Back to Avatar though, I'm sad that Joe felt it necessary to explain how Pandora slots in to Animal Kingdom's message, though I'm glad he's explaining it anyway. I've never understood why anyone would think any different. I agree that it was a knee jerk reaction. I get that people don't want IP in Animal Kingom (unless it was beastly kingdom... which also had IP
![Bang Head :banghead: :banghead:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/banghead.png)
). I also get that many people don't care for Avatar as a story/film. All of that is fine, but it's still beyond me how anyone could think it doesn't fit in AK.
To me, the fact that he, or anyone else, has to explain it is the key. Let's say that they added Australia as a section of the park. Would they be saying the same thing? Would a speech (explanation) be needed or would people just think, "Oh, that makes sense.. It's a natural progression." The fact that they need to explain it tells you something is wrong / doesn't fit.
They didn't explain Star Wars land at DHS. They didn't explain Toy Story Land at DHS. ...because they didn't have to.
If they added Avatar to DHS people would have likely had two thoughts, "Ok.. It belongs... Why that IP??"
I think this is one of those things where Disney missed the boat on HP at Universal and, to combat it, picked Avatar because, way back when, it was what everyone was talking about, and now they're stuck with it (and have to explain why it's there).
Think about Harry Potter over at Universal: Did anyone have to explain why that was there? No. Everyone thought, "Harry Potter at Universal! This is going to be great!!!" It fits. It makes sense. It's a popular IP with familiar characters, story, and music. (same can be said for Star Wars Land and Toy Story Land at DHS).
At the end of the day, it's there, it'll probably look fantastic, and hopefully will pull people in, long term, to DAK. At the same time, it's an odd duck really based on bad management (Guardians of the Galaxy at DCA is another) and there are a lot of folks who may actually end up in awe with it all on it's own but will know, "...it really doesn't belong."
From everything I've read Pandora at DAK will be in 3D so it has that going for it.