Avatar experience coming to Disneyland

[ClaraOswald]

I 100% agree with you here. While Bugs Land was for kids, I still loved spending time there. The lush greenery, the intimate feel...it was just perfect. Avengers Campus feels depressing. It's a sea of asphalt and concrete. Lol your description of being themed to warehouses is spot on!

YES! And it's just so hot and sunny walking through there. The most time I've spent in that land has literally just been a quick walk through and then riding on Spiderman.

 

[BrianL]

To argue the other side;
The guy in the wheelchair
the alien love interest
The alien grandma
The alien bro-dudes
the geeky guy
the smart doctor lady
the flying thingys
the mean flying thingys
the rhino thingys
the wolf like alien things
the bad guys with all the big machines

But most of all, PANDORA.
Which is to say, I don't know the movie all that well BUT I'll take a Pandora land over any Marvel campus - WOW is that dull! It's helpful to see the 1st movie before visiting Pandora. I saw the land first and it was cool, but when I saw the movie I literally gasped - so that's what the land is supposed to be, and wow is it impressive IRL!

Come on now, it's not like the name "Jake" is that hard to remember.

 

[crystal1313]

OK - I can't - gloves off.
IMHO, Avenger's Camps is one of the biggest mistakes Disney has ever made in any park, and I don't think that's a hot take. It replaced Bugs land. You can say those were cheap, not-quite Disney quality rides, but it was a land FOR KIDS. Would you bulldoze Fantasyland to build Avengers Campus? Certainly not. In exchange you get one ride (Spiderman) that is yet another shoot-at-targets ride. OK, but DCA already has the best of those in TSMM. Bugs land was fully immersive - FAR better than Toy Story Land in DHS. Avengers campus is themed to...warehouses? It's awful - nowhere near Disney quality. If you really want to see what Avenger Campus SHOULD be, look no further than GotG:MB. Joe Rohde did an amazing job with that!

I was not a fan of Chapek from the start, but the fact that this was his brain child would be all I would need as a Disney board member to fire him.

I agree. We only walk through there to cut through from cars land to guardians. Lol. I will say that Pyms is a nice addition. But that’s about it.

 

[Smugpugmug]

OK - I can't - gloves off.
IMHO, Avenger's Camps is one of the biggest mistakes Disney has ever made in any park, and I don't think that's a hot take. It replaced Bugs land. You can say those were cheap, not-quite Disney quality rides, but it was a land FOR KIDS. Would you bulldoze Fantasyland to build Avengers Campus? Certainly not. In exchange you get one ride (Spiderman) that is yet another shoot-at-targets ride. OK, but DCA already has the best of those in TSMM. Bugs land was fully immersive - FAR better than Toy Story Land in DHS. Avengers campus is themed to...warehouses? It's awful - nowhere near Disney quality. If you really want to see what Avenger Campus SHOULD be, look no further than GotG:MB. Joe Rohde did an amazing job with that!

I was not a fan of Chapek from the start, but the fact that this was his brain child would be all I would need as a Disney board member to fire him.

It's also disappointing that the 25 year old Spiderman ride still reigns supreme over what Disney could come up with. I hope that E ticket eventually comes to DCA.

 

[BrianL]

I think Avengers Campus looks fine, but there's just not a lot going on. If they would beuild the E-Ticket Avengers ride that was planned, that would go a long way toward improving it!

 

[Chili327]

I'm not really fan of either Cars or Pandora - but what stands out with both for me that would make them interesting to visit is the immersiveness of the world created, and that creates in own interest in the park that is separate from the IP. Pandora for me was all about the visuals, and to be able to be transformed to that world in a theme park is.....actually very exciting. The only reason I am planning to go to Animal Kingdom during my upcoming trip is to experience Pandora. I have no particular special interest in the franchise, but the ability to experience the visual world created is something I find very appealing. I also think that if they do import a Pandora world to the west coast, I hope they would explore more areas of it - similar to the different Harry Potter worlds in USO.

^this! 100%! This is where they majorly failed with Galaxys Edge, by making it exactly the same at WDW and DL.

I think Pandora is visually stunning and the land at AK is amazing. I’m not a die hard fan of the movies, but I enjoy them. Before our first trip to WDW, we had our kids watch the first movie so they knew a bit about it before we got there. We all really like that land, because it’s very immersive. Just as we love Cars Land for the same reason (although we are huge Cars fans having two boys, have probably seen the movie hundreds of times and pretty much have it memorized. Lol) Both lands feel as if you walk into the movie.

I hope they can think outside the box for Disneyland and not just copy and paste.

I 100% agree with you here. While Bugs Land was for kids, I still loved spending time there. The lush greenery, the intimate feel...it was just perfect. Avengers Campus feels depressing. It's a sea of asphalt and concrete. Lol your description of being themed to warehouses is spot on!

