With the announcement of the new Avatar themed area that will be going up at Disney’s Animal Kingdom there has been a whirl of emotions from happy to down-right angry! Now before you say that you have officially deemed this as a bad move for Disney please hear me out…maybe you will change your mind.
When I saw the first announcement about the Avatar area at AK I was so happy! I immediately thought to myself, “another genius move on Disney’s part.” The other genius move was the merger with Marvel(I will debate that another time…lol). Well after a few hours of the news going public I began to see that not everyone thought the same way I did. Now, I am totally fine with all of us having different opinions but I just thought that I would try to shed light on why Disney made the choice they did. Here is my disclaimer; I am not a Disney executive, although I would love to be, so the opinions here are in no way shape or form fact…lol just simply my thoughts. :0)
Disney is in an industry where they are in a need to stay fresh and focused, sometimes that means thinking out of the box a bit which may give the wrong impression to outsiders that, well, don’t like a change from what they think things should be like. It is true that Avatar is not a Disney movie and it is true that Animal Kingdom is in dire need of some additions to the park…so why not Avatar? Thomas Smith of Disney Parks Blog had a wonderful comment that summed up why this is such a wonderful change at Animal Kingdom, We believe Disney’s Animal Kingdom is a great fit for this project because it was created to give guests the opportunity to experience the worlds of animals and nature – real and mythical – in new ways. Disney’s Animal Kingdom also celebrates adventure, living in harmony with nature and environmental stewardship – themes that are deeply rooted in the story of AVATAR. After reading his explanation I am not quite sure how I could say that this was a bad move…it is so true! The premise behind the story of Avatar stands for what Walt believed in it is what he stood by…he wanted the world to live together in harmony with nature.
I have spoken with many Disney fans over the past week to find out why they are so against Avatar?? It seems like people have jumped on the bandwagon…just made a choice without seeing all of the facts. Whoa…hold on people…we have not even been presented with any blueprints of the ideas yet. Stop and really think about it, this could be an amazing thing!! One of my fans over at Disney Guru Facebook said, “It is no different than Disney working with George Lucas on Star Wars.” You know what? She is absolutely correct! I can think of plenty more things that are at the parks that Disney has added that are “non Disney”…maybe we just need to give this a whirl. Let’s see what the plans are, then decide how good or bad it is. Give the poor Disney Imagineers a chance to knock your socks off…like they always do! That is after all their goal.
To Sum Up My Thoughts….
No I am not saying that I am totally in LOVE with the idea nor am I saying that I hate the idea. I am just simply saying that change is in the midst and we are going to need to give it a chance or look the other way…what are you going to do?
See ya real soon!
Kelly
Kelly is the Founder/Blogger for Disney Guru as well as a contributing writer for The Affordable Mouse and WDW Fan Zone. She has been visiting Walt Disney World consistently since the age of 2. When she not planning a trip or writing about Walt Disney World, she is dreaming about being there. Kelly, her husband, three children live right outside of Chicago.
I’m maintaining a strict “let’s wait and see” attitude when it comes to the Disney-Avatar project. (But I’ll always have faith and trust in the pixie dust!!)
Love it Kathy!!! :0)
I have no problem with Disney building an Avatar land but I just don’t think it belongs in AK. Yes, Animal Kingdom is in need of some love but I don’t know how this will fit in. I would have no problem with this announcement if it was going to be at the Studios!
Ashleigh that is a wonderful point you bring up! I am very interested to see the final plans for this area and how it all ties in. Thank you so much for your thoughts!
In my opinion, this is not a bad move, but seems that Disney for a very first time didn’t thougth about childrens. I find so fascinating to enjoy a pretty world as Pandora is, and Disney is the best builder for this project. In the need of take the idea first than other franchises like Universal Studios (they made a master move with “Harry Potter”), the “key” is to fit Avatar to the children and then “BOOM” they will have a massive guest wave for the nexts years. The “how” is that i don’t know, but if someone can do this… they are Disney. Saddly i suposse that they will re-theme some atractions like “Its tought to be a bug”.