AVATAR

Disney's California Adventure

ATTRACTION CONCEPT AND DESIGN

Of all the ongoing projects we are tracking at the moment, the proposed Avatar land/experience/attraction at Disney's California Adventure is possibly the one with the least certainty and yet the most content to analyze. This is for three reasons:

We have Pandora at Animal Kingdom over in Walt Disney World which gives us both a baseline as to what we can expect from an Avatar based land, but also something to contrast against given that we understand that Imagineers are working hard to create a brand-new experience for DCA.
With almost six hours of movie content available (and more on the way), this is a broad and relatively well established universe from which Imagineering can draw inspiration.
The story of how Avatar is going to fit into DCA needs its own pre-amble and potentially ties into a broader Disneyland Forward discussion.

HOW AVATAR CAME TO DISNEY PARKS

Disney entered into the initial licensing agreement for the intellectual property (IP) from Avatar back in 2011, a couple of years after the first movie smashed box office records, with the almost $3 billion worldwide gross income still remaining the highest in history. There was plenty of concern from Disney fans who questioned why Disney weren't using their own IP in the parks, and more specifically how Avatar even fit within a park dedicated to the natural world. The intent of this site isn't really to offer strong opinions on potential Disney missteps as I am generally an optimist with regards to the parks and have a strong believe in Imagineering's vision. However, it's worth noting up front that I personally think Avatar fits really well in Animal Kingdom and I love the imagery of the Avatar franchise, along with James Cameron's story telling. Here's my favourite imagineer, Joe Rohde on this question:

"If you think about the intrinsic value of nature, transformation through adventure, and personal call to action — these are the value of Animal Kingdom . . . [b]ut if you say them again, those are the themes of the film Avatar. So Avatar and Animal Kingdom will nest into each other very, very neatly." (Theme Park Insider, 2017)

Here though, we aren't talking about Animal Kingdom, we are talking about Disney's California Adventure, which we learned at D23 in 2024 was getting it's own destination based on the Avatar franchise. At that event, we heard from Josh Amaro that:

"guests will go on the adventure of a lifetime in search of majestic natural wonders that can only be found on Pandora and the beauty – and danger – that come along with the journey. This new and thrilling excursion will bring all the action, excitement, and wonder of Avatar, taking guests all the way to the wide-open seas of Pandora." (Disney Parks Blog)

As an aside, we'll get into the specific location for this new experience later on, but if I am going to defend the decision to add Pandora to Animal Kingdom, then I do think one has to confess that adding an Avatar based land to Disney's California Adventure (emphasis on the California) makes little sense. In fact, with the Avengers campus expnasion and the addition of Coco, together with other developments in park in recent years (such as the re-theming of California Screamin' to the Incredicoaster), I think it's fair to say that the concept of a park based on California is essentially dead. Considering the difficult beginnings of the park and the widespread initial rejection of that concept, it's actually something of a tribute to Disney that they have made the California concept stick around this long, and one wouldn't be at all surprised if in the long run we were to get a re-branding of Disneyland's second gate. For me, the "DCA" name is fine and still works as the "adventures" take place in California, rather than celebrate the Golden State, but a move to a more generic "Adventure World" type name as we've seen in Paris wouldn't be shocking in the future.

DESIGN ELEMENTS FOR THIS LAND

We are told (and see via concept art) that the proposed Avatar space is quite different to what we have at Animal Kingdom, and there is no recycling of existing attractions here. To date, we have only really received clues about one attraction, which seems to be a water-based attraction, which aligns with what we know about this world aligning more closely with the second Way of Water movie, rather than the original land-based Avatar. On paper, this could suggest a clone of the Na'vi River Journey, but again, Disney have been keen to point out that we're getting a new attraction here.

