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>> James Cameron: I don't know if I can even express how it feels to see something that I imagined,
suddenly made physically real
it's like a pinch me moment
we're literally on Pandora
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>> Joe Rohde: Pandora, is the moon that is the focus of the story of Avatar.
>> James Cameron: Pandora is kind of the Garden of Eden or untouched nature,
it's something that we imagined that we
used to have. That we yearn for deep in our soul.
Disney came to us with the idea of a land. A place where you could come and just be in the world of Pandora.
>> Jon Landau: And we started talking about what a land of Pandora could be like.
Bob Iger saw an opportunity to put it at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
>> Joe Rohde: The value system that underlies the story of Avatar and the value system
that underlie Animal Kingdom are pretty much the same.
>> Jon Landau: There is an intrinsic value of nature.
>> Dr. Anne Savage: How do we conserve this habitat and bring back habitat that's been disturbed by people.
>> James Cameron: It wasn't just gonna be about action and conflict. We were gonna move past that.
We're here long after the war between the humans and the Navi has ended. It's a time of peace.
>> Joe Rohde: We see nature resurgent, coming back everywhere.
>> James Cameron: This is a real ecosystem.
>> Joe Rohde: It is a chance to have your own adventures on and off.
>> Jon Landau: When you're building a world for guests to explore,
you have to build it in full 360.
>> Joe Rohde: I have never worked on anything as technically challenging and fantastically complex.
To have these gigantic mountains suspended overhead,
their office storeys tall, and they're hanging over your head in the middle of this land.
I just don't know where there's anything like that.
>> Jon Landau: I think the biggest challenge was creating interactive opportunities for guests.
Where they feel engaged by it.
>> Joe Rohde: This is in a way a kind of habitat restoration project.
To allow the force of Eywa to resurge. You get in here and it's almost
like you're petting an animal right, you get in contact with that surface the
contacts the nerve structure and then the whole thing starts to send
spores off and then down the valley there's tons of little ones that are starting to grow.
You should be thinking of our lands as characters.
The land is portraying the emotion. The land is teaching you how to respond and what
it means to be in the place.
>> Denise Imhoff: We took a research trip to Pali and Jakarta
to work with indigenous people they're doing some of the creative weaving and
carving that the indigenous people on Pandora would do.
So in the land, there's going to be several large totems, probably about 20 feet tall. They're all
woven all difference. They'll represent different clans of Navi.
>> Jennifer Gerstin: Authenticity is important because it's a real place, and we want you to feel that.
>> Jon Landau: It's a real world experience.
We are taking guests on excursions that come out of the cultures of Pandora.
Jim this is the Navi drum circle and this would be something that
guests can interact on their own.
>> James Cameron: So you can walk right in to here and interact with
these. This is for performers, this is for guests.
>> Joe Rohde: Drums are like art.
>> James Cameron: Let's get on the drums and make some music, let's dance.
>> Joe Rohde: It's a place where there's room for you to be you.
>> Jon Landau: For those who want to seek it out, and to see if they have what it
takes to connect with a banshee. As an Avatar, and fly over the landscape of
Pandora, we offer that as well.
>> James Cameron: You're gonna plunge, you're gonna dive, you're gonna swoop, you're gonna you're
gonna see the world flying through it.
>> Jon Landau: One of the great things about working
with Disney's Imagineers, is being able to take our technology that we're using
on Avatar and combining it with what they do in theme parks. And bring the two
together to create something that is truly revolutionary in the theme park experience.
>> Joe Rohde: The sensation of flying, is really visceral, really believable.
>> James Cameron: I know all the mechanics behind, all the engineering, all the stuff that goes into
the imagery and I can't believe it.
>> Joe Rohde: And depending on where you sit, you get
different kinds of sub stories. The top floor experiences way more ducking of
the bottom floor experiences way more of that rushing sensation of stuff going by.
>> James Cameron: You could come here... 50 times and have 50 different stories.
>> Joe Rohde: It's just the sheer richness of detail that is impossible to absorb in a single setting.
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>> James Cameron: You'll see a building that's obviously a human building. You know they're from the
RDA, they're the bad guys of the movie. But wait a minute, the jungle is reclaiming.
The roots are breaking up the concrete it's all going back.
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>> Joe Rohde: Everything you see that is a Pandoran plant is a controlled source of light. >> James Cameron: um-hum.
>> Joe Rohde: So we can send waves and pulses through the landscape. We can throw focus.
>> James Cameron: When you go tonight, it transitions to something quite exotic and magical.
Because there's a whole different color palette. That's when the Purple's come out.
The cyan colors come out and these soft pastels and it becomes very dreamlike.
Night was the time when you saw the connectivity behind everything
almost the nervous system of the forest. How everything was tied together.
The river journey is such a beautiful experience.
You really feel like you're
moving through the rainforest at night. So the colors of the bioluminescence and
all the animals that come out at night. You see all these little vignettes going
on around you in the forest. And it just it just comes to life. And then of course
I don't want to spoil it, but there's something pretty amazing at the end of
that river ride that you've never seen anything like in your life.
Can we come down here and shoot some scenes?
It's spectacular from every angle.
>> Jon Landau: There is a story behind this land. And we want
people to feel that story when they enter the land, when they go on the
excursions we have here in the land, and when they leave the land and get back to their homes.
>> James Cameron: This is real, and you're getting to walk into it walk around it
and study it and it and it it just holds up and gets more beautiful as you do it.
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>> Joe Rohde: Pandora is a world of adventure. When you finally get there and you really look
around you will see there's this little adventurous edge.
>> Dr. Anne Savage: You get the opportunity to see how important nature is to the Navi.
They really value conserving nature and that's something that we epitomize here
at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
>> James Cameron: It's about reconnecting an audience with that
almost childlike wonder and appreciation that you have for the natural world.
And how it feeds our soul.
>> Joe Rohde: So that when you go to some other real place
you bring that with you.
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>> Jon Landau: To leave with a different view on the world itself
amazing.
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>> James Cameron: I don't think there's any way to be ready for what you're gonna experience.
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