I don't doubt Avatar will be made, and maybe it will be popular and I am wrong about my bad feelings about it. However I do think some things need to be addressed...
Aliens? - Disney's Animal Kingdom does focus on animals, and even fictional ones at that. However in the entire history of culture, aliens have been done hundreds of times. Nothing about Avatar's aliens are noteworthy and there is no connection between them and man in real life. What I mean by this is, Dragons and Yetuis have long been mythicized as being real, as people even go out looking for them. They affect the cultures of that region and become legendary. Dragons for example have effected dozens of cultures including notably China. Avatar has none of that. There never has been an expedition in real life to go find the Na'Vi. As aliens go, the perceived Roswell Aliens, Yoda, Superman, Klingons, Optimus Prime and dozens of others have had far more reaching effect on society then Avatar ever has or will. Though it bombed as a movie John Carter has had far more influence as it inspired Avatar.
-John Carter when on Mars his duplicate is asleep on Earth
-Upon arriving he has powers beyond what he used to
-Main character falls in love with the alien princess and fights for her cause.
-Main character chooses to live on then alien world as apposed to go back home
At least John carter has been around for 100 years and has influenced our culture. Avatar has done nothing except be a very successful movie. John Carter influenced among others Star Wars, Avatar, and Superman (originally Superman couldn't fly and could only "leap tall buildings in a single bound). Cameron even stated Carter was the influence of Avatar, the only difference was he made the planet more lush and tropical then the dry, desert martian surface. At least Woola and the White Apes have appeared in comics and other mediums. Lord of the Rings has far more cultural significance and legendary animals then does Avatar.
Conservation? - Yes it is true conservation is prevalent in Avatar, but that's the case for hundreds of movies and stories. Superman (another alien) comes to earth to protect it so that what happened to Krypton does not happen to the Earth. Optimus Prime (another alien) comes to Earth to protect it from having the same fate as Cybertron. Wall-E unquestionably has a conservation message, but he hardly fits in at Animal Kingdom since Wall-E is a robot. What really makes Avatar any different. It's animals are meaningless for the most part. These threads have been going on for a long time, yet no one mentions the great and awesome animals were even talking about. Wall-E cockroach friend is better known then the animals in Avatar. Avatar had that one cat thingy, the hammerheaded rhino guy, that pseudo-dragon thing they rode around in and the Na'Vi. Hardly what I would call headliners. Pocahontas, Fern Gulley, Mighty Joe Young, all have conservation messages...to think Avatars is abopve this or even better done to me is pushing it.
Cultural significance?- Avatar has very little in the grand scheme of things. It hasn't branched out into other forms of media. few people on the street can name characters from it. I guarantee more people are familiar with the Kraken in Pirates then they are any animal from Avatar. Dragons, Pegasus, unicorn, Loch ness Monster, Godzilla, minotaur, Hydras, all easily dwarf anything remotely associated with Avatar. Though Universal did an area on mythic animals, it hardly means that is completely covered by any stretch of the imagination. There are hundreds of rides you could make involving dragons. Dueling Dragons is hardly the only option there.
Sci-Fi Planet - Animal Kingdom to this point is very routed in Earth, which the Na'Vi haven't even been on. In order to experience the environment, Pandora will have to be the name of the land, which is a completely different planet. Do you just walk in and poof your on the planet. Do you have to ride something to get there? Everything humanoid in Avatar is mechanical and war related. Are those giant mech like suits going to be in Animal Kingdom? They hardly fit in.
I very much like Disney, and Animal Kingdom and I see this as a money grab that I believe will hurt the park. Your investing a ton of money and land into a franchise that though it was successful, is hardly historic. LOTS of movies were big movies at one point and fade. It's utterly idiotic that Star Wars has one building, but Avatar is getting it's own land??? Indiana Jones has one show, but Avatar is getting it's own land??? Not to mention One Hundred and One Dalmatians, a movie Disney owns, and a movie bigger then Avatar when figuring inflation has little to nothing in the parks. Wall-E.....nothing. Animal Kingdom has no bears, no oceans, little Australia, and little Amazon represented. Instead of going those routes we're going to make an entire section based on a movie people on the street can't even name a character from?? I think they are trying to exploit Avatar's box-office to get more people to come to Animal Kingdom. From a business standpoint it makes immediate sense, but in the long run it doesn't as Star Wars, Indy, Harry Potter etc have shelf life. Avatar as we've already seen hasn't. When Disney builds attractiosn they look to them as they will be there for a long time, unlike most other them parks. More kids associate the word Avatar with The Last Airbender cartoon then do the movie. With Disney's finances they could even exploit the popularity of their rivals and try to be the first zoo in the US with a Tazmanian Devil, or they could exploit the fame of Madagascar and get more animals from that island since it is so unique.Pandas are popular due to the animal themselves and Kung Fu Panda, but they aren't going to do that either.
To me sticking Avatar in Animal Kingdom amounts to sticking Optimus Prime in Animal Kingdom. They arte both aliens, and though Avatars message was far more prevalent then transformers, they both are basically the same thing. The only difference is people have been able to name Optimus Prime, Bumbkebee, and megatron for 3 decades.
