I never saw Avatar, so........

[luvgoing2disney]

will I be lost on the story behind the rides? Or should I just go and have fun, ride, and take in what I can?

 

[china mom]

I never saw Avatar. Made no difference

 

[Klayfish]

I never saw it either, and have zero desire to. Yes, go enjoy the rides and take them in. FoP is a fun ride even not knowing who the characters are. NRJ is also neat to look at.

It's also been at least 30 years since I've seen Pan (and I didn't like it then), don't remember the last time I saw anything with Pooh, last saw Little Mermaid 15+ years ago, etc...but still very much enjoy the rides.

 

[FCDub]

Watch it before you go?

 

[Minnesota!]

I never saw it, appreciated the beauty of the Navi River Journey. The Flight of Passage was ok, too...you don't need to know the movie or story to understand it. Besides, they drone on and on about that in the pre-show. Snore.

 

[Stasieki]

We just had an Avatar movie night Saturday in prep for our September trip. My DD's are 7 and 11. I am very glad we watched it. I actually really liked it and so did the rest of the family. DD7 was a little scared during some parts.

 

[marcyleecorgan]

Imagineers designed the land so you can explore it without any previous knowledge

 

[cake_my_day]

Watched Avatar for the first time a few weeks ago in prep for my Sept trip. Would definitely recommend the movie. It's long, but sucked me in.

 

[hvanes]

I had no desire to see it but at my husband's insistence, part of our family watched before our trip. I would say that we all enjoyed the land and rides a lot, but those of us who'd seen it probably had a stronger connection.

 

[fla4fun]

I tried to watch Avatar twice, but it wasn't my cup of tea. I stlll enjoy the Pandora section of the park anyway.

 

[loves to dive]

I never saw it and was fine. Full disclosure though, my son saw it and explained a lot of the stuff in the line of FOP to me which did make it a little more fun. I've never seen Little Mermaid and enjoy that ride so it's not necessary.

 

[Hootch]

When we were there in June, Avatar was looping almost all of the time.

No you don't need to see the movie to enjoy the rides just as you need not have been to the Great Wall in China to enjoy Soarin'.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

will I be lost on the story behind the rides? Or should I just go and have fun, ride, and take in what I can?

I asked my son what I needed to know about Avatar to appreciate Pandora. He said "Think 'Ferngully' in outer space".

I found you really don't need to know much about the movie to enjoy the rides.

 

[tzolkin]

As an aside... any suggestions of where to find the movie if people do want to watch before they go? I checked Netflix streaming and Redbox and neither of them have it available.

 

[kaylasmom07]

As an aside... any suggestions of where to find the movie if people do want to watch before they go? I checked Netflix streaming and Redbox and neither of them have it available.

Amazon has it to rent right now.

 

[hidmickey:myantidrug]

I saw the land once before I had seen the movie, and I didn't feel like I fundamentally missed out on things because I hadn't seen it. I was still able to enjoy the rides for what they were. After returning home, though, I watched the movie in anticipation of my upcoming trip, and things started clicking for me as I was watching the movie. Things like "ooh, that's why the queue changed at that part" and "hey, now I guess that horrible preshow makes a little more sense and has some more context." Nothing earth-shattering, but I think I'll have a better appreciation and understanding/connection when I return to Pandora next week.

As an aside... any suggestions of where to find the movie if people do want to watch before they go? I checked Netflix streaming and Redbox and neither of them have it available.

I just recorded it off TV. I see it on quite a bit. Maybe a nearby library also has one that they lend out?

 

[Stasieki]

As an aside... any suggestions of where to find the movie if people do want to watch before they go? I checked Netflix streaming and Redbox and neither of them have it available.

We rented from Amazon - gave us 48 hours... but it did say we have until 9/11 to watch - strange

 

[disneysteve]

No need to see the movie. Flight of Passage is a great ride that stands on its own merits. Navi River Journey is a mediocre ride at best and seeing the movie won't make it any better. The only reason to ride that is to see the new animatronic which is amazing. We have seen the movie, though our daughter did not, and we all enjoyed seeing Pandora.

 

[Kerriowl]

I had not seen the movie when we went to AK. A couple of days after our visit, we watched Avatar in our hotel on the 24/7 Avatar channel. I kept having this weird feeling that I had been to the place where the movie takes place, even though, technically, no such place really exists. Watching the movie is not required to enjoy Pandora, however, the land is very accurate to the movie.

 

[jtowntoflorida]

I haven't seen the movie, but still thought the rides were OK. Not like blow your socks off, but fun enough. There is a HUGE long storyline to FoP, but it's totally unnecessary to enjoying the ride, IMO. NRJ is a boat ride that requires no background information to enjoy the scenery.