BAY LAKE, Fla. — "Avatar" director James Cameron and Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger dedicated Pandora, a land designed around the film, during a ceremony Wednesday morning at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom theme park.
The resort's newest attraction, which will officially open to visitors on Saturday, features scenery based on the film, including bioluminescent rainforests and boat rides down the movie's Na’vi River.
“Walt Disney said, ‘It’s kind of fun to do the impossible,’ and it’s a sentiment that captures the soul of our company,” Iger said. “(It reflects) the optimistic spirit that really drives everything that we do.”
Cameron described visiting Pandora as surreal.
He said he was 19 when he came up with the bioluminescent forest concept that inspired the new attraction.
Watch Wednesday's dedication ceremony below:
Read: Pandora primer: recap of 'Avatar'
"I remembered those images years later when I started writing the script for 'Avatar,'" Cameron said. "And then we made the movie, and now here we are years later. Literally, a dream has come true."
Park visitors will be made to feel as if they're walking among floating mountains and soaring on the back of a flying "banshee."
"We love to build things, create things, and people look at them and say, 'How did they do that?'" Iger said. "I cannot think of a better example of that than what we are standing in front of right now."
Pandora is ready to welcome the masses this weekend.
Windtraders is open, with 200 unique pieces of merchandise, and the Satu’li Canteen has "Avatar"-inspired food on the menu.
“You have a chance to experience technology that we haven’t before,” said Walt Disney World ambassador Brandon Peters. “It’s a first-person perspective connecting with an Avatar riding on a banshee over Pandora. It’s just completely immersive both in the day and night time.”
Cameron is working on a sequel to the movie, which will begin shooting later this year.
Cox Media Group
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