AVATAR coming to WDW

[cousininmiami]

Wow... this is big. I guess we now know Disney don't have any money problems!

[Amy]

Wow... this is big. I guess we now know Disney don't have any money problems!

Makes you wonder where the funding is coming from huh?

[Wizzard419]

You can still be deep in the red and still spend boatloads of cash. Either via driving yourself further into the red or sponsorship.

[DIAC1987]

I am so disappointed in reading this news. Instead of an Australia or a South America section to the Animal Kingdom, we get...Avatar.....an overrated movie that has already been forgotten despite being the top-grossing movie of all-time.

[Jacca5660]

It seems the kids are having the most trouble with this.

[Future Guy]

Oh, Disney is rolling in money. When they say they "can't afford" to do some pet project that we hardcore fans wish they would undertake, what they really mean is that they're not willing to take smaller executive bonuses just to make us happy.

Now then, all snarkiness aside, here's my opinion: I know Avatar was just a lot of pretty pictures stitched together by a story that sounds like it was written by a ninth-grader. My feelings about it are best summed up by this brief yet humorous review. But I think everyone's missing the real point of this announcement: Disney has finally gotten it. They've finally been forced to realize that the mere existence of a Disney park does not automatically guarantee its success. When Animal Kingdom and DCA were built they'd forgotten this. They thought they could simply build a park as cheaply as possible and people would gladly pay full price to be allowed inside just because the Disney name was on the sign out front. That strategy has not worked out well. Now, faced with this reality Disney could have done two things:

1. Pretend nothing was wrong and crank up volume on the marketing messages that tell us how "magical" Disney Parks are.
2. Actually take steps to rectify the problem, which would require a large outlay of money.

And amazingly, they went with option #2! They're pumping something like $2 billion into DCA to completely remake that park, and now they're going to spend something like $600 million on Avatar Land at Animal Kingdom. Do I wish they'd done something a little more original, instead of just copying Universal by buying the rights to a preexisting franchise? I suppose so. But how can anyone say it's going to be bad and horrible and the worst thing ever when it hasn't even been built yet? We've got no concept art, no models, nothing but an announcement.

Now the Internet is a free country, and y'all can do what you want, but I prefer to wait until we have some concrete facts about this new project before I rip into it.

[mindflipper]

I am so disappointed in reading this news. Instead of an Australia or a South America section to the Animal Kingdom, we get...Avatar.....an overrated movie that has already been forgotten despite being the top-grossing movie of all-time.

Ah, are you forgetting that James Cameron had previously announced he plans to do two sequels to this film? Given the number of years it could take to complete those, this is an attraction that is possibly attached to future movie potential money makers. The reason for putting it in the Animal Kingdom seems so weak; I feel the real reason for not putting into the DHS is because there isn't the room without making some major renovation to the park layout there. I would not be surprised if they put it into DLP that it will go into their Studios over there...

[Jacca5660]

Oh, Disney is rolling in money. When they say they "can't afford" to do some pet project that we hardcore fans wish they would undertake, what they really mean is that they're not willing to take smaller executive bonuses just to make us happy.

Now then, all snarkiness aside, here's my opinion: I know Avatar was just a lot of pretty pictures stitched together by a story that sounds like it was written by a ninth-grader. My feelings about it are best summed up by this brief yet humorous review. But I think everyone's missing the real point of this announcement: Disney has finally gotten it. They've finally been forced to realize that the mere existence of a Disney park does not automatically guarantee its success. When Animal Kingdom and DCA were built they'd forgotten this. They thought they could simply build a park as cheaply as possible and people would gladly pay full price to be allowed inside just because the Disney name was on the sign out front. That strategy has not worked out well. Now, faced with this reality Disney could have done two things:

1. Pretend nothing was wrong and crank up volume on the marketing messages that tell us how "magical" Disney Parks are.
2. Actually take steps to rectify the problem, which would require a large outlay of money.

And amazingly, they went with option #2! They're pumping something like $2 billion into DCA to completely remake that park, and now they're going to spend something like $600 million on Avatar Land at Animal Kingdom. Do I wish they'd done something a little more original, instead of just copying Universal by buying the rights to a preexisting franchise? I suppose so. But how can anyone say it's going to be bad and horrible and the worst thing ever when it hasn't even been built yet? We've got no concept art, no models, nothing but an announcement.

Now the Internet is a free country, and y'all can do what you want, but I prefer to wait until we have some concrete facts about this new project before I rip into it.

ME to!!

