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Themes in Avatar
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James Cameron, writer and director of Avatar, discusses the film. April 2010
The 2009 American science fiction film Avatar has earned widespread success, becoming the highest-grossing film so far.[1][2] The blockbuster has provoked vigorous discussion of a wide variety of cultural, social, political, and religious themes identified by critics and commentators, and the film's writer and director James Cameron has responded that he hoped to create an emotional reaction and to provoke public conversation about these topics.[3] The broad range of Avatar's intentional or perceived themes has prompted reviewers to call it "an all-purpose allegory"[4][5] and "the season's ideological Rorschach blot".[6] One reporter even suggested that the politically charged punditry has been "misplaced": reviewers should have seized on the opportunity to take "a break from their usual fodder of public policy and foreign relations" rather than making an ideological battlefield of this "popcorn epic".[7]
Discussion has centered around such themes as the conflict between modern man and nature, and the film's treatment of imperialism, racism, militarism and patriotism, corporate greed, property rights, spirituality and religion. Commentators have debated whether the film's treatment of the human aggression against the native Na'vi is a message of support for indigenous peoples today, or is, instead, a tired retelling of the racist myth of the noble savage.[8][9] Right-wing critics accused Cameron of pushing an "anti-American" message in the film's depiction of a private military contractor that used ex-Marines to attack the natives, while Cameron and others argued that it is pro-American to question the propriety of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The visual similarity between the destruction of the World Trade Center and the felling of Home Tree in the film caused some filmgoers to further identify with the Na'vi and to identify the human military contractors as terrorists. Critics asked whether this comparison was intended to encourage audiences to empathize with the position of Muslims under military occupation today.[10][11]
Much discussion has concerned the film's treatment of environmental protection and the parallels to, for example, the destruction of rainforests, mountaintop removal for mining and evictions from homes for development. The title of the film and various visual and story elements provoked discussion of the film's use of the iconography of Hinduism, which Cameron confirmed had inspired him.[12][13] Christians, including the Vatican, worried that the film promotes pantheism over Christian beliefs, while others instead thought that it sympathetically explores biblical concepts. Other critics either praised the film's spiritual elements or found them hackneyed.[14]


Contents  [hide]
1 Political themes 1.1 Imperialism
1.2 Militarism
1.3 Anti-Americanism
2 Social and cultural themes 2.1 Civilization and race
2.2 Environment and property
3 Religion and spirituality 3.1 Religions and mythology
3.2 Parallels with Hinduism
3.3 Pantheism vs. Christianity
4 References
5 Bibliography
6 External links

Political themes[edit]
Imperialism[edit]
Avatar describes the battle by an indigenous people, the Na'vi of Pandora, against the oppression of alien humans. Director James Cameron acknowledged that the film is "certainly about imperialism in the sense that the way human history has always worked is that people with more military or technological might tend to supplant or destroy people who are weaker, usually for their resources."[8] Critics agreed that the film is "a clear message about dominant, aggressive cultures subjugating a native population in a quest for resources or riches."[15] George Monbiot, writing in The Guardian, asserted that conservative criticism of Avatar is a reaction to what he called the film's "chilling metaphor" for the European "genocides in the Americas", which "massively enriched" Europe.[16] Cameron told National Public Radio that references to the colonial period are in the film "by design".[17] Adam Cohen of The New York Times compared the struggle of the Na'vi with "a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the British Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit."[18]

Bolivian President Evo Morales speaking outdoors

Bolivian President Evo Morales praised Avatar for "resistance to capitalism" and the "defense of nature".[19]
Saritha Prabhu, an Indian-born columnist for The Tennessean, wrote about the parallels between the plot and how "Western power colonizes and invades the indigenous people (native Americans, Eastern countries, you substitute the names), sees the natives as primitives/savages/uncivilized, is unable or unwilling to see the merits in a civilization that has been around longer, loots the weaker power, all while thinking it is doing a favor to the poor natives."[20] David Brooks, in The New York Times, criticized what he saw as the "White Messiah complex" in the film, whereby the Na'vi "can either have their history shaped by cruel imperialists or benevolent ones, but either way, they are going to be supporting actors in our journey to self-admiration."[21] Others disagree: "First off, [Jake is] handicapped. Second off, he ultimately becomes one of [the Na'vi] and wins their way."[22]
Many commentators saw the film as a message of support for the struggles of native peoples today. Evo Morales, the first indigenous president of Bolivia, praised Avatar for its "profound show of resistance to capitalism and the struggle for the defense of nature".[19] Others compared the human invaders with "NATO in Iraq or Israel in Palestine",[10] and considered it reassuring that "when the Na'vi clans are united, and a sincere prayer is offered, the ... 'primitive savages' win the war."[23] Palestinian activists painted themselves blue and dressed like the Na'vi during their weekly protest in the village of Bilin against Israel's separation barrier.[24][25] Other Arab writers, however, noted that "for Palestinians, Avatar is rather a reaffirmation and confirmation of the claims about their incapability to lead themselves and build their own future."[26] On the other hand, Forbes columnist Reihan Salam criticized the vilification of capitalism in the film, asserting that it represents a more noble and heroic way of life than that led by the Na'vi, because it "give[s] everyone an opportunity to learn, discover, and explore, and to change the world around us."[27]
Militarism[edit]
Cameron stated that Avatar is "very much a political film" and added: "This movie reflects that we are living through war. There are boots on the ground, troops who I personally believe were sent there under false pretenses, so I hope this will be part of opening our eyes."[28] He confirmed that "the Iraq stuff and the Vietnam stuff is there by design",[17] adding that he did not think that the film was anti-military.[29] Critic Charles Marowitz in Swans magazine remarked, however, that the realism of the suggested parallel with wars in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan "doesn't quite jell" because the natives are "peace-loving and empathetic".[30]
Cameron argued that Americans have a "moral responsibility" to understand the impact of their country's recent military campaigns. Commenting on the term "shock and awe" in the film, Cameron said: "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America."[31] Christian Hamaker of Crosswalk.com noted that, "in describing the military assault on Pandora, Cameron cribs terminology from the ongoing war on terrorism and puts it in the mouths of the film's villains ... as they 'fight terror with terror'. Cameron's sympathies, and the movie's, clearly are with the Na'vi—and against the military and corporate men."[32] A columnist in the Russian newspaper Vedomosti traced Avatar's popularity to its giving the audience a chance to make a moral choice between good and evil and, by emotionally siding with Jake's treason, to relieve "us the scoundrels" of our collective guilt for the cruel and unjust world that we have created.[33][34] Armond White of New York Press dismissed the film as "essentially a sentimental cartoon with a pacifist, naturalist message" that uses villainous Americans to misrepresent the facts of the military, capitalism, and imperialism.[35] Answering critiques of the film as insulting to the U.S. military, a piece in the Los Angeles Times asserted that "if any U.S. forces that ever existed were being insulted, it was the ones who fought under George Armstrong Custer, not David Petraeus or Stanley McChrystal."[7] Other reviews saw Avatar as "the bubbling up of our military subconscious ... the wish to be free of all the paperwork and risk aversion of the modern Army—much more fun to fly, unarmored, on a winged beast."[36]
A critic writing in Le Monde opined that, contrary to the perceived pacifism of Avatar, the film justifies war in the response to attack by the film's positive characters, particularly the American hero who encourages the Na'vi to "follow him into battle. ... Every war, even those that seem the most insane [are justified as being] for the 'right reasons'."[11] Ann Marlowe of Forbes saw the film as both pro- and anti-military, "a metaphor for the networked military".[36]
Anti-Americanism[edit]

Twin towers of the World Trade Center collapsing after the September 11 attacks.

 Reviewers compared the felling of Home Tree with the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Many reviewers perceived an anti-American message in the film, equating RDA's private security force to American soldiers.[37] Commentator Glenn Beck on his radio show said that Avatar was "an anti‑U.S. human thing".[38] Russell D. Moore in The Christian Post stated that, "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war, then you've got some amazing special effects" and criticized Cameron for what he saw as an unnuanced depiction of the American military as "pure evil".[39] John Podhoretz of The Weekly Standard argued that Avatar revealed "hatred of the military and American institutions and the notion that to be human is just way uncool."[40] One review called Avatar the "liberal tell" of "a thinly disguised, heavy-handed and simplistic sci-fi fantasy/allegory critical of America from our founding straight through to the Iraq War."[41] Charles Mudede of The Stranger commented that with the release of the film "the American culture industry exports an anti-American spectacle to an anti-American world."[42] Debbie Schlussel likewise dismissed Avatar as "cinema for the hate America crowd".[43]
Cameron argued that "the film is definitely not anti-American"[44] and that "part of being an American is having the freedom to have dissenting ideas."[28] A critic for MTV concurred that "it'd take a great leap of logic to tag 'Avatar' as anti-American or anti-capitalist."[45] Ann Marlowe called the film "the most neo-con movie ever made" for its "deeply conservative, pro-American message".[36] But Cameron admitted to some ambiguity on the issue, agreeing that "the bad guys could be America in this movie, or the good guys could be America in this movie, depending on your perspective",[8] and stated that Avatar's defeat at the Academy Awards might have been due to the perceived anti-U.S. theme in it.[29]
The destruction of the Na'vi habitat Hometree reminded commentators of the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center,[36] one calling it a "tacky metaphor"[41] and others criticizing Cameron for his "audacious willingness to question the sacred trauma of 9/11".[35][46] Cameron said that he was "surprised at how much it did look like September 11", but added that he did not think that it was necessarily a bad thing.[31] A French critic wrote: "How can one not see the analogy with the collapse of the towers of the World Trade Center? Then, after that spectacular scene, all is justified [for the unified] indigenous peoples (the allied forces) ... to kill those who [are] just like terrorists."[11] Another writer noted that "the U.S.' stand-ins are the perpetrators, and not the victims" and described this reversal as "the movie’s most seditious act".[46]
Social and cultural themes[edit]
Civilization and race[edit]
Commentators around the world sought to interpret the relationship between the Na'vi and humans in the film, mostly agreeing with Maxim Osipov, who wrote in the Hindustan Times and The Sydney Morning Herald: "The 'civilised humans' turn out as primitive, jaded and increasingly greedy, cynical, and brutal—traits only amplified by their machinery—while the 'monkey aliens' emerge as noble, kind, wise, sensitive and humane. We, along with the Avatar hero, are now faced with an uncomfortable yet irresistible choice between the two races and the two worldviews." Osipov wrote that it was inevitable that the audience, like the film's hero, Jake, would find that the Na'vi's culture was really the more civilized of the two, exemplifying "the qualities of kindness, gratitude, regard for the elder, self-sacrifice, respect for all life and ultimately humble dependence on a higher intelligence behind nature."[47][48] Echoing this analysis, psychologist Jeffery Fine in The Miami Herald urged "every man, woman and child" to see the film and wake up to its message by making the right choice between commercial materialism, which is "steamrolling our soul and consciousness", and reconnection with all life as "the only ... promise of survival" for humanity.[49] Similarly, an Angolan critic saw the film as a message of hope, writing, "With this union of humans and aliens comes a feeling that something better exists in the universe: the respect for life."[50] Cameron confirmed that "the Na'vi represent the better aspects of human nature, and the human characters in the film demonstrate the more venal aspects of human nature."[28]
Conversely, David Brooks of The New York Times opined that Avatar creates "a sort of two-edged cultural imperialism", an offensive cultural stereotype that white people are rationalist and technocratic while colonial victims are spiritual and athletic and that illiteracy is the path to grace.[21] A review in the Irish Independent found the film to contrast a "mix of New Age environmentalism and the myth of the Noble Savage" with the corruption of the "civilized" white man.[51] Reihan Salam, writing in Forbes, viewed it as ironic that "Cameron has made a dazzling, gorgeous indictment of the kind of society that produces James Camerons."[27]

Head and shoulders photo of African-American actors C.C.H. Pounder and Laz Alonso standing together in street clothes

