Backside of FoP/Navi Show Building

[Marc Davis Fan]

The parking lot is the parking lot. I see fences with barbed wire, retention ponds, a stark paved waste land and buses going everywhere. Why if I can see the back of a building is it a big deal?

Seeing show buildings - with parts of the onstage sections visible, thus allowing you to identify them, a la EE and FoP/NRJ - affects the believability of the illusion when you’re inside the park.

 

[USofA scott]

Seeing show buildings - with parts of the onstage sections visible, thus allowing you to identify them, a la EE and FoP/NRJ - affects the believability of the illusion when you’re inside the park.

Like seeing the train enter the Dioramas at Disneyland from the old parking lot? You know, from Walt's days.

 

[yensidtlaw1969]

Like seeing the train enter the Dioramas at Disneyland from the old parking lot? You know, from Walt's days.

That's not really the same, because all of those elements are self-contained - the Train looks like a train from every angle, and the dioramas . . . well, they're framed as dioramas, so seeing that they're in a box isn't destroying any illusion.

I'll say that I remember the uproar when Everest opened and the "shed" out back was visible from the lot - it seemed to be enough that Disney did actually end up addressing it after hearing the reaction online and painted it to look like buildings built into the side of the mountain. That was WAAAAY less obtrusive than the Pandora building, and yet generally the fan mindset now seems to be "some people just can't have any fun". It's funny to see how the mindset has shifted, if a little disappointing. Surely something more could have been done to make that building either more well disguised or less clearly the behind the scenes area of Pandora. If Disney deemed Everest enough of a problem to do something, surely this is worse.

 

[rioriz]

I think this bothers me more because it impacts the 'opening moment' for the park. The rest are not directly visible when approaching the park from the main entrance - obviously this is going to change with Guardians for Epcot.

It's funny that some people view this as nitpicking. DAK is a beautiful theme park, and this exposed building, facing the entrance, is in stark contrast to the rest of the park.

The Exterior of Guardians is not yet known but early concepts had it themed

 

[Imagineer Finlay]

I'm not sure whether this has anything to do with it, but when Imagineers created DAK, they purposefully built the car park with very few trees, to enhance the effect of entering the Oasis. Maybe this adds to that effect? I don't think it completely works.

 

[Driver]

Does the backside of Pandora bother anyone else? The show building is such an eyesore as you approach Disney's Animal Kingdom. Are there any plans to add more greenery or at the very least, paint the exposed show building? Has anyone heard anything?

They actually just planted some additional full grown palm trees on the berm behind the new bus shelter. It was done about two weeks ago.

 

[s8film40]

Still a lot better than seeing cast members in the mcdonalds across the street from Disneyland

192 is so very close to Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom lodge that most CM will go there for lunch. I see CM’s all the time in the restaurants in that section of 192.

 

[Tom Morrow]

I understand there's nothing they can do about seeing it from far away. The only thing that bothered me was how visible the whole thing was from the bus loop entrance. Trees should have been planted right next to the bus road immediately to block the view.

I’m not a fan of Avatar the movie or the Pandora land so it doesn’t really bother me at all. I just kind of cringe and feel embarrassed for the people who designed this stuff, especially being built by a company that used to be known as a leader in theming and showmanship.

The land itself is still masterclass in theme park design when you're actually in it.

 

[OSX]

I thought no one would ever bring this up, that show building can be seen all the way from the bus loop of AK. At least plant some dense trees or something.

 

[Hakunamatata]

The back side of shrubbery is considered offensive in some cultures.

 

[Trackmaster]

This may be a function of Disney finally running out of space at this point. AK is a pretty big park, but when Disney was working with MK and EPCOT, they could design access points so that you only saw what they wanted you to see. HS and AK were added later and kind of squeezed in on the boondocks of Disney property, so they had to make due with the space that they had. If they all of the space in the world, they could bury FOP and Everest towards the back of the park surrounded by tons of forestry where you only went in that area to get on the ride, and behind the ride was just unused forestry.

But I don't think its a huge problem. People are still waiting 2-4 hours just to ride FOP. Everyone gets that its just a ride and you're not actually getting on a banshee. Suspension of disbelief.