I think Avengers Campus looks fine, but there's just not a lot going on. If they would beuild the E-Ticket Avengers ride that was planned, that would go a long way toward improving it!

While i agree the Marvel area is pretty boring, its looks like the movies do, they live among us in the cities and regular world of earth, so i'm not sure what it should look like. lol
And yes the E-Ticket ride will help a lot.!

The good thing is that Galaxy's Edge, Cars Land, Pandora, etc are the new way to do a land, so they should all be pretty immersive from here on out.. Just hope that Marvel is still in progress.

 

[irlandaise]

Agreed. Avenger's Campus is pure crap! I miss Bug's Land.

I miss the foliage and especially Heimlich!

 

[Love Tink]

Are we at the bananas-place where people pretend that Avatar isn't actually popular because they don't like it, and it doesn't have a bunch of ridiculous fansites and ancillary product lines?

FoP routinely has the longest line at WDW, somewhat driven by the fact that AK doesn't have a lot of marquee rides, but also from the fact that Pandora is pretty popular and the ride is one of the best at any of their properties.

I'm not certain how to measure popularity, but Box Office is probably a good start:

Avatar 2: $2,320,250,280
Guardians 3: $845,555,777 (the most popular Marvel movie in 2023)
Rise of Skywalker: $1,077,022,370 (the last Marvel movie in theaters, 2019)
Frozen 2: $1,453,683,480 (the last massive blockbuster DFA film, 2019)

This isn't rocket science.

I'm not sure box office is the right way to decide what a franchise means to people though. There are movies that touch people emotionally and movies that don't. I saw Avatar and I remember loving it. But...I never re-watched it and I don't really remember much about it now. I think there are a lot of people who feel that way for whatever reason. The cultural impact just isn't there. Your comment nailed it despite the attitude - we don't see people in Avatar T-shirts at Target. Our kids don't want Avatar toys or costumes. Fans don't come together on the internet. It's just...a movie.

 

[Chili327]

I'm not sure box office is the right way to decide what a franchise means to people though. There are movies that touch people emotionally and movies that don't. I saw Avatar and I remember loving it. But...I never re-watched it and I don't really remember much about it now. I think there are a lot of people who feel that way for whatever reason. The cultural impact just isn't there. Your comment nailed it despite the attitude - we don't see people in Avatar T-shirts at Target. Our kids don't want Avatar toys or costumes. Fans don't come together on the internet. It's just...a movie.

Also plenty of movies that didn't do much at the box office that are way more apparent in real world daily life.
Swingers and Office Space are two I can think of off the top of my head that are/were huge in pop culture... (possible not as much today. lol), but definitely were a much bigger "impact" than the box office showed.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I'm not sure box office is the right way to decide what a franchise means to people though. There are movies that touch people emotionally and movies that don't. I saw Avatar and I remember loving it. But...I never re-watched it and I don't really remember much about it now. I think there are a lot of people who feel that way for whatever reason. The cultural impact just isn't there. Your comment nailed it despite the attitude - we don't see people in Avatar T-shirts at Target. Our kids don't want Avatar toys or costumes. Fans don't come together on the internet. It's just...a movie.

Plus, Fanbases are what keep these franchises alive. Not a movie, but 61 years later and Doctor Who is still massively popular due to the fans. I still see merch for it when I go to Barnes & Noble, FYE and Box Lunch. I've never seen merch for Avatar in any of those places and I go to them frequently. Tons of Star Wars, Nightmare Before Christmas and Hocus Pocus merch if we're talking about Disney franchises.

 

[BrianL]

I'm not sure box office is the right way to decide what a franchise means to people though. There are movies that touch people emotionally and movies that don't. I saw Avatar and I remember loving it. But...I never re-watched it and I don't really remember much about it now. I think there are a lot of people who feel that way for whatever reason. The cultural impact just isn't there. Your comment nailed it despite the attitude - we don't see people in Avatar T-shirts at Target. Our kids don't want Avatar toys or costumes. Fans don't come together on the internet. It's just...a movie.

You've never seen me at Target then. I wear my "Sivako" t-shirt all the time! I think the issue is that Avatar is "just" two movies - not a full-blown franchise. It does have a different nature and just because it hasn't had the impact of Star Wars, not much has. It's still a popular film series, certainly popular enough to have a few theme park rides.

 

[Chuck96]

The cultural impact is making $2 BILLION DOLLARS and being nominated for Best Picture...just like the first film. Disney World and Disney Land are NOT inundated by tens of thousands of superfans. They are packed by the same people that saw Avatar/Avatar 2 to the tune of $2B.