 All the Na'vi characters were played by actors of color, including C. C. H. Pounder and Laz Alonso.
Many critics saw racist undertones in the film's treatment of the indigenous Na'vi, seeing it as "a fantasy about race told from the point of view of white people", which reinforces "the White Messiah fable", in which the white hero saves helpless primitive natives,[52][53] who are thus reduced to servicing his ambitions and proving his heroism.[26] Other reviews called Avatar an offensive assumption that nonwhites need the White Messiah to lead their crusades,[21] and "a self-loathing racist screed" due to the fact that all the "human" roles in the film are played by white actors and all the Na'vi characters by African-American or Native American actors.[dubious – discuss][54][55]
Māori academic Rawiri Taonui agreed that the film portrays indigenous people as being simplistic and unable to defend themselves without the help from "the white guys and the neo-liberals."[56] Another author remarked that while the white man will fix the destruction, he will never feel guilty, even though he is directly responsible for the destruction."[26] Likewise, Josef Joffe, publisher-editor of Die Zeit in Germany, said the film perpetuates the myth of the "noble savage" and has "a condescending, yes, even racist message. Cameron bows to the noble savages. However, he reduces them to dependents."[57] Slavoj Žižek argued that "the film enables us to practise a typical ideological division: sympathising with the idealised aborigines while rejecting their actual struggle."[58] The Irish Times carried the comment that "despite all the thematic elements from Hinduism, one thing truly original is the good old American ego. Given its Hollywood origins, the script has remained faithful to the inherent superiority complex, and has predictably bestowed the honor of the 'avatar' not on the movie’s native Na’vis, but on a white American marine."[59] Similarly, positing that "the only good humans [in the film] are dead—or rather, resurrected as 'good Navi'", a writer in The Jerusalem Post thought that the film was inadvertently promoting supremacy of one race over another.[60]
On the Charlie Rose talk show, Cameron acknowledged parallels with idea of the "noble savage", but argued: "When indigenous populations who are at a bow and arrow level are met with technological superior forces, [if] somebody doesn't help them, they lose. So we are not talking about a racial group within an existing population fighting for their rights."[3] Cameron rejected claims that the film is racist, asserting that Avatar is about respecting others' differences.[52] Adam Cohen of The New York Times felt similarly, writing that the Na'vi greeting "I see you" contrasts with the oppression of, and even genocide against, those who we fail to accept for what they are, citing Jewish ghettos and the Soviet gulags as examples.[18]
Environment and property[edit]
Avatar has been called "without a doubt the most epic piece of environmental advocacy ever captured on celluloid.... The film hits all the important environmental talking-points—virgin rain forests threatened by wanton exploitation, indigenous peoples who have much to teach the developed world, a planet which functions as a collective, interconnected Gaia-istic organism, and evil corporate interests that are trying to destroy it all."[61] Cameron has spoken extensively with the media about the film's environmental message, saying that he envisioned Avatar as a broader metaphor of how we treat the natural world.[9][62][63] He said that he created Pandora as "a fictionalised fantasy version of what our world was like, before we started to pave it and build malls, and shopping centers. So it's really an evocation of the world we used to have."[64] He told Charlie Rose that "we are going to go through a lot of pain and heartache if we don't acknowledge our stewardship responsibilities to nature."[3] Interviewed by Terry Gross of National Public Radio, he called Avatar a satire on the sense of human entitlement: "[Avatar] is saying our attitude about indigenous people and our entitlement about what is rightfully theirs is the same sense of entitlement that lets us bulldoze a forest and not blink an eye. It's just human nature that if we can take it, we will. And sometimes we do it in a very naked and imperialistic way, and other times we do it in a very sophisticated way with lots of rationalization—but it's basically the same thing. A sense of entitlement. And we can't just go on in this unsustainable way, just taking what we want and not giving back."[17] An article in the Belgium paper De Standaard agreed: "It's about the brutality of man, who shamelessly takes what isn't his."[65]
Commentators connected the film's story to the endangerment of biodiversity in the Amazon rainforests of Brazil by dam construction, logging, mining, and clearing for agriculture.[66] A Newsweek piece commented on the destruction of Home Tree as resembling the rampant tree-felling in Tibet,[67] while another article compared the film's depiction of destructive corporate mining for unobtanium in the Na'vi lands with the mining and milling of uranium near the Navajo reservation in New Mexico.[68] Other critics, however, dismissed Avatar's pro-environmental stance as inconsistent. Armond White remarked that, "Cameron’s really into the powie-zowie factor: destructive combat and the deployment of technological force. ... Cameron fashionably denounces the same economic and military system that make his technological extravaganza possible. It’s like condemning NASA—yet joyriding on the Mars Exploration Rover."[35] Another author called the film "socialism-disguised-as-nonsense enviro stuff" and argued that the very process of creation and promotion of Avatar emitted enough carbon to undermine the film's ecological message.[69] Similarly, an article in National Review concluded that by resorting to technology for educating viewers of the technology endangered world of Pandora, the film "showcases the contradictions of organic liberalism."[63]
Stating that such conservative criticism of his film's "strong environmental anti-war themes" was not unexpected, Cameron stressed that he was "interested in saving the world that my children are going to inhabit",[70] encouraged everyone to be a "tree hugger",[28] and urged that we "make a fairly rapid transition to alternate energy."[71] The film and Cameron's environmental activism caught the attention of the 8,000-strong Dongria Kondh tribe from Orissa, eastern India. They appealed to him to help them stop a mining company from opening a bauxite open-cast mine, on their sacred Niyamgiri mountain, in an advertisement in Variety that read: "Avatar is fantasy ... and real. The Dongria Kondh ... are struggling to defend their land against a mining company hell-bent on destroying their sacred mountain. Please help...."[72][73] Similarly, a coalition of over fifty environmental and aboriginal organizations of Canada ran a full-page ad in the special Oscar edition of Variety likening their fight against Canada's Alberta oilsands to the Na'vi insurgence,[74] —a comparison the mining and oil companies objected to.[75][76] Cameron was awarded the inaugural Temecula Environment Award for Outstanding Social Responsibility in Media by three environmentalist groups for portrayal of environmental struggles that they compared with their own.[77]
The destruction of the Na'vi habitat to make way for mining operations has also evoked parallels with the oppressive policies of some states often involving forcible evictions related to development. David Boaz of the libertarian Cato Institute wrote in Los Angeles Times that the film's essential conflict is a battle over property rights, "the foundation of the free market and indeed of civilization."[78] Melinda Liu found this storyline reminiscent of the policies of the authorities in China, where 30 million citizens have been evicted in the course of a three-decade long development boom.[67][79] An article in the Global Times, published by the Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper People's Daily, called the film's plot "the spitting image of the violent demolition in our everyday life. ... [F]acing the violent demolition conducted by chengguan but instigated by real estate developers, some ordinary people have wept or burned themselves desperately, while most continue to bear unfairness in silence."[80] Others saw similar links to the displacement of tribes in the Amazon basin[66] and the forcible demolition of private houses in a Moscow suburb.[81]
Religion and spirituality[edit]



Avatar comes from a childhood sense of wonder about nature... You fly in your dreams as a child, but you tend not to fly in your dreams as an adult. In the Avatar state, [Jake] is getting to return to that childlike dream state of doing amazing things.
James Cameron[17]
David Quinn of the Irish Independent wrote that the spirituality depicted "goes some way towards explaining the film's gigantic popularity, and that is the fact that Avatar is essentially a religious film, even if Cameron might not have intended it as such."[51] At the same time, Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online objected to what he saw in the film reviews as "the norm to speak glowingly of spirituality but derisively of traditional religion."[82]
James Cameron has said that he "tried to make a film that would touch people's spirituality across the broad spectrum."[64] He also stated that one of the film's philosophical underpinnings is that "the Na'vi represent that sort of aspirational part of ourselves that wants to be better, that wants to respect nature, while the humans in the film represent the more venal versions of ourselves, the banality of evil that comes with corporate decisions that are made out of remove of the consequences."[17][28][44] Film director John Boorman saw a similar dichotomy as a key factor contributing to its success: "Perhaps the key is the marine in the wheelchair. He is disabled, but Mr Cameron and technology can transport him into the body of a beautiful, athletic, sexual, being. After all, we are all disabled in one way or another; inadequate, old, broken, earthbound. Pandora is a kind of heaven where we can be resurrected and connected instead of disconnected and alone."[51]

Drawing of Yggdrasil, a world tree pivotal to Norse mythology

 Reviewers likened the Tree of Souls to Yggdrasil, a world tree pivotal to Norse cosmology.
Religions and mythology[edit]
Reviewers suggested that the film draws upon many existing religious and mythological motifs. Vern Barnet of the Charlotte Observer opined that Avatar poses a great question of faith—should the creation be seen and governed hierarchically, from above, or ecologically, through mutual interdependence? He also noted that the film borrows concepts from other religions and compared its Tree of Souls with the Norse story of the tree Yggdrasil, also called axis mundi or the center of the world, whose destruction signals the collapse of the universe.[83] Malinda Liu in Newsweek likened the Na'vi respect for life and belief in reincarnation with Tibetan religious beliefs and practices,[67] but Reihan Salam of Forbes called the species "perhaps the most sanctimonious humanoids ever portrayed on film."[27]
A Bolivian writer defined "avatar" as "something born without human intervention, without intercourse, without sin", comparing it to the birth of Jesus Christ, Krishna, Manco Capac, and Mama Ocllo and drew parallels between the deity Eywa of Pandora and the goddess Pachamama worshiped by the indigenous people of the Andes.[10] Another suggested that the world of Pandora mirrored the Garden of Eden.[84] A writer for Religion Dispatches countered that Avatar "begs, borrows, and steals from a variety of longstanding human stories, puts them through the grinder, and comes up with something new."[85] Another commentator called Avatar "a new version of the Garden of Eden syndrome" pointing to what she viewed as phonetic and conceptual similarities of the film's terminology with that of the Book of Genesis.[86]

Parallels with Hinduism[edit]



Hindu god Krishna with flute in hand dancing on a lotus flower
Krishna

Hindu god Rama holding a bow and arrows
Rama the archer
Critics compared the Na'vi with Hindu gods such as Krishna and Rama, traditionally depicted with blue skin and tilak marks on their foreheads.
The Times of India suggested Avatar was a treatise on Indianism "for Indophiles and Indian philosophy enthusiasts", starting from the very word Avatar itself.[87] A Houston Chronicle piece critiqued the film in terms of the ancient Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, commenting on the Na'vi visual similarity with Rama and Krishna—avatars central to the respective epics and traditionally depicted with blue skin, black hair, and a tilak mark on the forehead.[88] Another critic found that elements of the film's plot resembled such teachings and concepts of Hinduism as reincarnation of the soul, ecological consciousness, and incarnations of deities on Earth, commending Avatar and its director for "raising the global stature of Hinduism ... in months", while criticizing them for substantiating the western reluctance to accept anything oriental in its pristine form.[59]
Cameron calls the connection a "subconscious" reference: "I have just loved ... the mythology, the entire Hindu pantheon, seems so rich and vivid." He continued, "I didn't want to reference the Hindu religion so closely, but the subconscious association was interesting, and I hope I haven't offended anyone in doing so."[13] He has stated that he was familiar with a lot of beliefs of the Hindu religion and found it "quite fascinating".[64]
Answering a question from Time magazine in 2007, "What is an Avatar anyway?" James Cameron replied, "It's an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form. In this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body."[89] In 2010, Cameron confirmed the meaning of the title to the Times of India: "Of course, that was the significance in the film, although the characters are not divine beings. But the idea was that they take flesh in another body."[64]
Following the film's release, reviewers focused on Cameron's choice of the religious Sanskrit term for the film's title. A reviewer in the Irish Times traced the term to the ten incarnations of Vishnu.[59] Another writer for The Hindu concluded that by using the "loaded Sanskrit word" Cameron indicated the possibility that an encounter with an emotionally superior—but technologically inferior—form of alien may in the future become a next step in human evolution—provided we will learn to integrate and change, rather than conquer and destroy.[90]

Vishnu and Laksmi riding on a giant winged creature, the Garuda

Vishnu and Lakshmi riding on the winged Garuda.
Maxim Osipov of ISKCON argued in The Sydney Morning Herald that "Avatar" is a "downright misnomer" for the film because "the movie reverses the very concept [that] the term 'avatar'—literally, in Sanskrit, 'descent'—is based on. So much for a descending 'avatar', Jake becomes a refugee among the aborigines."[48] Vern Barnet in Charlotte Observer likewise thought that the title insults traditional Hindu usage of the term since it is a human, not a god, who descends in the film.[83] However, Rishi Bhutada, Houston coordinator of the Hindu American Foundation, stated that while there are certain sacred terms that would offend Hindus if used improperly, 'avatar' is not one of them.[88] Texas-based filmmaker Ashok Rao added that 'avatar' does not always mean a representative of God on Earth, but simply one being in another form—especially in literature, moviemaking, poetry and other forms of art.[88]
Explaining the choice of the color blue for the Na'vi, Cameron said "I just like blue. It's a good color ... plus, there's a connection to the Hindu deities, which I like conceptually."[12] Commentators agreed that the blue skin of the Na'vi, described in a New Yorker article as "Vishnu-blue",[91] "instantly and metaphorically" relates the film's protagonist to such avatars of Vishnu as Rama and Krishna.[59][92] An article in the San Francisco Examiner described an 18th-century Indian painting of Vishnu and his consort Laksmi riding the great mythical bird Garuda as "Avatar prequel" due to its resemblance with the film's scene in which the hero's blue-skinned avatar flies a gigantic raptor.[93] Asra Q. Nomani of The Daily Beast likened the hero and his Na'vi mate Neytiri to images of Shiva and Durga.[94]

The mountain Govardhan hovers above Krishna and his tribe to protect them from an air attack

 The hovering Govardhan mountain protects Krishna's tribe from an air attack, as in Avatar.
Discussing explicit or implicit similarities between the film and the philosophy of Hinduism, reviewers suggested that, just as Hindu gods, particularly Vishnu, become avatars to save the order of the universe, the film’s avatar must descend to avert impending ultimate doom, effected by a rapacious greed that leads to destroying the world of nature and other civilizations.[59][83][92] Maxim Osipov observed that the film's philosophical message was consistent overall with the Bhagavad Gita, a key scripture of Hinduism, in defining what constitutes real culture and civilization.[47][48]
Critics saw an "undeniably" Hindu connection between the film's story and the Vedic teaching of reverence for the whole universe, as well as the yogic practice of inhabiting a distant body by one’s consciousness[59] and compared the film's love scene to tantric practices.[94] Another linked the Na'vi earth goddess Eywa to the concept of Brahman as the ground of being described in Vedanta and Upanishads and likened the Na'vi ability to connect to Eywa with the realization of Atman.[95] One commentator noted the parallel between the Na'vi greeting "I see you" and the ancient Hindu greeting "Namaste", which signifies perceiving and adoring the divinity within others.[96] Others commented on Avatar's adaptation of the Hindu teaching of reincarnation,[97][98]—a concept, which another author felt was more accurately applicable to ordinary human beings that are "a step or two away from exotic animals" than to deities.[30]
Writing for the Ukrainian Day newspaper, Maxim Chaikovsky drew detailed analogies between Avatar's plot and elements of the ancient Bhagavata Purana narrative of Krishna, including the heroine Radha, the Vraja tribe and their habitat the Vrindavana forest, the hovering Govardhan mountain, and the mystical rock chintamani.[99][100] He also opined that this resemblance may account for "Avatar blues"—a sense of loss experienced by members of the audience at the conclusion of the film.[100][101]
Pantheism vs. Christianity[edit]
Some Christian writers worried that Avatar promotes pantheism and nature worship. A critic for L’Osservatore Romano of the Holy See wrote that the film "shows a spiritualism linked to the worship of nature, a fashionable pantheism in which creator and creation are mixed up."[9][102] Likewise, Vatican Radio argued that the film "cleverly winks at all those pseudo-doctrines that turn ecology into the religion of the millennium. Nature is no longer a creation to defend, but a divinity to worship."[102] According to Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, these reviews reflect the Pope's views on neopaganism, or confusing nature and spirituality.[102] On the other hand, disagreeing with the Vatican's characterization of Avatar as pagan, a writer in the National Catholic Reporter urged Christian critics to see the film in the historical context of "Christianity's complicity in the conquest of the Americas" instead.[103]

Painting of a lush forested scene representing The Garden of Eden by Cole Thomas (1828)

