O Ye of Little Faith (in Imagineering)! Part 2: I See You!

The reactions of “Disney fans” to new announcements and planned attractions and experiences by Imagineering and Park managements are always various and interesting.  But none seems to have been so polarizing, at least in my lifetime as the announcement of a planned Avatar land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Even now, so many months since the announcement was made you can’t even mention the world “Avatar” on a Disney fan board or FB page without at least a half-dozen responses, and admittedly most are anti-N’avi! 

Now I’ll put it right on Front Street that I was in the Pro-Avatar camp!  I loved the movie, loved the immersive world that Cameron created, and thought the marriage of James Cameron and Imagineering inside the natural world of Animal Kingdom was nothing short of inspired. 

But even if I weren’t already a fan of franchise, I can’t believe the spit and vitriol with which some (ok, many) people voiced their disdain for the project.  And what’s even more astounding is they did so (and do so still) without a single drop of real information as to what will actually be there.  

It’s just pure reactionary “OMG, the sky is falling, the Mayans were right” panic based on predisposed opinion of a movie they didn’t like.  Those that actually saw it anyway.  My challenge to those folks is too dig a little deeper (hey that should be a song) into the source material.  Look past the movie and whatever reasons you had for hating it so.  Look at that world, the environment, those designs, the animalia, and imagine seeing it all in 4D.  If you can honestly tell me you wouldn’t want to experience an attraction that recreates that hunt scene on those big lizard birds, I’ll tell you to call the undertaker because you might actually already be dead.

More importantly, there’s a root issue here (no pun intended – if you are a fan of the flick) that there is a vocal contingent that seems to scream and cry whenever something new is announced that doesn't cater to their specific Disney desires.  In this case it’s been everything from “I thought the movie was silly/predictable” to the absurd “how can Disney get in bed with such an Anti-American movie” to the downright hilarious “how do they think this will be appropriate?  Those cat-people had sex with their tails!!!”   

I just want to ask, if you really are a Walt Disney World fan, how can you have so little confidence in Walt Disney Imagineering?  

Don’t you think by now they kinda know what they’re doing?  I’m going to go out on a limb (again no pun, honest) and say they’re not going to focus on the reproductive habits of the N’avi.  But the truth is we don’t have any idea what the plans are/were for bringing Pandora to Orlando.  So save your crayons until something official is released. 

I’d say with few exceptions, Imagineering hasn’t really let us down yet (nobody mention the Imagination refurb(s)!)  I’m not a Star Wars fan, but Star Tours is pretty amazing.  I find American Idol irritating and cheesy (and addictive.  What?  Who said that?!?!) but Disney made a funny & engaging attraction out of it.

And guess what, not every new attraction inside the Fantasyland expansion caused me to do back-flips!  I’m actually a little surprised at the crazed excitement over Be Our Guest.  I mean, everyone does realize it’s a restaurant right?  In fact until they announced Mine Train which is a long way away, my initial reactions were what are my son and I supposed to do with all this new princess stuff? 

And yet, I’m still optimistic and looking forward to seeing it all.  More importantly, I’m reserving judgment until I do. 

I’ve found at Walt Disney World, you need to sometimes separate the source material.  I mean we could get nit-picky and decry WDI for glamorizing the criminal, debauched ways of pirates.  Or leading kids to the occult and demonology with the Haunted Mansion.  But we all know that would be pretty ridiculous. 

Somehow Imagineering always finds a way to pull out the best elements of anything and discard the less interesting or acceptable.    

So if you didn’t dig Avatar the movie, I understand.  Okay, no I don’t.  But I respect your opinion which is why I don’t wage flame wars with those who post pejorative comments about it or even about the proposed land.  It would just be nice if maybe you’d do me (and the silent majority of us who are psyched about it . . . and really worried now it will not come to be, thanks in some part to you) the same courtesy. 

I guarantee that if Avatar land does come to be, Imagineering will have the last word, as it will silence every naysayer and blow away the expectations of all the fans. 

It is kinda what they do and all . . .