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News broke last month of a new theme park addition to Disney World. It comes in the form of a property that, upon first glance, one might almost mistake for a Disney/Pixar feature. It stars fuzzy blue cat-like people with big luminous eyes, and studies the interaction the denizens of this new world have with the humans who discover them.
That previous sentence summary might almost pass as a Disney movie, but 2009’s “Avatar” was anything but. It was a darker story, one along the lines of “The Last of the Mohicans.” But it was a smash hit, so now it seems like executives at Disney World want a piece of the pie. They’re adding an “Avatar” park to Walt Disney World.
Because the deal was just announced there aren’t many details about the park. We know that it will cost a lot and that it will open in Orlando, with the possibility of “Avatar” attractions moving to other Disney parks in the future. We know that they’re calling it an “Avatar” park, which makes it seem like it will be its own section within WDW rather than just a few themed attractions.
Time will tell, however, just how much “Avatar” we’ll get at Disney World. As you might recall when the Fantasyland expansion was first announced the plans were a lot more ambitious than what’s actually coming to fruition. Perhaps the same will be true of “Avatar” at Disney World.
What this deal causes me to wonder is, why “Avatar”? I know why “Avatar” on one level; the movie was massively popular with a lot of fans wishing they could live on the paradise planet of Pandora. It’s no surprise that park execs would want to give that experience to people already asking for it. What I mean by why “Avatar” is, why not Marvel?
Ever since Disney bought Marvel I’ve been waiting for Disney park execs to start adding new attractions based around the many superheroes the company now owned. There’s never been a full-size superhero theme park before; could you imagine visiting the X-Men’s home base at Charles Xavier’s mansion or hanging out with Iron Man at Stark Tower? Why is Disney making deals with other companies when they now own a property with such theme park/attraction potential?
We might have one hint: Disney World’s next door neighbor Universal Studios. For years guests to that park have been able to hop on rides based on Spiderman or have their pictures taken with The Hulk. Perhaps any already-standing deal Marvel had with Universal Studios precludes Disney World from adding Marvel characters to its parks, like with how Disney can’t yet make X-Men or Spiderman movies because other studios already own the film rights, despite them being Marvel properties.
I wasn’t a big fan of the “Avatar” movie, and I have to admit that if Disney keeps adding more properties other than its own to its parks (as much as I love Star Wars, The Muppets, and Marvel Comics), it’s not going to feel like Disney World much longer.
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*(This image by Vankfire is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.)
