Walt Disney created it. James Cameron will help add to it. The Disneyland Resort in its seventh decade is getting a new area dedicated to a world of fantasy, this one having originated from the mind of filmmaker Cameron.
A long-teased “Avatar”-inspired section is coming to Disney California Adventure. The Walt Disney Co. confirmed the plans Saturday night at its D23 fan convention in Anaheim.
Concept art shown by Disney revealed a water-focused attraction that Walt Disney Imagineering, the division of the company responsible for theme park design, promised would be “dynamic, intense and an emotional experience on a grand scale.” Imagineering executive Ali Rubenstein said the new area in California Adventure would differ greatly from an Avatar-themed land at Walt Disney World in Florida. This one, said Rubenstein, would take heavily after the second “Avatar” film, “The Way of Water.
” Consider it “an excursion in search of majestic natural wonders that can only be found in Pandora,” said Rubenstein. The announcement arrives at a crucial time for the Walt Disney Co. The firm reported lower-than-anticipated operating income for its parks division in its third-quarter results, with executives attributing the slowdown, in part, to a dip in demand driven by financial “stress” on consumers.
Any drop in attendance at Disney theme parks — global tourist destinations that draw millions per year — raises questions not only regarding public sentiment on the eco.