Theme parks are magical places. When you’re a kid, the magic feels quite real. When you’re an adult and can see behind the curtain a bit, it may feel less like magic, but the things that theme park designers like those at Walt Disney Imagineering can do are no less incredible. Sometimes, it’s by knowing how the incredible attractions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World work that you can really appreciate the creativity.
While I know a lot about how various attractions, lands and parks are created by Disney, there’s always something new to learn. Such was the case when I happened across an Instagram post from just_disneythings that revealed something about Pandora - The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom that I never realized: some of the waterfalls aren’t really waterfalls.
Even knowing what you’re looking at, it’s a pretty impressive effect. I honestly can’t say that I’ve ever even tried to look at these parts of Pandora that closely, but then that’s part of the magic of it all. It’s an effect that a lot of people, even most people, would never actually notice, but it adds to the ambiance of the land simply by being there. Even if you don’t see it, you can feel it.
These are the details that I love to discover at Walt Disney World and other theme parks, like Universal Orlando Resort. Because as many have often said, it’s the “attention to detail” that makes theme parks truly special. It’s these little touches that are not strictly necessary, but make the experience better for everybody.
Seeing stuff like this honestly is getting me quite excited for the upcoming Avatar area planned for Disney California Adventure that's coming as part of Disneyland's major expansion plan. While I have serious concerns about how Avatar will fit into DCA in a way that won’t destroy the park’s aesthetic, I’m certainly excited to see how a new Avatar land, based primarily on Avatar: The Way of Water, will turn out.
Expectations are that a new E-ticket attraction that uses the same ride architecture as Shanghai Disneyland’s lauded Pirates of the Caribbean will anchor the new area, which Disneyland resort has yet to refer to as a “land” for reasons that are probably specific, but are thus far unclear. Outside of that, based on concept art, we should get an area that looks like the water biome of Pandora, which will be distinct from the land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, but still have some incredible details of its own.
With three more Avatar movies on the way, including Avatar: Fire and Ash at the end of 2025, it seems a foregone conclusion that the future of Avatar in Disney Parks is only just getting started.
