie. One of the things people liked the most at test screenings was going up into the floating mountains in the flying sequences. We may have banshees, Leonopteryxes, maybe some other flying creatures that don’t make their appearance until the second and third films.” - James Cameron

Source is http://herocomplex.latimes.com/unca...-avatar-land-to-look-feel-smell-like-pandora/

 

[Wikkler]

Cars Land is huge, more so than Avatarland will be at DAK.

Fixed for you...

 

[CDavid]

I think Avatar Land would be bigger because more people have seen Avatar than Cars. Home media sales were also huge with over 10.5 million sales so far. The reason why Avatar was such a hit was because of how amazing the world of Pandora was. The draw will be experiencing Pandora and its state of the art E ticket

There may be a greater total number of viewers/DVD sales for Avatar, but very likely a higher proportion of Cars viewers/DVD sales who actually visit (or could be enticed to) Animal Kingdom. Most WDW guests are probably going to be more interested and excited for Carsland than Avatar.