 Critics compared Avatar's Pandora with the Garden of Eden.
Ross Douthat, a conservative columnist of The New York Times, called Avatar "the Gospel According to James" and "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism [which] has been Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now."[14] In The Weekly Standard, John Podhoretz criticized the film's "mindless worship of a nature-loving tribe and the tribe's adorable pagan rituals."[40] Christian critic David Outten disputed that "the danger to moviegoers is that Avatar presents the Na'vi culture on Pandora as morally superior to life on Earth. If you love the philosophy and culture of the Na'vi too much, you will be led into evil rather than away from it."[104] Outten further added: "Cameron has done a masterful job in manipulating the emotions of his audience in Avatar. He created a world where it looks good and noble to live in a tree and hunt for your food daily with a bow and arrow. ... Cameron said, 'Avatar asks us to see that everything is connected, all human beings to each other, and us to the Earth.' This is a clear statement of religious belief. This is pantheism. It is not Christianity."[105]
Other Christian critics wrote that Avatar has "an abhorrent New Age, pagan, anti-capitalist worldview that promotes goddess worship and the destruction of the human race"[32][106] and suggested that Christian viewers interpret the film as a reminder of Jesus Christ as "the True Avatar".[10][107] Some of them also suspected Avatar of subversive retelling of the biblical Exodus, by which Cameron "invites us to look at the Bible from the side of Canaanites."[108] Conversely, other commentators concluded that the film promotes theism[84] or panentheism[95] rather than pantheism, arguing that the hero "does not pray to a tree, but through a tree to the deity whom he addresses personally" and, unlike in pantheism, "the film's deity does indeed—contrary to the native wisdom of the Na'vi—interfere in human affairs."[84] Ann Marlowe of Forbes agreed, saying that "though Avatar has been charged with "pantheism", its mythos is just as deeply Christian."[36] Another author suggested that the film's message "leads to a renewed reverence for the natural world—a very Christian teaching."[95] Saritha Prabhu, an Indian-born columnist for The Tennessean, saw the film as a misportrayal of pantheism: "What pantheism is, at least, to me: a silent, spiritual awe when looking (as Einstein said) at the 'beauty and sublimity of the universe', and seeing the divine manifested in different aspects of nature. What pantheism isn't: a touchy-feely, kumbaya vibe as is often depicted. No wonder many Americans are turned off." Prabhu also criticized Hollywood and Western media for what she saw as their generally poor job of portraying Eastern spirituality.[20]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Avatar (2009)—Box Office Mojo". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
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4.Jump up ^ Keating, Joshua (January 17, 2010). "Avatar: an all-purpose allegory". Foreign Policy. Retrieved January 19, 2010.
5.Jump up ^ Simpson, Jake (January 26, 2010). "Colonialism, Capitalism, Racism: 6 Avatar 'Isms'". The Atlantic Wire. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
6.Jump up ^ Phillips, Michael (January 10, 2010). "Why is 'Avatar' a film of 'Titanic' proportions?". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved January 10, 2009.
7.^ Jump up to: a b Boehm, Mike (February 23, 2010). "The politics of 'Avatar:'The moral question James Cameron missed". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved February 27, 2010.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c Ordoña, Michael (December 14, 2009). "Eye-popping 'Avatar' pioneers new technology". San Francisco Gate. Retrieved December 14, 2009.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c Itzkoff, Dave (January 20, 2010). "You saw what in ‘Avatar’? Pass those glasses!". New York Times. Retrieved January 21, 2010.
10.^ Jump up to: a b c d Huascar Vega Ledo (January 7, 2010). "Jesus Christ and the movie Avatar". BolPress via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
11.^ Jump up to: a b c Desjardins, Pierre (January 28, 2010). "Avatar: Nothing but a 'stupid justification for war!'". Le Monde via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved February 18, 2010.
12.^ Jump up to: a b Svetkey, Benjamin (January 15, 2010). "'Avatar:' 11 burning questions". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
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14.^ Jump up to: a b Douthat, Ross (December 21, 2009). "Heaven and Nature". New York Times. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
15.Jump up ^ Atkins, Dennis (January 7, 2010). "Conservative criticism of Avatar is misplaced". The Courier Mail. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
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22.Jump up ^ Romm, Joseph (March 7, 2010). "Post-Apocalypse now". ClimateProgress.org. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
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24.Jump up ^ "Day in pictures". SFGate. Associated Press. February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
25.Jump up ^ "Palestinians dressed as the Na'vi from the film Avatar stage a protest against Israel's separation barrier". The Daily Telegraph. February 13, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
26.^ Jump up to: a b c Assi, Seraj (February 17, 2010). "Watching 'Avatar' from Palestinian perspective". Arab News. Archived from the original on 2011-12-30. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
27.^ Jump up to: a b c Salam, Reihan (December 21, 2009). "The case against 'Avatar'". Forbes. Retrieved February 28, 2010.
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29.^ Jump up to: a b "'Avatar' lost at Oscars due to perceived anti-U.S. theme: Cameron". Zee News. March 16, 2010. Retrieved March 16, 2010.
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32.^ Jump up to: a b Hamaker, Christian (December 18, 2009). "Otherworldly 'Avatar' familiar in the worst way". Crosswalk.com. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
33.Jump up ^ Panyushkin, Valery (February 12, 2010). "Я—один из мерзавцев" [I am one of the scoundrels]. Vedomosti (in Russian). Retrieved February 27, 2010.
34.Jump up ^ Panyushkin, Valery (January 30, 2010). "Я—один из мерзавцев" [I am one of the scoundrels]. Vedomosti via translation by WorldMeets.US. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
35.^ Jump up to: a b c White, Armond (December 15, 2009). "Blue in the face". New York Press. Retrieved February 27, 2010.
36.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Marlowe, Ann (December 23, 2009). "The most neo-con movie ever made". Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
37.Jump up ^ Khan, Huma (January 2010). "The politics of 'Avatar:' conservatives attack film's political message". ABC News. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
38.Jump up ^ Beck, Glenn (March 8, 2010). "Glenn Beck: Oscar buzz (zzz)". www.glennbeck.com. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
39.Jump up ^ Moore, Russell D. (December 21, 2009). "Avatar: Rambo in reverse". The Christian Post.
40.^ Jump up to: a b Podhoretz, John (December 28, 2009). "Avatarocious". The Weekly Standard. Retrieved February 22, 2010.
41.^ Jump up to: a b Nolte, John (December 11, 2009). "Review: Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ is a big, dull, America-hating, PC revenge fantasy". bighollywood.breitbart.com. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
42.Jump up ^ Mudede, Charles (January 4, 2010). "The globalization of Avatar". The Stranger (newspaper) Slog. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
43.Jump up ^ Schlussel, Debbie (December 17, 2009). "Don’t believe the hype: "Avatar" stinks (long, boring, unoriginal, uber-left)". Retrieved March 5, 2010.
44.^ Jump up to: a b Murphy, Mekado (December 21, 2009). "A few questions for James Cameron". The Carpetbagger blog of The New York Times. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
45.Jump up ^ Ditzian, Eric; Horowitz, Josh (February 18, 2010). "James Cameron responds to right-wing 'Avatar' critics". mtv.com. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
46.^ Jump up to: a b Adams, Sam (December 22, 2009). "Going Na'vi: Why Avatar's politics are more revolutionary than its images". The A.V. Club.
47.^ Jump up to: a b Osipov, Maxim (December 27, 2009). "What on Pandora does culture or civilisation stand for?". Hindustan Times. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
48.^ Jump up to: a b c Osipov, Maxim (January 4, 2010). "Avatar’s reversal of fortune". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved January 5, 2010.
49.Jump up ^ Fine, Jeffrey (March 12, 2010). "Why Avatar didn't win the Oscar: Psychologist Dr. Jeffrey Fine asserts the corporate world is bulldozing America". The Miami Herald. PRNewswire. Archived from the original on April 2, 2010. Retrieved March 29, 2010.
50.Jump up ^ Matos, Altino (January 9, 2010). "Avatar holds out hope for something better". Journal de Angola via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
51.^ Jump up to: a b c Quinn, David (January 29, 2010). "Spirituality is real reason behind Avatar's success". Irish Independent. Retrieved February 12, 2010.
52.^ Jump up to: a b Washington, Jesse (January 11, 2010). "'Avatar' critics see racist theme". Associated Press. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
53.Jump up ^ Newitz, Annalee (December 18, 2009). "When will white people stop making movies like "Avatar"?". io9. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
54.Jump up ^ Mardell, Mark (January 3, 2010). "Is blue the new black? Why some people think Avatar is racist". BBC. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
55.Jump up ^ "Avatar 2009". goodnewsfilmreviews.com. December 20, 2009. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
56.Jump up ^ Gates, Charlie (January 1, 2010). "Avatar recycles indigenous 'stereotypes'". stuff.co.nz. Retrieved March 13, 2010.
57.Jump up ^ Joffe, Josef (January 17, 2010). "Avatar: A shameful example of Western cultural imperialism". Die Zeit. Retrieved January 17, 2010.
58.Jump up ^ Žižek, Slavoj (March 4, 2010). "Return of the natives". New Statesman. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
59.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Rajsekar, Priya (March 9, 2010). "An Irishwoman's diary". Irish Times. Retrieved March 11, 2010.
60.Jump up ^ Brackman, Harold (December 30, 2009). "About avatars: Caveat emptor!". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
61.Jump up ^ Linde, Harold (January 4, 2010). "Is Avatar radical environmental propaganda?". Mother Nature Network. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
62.Jump up ^ Kirkland, Bruce (April 21, 2010). "Earth Day ‘Avatar’ sends message". QMI Agency. Toronto Sun. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
63.^ Jump up to: a b Hibbs, Thomas S. (April 22, 2010). "'Avatar' on Earth Day". National Review Online. Archived from the original on April 24, 2010. Retrieved May 16, 2010.
64.^ Jump up to: a b c d Porie, Koel (March 20, 2010). "SRK means India for Cameron". The Times of India. Retrieved March 20, 2010.
65.Jump up ^ Oscar van den Boogaard. "What does avatar mean to you?". De Standaard via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
66.^ Jump up to: a b Pottinger, Lori (January 21, 2010). "Avatar: Should Brazil ban the film?". Huffington Post. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
67.^ Jump up to: a b c Liu, Milinda (February 4, 2010). "Confucius says: Ouch—'Avatar' trumps China's great sage". Newsweek. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
68.Jump up ^ Schmidt, Diane J. (February 17, 2010). "Avatar unmasked: the real Na'vi and unobtanium". pej.org. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
69.Jump up ^ Nolte, John (March 6, 2010). "James Cameron declares thoroughly debunked global warming as severe a threat as WWII". bighollywood.breitbart.com. Retrieved March 27, 2010.
70.Jump up ^ Ben Block, Alex (March 24, 2010). "James Cameron trashes Glenn Beck". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved March 28, 2010.
71.Jump up ^ "10 questions for James Cameron". Time magazine. March 4, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
72.Jump up ^ Thottam, Jyoti (February 13, 2010). "Echoes of Avatar: Is a tribe in India the real-life Na'vi?". Time magazine. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
73.Jump up ^ Hopkins, Kathryn (February 8, 2010). "Indian tribe appeals for Avatar director's help to stop Vedanta". The Guardian. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
74.Jump up ^ Husser, Amy (March 5, 2010). "Environmentalists say Avatar's oilsands allegory deserves Oscar". Calgary Herald. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
75.Jump up ^ Lowe, David (March 6, 2010). "Tribe's fight to save their Pandora". The Sun. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
76.Jump up ^ "Canadian firms upset with oilsands-slamming ad in Variety". Edmonton Journal. March 4, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-10-12. Retrieved October 12 7, 2010.
77.Jump up ^ Fischetti, Peter (March 6, 2010). "'Avatar' director wins different award from Temecula-area environmentalists". The Press-Enterprise (California). Archived from the original on 2010-08-06. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
78.Jump up ^ Boaz, David (January 26, 2010). "The right has Avatar wrong". Cato Institute. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 20, 2010.
79.Jump up ^ This criticism was suspected as a factor in the government's pulling the film from Chinese 2D theaters early in January 2010. Zhou, Raymond (January 8, 2010). "Twisting Avatar to fit China's paradigm". China Daily via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
80.Jump up ^ "Avatar's story should frighten city developers". Global Times. January 7, 2010. Archived from the original on 2010-08-06. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
81.Jump up ^ Editorial (January 22, 2010). "Krylatskiy townspeople treated like Avatar natives". Vedomosti (Russia). worldmeet.us. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
82.Jump up ^ Goldberg, Jonah (December 30, 2009). "Avatar and the faith instinct". National Review Online. Retrieved March 7, 2010.
83.^ Jump up to: a b c Barnet, Vern (January 16, 2010). "'Avatar' upends many religious suppositions". Charlotte Observer. p. 4E. Archived from the original on February 15, 2010. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
84.^ Jump up to: a b c Milliner, Matthew (January 12, 2010). "Avatar and its conservative critics". thepublicdiscourse.com. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
85.Jump up ^ Plate, S. Brent (January 28, 2010). "Something borrowed, something blue: Avatar and the myth of originality". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved October 12, 2010.
86.Jump up ^ Himsel, Angela (February 19, 2010). "Avatar meets Garden of Eden". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
87.Jump up ^ Kazmi, Nikhat (December 17, 2009). "Avatar". The Times of India. Retrieved February 12, 2010.
88.^ Jump up to: a b c Lassin, Arlene Nisson (December 29, 2009). "New movie Avatar shines light on Hindu word". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
89.Jump up ^ Winters Keegan, Rebecca (January 11, 2007). "Q&A with James Cameron". Time magazine. Retrieved December 26, 2009.
90.Jump up ^ Nayar, Parvathi (December 24, 2009). "Encounters of the weird kind". The Hindu. Retrieved February 12, 2010.
91.Jump up ^ Goodyear, Dana (October 26, 2009). "Man of extremes: The return of James Cameron". The New Yorker. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
92.^ Jump up to: a b Wadhwani, Sita (December 24, 2009). "The religious backdrop to James Cameron's 'Avatar'". CNN Mumbai. Cable News Network Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Retrieved January 18, 2010.
93.Jump up ^ Gereben, Janos (February 15, 2009). "Avatar, the prequel, at the Asian Art Museum". San Francisco Examiner. Archived from the original on 2010-04-13. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
94.^ Jump up to: a b Nomani, Asra Q. (March 5, 2010). "The tantric sex in Avatar". The Daily Beast. Retrieved March 12, 2010.
95.^ Jump up to: a b c Hunt, Tam (January 16, 2010). "'Avatar', blue skin and the ground of being". NoozHawk. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
96.Jump up ^ Shayon, Sheila (March 15, 2010). "Avatar in us all". Huffington Post. Retrieved March 17, 2010.
97.Jump up ^ French, Zenaida B. (March 1, 2010). "Two critiques: ‘Avatar’ vis-à-vis 'Cinema Paradiso'". The News Today Online. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
98.Jump up ^ Mattingley, Terry (March 3, 2010). "A spiritual year at the multiplex". East Valley Tribune. Archived from the original on April 13, 2010. Retrieved March 5, 2010.
99.Jump up ^ Chaikovsky, Maxim (February 12, 2010). "О Сократе, байдарках и синей тоске" [On Socrates, kayaks, and Avatar blues]. Den (newspaper) (in Russian). Retrieved March 15, 2010.
100.^ Jump up to: a b Chaikovsky, Maxim (February 12, 2010). "Avatar: James Cameron's ode to Lord Krishna". Den (newspaper) via translation by worldmeets.us. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
101.Jump up ^ Piazza, Jo (January 11, 2010). "Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues". CNN. Retrieved March 15, 2010.
102.^ Jump up to: a b c "Vatican critical of Avatar's spiritual message". CBC News. January 12, 2010. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
103.Jump up ^ Martinez, Dimentria (January 20, 2010). "Criticism of 'Avatar' spiritualism off base". National Catholic Reporter. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
104.Jump up ^ Outten, David (December 15, 2009). "Capitalism, Christianity and Avatar". movieguide.org. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
105.Jump up ^ Outten, David (January 29, 2010). "Avatar wins Golden Globe: Cameron pushes pantheism on TV". movieguide.org. Archived from the original on August 6, 2010. Retrieved February 15, 2010.
106.Jump up ^ "Avatar: Get rid of human beings now!". movieguide.org. December 17, 2009. Archived from the original on 2010-04-13. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
107.Jump up ^ Palmer, Lane (December 23, 2009). "The true Avatar". The Christian Post. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
108.Jump up ^ Pui-Lan, Kwok (January 10, 2010). "Avatar: A subversive reading of the Bible?". Religion Dispatches. Retrieved February 10, 2012.
Bibliography[edit]
Armstrong, Jeffrey (2010). Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar: Ancient Wisdom for a New World. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster (Atria Books). ISBN 978-1-58270-281-0
Mahoney, Kevin Patrick (2010). Carmine, Alex, ed. The Ultimate Fan's Guide to Avatar, James Cameron's Epic Movie (Unauthorized). London, UK: Punked Books. ISBN 978-0-9533172-5-7
External links[edit]
James Cameron on Charlie Rose talk show
Avatar reviews on IMDB.com


