AVATAR-Land Moves Forward as More Rumors Fly

Tom Staggs - Chairman - Disney Parks and Resorts
A Disney Photo

Tom Staggs has been a busy guy this week announcing things. Making official announcements is easy after Disney official fiscal dollars are actually committed to build projects. As noted in a previous post - a big time Iron Man attraction is slated to go into Hong Kong Disneyland. This morning Tom posted in Disney Parks Blog (link) that plans to build the much discussed and debated AVATAR based land are going forward in Disney's Animal Kingdom Park (much to the chagrin of many Disney Parks fans).

Disney has posted some artwork for the AVATAR project where the planet of Pandora is recreated. (Please note that the Disneyland Traveler did not care for the movie AVATAR - good to look at but thought it to be long boring and silly).

Disney artwork for what appears to be an AVATAR boat ride

Disney concept art for AVATAR Land

 Disney concept art for AVATAR Land

AVATAR director James Cameron - Tom Staggs - and project Imagineer Joe Rhode
at work bringing to life AVATAR - Land

So AVATAR in a Disineyland is going to become a reality. Thank god it's going to be in Florida. You can have it (though that boat ride looks cool). So you want another Florida rumor? Tom Corless of WDW News Today website (link) is reporting that Disney and Warner Bros. are in negotiations to bring Lord of the Rings (and Hobbit) based attractions to Disney Parks. Hopefully this is another Florida based idea - while attendance at Disney's Magic Kingdom and EPCOT parks remain strong - Disney Hollywood Studios and Disney Animal Kingdom continue to lose ground to that snot nosed Harry Potter kid over at Universal and Disney has some ground to make up. It should be noted that Mrs. DisneylandTraveler IS a big fan of LOTR and plays the online game at an expert level).

Whatever happened to those cute little Disney characters?

Anyway - as a California person - I'll take Marvel and Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Disney can put these lands of mysticism somewhere else.