New images and video of Pandora: The World of Avatar

Between the theatrical run of Avatar and the announcement that it would be coming to Disney’s Animal Kingdom as a whole new land, it’s a been a long time. More than seven years since the film had its theatrical debut and five years since the big announcement by then Disney parks chair Tom Staggs. Which, it turns out, is about exactly how long they said it would take to build an Avatar-land back in 2011.

Now Pandora: The World of Avatar is just months away from opening and Disney is finally sharing some more exciting details of the land.

In this new behind the scenes video, for the first time you’ll get an up-close look at some of the exterior, and interior, aspects of Pandora that show the scale of the construction project and the both of the main attractions:

When you ride the Ikran (aka Banshee) you’ll be inside one of four theaters each with it’s own screen and set of ‘link’ units that will connection with the Avatar that will be flying over Pandora.

Those big tri-level metal rigs on the wall load and unload from the back and then instead of lifting off the ground like Soarin’ does, they push forward and hang out over the room.

The video also had a sneak peek from inside the Na’Vi River attraction, where you’ll float through a colorful bioluminescent forest and encounter the Shaman of the Songs along with other lifeforms from Pandora.

As construction progressed, we’ve seen the famous Floating Mountains of Pandora from various vantage points outside the land, but the video gave us our first look at them from just below. The physical impossibility of them looks impressive from the video.

The theme of Pandora: The World of Avatar, is just like the rest of Disney’s Animal Kingdom – Nature. Even though what we see in that video is other-worldly, it’s clearly tied to nature. It takes state of the art technology to achieve this look. I can’t wait to see it in person.

What do you think of how the two main rides will play out in Pandora: The World of Avatar?

Summer 2017 is currently the target date for opening the land.