Why a Land Themed to a Great IP Matters- Short Version

[Florida_is_hot]

Avatarland if it comes is better than nothing.
I believe nothing is plan B, if Avatarland does not happen nothing would be built.

 

[BalooChicago]

oh lordy the koalas....you know those razor sharp claws nature gave them to climb trees?

I thought that was Mark Hamill at first! (Would explain why he looks as he does )

 

[ctxak98]

It really depends on the property and how rich a setting might possibly be for exploration and how much you can actually build from the source as far as IP-based lands go. Carsland was kind of a case of overdoing it, but Lasseter's weird obsession with the franchise actually ended up paying off and it's expansion of Radiator Springs compensates for the flaws of the source material and it ends up being a pretty good Route 66 land. The Beauty and the Beast section of New Fantasyland is incredibly successful at bringing in all the key locations of the movie to life. Universal's doing a great job bringing the settings of Harry Potter to life (though I don't like Dueling Dragons being a naked coaster) and Springfield's turning out pretty decent for the limitations they had.

Avatar is a movie that was more green-screen then anything else and it'll probably rely a lot on simulators more then anything else. And aside from riding with blue pterodactyls, none of the animals really stand out as creatures that'd be interesting to have an experience with seeing as they're just blue recolors of Earth animals with extra limbs. It just seems like a property that could really only support a standalone ride rather then a full land. You have a queue in the human base, then you go out exploring Pandora on a simulator and paint with all the shades of blue of the wind and that's really all you can do with it because we cannot build real flying mountains.

While I do agree that they will leave a majority of Pandora exploration to the simulator, There is still SOOOO much they could. Pandora is a planet. In one simulator we couldn't possibly hit EVERY destination. There are so many places that could be made in the process even if they aren't in the movie. Heck there are other tribes out there!

I think the plant life, and animal life alone will be awesome features. I see this maybe all indoor? but have it dark as to not know you are inside??? like hoe E.T. does there walkthrough of the forest before getting on the bikes?

I don't know I am not designing it but I still am pumped and believe it could go very far!

 

[FettFan]

You know what would be a better fit for DAK than Avatar?

WALL-E. Think about it...the park's main theme is ecosystems and conservation. What better way to hammer the point home than to have people walking through a recreated wasteland of junk? Set the land after the movie, with the humans re-learning how to take care of the land, farm, and live sustainably.
Restaurants could include a counter service place that serves vegetarian pizza as well as a "juice bar" of sorts...organic smoothies and shakes. The juice bar building could be built to look like the humans took it out of the Axiom and repurposed it to be a healthier version of the slurpee/icee things they were hovering around with.

I don't know I am not designing it but I still am pumped and believe it could go very far!

The additional problem comes with the fact that the PG-13 elements of the movie (namely the military and the love story, both of which comprise about 90% of the final film) are all going to be trimmed down to next-to-nothingness in favor of the "family harmony" aspect of it.
Which will be boring.

 

[righttrack]

And when the IP the land is based on is out of popularity and suddenly you're stuck with a completely dead area?

Well look at Splash Mountain. Still an attraction that pulls them in, day after day. People just a year or two younger than me never saw the original movie, nor was exposed to it in any way. Sometimes the ride can tell the story for you. Sometimes you have to read the book or movie.

 

[Sped2424]

Like Muppetvision?

Im going to send you a muppet care package. will have you singing rainbow connection by the spring.

 

[luv]

It doesn't take Star Wars to create fantastic word-of-mouth...and Star Wars alone won't be enough to create it, anyway.

Disney vacations aren't cheap. If they want people to go home raving about WDW, they need make the place worth raving about. Adding a land or two wont cut it.

They need to make the place look good. This begins with picking up the trash, which gets worse all the time, especially in queue areas. After they pick up the trash, I'll give them another pointer.

 

[blueboxdoctor]

It's more like a novelty thing to base something on what's current, which is kind of why Hollywood Studios needs an update (yeah, Indiana Jones is classic, but come on, how many times can I watch the guy run away from the boulder?).

As for the whole Avatar thing, at this point it seems like James Cameron doesn't even care much about it, which if true would make sense since he made his millions on an awful movie. They should, if anything, have a land for Pocahontas, it's the same story and at least it's Disney.

 

[lego606]

Well look at Splash Mountain. Still an attraction that pulls them in, day after day. People just a year or two younger than me never saw the original movie, nor was exposed to it in any way. Sometimes the ride can tell the story for you. Sometimes you have to read the book or movie.

Well, was it ever Song of the South Splash Mountain?People see it as unattached to a franchise imo

 

[righttrack]

Well, was it ever Song of the South Splash Mountain?People see it as unattached to a franchise imo

Sure, now they do. I think there was a time where people did see it attached to Song of the South. Minus a hive of bees it is completely true to the tales in the movie. This ride is a great exception and rose to prominence at a time when political correctness had not reached current levels. I may have chosen a bad example in my OP, but my point is that if the ride tells the story, sometimes that's all that matters. Likewise, if Radiator Springs is a good ride that can tell a story, it might live beyond the generation that sees the movie.

 

[FigmentJedi]

Sure, now they do. I think there was a time where people did see it attached to Song of the South. Minus a hive of bees it is completely true to the tales in the movie.

There were hives of bees in the movie with the Laughing Place story. They just became an appropriate transition spot in the ride for doing the Tar Baby story without the Tar Baby because of PC reasons.

 

[Dragonrider1227]

I'm with everyone else when they say yes to Star Wars land and Cars land but no to Avatarland. Partially because I'm not a fan of the movie, partially because I don't know if it'll have the staying power of Star Wars or even Cars. But then, I think some people thought the same thing when George Lucas was first released Star Wars so you just never really know. We'll have to see when the sequel comes out.
You make a point about popular movies suddenly losing popularity and suddenly the land based on it is no longer relevant but you also have the opposite problem with an attraction or land with absolutely nothing familiar connected to it. Lands based on popular movies may lose popularity over time, but lands based on nothing risk NEVER finding an audience. I know when I was a kid, there were very few attractions I enjoyed at Disney World that were not connected to something established and familiar. The only exceptions for me was Jungle Cruise, It's a Small World, and Journey into Imagination. Everything else that didn't have established characters that I was already familiar with either bored me or scared me.