"While Pandora—The World of Avatar at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is based on Oscar-winner James Cameron’s “Avatar” film, this new destination draws inspiration from “Avatar: The Way of Water” and upcoming Avatar films to bring Pandora to life in a brand-new way." (Disney Parks Blog)

At the original announcement at D23, Disney told us that, we can expect an:

"Innovative new attraction that will bring all the action, all the excitement, and all the wonder of Avatar to life in a completely new and thrilling way. We'll invite our guests to take the adventure of a lifetime as we join an excursion in search of majestic natural wonders that can only be found on Pandora . . . Along the way we'll discover dense forests full of incredible animals and bioluminescent flora, taking us all the way to the wide open seas of Pandora. While this world can be beautiful, if we lose our way it can also be dangerous. This is going to be a dynamic, intense, and emotional experience on a grand scale." (my emphasis added).

This sounds like the premise here could well be that we are joining a nature excursion - as you might go whale watching - to try and spot some of the unique aquatic life that we saw in the Way of Water. In typical Disney fashion, something then goes wrong, and the ride has a thrill element as we are either attacked by wildlife, or perhaps the Resource Development Administrations' security goons.

We don't have many details beyond this quote in terms of storyline, but the ride vehicle we have seen in the concept art does add some helpful suggestions. It's always possible that Disney will custom build a new vehicle for new attractions, but based on what we have seen so far - and some of the story line hints we have from the Avatar movies - utilizing the ride system from the highly rated Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure in Shanghai makes quite a bit of sense. One of the coolest scenes in the Shanghai version of Pirates is when we are transported under the water and the ability to jump in and out of the ocean seems perfect for an Avatar ride that might want to showcase both the classic Pandora terrain ("dense forests") and the aquatic landscape seen in the second movie ("wide open seas").

Below we have some screengrabs from Avatar: The Way of Water which caught my eye as potential plot points for a new attraction:

And here is the latest concept art (June 2025) from the Disney Parks Blog and the previously announced more zoomed out version:

We know from The Way of Water that the curved rockwork is the Cove of the Ancestors, the most sacred place of the Metkayina clan, who feature prominently in that movie. Given its size, placement, and story telling importance, it's fairly safe to assume that this structure will be the "wienie" of this "land", and thus the show building for the water-based attraction is presumably hidden beneath it, and in the surrounding mountain structures. I am assuming that there is indeed a need for a show building because (a) the pictured water area doesn't look big enough for an entire e-ticket attraction, and (b) concept art shows some scenes happening in darkness / at night which suggests "indoors".

One element I initially missed is pulled out below:

It's hard to tell, but this looks to me like a boat full of people outside of any kind of show building. This could mean a number of things:

The water-based attraction takes place in and out of a show building.
This is a secondary attraction, almost like the Davy Crockett Explorer Canoes at Disneyland or the Venetian Gondolas at DisneySea. Just imagine if such a boat could be piloted by a Na'vi!
Nothing, this is concept art!

Again, it's hard to tell but this boat does look a bit small compared to the other artwork we have seen, which would go against option 1, but as we note in option 3, this is just concept art, and it might a red herring or simply that the boat is partially obscured by the bridge:

The more recent artwork (the upper and more zoomed in landscape picture earlier) focuses quite narrowly on this Cove of the Ancestors structure, and doesn't give many other clues about the rest of the land. The earlier artwork, however, did include a couple of other features that warrant a closer look.

A few things here:

First, if there is a second attraction planned for this "land" then this is presumably where we'd find it. There is some kind of structure in the middle of the above artwork that could perhaps be a smaller carousel type attraction if you squint, but that really is just guesswork at this stage. The corrugated-metal roofed structure looks more like an indoor dining / retail location than a likely attraction but it's possible it could also fit something small in there.

I'm also intrigued by the metallic structures at the bottom of the artwork, particularly the longer building, as I wonder if they hold a clue as to how this land will transition from Hollywood Land. We'll get into more detail below, but the location of the monorail is a big question mark to accommodate within this expansion and hiding the track within a tubular structure like this could be a way in which the new land fits in DCA without blowing up Hollywood Land completely and also having a sensible transition between lands.

These terraced pools are reminiscent of Pamukkale in Turkey or perhaps Kuang Si in Laos, and of course from the top right screengrab from the Way of Water shown earlier. These look more decorative that anything though, although Disney have shown a tendency to try and get interactive play areas for little ones into the parks, and this could be a very cool splash pad type area tucked away in the corner.

