April 26, 2017

Disney's Newest Land is Meant to Add a Literal Glow to Animal Kingdom

Walt Disney WorldÕs youngest park has been trying to stay up late for awhile now.
Animal Kingdom, the fourth addition to the Orlando resort, has typically been a partial-day park since it opened in April of 1998. It started experimenting with extended hours last spring, opening some rides at night and adding an evening show that finally made its official debut in February.

With the opening of an entirely new land based on the film ÒAvatarÓ on May 27, that transformation is expected to be complete. For the height of summer, closing time will be 11 p.m., with Disney hotel guests allowed to stay until 1 a.m.

The 12-acre Pandora Ñ The World of Avatar, first announced in 2011, includes two rides (one for flying, one for floating); shopping; a restaurant; drink stand; and rainforest areas meant for meandering. There are also, somehow, floating mountains. The land has been created in collaboration with filmmaker James Cameron and his film production company Lightstorm Entertainment, and is set a generation after the events depicted in the 2009 blockbuster.

ÒThe whole experience experience is sizable, and it is an add-on to Animal Kingdom, which has always been a good park, but it has never been a full-day experience,Ó Walt Disney Co. chairman and CEO Robert Iger said of the Avatar attraction earlier this year. ÒSo we addedÉa nighttime safari experience and some other entertainment, and by adding this, weÕre going to be turning our fourth gate Ñ the last one to be opened in Orlando Ñ into a much fuller experience.Ó

Joe Rohde, the Walt Disney Imagineering executive who headed up the team that dreamed up, designed, and built Animal Kingdom, described Pandora as Òa linchpin in this whole transformation of Animal Kingdom into a place thatÕs going to run at night.Ó

At a media event in New York City this week, Rohde Ñ whose title is creative portfolio executive at Walt Disney Imagineering, and who is overseeing the Avatar project Ñ spoke at length about the parkÕs transition, the work that has gone into the new land, and what visitors can expect (and not expect) to find. Below are five takeaways from that conversation.

Animal Kingdom is going all in on the nighttime experience in the Pandora land.

First, some history: When the park opened nearly 20 years ago, night operations were not possible because of inability to light and monitor the animal population, Rohde said. Technology has come a long way since then.

ÒWhat can be done with light, the nature of light bulbs, all this stuff is different and it all opens up possibility that just wasnÕt there,Ó he said.

Rohde said the Avatar attraction became the right way to anchor the night experience because bioluminescence was an important part of the landÕs identity.

ÒIf youÕre going to choose to make Animal Kingdom run into the night, making this happen with an installation that features bioluminescence is a strategically smart thing to do,Ó he said. ÒBecause itÕs so much about night.Ó

When the sun starts to set, the environment begins to glow.

ÒThis is not passive glow,Ó Rohde said. ÒIt moves, it pulses, it communicates, it reacts to you. The paving under your feet is alive, the mountains in the background are glowing with bioluminescence and you can see the footprints of animals you might have missed by day that now are glowing by night as you look through the environment.Ó

Sound elements were an important part of the landÕs design.

ÒNow we have an entire sonic environment that we built here that is unlike anything weÕve ever done,Ó Rohde said. ÒIt changes literally from the moment the sun comes up to the end of the day past midnight. It is not repetitive; it is an evolutionary arc that mimics the kind of sounds you would hear were it to be real.Ó

Bug sounds start with sunrise, and the noise changes through the day, transitioning to Òcacophonously noisyÓ around sunset and then mellowing into the music of frogs and crickets at night.

ÒIf you were a field biologist, you could walk through this land and identify what was happening by the sonic environment around you,Ó Rohde said. ÒIt is that realistic.Ó

Familiarity with the James Cameron film is not necessary, but fans should be happy.

The movie is set in a a time of conflict on the alien world of Pandora that is populated by giant blue indigenous beings called NaÕvi and Avatars, or creatures controlled by human brains.

But Disney executives swear no one needs to know that before visiting.

ÒEverything you need to know about Avatars, everything you need to know about banshees, everything you need to know about NaÕvi you will learn in the process of this journey,Ó Rohde said. ÒYou do not need to refer because thatÕs just not good storytellingÉ You donÕt start a story by saying, ÔRemember that other story?Õ You start a story by saying Ôonce upon a time.'Ó

For those who do know the story Ñ and there were some fans who proclaimed a great desire to inhabit the fictional world of the movie Ñ Rohde said there will be elements familiar and new.

ÒYou have to have an entry-level structure in a story that everybody understands and everybody gets,Ó he said. ÒThen you just keep layering. So yes, thereÕs all kinds of stuff in that world that, if you know the world of Avatar, you will be, I think, very interested in seeingÉItÕs not simply revisitation, itÕs extention. ThereÕs stuff youÕve never seen that is consistent with that world.Ó

Giant NaÕvi creatures wonÕt be roaming the park.

ÒThe physical NaÕvi, actual NaÕvi, are impossible to costume, their actual body shape,Ó Rohde said. (He meant, of course, the fictional characters depicted in the film.)

ÒTheyÕre not only tall Ñ theyÕre nine, 10 feet tall Ñ and their waist is this big around, their necks are really long,Ó he said. ÒYou canÕt do it. So when you see the NaÕvi, you see them in context of the rides in various forms.Ó

There is a ride that simulates flying, but donÕt compare it to SoarinÕ.

Rohde cautioned that the thrill ride in the new land, Avatar Flight of Passage, isnÕt easily described. It involves 3D glasses, flying on the back of a banshee, and Òan entire suite of body sensations that come from the seat and a gigantic projected surface.Ó

When a journalist asked about the similarity to SoarinÕ, a multi-passenger simulated hang gliding ride at Epcot, Disney California Adventure, and Shanghai Disneyland, Rohde said it doesnÕt compare.

ÒItÕs much more physically dynamic, and because itÕs more physically dynamic, that means it can be fantastically visually dynamic,Ó he said. ÒSoarinÕ is soaring, right? This is like flying, like zooming and diving, curlicues and jumping, itÕs dynamic.Ó


Copyright 2017 Skift. All rights reserved. From http://www.skift.com. By Hannah Sampson, Skift.

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