Like so many places at Walt Disney World, Pandora was once just a place from a movie until Imagineers chose to create some magic. They lovingly constructed a fictional world in our reality, bringing James Cameron’s vision to life for all to celebrate. Today, let’s take a look at this spectacularly themed land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to appreciate exactly what Imagineers have accomplished. Here are several amazing facts about Pandora – The World of Avatar.
The park cost half a billion dollars
Avatar the movie is the most successful movie production ever. With $2.788 billion, it has earned more global box office revenue than any other film in history. While history remembers it as a huge success, the production was notoriously troubled. Writer/director James Cameron started working on the project in 1994, a full 15 years before it entered theaters. After he made Titanic, Cameron spent the body of a decade tinkering with the technology needed to bring the fictional planet of Pandora to life onscreen.
Fittingly, Pandora – The World of Avatar followed a similar trajectory. In 2011, the Walt Disney Company revealed their plans to construct an entire themed land based on the film. Said land wouldn’t open until the summer of 2018. And it also cost a fortune. Disney spent $500 million on Pandora, making it one of their most expensive themed lands ever.
The showiest sign of Pandora’s cost floats in the sky. The Valley of Mo’ara shown in the movie is lovingly recreated in the World of Avatar. Thanks to some clever engineering, the structural beams for this series of artificial mountains aren’t visible. They look like the planet’s core of Unobtanium has come with the odd side effect of floating mountains. Disney’s known and loved for their ability to craft manmade mountains, but the Valley of Mo’ara is their masterpiece.
Pandora is a world unto itself
Have you ever seen Mickey Mouse walking through Pandora? Of course not. Imagineers care about the immersive nature of Pandora. Their sole hope for your visit here is that you’ll believe that you’re on a tour of the beautiful world seen in Avatar. Many of the effects here foster that perception. A Disney character wouldn’t have any reason to visit Pandora, and so park planners firewalled this part of Animal Kingdom from character greetings.
You’ll appreciate the immersive nature of Pandora in many other ways. For example, the aforementioned Valley of Mo’ara contains a secret. In the Pandora movie franchise, humans are waging war against the local Na’Vi and other species. Their goal is to corner the market on Unobtanium.
The Pandora that you visit is in a timeline several centuries after the wars have ended. Still, some remnants remain. One of them is a twin-blade helicopter that humans used to navigate the uneven lands of the planet. The next time you’re at the Valley of Mo’ara, pay attention to the moss in the trees. You may not have even noticed that nature has absorbed a long-forgotten helicopter and turned it into a part of the jungle!
Little touches like this populate Pandora. Disney even doubled down on the waterfalls. These beautiful nature streams are both comforting to see and soothing to hear. Well, the dirty secret of the World of Avatar is that some of the waterfalls are fake! Yes, some are real, but Imagineers couldn’t use actual waterfalls to fill in the back parts of the themed land. Instead, they had to improvise, using forced perspective to foster the illusion of waterfalls deeper into the jungle. Pay attention to the top of Avatar Flight of Passage to understand Disney’s clever way of adding to the comfortable backgrounds of Pandora.
Pandora has days and nights
The time of day that you visit Pandora directly impacts the sights and sounds of the themed land. Imagineers created Pandora under the auspice that it’s a real place. You’re a tourist visiting a different planet. During your trip, you’ll discover that a solar day at Pandora has its own quirks. Some creatures are more likely to appear during daylight hours, while others are creatures of the night.
The background “noise” at Pandora comes from the planet’s residents. Unseen predators and prey inhabit the places you can’t quite visit. You can hear them, though. And the sounds they make hint at their moods, their current needs, and their opinions of your presence on their land. Sometimes, you’ll hear chattering that comes from a predator alerting its pack to your presence.
Image: DisneyIn other instances, the sounds stem from two different species, ones who have a cordial relationship. One will alert the other to the presence of a killer in the area. The attention to detail here is breathtaking. Disney wants you to feel like you’re in the jungle, and the sound effects are crucial to this suspension of reality.
Pandora has its own language
Image: DisneyJames Cameron is *ahem* obsessive about accuracy in his storytelling. He’s a lot like Walt Disney in this way, and Avatar is a wonderful example of this passion for authenticity. Cameron hired linguists to make up a fictional language for the Na’Vi, the eight-foot-tall blue creatures that comprise the planet’s populace. The actors on the set including Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, and Sigourney Weaver all had to learn how to recite lines of dialogue in Na’Vi. Cameron would yell, “Cut!” and stop the scene whenever one of them mispronounced one of these (fake) words.
Avatar the film had roughly 1,000 words in the language. To make their version of Pandora as accurate as possible, cast members had to learn how to speak Na’Vi, too. While the world of Avatar doesn’t feature any Na’Vi walking around the themed land, the premise is that Alpha Centauri Expeditions (ACE) operates tours for visitors to the planet. Since they’re people who live on Pandora, it wouldn’t make sense for them to know no Na’Vi.
Image: DisneyYes, Disney had to train cast members on how to speak a non-existent language from a movie. The cool part is that these same cast members, err, Alpha Centauri Expeditions tour guides, want to teach you the language. When you see someone in ACE outfit, walk up to them and say, “Kaltxi!” That’s Na’Vi for “Hello!” The tour guide help you learn key words that every theme park tourist needs to know like “syuve” or “fnga.” You know them as “food” and “bathroom.” After a few visits to this themed land, you may converse in basic Na’Vi!
The past and the present merge in odd ways
Image: DisneyBeyond the moss-covered helicopter, this themed land tells the history of Pandora in unexpected and delightful ways. Disney builds the story through background props. Perhaps the best example is the line queue for Avatar Flight of Passage. It’s the longest waiting area in Disney history, but it’s more than merely a pragmatic way to address large crowds of ride fans. It’s also the place that reveals the dark and turbulent story of the Avatar film franchise.
We’re only one movie into a five-film story. Even though Disney didn’t own Avatar at the time, they still wanted to demonstrate respect toward Cameron in his storytelling. Setting the themed land well into the future helps Cameron avoid continuity errors in the franchise. Plus, park planners get to tell their own stories about what happened to Pandora in the interim.
The extended line queue for Avatar Rite of Passage displays much of this history in a meticulously measured fashion. Guests exit the dangerous jungles of Pandora and head into the building where the attraction resides. To keep the immersive experience alive, guests technically head into an abandoned science facility, one similar to the Resources Development Center shown in the movie.
Along the path, you’ll bear witness to the abandoned military facility that protected the dark sciences at play. People from a foreign planet (Earth) built these bunkers to defend their corporate employees as they stole Unobtanium from the locals. They’ve since fallen into disrepair, as Pandora is now a peaceful place. For this reason, the structure itself will feel like any dilapidated government facility you’ve ever visited.
You’ll remember that you’re in a faraway land as you go deeper into the building. You’ll start to see bioluminescent plants left free to grow unabated. Since this part of the area isn’t in use, it’s all botany without human interference.
Once you reach your destination, the nature of the facility changes. The Avatar program is up and running again, now under the guidance of more reliable and decent scientists. This part of the building is much livelier, and it even includes a basketball court similar to the one seen in the movie.
As you learn about the ride, your journey through the history of Pandora has ended. You started in a militaristic structure built by money-driven warmongers. Now, you’re ready to fly through Pandora like one of the locals thanks to the dedicated workers who restored this base. It’s the entire history of war and peace over centuries, told by Imagineers in a few clever set pieces. The ride perfectly encapsulates the greatness of Pandora – The World of Avatar, the most immersive themed land Disney has ever created.
