You climb aboard a reed boat, and you drift through a glowing forest. As you drift you see tons of animals and plants, glowing with the life of the planet. That’s the N’avi River Journey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, in the newest land, Pandora: World of Avatar. The new ride is a very family friendly journey through the forest, and you get to come in contact with the one being that is in touch with it all. The Na’vi Shaman. She sings and drums on her pedestal overlooking the river.
Watch-Sing along with the very lifelike Shaman in Disney’s Pandora
While there should be nothing lifelike, or remotely believable about a big, blue, cat like creature, Disney goes above and beyond by making things look amazing. The animatronic is truly amazing, as it sits, sings and dances. The Shaman has more points of articulation than any other Disney Audio Animatronic, and has extremely lifelike movements and facial features. This is a real positive move on Disney’s part, as they’ve been going to characters with projected faces, like in Frozen at Epcot and Seven Dwarf’s Mine Train. While that works for those characters (as they’re more cartoonish), the idea of Pandora is to sell the fact that you’re on a planet inhabited with these alien creatures.
Sold.
The moment that got it for me is the movement of the hands. The way the Shaman curls her fingers, is just too lifelike to ignore.
Pandora: World of Avatar will transport guests to a new world from Animal Kingdom beginning on May 27th.
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