LOCATION

The announcement of the new Avatar land for Disneyland came at D23 in August 2024, just a few months after Anaheim City Council voted to approve the "Disneyland Forward" multiyear expansion of the Disneyland Resort. Perhaps due to the freshness of those discussions, a lot of folks imagined that the Avatar project would perhaps only fit in the as-yet-undefined expansion of the parks across the west side of Disneyland Drive. This idea was corrected less than a year later in June 2025, when Disney confirmed that Avatar would actually replace a portion of the Hollywood Backlot, with Monsters, Inc. Mike and Sulley to the Rescue! departing in 2026. This announcement included the updated concept art for the land as shown earlier, but just as intriguing was the artwork for the new Transportation Hub.

Explaining to a non-Disney nerd why news of this transportation hub is so interesting might be tricky, but those reading these pages will likely know how these clues come together to answer a key question: how can a whole Avatar land fit into a small chunk of the former Hollywood Backlot? First, a reminder of what we currently have in Hollywood Land:

The green building - Monsters Inc - is confirmed as going away, and the yellow buildings are those which I think could potentially be up for grabs. I personally don't think there is much chance of any of the red buildings being included in the new Avatar land. This colour coding if course just a best guess but I don't think there is any realistic chance of attractions like Philharmagic or anything in the Animation Building going away, as that would (a) reduce Hollywood Land so much that it becomes a confusing collection of a handful of buildings and (b) potentially removes more capacity that it would add.

People seem to be mixed on whether the Hyperion Theatre could be on the chopping block, but that one also seems unlikely to me. Granted, it is confusing that Disney continues to not utilize the space but the cost to remove such a large structure might be comparatively high, and if Avatar land came all the way down past the Hyperion Theatre, then it seems to me that the sight lines down Hollywood Blvd become really difficult to maintain.

The other wildcard factor here is the monorail. I have marked this red because:

the cost to re-route the monorail seems prohibitively high,
if you do re-route here and make the right turn earlier as you head south, you still need to head south at some point in order to line up with the path through the Grand Californian, which would mean either passing very close to the entrance, or somehow navigating around the Soarin' show building,
online speculation is that the monorail loop is potentially not up to modern code and undergoing major renovations would mean the entire loop would then need to be upgraded,
the artwork for the new entrance and transportation hub seems to show the monorail making its wide turn to the right and intersecting with the park further south that what we assume is the back of Avatar land on the very left of the concept art.

Pulling all this together suggests to me that the monorail isn't going to move which I think gives us two obvious layouts for the new land:

Scenario 1

Scenario 2

The first layout is essentially defined by the monorail problem. Let's assume initially that a monorail doesn't fit in Pandora and any sight lines of a train and its track are problematic. Also, let's assume our earlier suggestion is correct and we cannot simply move the monorail. In this scenario, it seems to make sense to use the existing track as the entrance to the land, as we see in Galaxy's Edge in Disneyland:

Blog Mickey

This should allow for a seamless transition into the land, somewhere around where the Hollywood Lounge is today. The downside here is really size, as this plan loses quite a bit of real estate, which is then left to Hollywood Land but isn't doing a great deal, most notably Stage 12 but also the Hyperion Theatre (which we noted above could be in play, but seems less likely - more on that in a minute).

This smaller footprint is around 4.8 acres, or 20,000 square metres, which is certainly not huge, but also not impossibly small to work with. The second option - on the right in the earlier examples - gives us 6.2 acres or 25,000 square metres. Let's put those numbers in context with what we currently have in DCA and beyond.

Now, taking these with a heavy pinch of salt as they are crudely calculated from Google Maps, existing DCA lands have approximately the below sizes (I have included Avengers Campus both in its current state, and with the generous expansion pad):

We can see that Paradise Pier and Paradise Gardens Park each measure a comparable size to the smaller scenario 1 (and scenario 2 gives us quite a bit more wiggle room), and those lands still manage to cram in five attractions - including one huge attraction in Incredicoaster and one relatively large show building in The Little Mermaid - along with a good amount of retail and dining space. Pixar Pier in particular is very efficiently designed, with the main attraction essentially wrapping itself around and over the smaller attractions, which allowed the Imagineers to pack a lot into the land.