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Fictional universe of Avatar
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In the 2009 science fiction film Avatar, director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional exoplanetary moon, Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, and varied fauna and flora. Resources Development Administration (RDA) scientists, administrators, recruits, support, and security personnel travel to Pandora in the 22nd century to discover this lush world, which is inhabited by many lifeforms including the human-like Na'vi. The clan with which the humans have contact in the film "[lives] in a giant tree that sits on a vast store of a mineral called unobtanium, which humans want as an energy supply."[1]
The Pandoran biosphere teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.[2]


Contents  [hide]
1 Astronomy and geology
2 Pandoran biosphere
3 Humans 3.1 Technology
4 Reception
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links

Astronomy and geology[edit]



 Artist interpretation of Polyphemus
In the film, Pandora is depicted as being located in the Alpha Centauri A system approximately 4.37 light-years (276,000 AU) away from Earth. It is one of the many natural satellites orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus,[3] named for the Polyphemus of Greek mythology. Pandora's atmosphere is a mix of nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide, xenon, ammonia, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. Humans cannot breathe this, so they wear Exo-Packs when outside their buildings or vehicles.
Leri Greer, a designer at Weta Workshop, explained the unusual day/night cycle experienced by the Na'vi, who inhabit a moon orbiting a planet, that in turn orbits around a star.

I actually wrote about how it causes a particular sky coloration across the visible spectrum at moments of pure dusk. And the Na'vi, depending on what elevation they live at (sea level versus higher altitudes), perceive a distinct color in narrow band at the horizon at that moment. They identify themselves, and signify in their markings, with this color. Which helps other Na'vi quickly discern at a distance what/where they are from, or what they are likely to be like (fishermen, high plains, skyriders, etc.). That pure dusk "color," combined with their other predominant color markings lets you also know how they relate to Eywa as a "religion" versus Eywa as a physical reality. And during ceremonial gatherings you can "read" a Na'vi by how they mark themselves with dyes, muds, and paints. And the environment and day/night cycle is directly responsible for the development of this social expression behavior. Again, this was an internal idea to help us design things at Weta Workshop, it's hard to say how much filtered upward to the larger production.[4]
Pandora has lush, tropical rainforests that cover much of its continents. Pandora also possesses a lesser gravitational force than Earth does. The geology of Pandora is strongly affected by the presence of unobtanium, a mineral whose superconductive properties allow it to float in magnetic fields. This property makes it highly valued by humans, who mine it for transport back to Earth. Pandora's levitating Hallelujah Mountains contain significant quantities of unobtanium, which allows them to ride the strong magnetic fields in their region.
Cameron hopes to explore the other moons in future sequels, books, and spin-offs.[1][5][6][7]
Pandoran biosphere[edit]
Main article: Pandoran biosphere
The Pandoran biosphere teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Na'vi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Na'vi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.
Humans[edit]



 Of interest to the humans is Pandora's reserves of unobtanium, a valuable room-temperature superconductor mineral valued at "20 million a kilo". The name is a reference to mythical materials used in engineering which have better properties than real materials.
In the Avatar universe (set in the year 2154), humans have achieved a technologically advanced, post-industrial society dominated by powerful corporations and industries. One of Earth's most powerful corporations is the globally integrated Resources Development Administration (RDA), a quasi-governmental organization that possesses a monopoly over all resources in the Alpha Centauri system and any other non-Earth location. The Interplanetary Commerce Administration granted these sole rights to the RDA under the stipulation that the use of weapons of mass destruction of any kind are to be strictly prohibited.[8] Known RDA personnel on Pandora include head administrator Parker Selfridge, Colonel Miles Quaritch, Private Sean Fike, Corporal Lyle Wainfleet, Dr. Max Patel, Dr. Grace Augustine, Dr. Norm Spellman, and Samson 16 pilot Trudy Chacon.
Although Earth is never seen in the film, other than in the extended collectors edition, Cameron developed the future Earth of Avatar as a dystopian, overpopulated, overpolluted, global urban slum wrecked by corrupt, nature-destroying industrialism; the movie's background cyberpunk theme is a regular feature of his work. According to Jake, the Earth is a "dying world" where humans have "killed their mother", suggesting that there is very little, if any, functioning natural ecosystem left. By the film's 22nd century timeframe, Earth faces a worldwide economic/energy crisis due to the depletion of natural resources. Earth is also apparently so politically unstable that the services of private security contractors and the militaries of Earth's nations are in high demand; Colonel Quaritch boasts about serving three combat tours of duty in Nigeria before coming to Pandora and notes that Jake is a veteran of a military operation in Venezuela. The planet has also suffered serious natural and man-made disasters, such as an intra-continental conflict and tsunamis hitting the east and west coasts of the United States.
Technology[edit]



 One of the futuristic computer screens, used for the AVATAR program, which employ 3D graphics and touchscreen interface.
Technologically, humans have achieved monumental advancements by 2154: interplanetary and interstellar space travel and colonization; virtual 3D printing and holography mapping; and advanced methods of cryonics and psionics (via synthetic telepathy interface) are employed. Using their capability of advanced genetic engineering, humans develop "Avatar" hybrid bodies from genetically distinct modified-human DNA and Na'vi alien genetic material. Through psionics, genetically matched humans are then mind-linked to these "Avatars" for remote control operation. In the area of medicine, humans have developed advanced stem cell neuroregeneration technology that can cure Jake's paralysis. However, in 2154, it is still extremely expensive and is not covered by Veterans Affairs benefits. Thus, RDA is initially able to use Jake's desire to regain the use of his legs as leverage against him.
As with many science fiction films, many space vehicles, aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons and technologies were created to fit the story. Many were patterned after historical or contemporary technologies to give the film a sense of futuristic realism.[9] Concept artist Ryan Church based many drawings on aerodynamic research from previously classified NASA and DARPA technical papers. Unlike the movie Aliens which employed one drop ship from de-orbit to ground combat, several vehicles cover specific roles of utility transport, gunship, and base resupply. This is similar to the specialization of aircraft and helicopters in the United States military since the Vietnam war.
Amplified Mobility Platform is an MK-6 vehicle redesigned for Pandora's hostile environment that is worn and controlled as a large "mech" motorized suit. They are 16-foot-tall (4.9 m) exoskeletons powered by ceramic turbines. Soldiers at Hell's Gate use these for patrol and for battle. AMP suits are controlled via a semi-master-slave system – with the AMP's arm motion slaved to the pilot's arm motion. Motion-sensing gloves worn by the pilot are used to control the AMP arms – the result being that the AMP's arm movements exactly match the pilot's movement. In their military role, AMP's are usually armed with 30mm GAU-90 autocannons, (occasionally equipped with a blade below the barrel, allowing the AMP to cut its way through denser foliage without putting the weapon aside) which the suit deploys as a soldier or Marine would hold and use a rifle. There is an ammo belt that extends into the gun, into an ammo canister on the shoulder, over the arm, into a socket at the back. The GAU-90 fires 350 rounds per minute. The AMP suit has GPS, thermal imaging display, FLIR, and radar. Stan Winston Studios animator and Avatar Design Supervisor John Rosengrant described the AMP suit as "An Apache helicopter with legs". It also has a ceramic knife that is three feet long. Quaritch owns an AMP suit and has named it "Beyond Glory". Its GAU-90 has a dragon painted on the ammo tube.
AT-99 Scorpion Gunship is the heavily armed gunship counterpart to Samson and is similar in role and appearance to the AH-64 Apache, Mi-28 or UH-1 Huey gunships. Dual co-axial ducted-fan rotor systems with a total of four prop-rotors each with three blades lead as the aircraft's primary proplusion. It drives on redundant fuel cells. Twin turbine generators driving counter-rotating annular ceramic motors. It is equipped with radar and sonar generators. It is armed with hex-cluster pylon-mounted .50 caliber rotary chain gun systems that can rotate a full 360 degrees with 700 rounds per minute cyclic rate of fire as close range primary weapons. The Scorpion has two pair of stub-wing pylons to carry its armament. Scorpions carry 190 TK-411 WAFAR (Wrap-Around Fin Aerial Rocket) rockets in ten 19-tube rocket launchers. The use of the rocket varies according to the warhead that can range from tactical applications to impact-based sensor systems. Eight Hawkeye NPB-9 Hellfire (Helicopter Launched Fire-and-forget) missiles are used to engage air-to-air targets in conjunction with the nose-mounted sensor suite. The tail doubles as a rear stabilizer.
C-21 Dragon Assault Ship is a large four-post ducted-fan VTOL heavily armed transport and gunship which can deliver AMP suits through drop doors. Quaritch led RDA forces with one of these. Its myriad arsenal of heavy machine guns, dozens upon dozens of rocket and missile pods, and door-gunners makes it the RDA's largest ship so far, with the Valkyrie shuttle being the only larger vehicle designed for extended use in the atmosphere of Pandora. Quad turbine generators drive the four-posted ceramic propellers. The Dragon is heavily armed with multiple weapons systems included grenades, rockets, missiles and point-defense Gatling cannons. Ability to deploy many troops and AMP suits, variety of medium automatic guns, ATG and ATA missiles, incendiary rockets, grenades, door gunners, plus dual and quad Gatling gun systems. All gun and missile systems are constrained by friendly fire avoidance codes (IFF Lockout). It has twin cockpits. Its propellers counter-rotate to navigate, plus the nose-mounted radar suite. There are eight fifty-millimeter sentry guns mounted below the right cockpit.
GAV Swan is a six wheeled terrain assault vehicle. Its full name is the Ground Assault Vehicle JL-723. It has a gyrostabilized platform so when it travels over rough terrain, the gunner platform is stabilized. The extended gunner's chair can rise up 3.6 meters above the vehicle to see over obstructions between the gun and the target, like the long neck of a swan, hence the name. This 6x6 is built for all terrain, and its permalloy armor and four turret-mounted sixty-millimeter rotary autocannons provide protection from the Pandoran environment. The wheels have little armor and are designed with a thick polymer alloy. Swans have a gyrostabilized system that rotates a full 360 degrees. Swans also have a roll bar and four rear headlights. Swans have redundant fuel cells in the rear. When the chair extends, the ammunition storage canister is located at the back.
Hell's Gate is a secure forward operating base with airfield, resembling a "modern day Khe Sanh". Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. The armor bay is where vehicles come to get stored, repaired or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker that Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hell’s Gate’s defenses. Housed inside its fortified hangar and at the ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for forward strike operations, Scorpion Gunships, Samson Helicopters, Model 10 Slash-Cutters, an array of AMP Suits, and other attack craft including support vehicles and assorted battle-ready machinery.
ISV Venture Star or Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star is an interstellar bulk carrier starship that uses antimatter propulsion systems to enable interstellar travel. It transports supplies, equipment, humans in cryonic hibernation, refined ore, and data between Earth and Pandora, taking around six years to travel from one to the other. The Venture Star does not land on the planetary surface, but stations itself in orbit and rendezvous with operations on Earth and Pandora via Valkyrie shuttlecraft that dock with it. The Venture Star is one of twelve RDA ISV mineral carriers, continuously traveling between the Sol and Alpha Centauri A systems. According to film designer Ben Proctor:

