It feels different from the rest of the park. That difference was one I was not expecting from the physical side of things. This is only exacerbated by the alien environments. It feels otherworldly in a park designed to celebrate our world. That is also profoundly disappointing. Dino-Roma feels like it belongs more than Pandora does.
Walk through Asia, Africa, and Pandora and it becomes stark one was designed in a microcosm.
That is not to say the land on its own is bad, but it strikes me as lacking harmony with the other lands.
Once again, I feel it is a singularly beautiful art piece. A misplaced one though. The land is gorgeous. I knew it would be, but I was not expecting it to feel odd within Disney's Animal Kingdom. It does. That is disappointing.
It is too alien, too imposing, and too open to truly meld with the park. I knew the story was a stretch, but the environment I thought would blend. It fails in this regard.
The story came after the IP. As long as any serious theme park fan adjusts their expectations accordingly, the story is enjoyable. While not a single one of my story complaints were addressed, it ended up being a fun narrative that does deal with some pretty cool environmental topics. It still does not deal with man's ancient and ongoing relationship with the Earth, but there are neat lessons to learn.
I would say within the constraints the Imagineers were working with, they did pretty much the best job possible. This could have been awful, but they did a pretty great work. All the same, the IP was an immediate compromise and a disappointing one. If only Pandora had been something else. The story integrity of Disney's Animal Kingdom would have been upheld. That was not to be, but at least they brought it as close as possible. Still it bodes poorly for the future...