However, both these areas are fairly sparse when it comes to theming, at least in terms of elements that take up space, such as, I don't know, large patches of dense jungle, or, say, floating mountains. The smaller attractions are also generally generic off-the-shelf rides, which - as we also talked about as an issue for Paris' World of Frozen - can be really tricky to fit into the new, immersive lands. When your theme is a Victorian-era California boardwalk, it makes a lot of sense to throw in a sparsely themed carousel or spinning ride, but that's a lot harder to do with an immersive land like we expect here, without breaking the sense of immersion for the guest.

The other obvious issue is that if the new e-ticket attraction is going to be a dark, water-based ride, with - presumably - most of the action taking place in a large show building, it sounds like we're going to need a Pirates of the Caribbean sized footprint. The Imagineers' clever use of building design for Pirates is legendary, with guests entering unassuming buildings in New Orleans Square or Adventureland, only to be whisked away on 10-15 minute attractions through multiple, large-scale show scenes. What isn't always obvious is how big those show buildings thus end up being (and the more famous Disneyland and Magic Kingdom parks are just the start of it!). By my rough estimations, the show buildings (including indoor queueing area) for Pirates are almost 7,000 square metres at Disneyland, 8,500 in Magic Kingdom, 9,900 in Disneyland Paris, and an astonishing 12,500 in Shanghai. That would be be 50-60% of the total space in the layouts we looked at above for the entirety of the land.

If Imagineers want to replicate something like we have seen in Shanghai with Pirates of the Caribbean: Battle for the Sunken Treasure, then it feels like they are going to need to have a land at least as big as the second option shown earlier. I wonder if one option is to make the show building three of four stories high, to reduce the footprint of the building itself, while giving enough space to make the attraction sufficiently impactful. We can see that Imagineers have been more comfortable adding huge structures around the edge of the park - Hyperion Theatre, Guardians of the Galaxy, Radiator Springs rock work, and Incredicoaster - where the sight lines are easier to manage, rather than building something huge at the top of Buena Visa Street. The new Avatar land is tucked away in the corner of DCA, and the backside of the huge show building would be relatively easy to manage with some foliage and Go Away Green or Blending Blue paint to ease what guests see as they arrive in the new transportation sub. This could allow them to have the large show building they need for an e-ticket ride and still have room for the immersive theming this land will demand.

A final datapoint is that Pandora at Animal Kingdom is around 31,000 square metres - quite a bit more than our proposed layouts here - but in that case they managed to include two large footprint attractions and a fairly large dining space together with all those spectacular scenic elements, which I think gives one hope that the Imagineers can do something special at DCA too.

TIMELINE AND PROGRESS

2024

2025

2026

2027

2028

2029

2030

DCA's Avatar land announced at D23
Disney Parks Blog

Monsters Inc attraction set to close

Disney Parks Blog

Although the timelines for this project are probably fairly long, some of these important pieces of the puzzle will start sliding into place fairly soon, if, for example, there was going to be a need to move the monorail or start work on any backstage changes needed to create space for the new land. When Disney first penned a deal to license the Avatar IP, many in the Disney community were fairly lukewarm on the idea, but with the success of the second movie ($2.3 billion global box office, 3rd all time) and the generally positive reviews of Pandora at Walt Disney World, there seems to be some enthusiasm for this new land, even if it probably does put a final nail in the coffin of "California" as a theme for this park. Personally, while I'd concede that the story line of the first two Avatar movies is probably nothing particularly unique, and not on par with the best of classic Disney story telling, the movies are visually gorgeous and are simply fun to experience. The first time I rode Flight of Passage ranks as one of my favourite "first times" on any attraction, and I was genuinely blown away at several times in the attraction. I think it helps that - in my opinion - Avatar is a great fit for Animal Kingdom but I'm still fairly confident there is enough source material in the Avatar canon to make at the very least a beautiful attraction, and hopefully one with good story telling elements too.