The huge glowing radiators mounted to the engines dissipate their heat, and the enormously long central truss, with its own protective coolers and reflectors, protects the cargo and crew modules from the engines' heat and radiation using the simple rule of r-squared attenuation rather than heavy shielding. (Yes, [James Cameron] really thinks about this kind of stuff and explains it very clearly in text and in person.) The ship has a pair of centrifugal-gravity-gen modules for the crew who remain awake for the duration, which has become a pretty typical feature of quasi-realistic ship designs in movies. But one unique feature it has which directly relates to the sub-light realistic travel is a cascade-style shield stack to protect the speeding craft from interstellar debris. Jim's [brief] completely explains this technology, apparently based on current NASA research, and how it obliterates potentially catastrophic particles by letting them slam through a series of thin, light shield surfaces.[4]
The ship was based on designs by scientist and author Charles Pellegrino, who served as science advisor on the film,[10] and deceased scientist and author Robert L. Forward. It also resembles the spaceship Discovery One from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey.SA-2 Samson is a twin-ducted fan VTOL utility aircraft. It is armed with two door mounted machine guns and two pylons near the cockpit with missile pods mounted on them. The pair of ducted-fan assemblies, each with two coaxial propellers, enable the Samson of 6,000 kilograms lifting capability by manufacturers specifications, but lifting performance is rated at 150% of that on Pandora due to the thicker atmosphere. Both ducted-fan assemblies are capable of changing blade pitch independently. From the pilot perspective, forward and aft, lift, yaw and roll authority are accomplished by similar sets of controls found in conventional helicopters. Propulsion is twin Goetz-Korman turbine generators.[11]
Valkyrie TAV is a delta-wing space vehicle/aircraft used to transport equipment and personnel between ISV Venture Star and Hell's Gate on Pandora and its chief purpose is to bring Unobtanium to the spacecraft. The Valkyrie's official name is SSTO-TAV-37 B-class shuttlecraft. The Valkyrie has a payload of up to 60 armed troops, 25 AMP suits, 25 tons of refined Unobtanium and/or supplies. Two Valkyries carried by the ISV Venture Star are used for transfer of personnel and cargo between the orbiting ISV and the surface of Pandora. It has VTOL capability by rotating its fusion engines, and like the C-130 Hercules was adapted as a bomber to drop daisy cutter bombs out of the rear cargo ramp.
Reception[edit]
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly writes, "Cameron turns Pandora into a vertiginously suspended forest landscape...Jake and the sexy tribal princess Neytiri (Zoë Saldana) wow us with their fluid, prancing movements, but there's no subtext to their smoothly virtual faces."[12] Carol Kaesuk Yoon of the New York Times wrote that Avatar "has recreated what is the heart of biology: the naked, heart-stopping wonder of really seeing the living world".[13]
CNN reported that the film's universe has had a profound effect on the audience over their perception of Earth, and life on it, in reality.[14] Avatar Forums posted a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible" which received "1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope" (a second thread was posted for more room).[14] Philippe Baghdassarian, the site administrator, commented that, "I wasn't depressed myself. In fact the movie made me happy, but I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed."[14] Many have confessed to falling to depression and harbouring suicidal thoughts, while others have expressed disgust towards humanity and "disengagement with reality."[14] Psychiatrist Dr. Stephan Quentzel added that "Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far."[14]
In February 2010, CNN published an article exploring the "Avatar science" (the technology linking the human mind to a remotely controlled body).[15] Elizabeth Landau wrote, "Scientists say we are many decades, even centuries, away from making this kind of sophisticated interaction possible, if it can be done at all."[15] A neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Schwartz, further commented that it "shouldn't be taken as anything but fantasy."[15]
Notes[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Rottenberg, Josh (December 18, 2009). "James Cameron Talks Avatar: Brave Blue World". Entertainment Weekly (1081). p. 51.
2.Jump up ^ Kozlowski, Lori (January 2, 2010). "Inventing the plants of "Avatar"". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
3.Jump up ^ Although not mentioned in the movie, Polyphemus was discussed in the book James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide by Maria Wilhelm & Dirk Mathison. ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0.
4.^ Jump up to: a b Anders, Charlie Jane (February 4, 2010). "27 Avatar Questions, Answered By The Movie's Designers". io9.com. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
5.Jump up ^ Carroll, Larry (June 29, 2006). "'Titanic' Mastermind James Cameron's King-Size Comeback: Two Sci-Fi Trilogies". MTV. Retrieved October 18, 2006.
6.Jump up ^ Murphy, Mekado (December 21, 2009). "A Few Questions for James Cameron". The New York Times.
7.Jump up ^ Eric Ditzian (December 21, 2009). "James Cameron Talks 'Avatar' Sequel Plans". MTV. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
8.Jump up ^ Wilhelm, Maria; Dirk Mathison (November 2009). James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. HarperCollins. p. 147. ISBN 0-06-189675-6.
9.Jump up ^ "Avatar's hardware was all based on real-life stuff". io9.
10.Jump up ^ http://www.charlespellegrino.com/
11.Jump up ^ http://www.pandorapedia.com/human_operations/vehicles/sa_2_samson
12.Jump up ^ Gleiberman, Owen (December 25, 2009). "But What About Avatar? James Cameron's 3-D epic didn't make our top 10 lists. But critic Owen Gleiberman praises its visual artistry". Entertainment Weekly (1082/1083): 84.
13.Jump up ^ Kaesuk Yoon, Carol (January 19, 2010). "Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist's Dream". The New York Times. p. D-1.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Piazza, Jo (January 11, 2010). "Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues". cnn.com. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c landau, Elizabeth (February 3, 2010). "Is the 'Avatar' concept really possible?". CNN.com. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
References[edit]
Fitzgerald, Lisa (2009). The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure. Abrams. ISBN 0-8109-8286-2.
Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. It Books. ISBN 0-06-189675-6.
Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook. HarperFestival. ISBN 0-06-180124-0.
External links[edit]
 Wikinews has related news: Elvish, Klingon and Na'vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film
"The Tet Zoo guide to the creatures of Avatar" at Tetrapod Zoology
"The Complete History Of Pandora, According To Avatar's Designers" at io9.com
Is the 'Avatar' Concept Really Possible? by CNN


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Pandoran biosphere
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The Pandoran biosphere, from James Cameron's Avatar, teems with a biodiversity of bioluminescent species ranging from hexapodal animals to other types of exotic fauna and flora. The Pandoran ecology forms a vast neural network spanning the entire lunar surface into which the Naʼvi and other creatures can connect. The strength of this collective consciousness is powerfully illustrated when the human invaders are defeated in battle by the Pandoran ecology, after the resolute Naʼvi were nearly defeated. Cameron utilized a team of expert advisors in order to make the various examples of fauna and flora as scientifically feasible as possible.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Naʼvi 1.1 Appearance
1.2 Culture and language
2 Fauna 2.1 List of fauna
3 Flora 3.1 List of flora
4 References
5 External links

Naʼvi[edit]
Appearance[edit]



 One of the challenges in designing Neytiri was making her look sufficiently alien and yet familiar and appealing enough to make Jake's attraction to her natural and convincing.[2]
In Avatar, the Naʼvi are an indigenous species that live on Pandora. They are humanoid in appearance and are 9 to 10 feet (2.7 to 3.0 m) tall, having pairs of eyes, ears, arms, legs and feet like humans, as well as a nose, a mouth, and expressions recognizable to humans. The Naʼvi differ from humans in having blue striped skin, pointed and mobile ears, large eyes, catlike noses and teeth, tails, and four fingers (hybrid avatars retain the five fingers of their human DNA). While taller than humans, they have narrower proportions in body frame. Their bones are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. The Naʼvi also have a distinctive tendril feature protruding from the back of their heads, surrounded by hair (resembling a long plait or queue), feeding directly into the brain. This organ allows them to connect with other organisms around them, transferring electrochemical signals such as thoughts and memories to the trees, plants, and other creatures. In the original script, Cameron refers to these as "Jubilees", although the word is not used in the film and may be changed by the time the novel is published. The Naʼvi were initially conceived to be more alien in appearance. Cameron recalled that when one of the main characters, Neytiri, was originally drawn, she had gills and other protuberances. In addition to feline features,[3] the species was redesigned to seem more human so that audiences could better relate to it.
According to Cameron, the appearance of the Naʼvi character Neytiri had some specific inspirations and requirements: she was inspired by Raquel Welch's character in Fantastic Voyage and by Vampirella, noting in the latter's case, "the fact [Vampirella] didn’t exist didn’t bother me because we have these quintessential female images in our mind, and in the case of the male mind, they’re grossly distorted. When you see something that reflects your id, it works for you.... Right from the beginning I said, 'She’s got to have tits,' even though that makes no sense because her race, the Naʼvi, aren’t placental mammals. I designed her costumes based on a taparrabo, a loincloth worn by Mayan Indians."[4]
Cameron has described Avatar as more "science fantasy" than true science fiction and has said that he would explain in the novel for the film why in the fictional universe the Naʼvi look like humans.[5]
Culture and language[edit]
According to Entertainment Weekly, "The Naʼvi can commune with animals on their planet by literally plugging their braid into the creatures' nerve systems. To become a warrior, a Naʼvi must tame and ride a flying creature known as Ikran."[3] The Naʼvi also use this neural bonding system, called "tsaheylu", to mate with a "life partner", a bond that, when made, cannot be broken in the Naʼvi's lifetime. This is akin to human marriage.[6]
The Naʼvi way of life revolves around their religion, and the Home tree. The Naʼvi sleep in hammocks in large groups for comfort and as a warning system.[citation needed]
Conceived for the film was the Naʼvi language, a constructed language often spoken by the actors when they played Naʼvi characters. The Naʼvi language was created by communications professor emeritus and linguistics consultant Paul Frommer of the University of Southern California. He designed the language so as to be speakable by human actors, combining syntactic and grammatical rules from other existing languages. Frommer created over a thousand words for the Naʼvi language and coached the actors who narrated Naʼvi characters.[7] When communicating to humans in the film, Naʼvi characters – especially Neytiri – speak in accented and broken English.
On religion, the chief and possibly sole deity of the Naʼvi is a benevolent goddess known as Eywa. The Naʼvi are able to "connect" to Eywa when they use their braids to connect to the Tree of Souls and other similar flora. Eywa is said to have a connection to all things Pandoran.[citation needed]
Political power is exceedingly diffused, with each clan being a sovereign entity under either the diarchical rule of both a temporal chieftain and a spiritual chieftain, or the monarchical rule of a single individual who holds the two separate offices simultaneously. The numerous clans are seemingly only ever brought together as a tribe by Toruk Makto, a messianic war chief whose office is both impermanent and apparently the only one with an authority that covers the entire race of Naʼvi. By the time of the film, there had only been five Toruk Maktos in the history of the tribe, and the last one had ruled no fewer than four generations before the present day. This may be due to the fact that the Toruk Maktos seem to draw their power from a situation of explicitly external danger, and therefore are not really necessary for the day to day internal running of the tribal clans. Succession to the various offices is smooth, however, based more on popular recognition and customary worthiness than on anything else, and respect for hierarchical superiors appears to be high.
Fauna[edit]
James Cameron's core idea for the Avatar's fictional creatures was for them to be "superslick and aerodynamic, and be like a race car with racing stripes".[8] Neville Page worked on Avatar as the lead creature designer. He, Wayne Barlowe (author, artist, and initial lead creature designer), and Yuri Bartoli (concept designer and supervising virtual art director) adapted Cameron's conceptions of the fauna into a design that served three purposes: to appear expressive, to function with animation technology, and to seem realistic.[9] He and creature designer Wayne Barlowe sought to base the design of Pandora's creatures on race cars, but they struggled to adapt the concept. Page drew on his education in automotive design, recognizing the irony that race cars were based on real-life animals in having "bone lines". Existing automotive designs drew from seashells, turtle shells, and insects, so the designers returned the design to the fictional creatures. They found that the prime challenge in designing most creatures was to give them organic appearances, including skin texture. Some creatures were also designed to have special breathing holes located in the trachea, copying how cars have intakes.[8] Challenges that the creatures posed for visual effects technicians were to form "walk and run" cycles for six-legged creatures and to impart credible flying for creatures that had four wings.[10]
The fictional creatures are not connected telepathically according to Cameron and the designers. However, even though they discussed the idea of the creatures being part of Pandora's "Worldmind", they preferred to interpret the creatures as having heightened instincts. Page explained, "Animals are hooked up to this planet. We're the ones who are detached.... The way I dealt with it was, We have so much rich [material] here to reference, that we don't have to dream up a whole new process of animal awareness."[8]
The fictional moon has less gravity than Earth, so the creatures' larger sizes match their environment. Most Pandoran wildlife are hexapodal, or six-legged. Much of the fauna and flora are bioluminescent, which is seen in creatures on Earth such as fireflies, many deep sea animals, and some microscopic algae. The aforementioned breathing holes, located on multiple parts of a creature's body other than the mouth, are similar to spiracles in some of Earth's animals.[11] The flying reptile-like creatures in the film can be compared to extinct flying reptiles such as pterosaurs and to the modern gliding lizard Draco sumatranus.[12]
List of fauna[edit]
Direhorse (Pa'li in Naʼvi) - The Direhorse is a bioluminescent hexapodal equine-like animal. It is scientifically known as Equidirus hoplites. The Naʼvi use the Direhorse to hunt.[13] The Direhorse was conceived and designed by Cameron and Stan Winston Studios. The Direhorse is grey with blue stripes and stands thirteen feet (3.9 meters) tall, fourteen feet (4.2 meters) long. The Naʼvi "break" a Direhorse by connecting the fleshy tip of their hair to the animal's antennae. Xenobiologists call this a neural whip. Once intertwined, the Naʼvi rider can communicate motor commands instantly through the neural interface; however, this connection does not lead to a lifelong, exclusive bond, as it does with the Mountain Banshee. Cameron described the creature as a "six-legged alien Clydesdale with moth-like antennae". The Direhorse uses its long tongue to eat the sap out of Pitcher Plants.[14]
Mountain Banshee (Ikran in Naʼvi) - The Mountain Banshee is an airborne predator who lives in mountainous territory on Pandora. Naʼvi warriors attempt to bond with a Banshee, a dangerous and required rite of passage. They are cousins to the Great Leonopteryx and they are scientifically known by Xenobiologists as Pterodactylus giganteus. A Banshee bonds to a Naʼvi warrior for life. They are four-winged creatures that, like the Leonopteryx and Direhorse, have a biologically produced carbon fiber flexing on the skin. Neytiri had a Banshee named Seze (translated from the language of the Naʼvi roughly as "blue flower").[15] Page spent the most time designing the Banshee for the film so it would be convincing when it flew or perched. The designer said, "The hardest thing of all was having a Naʼvi on top of it and flying it. You had to backwards engineer it. It was like designing and engineering an aircraft."[16] Barlowe, who contributed to the Banshee's design, was influenced by manta rays and skates as well as relatively little-known pterosaurs and plesiosaurs that had "many, unique aerodynamic and hydrodynamic" characteristics.[8] Like the color scheme for the Great Leonopteryx, color schemes based on Earth animals were used for various Banshees, though Page was inspired by Art Nouveau prints to warp the schemes so they would not look familiar to film audiences.[17]
Great Leonopteryx (Toruk in Naʼvi, meaning last shadow) - The Great Leonopteryx is the apex airborne predator native to Pandora. It is scientifically known as Gavilandora maxima. The fierce beauty and nobility of the Leonopteryx gave the species a place in central Naʼvi lore and culture.[citation needed] The Leonopteryx is scarlet with black stripes and a midnight blue crest on top of the head and on the lower jaw. It is celebrated in dance and song; elaborate totems symbolize both the fear and respect accorded to the creature. The Leonopteryx is considered crucial to the Naʼvi sense of destiny and interconnectedness. Prior to the events of the film, it had only been tamed five times, and Neytiri tells Jake that the riders (Toruk Makto) brought peace among the Pandoran tribes. This makes Jake the sixth Toruk Makto. He manages to capture one by jumping on it from above from his Banshee but release it after the battle with the humans ended. The Great Leonopteryx and the Banshee were designed with bright colors. Page based the colors on Earth's birds, poison dart frogs, and Monarch butterflies, though he altered the patterns so that their inspirations would not be so conspicuous to moviegoers.[17] The skull and crest shapes appear to be derived from pterosaurs from the genus Tapejara.
Hammerhead Titanothere (’Angtsìk in Naʼvi) - The Hammerhead Titanothere is a large hexapodal herbivore whose massive, low-slung head features bony projections on either side of the skull, similar to those of Terran hammerhead sharks. These protrusions are often used to push and destroy objects: a single sideways thrust of the neck being sufficient to down a significantly sized tree. The Titanothere has exceedingly thick, gray skin. There is a small "fan" feather structure on the head that it flares up as a warning symbol seen in the film and in the video game.[18] The creature, which resembles a cross between a rhinoceros and a hammerhead shark, is easily aroused.[14] Its hide is impervious to human ammunition, though firing on it is known to anger it. This massive, grazing creature travels in moderately large herds or packs of 10–20 animals. Avatar creature designer Yuri Bartoli explained to io9.com about the creature's colorful threat display: "Originally, the Hammerhead just had to be a huge creature, big enough that even a Thanator would think twice about attacking one. A threat display is meant to be seen, so it required bright colors that would stand out against its more muted body". It is moderately social, but also extremely territorial and hierarchical. A soft ungulate mouth is protected by a rigid, beak-like jaw structure. The species is scientifically known as Titanotheris hammercephalis. In the climax of the film, a bunch of Hammerhead Titanothere assist the Naʼvi in their battle against Colonel Mile Quaritch's army.
Hexapede (Yerik in Naʼvi) - The Hexapede are hexapodal deer-like creatures. They are dark blue herbivores with white and yellow stripes. Twin horn structures sheathe a thin, patterned membrane structure. Their small, sloped skull is topped by this light-colored fan structure. This fan has an eye pattern on it similar to those found in Terran insects. A skin membrane hangs under the jaw and runs the length of the neck. Twin lines of dark hairlike bristles run down the Hexapede's back. The antennae are at the back at the head. As a threat display, the Hexapede flares up its twin membrane structure like a satellite dish and retracts both lips. It is scientifically known as Sexcruscervus caeruleus.[14]
Prolemuris - The Prolemuris are blue, hexapodal creatures based on Earth's lemurs. They have two eyes, small nostrils, and their two upper arms are partially fused. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have a queue on the back of their heads. They have lateral skin membranes on each side of the body. They have large eyes and grow 1.5 meters tall.
Thanator (Palulukan in Naʼvi) - The Thanator is a large hexapodal land predator that is believed, by the RDA, to be the apex land predator. It is scientifically known as Bestiapanthera ferox.[19] Cameron personally designed the creature.[20] The Thanator is first seen when Jake wanders off into the jungle and touches multiple Helicoradian leaves, at which they retract to reveal a family of Hammerhead Titanotheres behind. The Thanator frightens the Titanotheres and pursues Jake. Jake later escapes the Thanator by jumping down a waterfall. The Thanator is black with white fleshy skin under each hand. Its appearance is similar to a panther; Cameron describes the Thanator as "the panther from hell". The Thanator has ten sensory quills connected to six pads at the rear of the skull that flare up before it attacks the prey. The director explained how the Thanator is the most fearsome creature on Pandora, "The Thanator could eat a T-Rex and have the Alien for dessert."[14]
Viperwolf (Nantang in Naʼvi) - The Viperwolf is a hexapodal nocturnal carnivore. The species is scientifically known as Caniferratus costatus.[21] It has bioluminescence for pack identification. Cameron described the Viperwolves: "[They are] hairless with shiny skin that looks like overlapped armor. Most disturbing are its paws, which are like leathery hands." They are vicious in combat but treat their babies in a loving, nurturing way. They are seen in the daytime caring for their babies and have green eyes. They have a laugh which sounds like Earth's hyenas. Like most Pandoran creatures, they have antennae. They have opposable thumbs allowing them to climb trees as well as stalk from the ground, thereby are able to create a three-dimensional hunting field.[14]
Flora[edit]



