Disney is giving its fans a new sneak peek of what "Avatar Land" will look like when it opens at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
New concept art and video was published Thursday on the Disney Parks Blog, giving us the closest glimpse yet of the world of Pandora, currently set to open in 2017.
The new concept art shows a large archway made up of "Avatar's" floating mountains, with vines draping down and what appear to be waterfalls flowing from the sides.
The accompanying video shows Walt Disney Imagineers giving Disney COO Tom Staggs and "Avatar" filmmaker James Cameron an up-close look at a model of the new land, plus a showcase of some of the bioluminescent effects being used to bring Pandora's plant life to theme park reality.
In one interesting clip, footprints were left along a glowing walkway as a demonstrator took several steps.
Multiply that by hundreds, and walking the yet-to-be-officially-named world of Avatar should be a spectacular sight at night.
In the blog post, Bruce Vaughn, chief creative executive of Walt Disney Imagineering, quoted Cameron as saying:
I think one of the things that people loved about the movie is that they felt as if they had visited Pandora… now, thanks to Disney’s amazing Imagineers, people are going to truly experience Pandora firsthand. From the details in the plants to the production and design, extraordinary thought and care has gone into this entire world. The teams have really created something special, and it’s not going to be like anything else.
Among the attractions being built for "Avatar Land" is a ride simulating a flight on the back of one of Pandora's soaring banshees. Earlier artwork released last year also suggested a boat voyage.