To your point, Star Wars and Marvel fandoms are peopled by folks who buy the t-shirts, and go on the messageboards, and see the movies 4+ times in theaters. So when it makes $1B dollars (say $15 a ticket), and all the diehards saw it four times, the NUMBER of people it impacts is actually LESS than half of what Avatar 2 impacted. Because Avatar is filled with a bunch of people who see 4-5 movies every ten years. They DON'T go three and four times. So Avatar 2 was seen by a LOT more people. They don't go on messageboards. They don't buy t-shirts. They just occassionally go see movies and periodically go to Disney World.

In short, Avatar fans are notably less "passionate" than Star Wars and Marvel fans, as measured by chotchkes made in China. But Disney would rather have 1000 people who like Avatar than 400 people who absolutely LOVE Zootopia (or whatever). To further prove this point with your points...Avatar was released in 2009. It made a ton of money and was nominated for a bunch of Oscars. It then essentially disappeared, outside of DAK. The fanbase did NOT keep the franchise alive with lunch boxes and posters and fanfiction and whatever. 13 years later, the sequel came out, and made almost as much money as the first; a lot more than the Marvels and Star Wars and Harry Potters and (insert passionate product here). So I'd argue, it's not just a movie. Movies need all of that other stuff to live. Avatar just needs the movies. That's a feature, not a bug, as they say.

 

[Lisa24jks]

You've never seen me at Target then. I wear my "Sivako" t-shirt all the time! I think the issue is that Avatar is "just" two movies - not a full-blown franchise. It does have a different nature and just because it hasn't had the impact of Star Wars, not much has. It's still a popular film series, certainly popular enough to have a few theme park rides.

The Nightmare Before Christmas is just one movie. Released over 30 years ago. Still ENORMOUSLY popular with a huge cultural impact. Now, if someone said they were building a Halloween Town land at a Disney park, the TNBC fans would go absolutely WILD about that news. (And honestly, as someone who just thinks it's a cute movie and doesn't understand the longevity, I think it would be a great idea for it to have it's own attraction at the very least and stop hogging my Haunted Mansion.) It has a huge presence at the parks, especially around the holidays, but even all year round with the merch that's always for sale.

So, yes, Avatar has made a lot of money, and apparently it does have some devoted fans (you literally just named a character I've never heard of, so I am guessing you might be one of them). But it's really not a stretch to say it doesn't have the cultural impact as many other films/TV shows that are out there, franchises or not. And it's no offense to those who love it, but the rest of us mostly remember the visuals and not the characters or the story.

That said, if they do an absolutely spectacular job at making Pandora or whatever they're going to do at DLR, I'll be the first to say so for sure. Cars Land is so brilliantly done that while it's not even close to the top of my favorite Pixar or Disney movies, it's a A+ experience. So, while a lot of us may not be excited about Avatar coming to the parks, if they do as well with it as they did Cars Land, then that's a wonderful thing.

 

[Pluto468]

Well,I always wanted to but never got to since every time I visited, they would go down. It seemed literally like every half hour. Long before cell phones…you’d just ask a CM or check tip board and by the time you got over to Tomorrow,and, they’d be down again. hey, at least PeopleMover was dependable!

That's the same reason I never tried Rocket Rods! I swear I tried once a week and it never happened.

 

[BrianL]

The Nightmare Before Christmas is just one movie. Released over 30 years ago. Still ENORMOUSLY popular with a huge cultural impact. Now, if someone said they were building a Halloween Town land at a Disney park, the TNBC fans would go absolutely WILD about that news. (And honestly, as someone who just thinks it's a cute movie and doesn't understand the longevity, I think it would be a great idea for it to have it's own attraction at the very least and stop hogging my Haunted Mansion.) It has a huge presence at the parks, especially around the holidays, but even all year round with the merch that's always for sale.

So, yes, Avatar has made a lot of money, and apparently it does have some devoted fans (you literally just named a character I've never heard of, so I am guessing you might be one of them). But it's really not a stretch to say it doesn't have the cultural impact as many other films/TV shows that are out there, franchises or not. And it's no offense to those who love it, but the rest of us mostly remember the visuals and not the characters or the story.

That said, if they do an absolutely spectacular job at making Pandora or whatever they're going to do at DLR, I'll be the first to say so for sure. Cars Land is so brilliantly done that while it's not even close to the top of my favorite Pixar or Disney movies, it's a A+ experience. So, while a lot of us may not be excited about Avatar coming to the parks, if they do as well with it as they did Cars Land, then that's a wonderful thing.

Nobody is trying to argue that Avatar is just as or more popular than other incredibly popular franchises. There seems to be a sentiment that they shouldn't build Avatar at DLR because it's not popular enough. It is clearly popular. The installation at WDW is very popular and always crowded - well-liked too. Not everything they build has to be based on the AAA-ALL-TIME-GOAT IPs, though I would argue that Avatar is still higher on that list than many people make it out to be. I mean, Universal made a ride based on The Secret Life of Pets. It's well-liked too. Those were popular movies, but no, they're not as relevant as Star Wars or Nightmare. Not everything has to justify its own existence.