 The Helicoradian plants in Avatar were based on Spirobranchus giganteus, a species of tube worm common to many seas on Earth. These worms quickly withdraw into their tubes when disturbed.
Flora on Pandora are of a tropical type several times taller than that existing on Earth. Many, if not all, plant and animal species have bioluminescent properties.[22] The flora specimens seen in the film were all designed by Jodie Holt, a professor of botany at the University of California, Riverside. According to Holt, Pandoran flora are able to communicate with each other through signal transduction and are larger in size than Earth flora due to greater atmospheric thickness, weaker gravity, and stronger magnetism on Pandora.[1]
List of flora[edit]
Helicoradian (Loreyu in Naʼvi) - The Helicoradian is a carnivorous plant that has red spiral-leaves. The plants are up to 3–4 metres (9.8–13.1 ft) tall and, when touched, instantly curl and collapse into themselves. They are zooplantae, part animal, part plant. They are first seen when Jake wanders off into a forest of Helicoradia and touches multiple leaves, at which they retract and coil up to reveal a Hammerhead Titanothere behind. According to Avatar designer Craig Shoji, the behavior and design of the Helicoradian was based on the Christmas tree worms, tube worms that reside on coral reefs. In the video games, the species has the ability to heal the player.[23]
Obesus rotundus (Rumut in Naʼvi) - The Obesus rotundus is a tree that resembles a puffball tree.[1]
Pseudocycas altissima (Tsyorina'wll in Naʼvi) - The Pseudocycas altissima is a plant akin to a tall Earth cycad.[1]
The Hometrees (Kelutral in Naʼvi) - The Hometrees are great enough to house hundreds of clan members. The trees are honeycombed with natural hollows and alcoves in which the Naʼvi sleep, eat, weave, dance, and celebrate their connection to Eywa. Adult Hometrees are more than 150 meters (492.1 feet) tall, and roughly 30 meters (98.4 feet) in diameter.[24] The Omaticaya inhabit a Giant Hometree, standing roughly 460 meters (1509 feet) tall. A distinguishable feature of the movie landscape, the tree itself is central to the movie story arc. Like many sacred sites on Pandora, the Giant Hometree sits above a large deposit of unobtanium. It is destroyed by the humans using rockets and missiles, which leads to the Naʼvi clans' alliance against the humans.
The Tree of Souls (Ayvitrayä Ramunong in Naʼvi [Cameron: Vitraya Ramunong]) - The Tree of Souls is a tree where the Naʼvi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora. Cameron described the Tree of Souls as "a big input-output station", having been inspired by the bioluminescence that he encountered during night diving. In the film, the tree is seen to be capable of transferring a specific consciousness from one body to another.[20]
The Tree of Voices (Utral Aymokriyä in Naʼvi [Cameron: Utraya Mokri]) - The Tree of Voices is the most important tree to the Naʼvi after the Tree of Souls. It is smaller but its appearance is similar and it too is illuminated. Neytiri tells Jake that it allows the Naʼvi to hear the voices of their ancestors. It is destroyed in the bulldozer attack by the humans. This was where Jake and Neytiri chose each other as mates and mated before Eywa.
Woodsprites (Atokirina’ in Naʼvi) - The Woodsprites are seeds of the "holy tree", appearing similar to airborne jellyfish. Neytiri describes them as very pure spirits, and scolds Jake for slapping two of them away. The Omaticaya Clan plants one of these seeds with the body of a deceased Naʼvi, so the Naʼvi's consciousness will become part of Eywa.[14]
Various other plants and trees that look like Earth's ferns, palm trees, mosses, grasses, bamboo, and succulents. Several forest plants of Pandora resemble the Earth's zoanthid soft corals, which can be bioluminescent as in the movie.
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d Kozlowski, Lori (January 2, 2010). "Inventing the plants of "Avatar"". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
2.Jump up ^ Duncan, Jody (January 2010). "Avatar". Cinefex (120): 138.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Rottenberg, Josh (December 18, 2009). "James Cameron Talks Avatar: Brave Blue World". Entertainment Weekly (1081): 48–51.
4.Jump up ^ "James Cameron: Playboy Interview". Playboy. December 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
5.Jump up ^ Germain, David (December 21, 2009). "'Avatar' creator Cameron shares alien shop talk". Associated Press via Google News. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
6.Jump up ^ Staff (January 4, 2010). "Avatar fans promised alien sex scene on DVD". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved January 7, 2010.
7.Jump up ^ Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar". Unidentified Sound Object. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d Anders, Charlie Jane (December 9, 2009). "Pandora's Creatures Were Partly Based On Cars". io9 (Gawker Media). Retrieved December 27, 2009.
9.Jump up ^ Cohen, David S (December 27, 2009). "'Avatar' unleashes a new kind of creative". Variety. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
10.Jump up ^ Desowitz, Bill (December 21, 2009). "Avatar: The Game Changer". VFXWorld.com (AWN, Inc.). Retrieved December 27, 2009.
11.Jump up ^ Choi, Charles Q. (December 21, 2009). "How much real science is in ‘Avatar’?". msnbc.msn.com (MSN). Retrieved December 27, 2009.
12.Jump up ^ Richard, Michael G (February 16, 2010). "Y'Know the Flying Dragons in Avatar? Tiny Real-Life Version Discovered in Indonesia". Treehugger.com. Retrieved February 17, 2010.
13.Jump up ^ "Direhouse". Pandorapedia. 20th Century Fox. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
14.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "A Look Into the Making of Pandora for AVATAR". IESB.net. S&S Media Services. December 6, 2009. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
15.Jump up ^ "Mountain Banshee". Pandorapedia. 20th Century Fox. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
16.Jump up ^ Kennedy, Gerrick (December 4, 2009). "'Avatar' designer on Jim Cameron, banshees and those nagging 'Delgo' comparisons". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
17.^ Jump up to: a b Anders, Charlie Jane (December 10, 2009). "Those crazy color schemes are from the ocean floor — and Art Nouveau". io9 (Gawker Media). Retrieved December 27, 2009.
18.Jump up ^ "Hammerhead Titanothere". Pandorapedia. 20th Century Fox. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
19.Jump up ^ "Thanator". Pandorapedia. 20th Century Fox. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
20.^ Jump up to: a b Maher, Kevin (December 8, 2009). "Avatar: pictures of James Cameron’s fantastic new world". The Times. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
21.Jump up ^ "Viperwolf". Pandorapedia. 20th Century Fox. Retrieved December 28, 2009.
22.Jump up ^ "Video:Pandora Discovered". 2009-12-08.
23.Jump up ^ Anders, Charlie Jane (February 4, 2010). "27 Avatar Questions, Answered By The Movie's Designers". io9.com. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
24.Jump up ^ "Avatar: Pandorapedia – Hometree". 2009-12-08.
Fitzgerald, Lisa (2009). The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure. Abrams. ISBN 0810982862.
Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. It Books. ISBN 0061896756.
Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook. HarperFestival. ISBN 0061801240.
External links[edit]
 Wikinews has related news: Elvish, Klingon and Na'vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film
Pandorapedia.com
"The Tet Zoo guide to the creatures of Avatar" at Tetrapod Zoology
"The Complete History Of Pandora, According To Avatar's Designers" at io9.com
Is the 'Avatar' Concept Really Possible? by CNN


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Na'vi language
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Naʼvi
Lìʼfya leNaʼvi
Pronunciation
ˈnaʔvi
Created by
Paul Frommer
Date
2005
Setting and usage
2009 film Avatar
Purpose
constructed languages artistic languages fictional languages Naʼvi


Sources
constructed languages
  a priori languages
Language codes

ISO 639-3
None (mis)

Linguist list
 08n
This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters.
The Naʼvi language is the constructed language of the Naʼvi, the sapient humanoid indigenous inhabitants of the fictional moon Pandora in the 2009 film Avatar. It was created by Paul Frommer, a professor at the USC Marshall School of Business with a doctorate in linguistics. Naʼvi was designed to fit James Cameron's conception of what the language should sound like in the film, to be realistically learnable by the fictional human characters of the film, and to be pronounceable by the actors, but to not closely resemble any single human language.
When the film was released in 2009, Naʼvi had a growing vocabulary of about a thousand words, but understanding of its grammar was limited to the language's creator.[1] However, this has changed subsequently as Frommer has expanded the lexicon to more than 1,500 words[2] and has published the grammar, thus making Naʼvi a relatively complete and learnable language.


Contents  [hide]
1 Roots
2 Development
3 Structure and usage 3.1 Phonology and orthography 3.1.1 Vowels
3.1.2 Consonants
3.1.3 Sound change
3.2 Grammar 3.2.1 Nouns
3.2.2 Adjectives
3.2.3 Verbs
3.3 Lexicon
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Roots[edit]
The Naʼvi language has its origins in James Cameron's early work on Avatar. In 2005, while the film was still in scriptment form, Cameron felt it needed a complete, consistent language for the alien characters to speak. He had written approximately thirty words for this alien language but wanted a linguist to create the language in full. His production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, contacted the linguistics department at the University of Southern California seeking someone who would be interested in creating such a language. Edward Finegan, a professor of linguistics at USC, thought that the project would appeal to Paul Frommer, with whom he had co-authored a linguistics textbook, and so forwarded Lightstorm's inquiry on to him. Frommer and Cameron met to discuss the director's vision for the language and its use in the film; at the end of the meeting, Cameron shook Frommer's hand and said "Welcome aboard."
Based on Cameron's initial list of words, which had a "Polynesian flavor" according to Frommer,[3] the linguist developed three different sets of meaningless words and phrases that conveyed a sense of what an alien language might sound like: one using contrasting tones, one using varying vowel lengths, and one using ejective consonants. Of the three, Cameron liked the sound of the ejectives most. His choice established the phonology that Frommer would use in developing the rest of the Naʼvi language – morphology, syntax, and an initial vocabulary – a task that took six months.
Development[edit]
The Naʼvi vocabulary was created by Frommer as needed for the script. By the time casting for Avatar began, the language was sufficiently developed that actors were required to read and pronounce Naʼvi dialogue during auditions. During shooting Frommer worked with the cast, helping them understand their Naʼvi dialogue and advising them on their Naʼvi pronunciation, stress, and intonation. Actors would often make mistakes in speaking Naʼvi. In some cases, those mistakes were plausibly explained as ones their human characters would make; in other cases, the mistakes were incorporated into the language.
Frommer expanded the vocabulary further in May 2009 when he worked on the Avatar video game, which required Naʼvi words that had not been needed for the film script and thus had not yet been invented. Frommer also translated into Naʼvi four sets of song lyrics that had been written by Cameron in English, and he helped vocalists with their pronunciation during the recording of James Horner's Avatar score. At the time of the film's release on December 18, 2009, the Naʼvi vocabulary consisted of approximately 1000 words.
Work on the Naʼvi language has continued even after the film's release. Frommer is working on a compendium which he plans to deliver to Fox in the near future.[4] He hopes that the language will "have a life of its own,"[5] and thinks it would be "wonderful" if the language developed a following.[3] Apparently, it has developed a following, as is evident through the increasing learner community of the language.[6] The community's Lexical Expansion Project, together with Frommer, has expanded the lexicon by more than 50 percent.
Frommer also maintains a blog, Na’viteri, where he regularly posts additions to the lexicon and clarifications on grammar. Naʼviteri has been the source of the vast majority of Naʼvi growth independent of Frommer's contract with 20th Century Fox.
Structure and usage[edit]


