Avatar Coming to Disney

Those of you regular readers know that I am a really, really big fan of Disney and an entry, from time to time, will appear on "The 'Right' Solutions," as it's the perfect escape from everything I write about, as well as everything we see going on in this country and this world.

That being said, there was some big news today coming out of Lake Buena Vista. It turns out that Disney has brought James Cameron on board and together they will be creating an Avatar/Pandora themed land at Disney's Animal Kingdom.

As Disney's Number One fan, I have mixed feelings about this. I sat through the first Avatar film and I couldn't stand it! Yeah, the special effects were cool, but the plot wasn't as deep for a movie of its caliber...more of James Cameron's political message, along with his distaste of the military, and nearly three hours of that is about as torturous as watching one evening of the Democrat National Convention! This will likely fill the void that "Beastly Kingdomme" was supposed to create, which also saddens me, as BK would have been an incredible land and followed along closely with the early theme of Animal Kingdom. Furthermore, the theme of Pandora is kind of a stretch in Animal Kingdom (may work better in Disney's Hollywood Studios, which could also use some work), but the "natural settings" of Pandora sort of make it work.

On the plus side, this has the potential to be a big money-maker for Disney, it will look cool, the kids could pose for pics with the Na'vi, and it will give Animal Kingdom a reason to stay open late. It's a very well designed park with good attractions, but it's really only a half day park. Pandora could change this.

So here is some advice from the Number One Disney fan, and Annual Passholder, for the Imagineers:

- Keep the politics out of it! I go to Disney to be entertained and not preached to. As a result, I usually refrain from watching news or checking news updates on my BlackBerry while I'm there. Including the disgusting politics of this movie will turn off many Disney loyalists, who just so happen to come from red states.

- Pandora looked pretty cool on screen...this needs to really come out at night, considering Animal Kingdom now has a reason to be open at night.

- Assuming this is going to be located where Beastly Kingdomme was to be (to the left of the Tree of Life, when facing it from the Oasis bridge), there is no reason why there shouldn't be a nighttime spectacular included...can we say World of Color-Florida? Including that show alone would put me down there on opening day!

- Look at your competition 10 miles up I-4 and what they did with Harry Potter related attractions, food, scenery and shopping. Animal Kingdom guests need to live Pandora, like they do Harry Potter at Islands of Adventure.

This has the potential to be very big for Disney, if they follow these guidelines and the next Avatar movies aren't as bad as the first.