Good evening, everyone! Today I want to share some really interesting news that I looked at in terms of Disney. So, let’s get started! According to the article that was released today, the announcement was made yesterday that Disneyland is coming up with the plan to have an experience called the Avatar experience. It is coming to the Southern California theme park. Currently, Pandora — The World of Avatar is a land themed to the James Cameron film at Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom theme park. It hosts two attractions, Avatar Flight of Passage and Na’vi River Adventure, the Valley of Mo’ara, and themed dining and merchandise. However, when it comes to California, no further details were shared if these attractions would be replicated on the west coast during the announcement made by Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger in its Q1 2023 earning webcast on Wednesday. Since premiering in 2009, the “Avatar” franchise has become a major success, with the latest installment, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” grossing over $2 billion globally, ranking as one of the top-grossing movies ever made. The films are set in the world of Pandora, complete with lush scenery and surroundings. Iger also noted the film’s streaming success on Disney+ during the earnings call. Disneyland recently launched the Disney 100 celebration, marking a global celebration of the Walt Disney Company. As part of the anniversary, two new nighttime spectaculars have premiered, Wondrous Journeys and World of Color — ONE. New family-friendly attraction, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway also debuted. Splash Mountain will also be closing soon to be re-themed to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, inspired by the 2009 Disney film “The Princess and the Frog,” and expected to open in 2024. Later this year, a restaurant, Tiana’s Palace, themed to the film will be opening in Disneyland’s New Orleans area. A re-imagined expansion of family-friendly land, Mickey’s Toontown, is expected to open on March 8. I was actually surprised to hear about Avatar coming to Disneyland. The only thing I hope that it would not happen is that if they are going to put an attraction in it, it won’t replace the ride Monsters Inc in Disney’s California Adventure Park in Hollywood. I don’t think Disney wants to get rid of it, but I hope that does not happen because the park owns Pixar and it would not make sense to put Flight of Passage to replace it. I think it can go to replace Star Wars Launch Bay at Disneyland Park’s Tomorrowland. I’m pretty excited to see what it will look like!!
In terms of new Disney movies and during the earning calls, Iger also announced two new sequels to massive franchises, “Frozen” and “Toy Story.” A Toy Story themed land is currently at Walt Disney World while Frozen-themed lands are coming to Hong Kong Disneyland and Disneyland Paris later this year. Disney has announced that they will be making the movies Toy Story 5, Frozen 3, and Zootopia 2. Wow! These movies will be really interesting to see in the future. We don’t know when they are going to be coming out, but it will be soon rather than later.
So, what are your thoughts about the Avatar experience, and the new Disney movies coming out?! What do you guys think the experience or the attraction should replace? I would love to hear lots of comments, thoughts, opinions, questions, or concerns down below!
Stay tuned for Disney updates.