‘Some of this flight might be intense, but trust your guide and be brave.’ The words of warning came from Dr Jackie Ogden as our group gathered in the Link Chamber of the Pandora Conservation Initiative.
We had already been through the Genetic Matching Room and been decontaminated for micro-parasites, and were now on the final sequence of instructions before being let loose on the alien planet.
With the final message of ‘Rise to the challenge!’ we were swooping off across the otherworldly terrain and lush foliage of Pandora on the back of a Mountain Banshee, the gigantic dragon-like beast from Alpha Centauri that eats people for breakfast.
Pandora: The World Of Avatar at the Disney Animal Kingdom
Fortunately, all this excitement was purely man-made. Or, we should say, Disney-made. Because we were in the Animal Kingdom theme park in the heart of Walt Disney World, Orlando.
Pandora: The World Of Avatar is the latest attraction built by the House of Mouse – with the help of film-maker James Cameron – in its vast Florida resort. It has taken seven years.
While some Disney die-hards doubted such an obvious film franchise being shoe-horned into this most naturalistic of parks, the end result is a 12-acre immersive environment so packed with features and special effects it would take pages to list them all.
It starts with the Floating Mountains that seemingly hover over the area – gigantic, 156ft-tall rockworks complete with vegetation, creatures and waterfalls – and continues through a jungle-like panorama of immense complexity, studded with the bioluminescent plants from the 2009 movie that are recreated in painstaking detail, including examples that react to touch and movement using specially developed sensors.
Cleverly hidden among the alien terrain – which mixes artificial plants with real ones from Hawaii and Africa – are two contrasting rides that take the story of Avatar into the future, 100 years after the war between Earth’s Resource Development Administration and the indigenous Na’vi people.
Avatar: The smash-hit film that inspired Disney
The Na’vi River Journey is a meandering boat ride through the Pandoran jungle, using a mix of animatronics and screen projections to create a realistic series of encounters with the flora, fauna and people, taking an eco-friendly approach highlighting conservation principles and real-world issues such as habitat destruction.
Then, Avatar Flight Of Passage kicks things up several notches with the aforementioned simulator ride in the company of Dr Ogden. Sitting astride a kind of stationary bike (and equipped with 3-D glasses), riders seemingly dive, twist and turn in through a long whirl over Pandora, taking in the sights and sounds that made the film such a visual extravaganza.
There also ought to be a special award for the Blueberry Cream Cheese Mousse with its neon blue and yellow hues. If there is such a thing as alien-looking food, this is it.
The final word, though, deserves to come from Disney’s Zsolt Hormay: ‘We had to use a lot of experts to help us with the technology. It needed a lot of different skills. It melds art and engineering. It is like finishing a painting, only in three dimensions – and with a lot of engineering.’
lit up: The glowing World Of Avatar comes to life at night
jungle jaunt: Water snails in the Avatar park. Inset below: The film that inspired Disney
INSPIRATION: A scene from the 2009 film Avatar
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