Disney chairman and CEO Bob Iger (top left) and director James Cameron at the dedication of Pandora in Disney World's Animal Kingdom. That area of the park is based on Cameron's film "Avatar." Photo Credit: Arnie Weissmann
ORLANDO -- For movie director James Cameron, Wednesday was "a
spectacular, surreal" day as he stood in Walt Disney World's Animal
Kingdom and surveyed Pandora, an area of the park based on his movie "Avatar."
In a ceremony with drummers, standard bearers and singers dressed
in the fashion of the movie's alien characters, Cameron and Disney chairman and CEO Bob
Iger dedicated Pandora prior to its opening to the general public on Saturday.
In praising Cameron, Iger said the director "could
easily be a Disney Imagineer -- I wish Jim Cameron was a Disney
Imagineer."
Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time. Cameron
said he was inspired in part by a literal dream of a bioluminescent forest that
he had when he was 19 years old. "I woke up very excited, and I sketched
and I painted. I remembered those images years later when I started writing the
script of Avatar."
Cameron said he made the movie and now, years later, "literally,
a dream has come true all around me. [Disney executive designer and vice
president, creative] Joe Rohde and his team of Imagineers have exceeded my
wildest dreams in bringing Pandora to life. It's an amazing experience for
anyone who has ever dreamed about visiting Pandora."