 This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2013)
The Naʼvi language was developed under three significant constraints. First, Cameron wanted the language to sound alien but pleasant and appealing to audiences. Second, since the storyline included humans who have learned to speak the language, it had to be a language that humans could plausibly learn to speak. And finally, the actors would have to be able to pronounce their Naʼvi dialogue without unreasonable difficulty. The language in its final form contains several elements which are uncommon in human languages, such as verbal conjugation using infixes. All Naʼvi linguistic elements are found in human languages, but the combination is unique.
Phonology and orthography[edit]
Naʼvi lacks voiced plosives like [b] [d] [ɡ], but has the ejective consonants [pʼ] [tʼ] [kʼ], which are spelled px, tx, kx. It also has the syllabic consonants ll and rr. There are seven vowels, a ä e i ì o u. Although all the sounds were designed to be pronounceable by the human actors of the film, there are unusual consonant clusters, as in fngap [fŋap] "metal".[7]
Naʼvi syllables may be as simple as a single vowel, or as complex as skxawng "moron" or fngap above (both CCVC).
The fictional language Naʼvi of Pandora is unwritten. However, the actual (studio) language is written in the Latin script for the actors of Avatar. Some words include: zìsìt "year", fpeio "ceremonial challenge", ’awve "first" (’aw "one"), muiä "fair", tireaioang "spirit animal", tskxe "rock", kllpxìltu "territory", uniltìrantokx "avatar" (dream-walk-body).[8]
Vowels[edit]
There are seven monophthong vowels:

Type
front
back

High
i [i] u [u]
 ~ [ʊ]
ì [ɪ]
Middle
e [ɛ] o [o]
Low
ä [æ] a [a]
as well as four diphthongs: aw [aw], ew [εw], ay [aj], ey [εj], and two syllabic consonants: ll [l̩] and rr [r̩], which mostly behave as vowels.
Note that the e is open-mid while the o is close-mid, and that there is no *oy. The rr is strongly trilled, and the ll is "light", never a "dark" (velarized) *[ɫ̩].
These vowels may occur in sequences, as in the Polynesian languages, Swahili, and Japanese. Each vowel counts as a syllable, so that tsaleioae has six syllables, [tsa.lɛ.i.o.a.e], and meoauniaea has eight, [mɛ.o.a.u.ni.a.ɛ.a].
Naʼvi does not have vowel length or tone, but it does have contrastive stress: túte "person", tuté "female person". Although stress may move with derivation, as here, it is not affected by inflection (case on nouns, tense on verbs, etc.). So, for example, the verb lu "to be" has stress on its only vowel, the u, and no matter what else happens to it, the stress stays on that vowel: lolú "was" (l〈ol〉u), lolängú "was (ugh!)" (l〈ol〉〈äng〉u), etc.
Consonants[edit]
There are twenty consonants. There are two Latin transcriptions: one that more closely approaches the ideal of one letter per phoneme, with the c and g for [ts] and [ŋ] (the values they have in much of Eastern Europe and Polynesia, respectively), and a modified transcription used for the actors, with the digraphs ts and ng used for those sounds. In both transcriptions, the ejective consonants are written with digraphs in x, a convention that appears to have no external inspiration.

Type
Labial
Alveolar
Palatal
Velar
Glottal

Ejective
px [pʼ] tx [tʼ]   kx [kʼ]  
Plosive
p [p] t [t]   k [k] ʼ [ʔ]
Affricate
  ts (c) [ts]      
Fricative
f [f]
v [v] s [s]
z [z]     h [h]
Nasal
m [m] n [n]   ng (g) [ŋ]  
Liquid/glide
w [w] r [r]
l [l] y [j]  
The fricatives and the affricate, f v ts s z h, are restricted to the onset of a syllable; the others may occur at the beginning or at the end (though w y in final position are considered parts of diphthongs, as they only occur as ay ey aw ew and may be followed by another final consonant, as in skxawng "moron"). However, in addition to appearing before vowels, f ts s may form consonant clusters with any of the unrestricted consonants (the plosives and liquids/glides) apart from ’, making for 39 clusters. Other sequences occur across syllable boundaries, such as Naʼvi [naʔ.vi] and ikran [ik.ɾan] "banshee".
The plosives p t k are tenuis, as in Spanish or French. In final position, they have no audible release, as in Indonesian and other languages of Southeast Asia. The r is flapped, as in Spanish and Indonesian; it sounds a bit like the tt or dd in the American pronunciation of the words latter / ladder.
Sound change[edit]
The plosives undergo lenition after certain prefixes and prepositions. The ejective consonants px tx kx become the corresponding plosives p t k; the plosives and affricate p t ts k become the corresponding fricatives f s h; and the glottal stop ’ disappears entirely. For example, the plural form of po "s/he" is ayfo "they", with the p weakening into an f after the prefix ay-.
Lenition has its own significance when the plural prefix can optionally be omitted. In the above example, ayfo can be shortened to fo. Similarly, the plural of tsmukan "brother" can be smukan (from aysmukan).
Grammar[edit]
Naʼvi has free word order. For example, the English "I see you" (a common greeting in Naʼvi), can be as follows in Naʼvi:
Oel ngati kameie
Ngati oel kameie
OR
Oel kameie ngati
All forms of "I see you" in Naʼvi are completely correct. As sentences become more complex though, some words, like adjectives and negatives, will have to stay in a more or less fixed position in the sentence, depending on what the adjective or negative is describing.
"Today is a good day"
Fìtrr lu sìltsana trr
Sìltsana trr fìtrr lu
In this case, the adjective sìltsan(a) (good) will need to stay with the noun trr (day), therefore limiting the sentence to fewer combinations on the construction of the sentence, but as long as it follows or precedes the noun, the sentence is fine. By putting the attributive a before the adjective, the adjective can be put after the noun:
Fìtrr lu trr asìltsan
More information about this can be found in the Adjectives section.
Nouns[edit]
Nouns in Naʼvi show greater number distinctions than those in most human languages do: besides singular and plural, they not only have special dual forms for two of an item (eyes, hands, lovers, etc.), which are common in human language (English has a remnant in "both"), but also trial forms for three of an item, which on Earth are only found with pronouns. Gender is only occasionally (and optionally) marked.
The plural prefix is ay+, and the dual is me+. Both trigger lenition (indicated by the "+" signs rather than the hyphens that usually mark prefix boundaries). In nouns which undergo lenition, the plural prefix may be dropped, so the plural of tokx "body" is either aysokx or just sokx.
Masculine and feminine nouns may be distinguished by suffix. There are no articles (words for "a" or "the").
Nouns are declined for case in a tripartite system, which is rare among human languages. In a tripartite system, there are distinct forms for the object of a clause, as in "he kicks the ball"; the agent of a transitive clause which has such an object, as in "he kicks the ball"; and the subject of an intransitive clause, which does not have an object, as in "he runs". An object is marked with the accusative suffix -ti, and an agent with the ergative suffix -l, while an intransitive subject has no case suffix. The use of such case forms leaves the word order of Naʼvi largely free.
There are two other cases, genitive in -yä, dative in -ru, as well as a topic marker -ri. The latter is used to introduce the topic of the clause, and is somewhat equivalent to Japanese wa and the much less common English "as for". It preempts the case of the noun: that is, when a noun is made topical, usually at the beginning of the clause, it takes the -ri suffix rather than the case suffix one would expect from its grammatical role. For example, in,
Oe-ri ontu teya l〈äng〉u
I-TOP nose full be〈PEJ〉
"My nose is full (of his distasteful smell)", lit. "As for me, (my) nose is full"; since the topic is "I", the subject "nose" is associated with "me": That is, it's understood to be "my nose". "Nose" itself is unmarked for case, as it's the subject of the intransitive verb "to be". However, in most cases the genitive marker -yä is used for this purpose.
Besides case, the role of a noun in a clause may be indicated with adpositions. Any adposition may occur as either as a preposition before the noun, or as an enclitic after the noun, a greater degree of freedom than English allows. For example, "with you" may be either hu nga or ngahu. When used as enclitics, they are much like the numerous cases found in Hungarian and Finnish. When used as prepositions, more along the lines of what English does, certain of them trigger lenition. One of the leniting prepositions is mì "in", as in mì sokx "in the body". This may cause some ambiguity with short plurals: mì sokx could also be short for mì aysokx "in the bodies".[9]
Naʼvi pronouns encode clusivity. That is, there are different words for "we" depending on whether the speaker is including his/her addressee or not. There are also special forms for "the two of us" (with or without the addressee), "the three of us", etc. They do not inflect for gender; although it is possible to distinguish "he" from "she", the distinction is optional.
The deferential forms of "I" and "you" are ohe and ngenga. Possessive forms include ngeyä "your" and peyä "her/his". "He" and "she" can optionally be differentiated as poan and poé.
The grammatical distinctions made by nouns are also made by pronouns.
Adjectives[edit]
Naʼvi adjectives are uninflected—that is, they do not agree with the noun they modify—and may occur either before or after the noun. They are marked by a syllable a, which is attached on the side closest to the noun. For example, "a long river" can be expressed either as,
ngim-a kilvan
long-ATTR river
or as,
kilvan a-ngim
river ATTR-long
The free word order holds for all attributives: Genitives (possessives) and relative clauses can also either precede or follow the noun they modify. The latter especially allows for great freedom of expression.
The attributive affix a- is only used when an adjective modifies a noun. Predicative adjectives instead take the "be" verb lu:
kilvan ngim lu
river long be
"The river is long"
Verbs[edit]
Verbs are conjugated for tense and aspect, but not for person. That is, they record distinctions like "I am, I was, I would", but not like "I am, we are, s/he is". Conjugation relies exclusively on infixes, which are like suffixes but go inside the verb. "To hunt", for example, is taron, but "hunted" is t〈ol〉aron, with the infix 〈ol〉.
There are two positions for infixes: after the onset (optional consonant(s)) of the penultimate syllable, and after the onset of the final syllable. Because many Na’vi verbs have two syllables, these commonly occur on the first and last syllable. In monosyllabic words like lu "be", they both appear after the initial onset, keeping their relative order.
The first infix position is taken by infixes for tense, aspect, mood, or combinations thereof; also appearing in this position are participle, reflexive, and causative forms, the latter two of which may co-occur with a tense/aspect/mood infix by preceding it. Tenses are past, recent past, present (unmarked), future, and immediate future; aspects are perfective (completed or contained) and imperfective (ongoing or uncontained). The aspectual forms are not found in English but are somewhat like the distinction between 'having done' and 'was doing'.
taron [hunt] "hunts"t〈ìm〉aron [hunt〈REC〉] "just hunted"t〈ay〉aron [hunt〈FUT〉] "will hunt"t〈er〉aron [hunt〈IMPV〉] "hunting"t〈ol〉aron [hunt〈PFV〉] "hunted"t〈ì〈r〉m〉aron [hunt〈REC〈IMPV〉〉] "was just hunting"
Tense and aspect need not be marked when they can be understood by context or elsewhere in the sentence.
The second infix position is taken by infixes for affect (speaker attitude, whether positive or negative) and for evidentiality (uncertainty or indirect knowledge). For example, in the greeting in the section on nouns, Oel ngati kameie "I See you", the verb kame "to See" is inflected positively as kam〈ei〉e to indicate the pleasure the speaker has in meeting you. In the subsequent sentence, Oeri ontu teya längu "My nose is full (of his smell)", however, the phrase teya lu "is full" is inflected pejoratively as teya l〈äng〉u to indicate the speaker's distaste at the experience. Examples with both infix positions filled:
t〈ìrm〉ar〈ei〉on [hunt〈REC.IMPV〉〈LAUD〉] "was just hunting": The speaker is happy about it, whether due to success or just the pleasure of the huntt〈ay〉ar〈äng〉on [hunt〈FUT〉〈PEJ〉] "will hunt": The speaker is anxious about or bored by it
Lexicon[edit]
The Naʼvi language currently has around 1,500 words. These include a few English loan words such as kunsìp "gunship". The published lexicon, including the odd inflectional form, has been posted online. Additionally, fan communities have attempted to add to the language or learn what already exists. However, as Naʼvi is a very modular language, the total number of usable words far exceeds the 1,500 dictionary words. For example: rol "to sing" → tìrusol "the act of singing" or ngop "to create" → ngopyu "creator". Workarounds using existing words also abound in the Naʼvi corpus, such as eltu lefngap "metallic brain" for "computer" and palulukantsyìp "little thanator" for "cat".
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Do You Speak Na'vi? Giving Voice To 'Avatar' Aliens : NPR". Retrieved 16 December 2009.
2.Jump up ^ "Definitive Na’vi Dictionary". Retrieved 25 October 2011.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar". Unidentified Sound Object. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
4.Jump up ^ Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing up on Na'vi, the Language of Avatar". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
5.Jump up ^ Boucher, Geoff (November 20, 2009). "USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 16, 2010.
6.Jump up ^ "Language of Avatar under study". UBC Media Releases. July 28, 2011. Retrieved October 25, 2011.
7.Jump up ^ "Na'vi, la langue d'Avatar", L'express, 1 December 2009
8.Jump up ^ Boucher, Geoff (December 6, 2009). "Linguist shapes alien tongue". DelawareOnline.com. Retrieved February 11, 2012.[dead link]
9.Jump up ^ When mì is used as an enclitic, however, the noun is not lenited: tokxmì "in the body", sokxmì "in the bodies".
Further reading[edit]
 Wikinews has related news: Elvish, Klingon and Na'vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film
Boucher, Geoff (November 20, 2009). "USC professor creates an entire alien language for 'Avatar'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Frommer, Paul; Zimmer, Benjamin (December 19, 2009). "Some highlights of Na’vi". Language Log. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Milani, Matteo (November 24, 2009). "An interview with Paul Frommer, Alien Language Creator for Avatar". Unidentified Sound Object. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Sancton, Julian (December 1, 2009). "Brushing up on Na'vi, the Language of Avatar". Vanity Fair. Retrieved January 9, 2010.
Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. New York City: !t (HarperCollins). ISBN 0-06-189675-6.
Zimmer, Benjamin (December 4, 2009). "Skxawng!". The New York Times. Retrieved January 9, 2010. This includes a sound recording of Frommer saying several phrases in Naʼvi.
External links[edit]

Portal icon Language portal
 Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Na'vi
Naviteri.org - Paul Frommer's blog about the Naʼvi language
Learnnavi.org - Provides a dictionary (multilingual), grammar guide, and more
Dict-Na'vi.com - Naʼvi/English online dictionary (multilingual)
BBC interview from December 2009 in which Frommer recites part of the Hunt Song (0818 broadcast: 3'30")


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James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Avatar
Avatar-video-game-cover.jpg

Developer(s) Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher(s) Ubisoft
Lightstorm Entertainment
20th Century Fox Games
Gameloft (iPhone, Mobile)
Composer(s) Chance Thomas
Inon Zur (DS)
Engine Dunia (heavily modified)
Havok
Jade
Platform(s) PlayStation 3
Xbox 360
Microsoft Windows[1]
Wii
PlayStation Portable
Nintendo DS
iOS[2]
Android
Java ME
Symbian^3
Release date(s) Microsoft Windows, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 & Wii WW December 1, 2009
PlayStation Portable WW December 7, 2009
iPhone WW December 14, 2009[3]
iPad WW April 23, 2010[4]
Android WW November 25, 2010[5]

Genre(s) Third-person shooter, action adventure
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer
Distribution Optical Disc, memory card, download
James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is a 2009 third-person action video game prequel to James Cameron's film of the same name. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PC, Wii and Nintendo DS on December 1, 2009, with a PSP version released later on December 7, 2009.[7][8] It was announced by Ubisoft that it would be using the same technology as the film to be displayed in stereoscopic 3D.[9] In a Nintendo Power interview, it was stated that the Wii version will use Ubisoft's Jade engine. As of May 19, 2010, the game has sold nearly 2.7 million copies.[10]
A significant feature has Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Giovanni Ribisi reprising their roles from the film. The casting and voice production for Avatar: The Game was handled by Blindlight.