[MW1218]

And I agree, Amy, Cameron is doing it for the almighty $$$$. Probably a deal connected with Avatar 2 in order to help finance it.

You do realize that James Cameron has directed the two highest grossing movies of all time, right? He writes his own ticket. He could get a $750 million documentary on dirt formation greenlit if he wanted to. He doesn't need any financing for Avatar, the studio begged him to do the next two.

I always thought if any theme was going to take a run at HP, it would be Lord of the Rings, but I'm sure there were licensing issues. It's nice to see that the Disney community isn't overreacting to not too much news as usual.

[Jacca5660]

[mindflipper]

...but I prefer to wait until we have some concrete facts about this new project before I rip into it.

You may have to wait, as it was announced on TV that it would be at least 2 years from now before any construction begins. It's like they have made the announcement before they may have any idea of what they're going to be building at DAK. Disney did this some years ago when they announced they got the rights to do an attraction based on the X-Files (Wow, that was a great attraction). Hopefully they will come out in a few months with some concept art...

[Wizzard419]

Oh, Disney is rolling in money. When they say they "can't afford" to do some pet project that we hardcore fans wish they would undertake, what they really mean is that they're not willing to take smaller executive bonuses just to make us happy.

Now then, all snarkiness aside, here's my opinion: I know Avatar was just a lot of pretty pictures stitched together by a story that sounds like it was written by a ninth-grader. My feelings about it are best summed up by this brief yet humorous review. But I think everyone's missing the real point of this announcement: Disney has finally gotten it. They've finally been forced to realize that the mere existence of a Disney park does not automatically guarantee its success. When Animal Kingdom and DCA were built they'd forgotten this. They thought they could simply build a park as cheaply as possible and people would gladly pay full price to be allowed inside just because the Disney name was on the sign out front. That strategy has not worked out well. Now, faced with this reality Disney could have done two things:

1. Pretend nothing was wrong and crank up volume on the marketing messages that tell us how "magical" Disney Parks are.
2. Actually take steps to rectify the problem, which would require a large outlay of money.

And amazingly, they went with option #2! They're pumping something like $2 billion into DCA to completely remake that park, and now they're going to spend something like $600 million on Avatar Land at Animal Kingdom. Do I wish they'd done something a little more original, instead of just copying Universal by buying the rights to a preexisting franchise? I suppose so. But how can anyone say it's going to be bad and horrible and the worst thing ever when it hasn't even been built yet? We've got no concept art, no models, nothing but an announcement.

Now the Internet is a free country, and y'all can do what you want, but I prefer to wait until we have some concrete facts about this new project before I rip into it.

That's not really how it works with corporate salaries. Though if you're at HP their biz model is hire new ceo, buy company, raise stock value, rape said new company and run it into the ground (think of it as a corporate snuff film), buy out ceo, replace and start over.

They've kind of known since the 90's they can't truly get away with it. Since opening a park is a comitment to updating, they know they need to have phase 2 ready right out of the gate now, but can't have it started too soon or it would look like they simply were trying to sell a half done park. If you're going to raw park numbers alone, nothing was wrong with the way they were running things since, if I recall, attendence has been up each year even with ticket rate hikes and with little effort on their part. Universal, Sea World, and Knotts can't say that (at least out here) since they have been offering "Buy a day get a year free" promotions.

With the use of an existing franchise, Universal and Disney were both interested but I am guessing that Universal offered her more money (probably not the smartest move in the long term) than Disney. It's actually a smart move, right now at least, to ride the coatails of something that works rather than take a huge gamble and fail on something new. If the economy turns around and tourists start throwing stupid levels of cash into their vacations again then you can have more development.

[Wizzard419]

...but I prefer to wait until we have some concrete facts about this new project before I rip into it.

You may have to wait, as it was announced on TV that it would be at least 2 years from now before any construction begins. It's like they have made the announcement before they may have any idea of what they're going to be building at DAK. Disney did this some years ago when they announced they got the rights to do an attraction based on the X-Files (Wow, that was a great attraction). Hopefully they will come out in a few months with some concept art...

That's a new one to me, got any information on the failed proposal?

[mindflipper]

Sadly, no longer - that drive is RIP. I remember it was being developed first for DLP Studios, and then for MGM/Disney. They even had Chris Carter interviewed as being involved in the project, but then after that announcement the whole thing just died and faded away...

[Wizzard419]

It always strikes me as weird to make a ride/land on a presently popular franchise since it probably won't stand up to time. It's not like people clammor to go to the Cheer's bar, or Seinfeld, or Friends, etc. Even long dead things like I love lucy don't hold up.