 

[ClaraOswald]

Honestly, I've never seen the Avatar movies. I mean, my husband was watching the first one years ago and I was in the room but totally ignored it. I tried to watch but then just got bored and played The Sims or something. Ha! So I have no interest in Avatar. Saw the land in WDW and didn't care much either way for it.

As for coming to Disneyland parks...I'm just "meh" about it in the same way I was for Star Wars Land. Neither one is my "thing." I will only really care if they replace things I love for it. (Like craptastic Avenger's Campus killed Bugs Land.) I've seen talks of it going into the Grizzly Peak area and I would honestly be super upset if this happened. It's one of the nicer themed areas of the park, especially since it changed over from Condor Flats years ago. And as someone who recently bought into DVC at the Grand Californian...I'd be pretty annoyed to have to enter into Avatarland from the hotel. 1st world problem, obviously. But it's just not the vibe I like.

If the put an Avatar land in the Hollywood Backlot area...I'd probably be okay with that. Monsters Inc is cute but nothing important to me.

I saw someone mention it could be built in Disneyland where Autopia is. This would literally make me cry...as dumb as that sounds. My son is autistic and that's one of his favorite rides. On our last couple trips, he's wanted to end each day on Autopia. So I can't imagine it being gone. Though I know it isn't a super popular E-ticket so most people wouldn't care.

If it goes into the Disneyland Forward space....I'm mostly indifferent, I guess. I'd obviously much rather some other themed land but at least they wouldn't be demolishing things I already love!

 

[Chili327]

Honestly, I've never seen the Avatar movies. I mean, my husband was watching the first one years ago and I was in the room but totally ignored it. I tried to watch but then just got bored and played The Sims or something. Ha! So I have no interest in Avatar. Saw the land in WDW and didn't care much either way for it.

As for coming to Disneyland parks...I'm just "meh" about it in the same way I was for Star Wars Land. Neither one is my "thing." I will only really care if they replace things I love for it. (Like craptastic Avenger's Campus killed Bugs Land.) I've seen talks of it going into the Grizzly Peak area and I would honestly be super upset if this happened. It's one of the nicer themed areas of the park, especially since it changed over from Condor Flats years ago. And as someone who recently bought into DVC at the Grand Californian...I'd be pretty annoyed to have to enter into Avatarland from the hotel. 1st world problem, obviously. But it's just not the vibe I like.

If the put an Avatar land in the Hollywood Backlot area...I'd probably be okay with that. Monsters Inc is cute but nothing important to me.

I saw someone mention it could be built in DisneyIand where Autopia is. This would literally make me cry...as dumb as that sounds. My son is autistic and that's one of his favorite rides. On our last couple trips, he's wanted to end each day on Autopia. So I can't imagine it being gone. Though I know it isn't a super popular E-ticket so most people wouldn't care.

If it goes into the Disneyland Forward space....I'm mostly indifferent, I guess. I'd obviously much rather some other themed land but at least they wouldn't be demolishing things I already love!

You wouldn't be alone for sure. I'd hate to see Autopia or the Nemo lake get demolished.!!

Getting way off track, but i would like to see PeopleMover be rebuilt, & Astro Orbitor put back on top. As well as Carousel of Progress put back in place of the DVC lounge.

 

[BrianL]

You wouldn't be alone for sure. I'd hate to see Autopia or the Nemo lake get demolished.!!

Getting way off track, but i would like to see PeopleMover be rebuilt, & Astro Orbitor put back on top. As well as Carousel of Progress put back in place of the DVC lounge.

I wouldn't want to see Autopia nor the Submarine Voyage go, but I wouldn't mind a retheme for the latter. Actually, Avatar: Way of Water could work there - not that I'm saying that's what they should do. Still, something more Tomorrowland themed than Finding Nemo would do.

 

[Pluto468]

I think the issue isn't so much about hating Avatar or thinking it doesn't deserve to be at Disneyland based on movie popularity or fanbase.

An Avatar ride would be one thing, but if Disney is making an entire new land it would seem like an obvious choice to use something more Disneyish. Like Frozen, Encanto, Moana, Tangled etc. I think another area for little kids at DCA would be really fun, maybe based on characters from older movies like Bambi, Fantasia, Peter Pan or 101 Dalmatians.

I love Galaxy's Edge and Avengers Campus, but honestly I feel like those barely "fit" at the parks as it is. I think DCA is better for the more modern rides/lands and I don't like major changes at Disneyland.

But I'm the nostalgic type, so it could be just me. I still miss the Country Bears, Animazement and Billy Hill.

 

[MonocularVision]

I dunno… I wear my “Guy in a Wheelchair” t-shirt all the time to show off my Avatar fandom.