4. The Valley of Mo’ara

Image: Disney

Location: Disney’s Animal Kingdom

When Disney announced that it had acquired the worldwide international rights to build attractions based on James Cameron’s AVATAR, fans were quick to deride their decision as a desperate attempt to get something - anything! - Potter-sized in the lead-up to the Wizarding World. And while Avatar had broken box office records upon its 2009 release, the film became infamous for its lack of interest soon after, essentially disappearing from pop culture without so much as a quote, character, or care left behind.

Fans debated for years how Disney would turn the PG-13 film about humanity’s ruthless attack on an alien moon into a place people wanted to visit. In fact, during its long and allegedly tumultuous development, there were even rumors that the full Avatar land at Disney’s Animal Kingdom might be abandoned just as the Possibilityland: Beastly Kingdom once planned for that real estate had been. But when Pandora - The World of Avatar debuted in 2017, most complaints were quickly silenced.

Image: Disney

First, Imagineers made Pandora incarnate in an original region – the Valley of Mo’ara – which gives the expansive (and artificial, CGI-produced) moon a sense of place. It's a way of making the immense (and frankly, impossible to reproduce) world of Avatar into a concrete comprehensible space that encourages exploration, but still feels real and navigable.

Second, they severed the land from the film's plot entirely. Rather than being observers (or worse, participants) in humans’ greedy mining of the moon’s resources at the expense of its alien life, Pandora is sent decades - maybe centuries - after the film, with the leftover ruins of Earth’s military assault being reclaimed by the planet’s bioluminescent plant life.

Image: Disney

Our role as guests is that of eco-tourists, traveling lightyears (via the Alpha Centauri Expeditions company) to this moon to respectfully connect with its plant and animal life, to share in the traditions, foods, and culture of the native Na’vi people, and to laugh at some anonymous ancestors of ours who foolishly tried to mine the moon out of existence. Pandora is a brilliant example of Disney Imagineers creating an entirely new place (and story) to support an existing world.

5. Batuu – Black Spire Outpost

Image: Disney

Location: Disneyland and Disney’s Hollywood Studios

After Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012, there was no question that Star Wars would feature prominently into the future of Disney Parks. But when, where, and how? Initially, rumors suggested a full-on Force takeover of Tomorrowland was in the cards, but that pesky Wizarding World struck again, necessitating Imagineers and executives think bigger.

Image: Disney

When we first covered the announcement of Star Wars lands, we particularly complimented Disney’s decision to avoid simply bringing to life one of the numerous alien cities or planets seen on screen. First, choosing a single destination to appease all fans would be impossible; second, many of Star Wars’ most recognizable locales aren’t really fitting for theme park lands anyway - from the desolate desert of Tatooine to the floating Cloud City, most intergalactic locales just don’t translate to the scale and scope a land needs. 

Ultimately, Imagineers decided to create their own. Batuu is a remote planet on the edge of wild space; before the invention of lightspeed travel, the planet was a bustling intergalactic trading port (sound familiar?)... but now, its impoverished towns – like the land’s setting, Black Spire Outpost – are villages of traders, merchants, and smugglers... It's also a town we've stumbled into just as a face-off between the nefarious First Order and the Resistance comes to a head...

Image: Disney

On one hand, creating an original world that feels like Star Wars was a tall order, and probably the only realistic path forward for a Star Wars land, and admittedly, the unique world with its own mythos to explore encourages guests to “live their own Star Wars adventure” rather than just touring a town seen on screen. On the other hand, true adherence to the “Wizarding World” formula more or less requires that a place guests already know and care about comes to life. That leaves some fans not sold on Batuu, even as Disney increasingly integrates the planet into the ever-expanding Star Wars universe of stories.

6. Springfield

Image: Universal / Fox

Location: Universal Studios Florida

When Universal Studios Florida opened, its World Expo area played host to the starring Lost Legend: Back to the Future - The Ride, with the enormous Institute of Future Technology stylized as a World’s Fair pavilion. That area’s theme was reinforced with the 2000 addition of Men in Black: Alien Attack, explicitly borrowing the iconic architecture of the New York State pavilion from the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair. But when Back to the Future was controversially replaced in 2007 with The Simpsons Ride, the revised Krustyland exterior didn’t make much sense in “World Expo,” throwing the Simpsons out of sync with the area and the international fare food court next door.

Image: Universal

But after the “Wizarding World” model became standard, it wasn’t just Disney who raced to incorporate more cinematic worlds into their parks. In fact, Universal looked for opportunities to revise their own studio park with lessons learned from Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. The bulk of “World Expo” outside of The Simpsons Ride was transformed in 2013 into Springfield - Home of the Simpsons. Guests can now dine on Krustyburgers, drink Flaming Moes at Moe’s Tavern, and even enjoy custom-brewed Duff Beer at the Duff Gardens Brewery. The land cleverly adapts classic characters and locales into a living space packed with Easter egg details for fans, with Krustyland reigning over it all!

Image: Universal

Though the popularity of The Simpsons has ebbed and flowed throughout the years, the animated classic is well past its 30th season (making it the longest-running primetime sitcom in history – animated or otherwise), definitely earning its major pop culture presence… and a theme park land, to boot. In fact, a follow-up Springfield area at Universal Studios Hollywood is even more robust!

Thanks to Disney’s $71.3 billion purchase of Fox, it also makes Springfield the second land at Universal Orlando based on a Disney intellectual property… Oops! Given Disney’s whole-hearted welcoming of The Simpsons brand (including a coveted spot on Disney+), its likely that Universal will actually benefit from Disney’s reinvestment in the IP.