Contents  [hide]
1 Story
2 Gameplay
3 Development
4 3D capabilities
5 Reception 5.1 Commercial reception
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Story[edit]
Set in 2152 (two years before the events of the film), Avatar: The Game starts out with a new signals specialist, named Able Ryder, arriving at Pandora, he/she is assigned to an area called Blue Lagoon, a large piece of jungle, fenced in to make sure no larger predators get inside.
His/Her first mission is to save five marines from Viperwolves, with his/her CO, Kendra Midori, suggesting he/she use a turret to help fend off the wolves. After saving the marines, Ryder must go help another Sig Spec, Dalton, who is afraid of the Viperwolves and trapped outside the fence. Then Ryder gets on a boat, a Gator, to another base, where Ryder is told to go fix the fences and animal repulsors, which are attracting creatures rather than keeping them away. After fixing the fences, Ryder is told to enter his avatar. Ryder's first mission in his avatar body is to get cell samples from certain non-hostile plants. After getting the samples, a Na'vi, Tan Jala, tells Ryder to kill his infected animals. A RDA air strike is then seen being launched on the Na'vi village where Ryder had locked the signal. He finds out that there is a mole and that it is one of the avatar drivers. He must then follow Tan Jala, who will lead him to the mole. After finding who the mole is, a scientist named Rene Harper, who is sympathetic with the Na'vi plight, Ryder sees the Na'vi village destroyed in the air strike previously. Commander Falco and his soldiers arrive via helicopter and try to force Rene into surrender. Harper then tries to persuade Ryder to join the Na'vi and leave the RDA. When Falco hears this, he orders Ryder to shoot Rene Harper and keep his allegiance to the Corporation. Ryder must then make a game-altering decision of siding with the defensive Na'vi or siding with the more offensive, better- armed RDA.
If the player sides with the RDA, Ryder, Commander Falco, and his soldiers corner Rene Harper, and he jumps from a cliff rather than surrender to the RDA. As Rene falls, he shoots Ryder in the chest with a bow and arrow. His avatar is killed, but Ryder's human body survives.
As he returns to base on a Scorpion with Kendra, two banshees attack and force down the helicopter. No one is killed, but the pilot is hurt in the crash. Midori informs Ryder of a base near the Crash Site, and that he could use one of the aircraft. However, when he arrives, he finds the base is under constant attack by banshees, resulting in the destruction of many operational Scorpion and Samson helicopters, and causing many casualties. Ryder enters the control room, and the commander tells him to take a helicopter above and destroy the banshee nests, eradicating the banshee threat. When Ryder returns to retrieve missiles from the Crash Site, he learns that the pilot died from his injuries. He reequips the missiles to the helicopter and completes the task, and the player can see that aerial reinforcements are arriving and battling any remaining banshees in the area.
Ryder is then transported to a combat area known as the FEBA, where Na'vi warriors, under the powerful Beyda'mo(who, ironically, dislikes Ryder, even if he joins the Na'vi), are inflicting death and destruction to the RDA and slowing the advance to a halt.
Gameplay[edit]
At first the player is allowed to choose the appearance of the character from a set of pre-defined faces, although not the name. On the Xbox and PC versions, the player is able to choose a side - to fight for the Na'vis or for the RDA - each offering different gameplay, weapon set, skill set, and environment.
As a soldier, the player is equipped with firearms such as assault rifles, shotguns, grenade launchers, and flamethrowers. The soldier generally have to eliminate the enemies, which are fast and resilient and usually charging towards the player, from afar. Playing as an Avatar limits the player to only one Avatar-issued machine gun and various primitive weapons such as bows, crossbows and melee weapons. The Avatar player usually has to charge the enemies since ranged weapon are either weak (the machine gun), have slow rate of fire (bows and crossbows), or have limited ammunition; however, the human enemies are generally weak and the basic foot soldiers can die after getting hit once with one strike of a club. The environment also reacts differently to the character: many plants will attack the soldier, while the Avatar can walk past said plants unharmed. A variety of vehicles or mounts are also available to each race.
If the player's health is reduced to 0, they can use a recovery that instantly recovers to full health. Recoveries can be acquired by gathering cell samples left behind by killed creatures (including Humans or Na'vi) or plants, but only 5 Recoveries can be carried at any one time. Avatar players can collect Cell Samples more easily from many plants without having to "kill" them. If the player falls to his death, however, he cannot use Recoveries and have to reload from a check point which is automatically saved. The game offers no way to manually save when playing the game (it is only saved when player reach certain points, completed an objective, or quit the game). A special case involves a separate checkpoint when the user decides which race to side with, which cannot be overwritten.
As the player completes mission objectives or eliminates opposition, the character gains experience points and levels up. The leveling up process is quite linear, with no way to customize the character. Each level rewards the character with better versions of the weapons, armor and skills she/he already has. The character can have only 1 armor (one type of combat gear at a time, though with higher levels, different types become available, which may be selected instead of the original), 4 skills and 4 weapons equipped into quick slot at any one time. The skills can be offensive (boost damage, summon air strikes / wild life), defensive (boost damage resistance, heal) or tactical purpose (boost speed, invisibility).
Experience points is also converted to credits that is used in the Conquer minigame. It is a Risk-style strategy game in which the player captures territories from enemies. Credits are used to buy troops (which has 3 types: infantry, heavy ground unit and air unit), defenses or limited special attacks. Some territories captured reward player with passive enhancements such as damage boost, critical chance, armor, health to use in the main game, as long as they are in the player's possession. (PlayStation 3 and Windows version)[clarification needed]
The Wii version of the game uses the Wii Remote controller for combat, and the firing of bows. The Xbox version has a wider range of controls and allows the player to ride animals and drive vehicles.
Development[edit]
On July 24, 2007, it was announced that Ubisoft would be developing Avatar: The Game in conjunction with director James Cameron as he filmed Avatar. According to Cameron, "For the movie Avatar we are creating a world rich in character, detail, conflict and cultural depth. It has the raw material for a game that the more demanding gamers of today will want to get their hands on - one that is rich in visuals and ideas, and challenging in play." While Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, and Stephen Lang reprised their voices for their characters, Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, leading roles in the film, did not. The game was developed as an adaptation of the movie of the same name, with an original storyline and similar features. The developers had carte blanche from the movie. The idea originally came from James Cameron's daughter (Mary Cameron) and she thought it would be a good idea to create a game for the movie.
On August 27, 2009, MovieScore Magazine reported that composer Chance Thomas had been hired to write the music for Avatar: The Game.[11] It was unclear at the time whether the score would contain pieces of the original score composed by James Horner for the movie.
3D capabilities[edit]
According to Luc Duchaine, the game's senior international brand manager, the game will require an HDMI video connection and a 120 Hz capable display in order to make use of the 3D effects.[12] However, the following can be found on the Official Stereoscopic FAQ of the official forums: "Avatar: The Game has the option of outputting in most standard stereoscopic 3D formats used by today's “3D-enabled” screens with stereoscopic 3D."[13] The release of the PC demo has confirmed the PC version of the game supports 3D capabilities as well.[1]
According to Neil Schneider, executive director of the S-3D Gaming Alliance,[14] NVIDIA has developed a proprietary method for NVIDIA's GeForce 3D Vision that allows left and right images to be passed directly from the game engine to the PC display, in the form of quad buffers. Up until Avatar, this was a limitation criticized by the gaming industry because they were forced to use NVIDIA's stereoscopic 3D driver when they would prefer to have full control of the S-3D gaming experience. Alternate solutions like iZ3D monitors, interlaced displays, dual output projectors and 3D Checkerboard DLP do not require this enhancement because game developers have full output control.[15]
Reception[edit]

[hide]Reception


Aggregate scores

Aggregator
Score
GameRankings (iOS) 81.14%[16]
 (X360) 64.26%[17]
 (PS3) 60.34%[18]
 (DS) 58%[19]
 (Wii) 57.42%[20]
 (PC) 54.44%[21]
 (PSP) 39%[22]
Metacritic (iOS) 78/100[23]
 (X360) 61/100[24]
 (PS3) 60/100[25]
 (Wii) 60/100[26]
 (PC) 59/100[27]
 (DS) 55/100[28]
 (PSP) 55/100[29]
Review scores

Publication
Score
Destructoid 3/10[30]
Edge 5/10[31]
Eurogamer 5/10[32]
Game Informer 6.5/10[33]
GamePro 2/5 stars[34]
GameSpot 5.5/10[35][36]
 (PSP) 4/10[37]
GameSpy 2/5 stars[38]
GameTrailers 6.5/10[39]
GameZone 7/10[40]
Giant Bomb 2/5 stars[41]
IGN (iPhone) 7.8/10[42]
 (Android) 7/10[43]
 6.8/10[44]
 (PS3 & X360, AU) 6.8/10[45]
 (iPad) 6/10[46]
 (PS3 & X360, UK) 6/10[47]
 (Wii) 5.9/10[48]
Nintendo Power 5/10[49][50]
Official Xbox Magazine 7.5/10[51]
PC Gamer US 42%[52]
The A.V. Club (iOS) A−[53]
 (X360) B−[54]


Avatar: The Game received positive to mixed to negative reception. Many critics criticized the game's linear gameplay and unintuitive controls, and the Wii version received mediocre scores as well, with many reviewers citing poor camera work, frame rate and story telling, but visuals and controls were regarded comparatively well.
GameRankings and Metacritic gave the game a score of 81.14% and 78 out of 100 for the iOS version;[16][23] 64.26% and 61 out of 100 for the Xbox 360 version;[17][24] 60.34% and 60 out of 100 for the PlayStation 3 version;[18][25] 58% and 55 out of 100 for the DS version;[19][28] 57.42% and 60 out of 100 for the Wii version;[20][26] 54.44% and 59 out of 100 for the PC version;[21][27] and 39% and 55 out of 100 for the PSP version.[22][29]
Commercial reception[edit]
Sales of the game had a slow start[55] but eventually performed ahead of expectations selling 2.7 million units across all platforms. Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot called the game a "positive contribution for the company" citing the increased sales due to the film's success and its launch on DVD.[56]

See also[edit]
##Stereoscopic video game
##List of stereoscopic video games
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b Avatar: The Game PC Demo Released
2.Jump up ^ "Avatar Mobile, iPhone & iPad games by Gameloft". Avatariphonegame.com. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
3.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar Release Information for iOS (iPhone/iPad)". GameFAQs. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
4.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar for iPad Release Information for iOS (iPhone/iPad)". GameFAQs. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
5.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar Release Information for Android". GameFAQs. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
6.Jump up ^ "Avatar The Game Recommended System Requirements". Game-Debate. Retrieved 2010-01-16.
7.Jump up ^ Ubisoft (2007-07-24). "Ubisoft and Fox Team for Avatar Game". Comingsoon.net. Archived from the original on September 22, 2007. Retrieved 2007-07-25.
8.Jump up ^ Miller, Ross (2007-07-24). "Miller, Ross; "James Cameron selects Ubisoft to adapt Avatar"; joystiq.com; July 24, 2007". Joystiq.com. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
9.Jump up ^ "Ubisoft's Avatar to get 3D treatment - PlayStation Universe". Psu.com. Retrieved 2009-06-04.
10.Jump up ^ Thorsen, Tor (2009-12-04). "Avatar game sells nearly 2.7 million - Xbox 360 News at GameSpot". Uk.gamespot.com. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
11.Jump up ^ ‘Avatar’ game gets Chance Thomas score
12.Jump up ^ 'Avatar' game requires HDMI for 3D effects
13.Jump up ^ Official game FAQ
14.Jump up ^ "The S-3D Gaming Alliance". S3dga.com. 1996-01-01. Retrieved 2011-10-17.
15.Jump up ^ MTBS-TV Broadcast, Resident Evil 5 Review, DDD Update!
16.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar for iPhone/iPad". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
17.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for Xbox 360". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
18.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PlayStation 3". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
19.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for DS". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
20.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for Wii". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
21.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
22.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PSP". GameRankings. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
23.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
24.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for Xbox 360 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
25.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PlayStation 3 Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
26.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for Wii Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
27.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
28.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for DS Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
29.^ Jump up to: a b "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game for PSP Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
30.Jump up ^ Sterling, Jim (December 6, 2009). "Review: James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (X360)". Destructoid. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
31.Jump up ^ Edge staff (January 2010). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (X360)". Edge: 84.
32.Jump up ^ Bramwell, Tom (December 1, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (Xbox 360)". Eurogamer. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
33.Jump up ^ Marchiafava, Jeff (February 2010). "Avatar: The Game: Mediocrity Invades The Planet Of Pandora". Game Informer (202). Retrieved June 23, 2014.
34.Jump up ^ Mirkovich, Sean (December 1, 2009). "Avatar (PS3)". GamePro. Archived from the original on December 4, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
35.Jump up ^ VanOrd, Kevin (December 1, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Review". GameSpot. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
36.Jump up ^ VanOrd, Kevin (December 2, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Review (PC)". GameSpot. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
37.Jump up ^ VanOrd, Kevin (December 9, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Review (PSP)". GameSpot. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
38.Jump up ^ Rybicki, Joe (December 2, 2009). "The Consensus: Avatar: The Game Review". GameSpy. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
39.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Review (X360)". GameTrailers. December 3, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
40.Jump up ^ Lafferty, Michael (December 1, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game". GameZone. Archived from the original on December 6, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
41.Jump up ^ Shoemaker, Brad (December 11, 2009). "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game Review (X360)". Giant Bomb. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
42.Jump up ^ Buchanan, Levi (December 15, 2009). "Avatar: The Game Review (iPhone)". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
43.Jump up ^ Buchanan, Levi (October 15, 2010). "Avatar: The Game Android Review". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
44.Jump up ^ Brudvig, Erik (December 1, 2009). "Avatar: The Game Review". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
45.Jump up ^ Kolan, Patrick (December 1, 2009). "Avatar: The Game AU Review". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
46.Jump up ^ Buchanan, Levi (April 28, 2010). "Avatar iPad Review". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
47.Jump up ^ Meer, Alec (December 1, 2009). "Avatar: The Game UK Review". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
48.Jump up ^ Harris, Craig (December 1, 2009). "Avatar Review (Wii)". IGN. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
49.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (DS)". Nintendo Power 248: 87. January 2010.
50.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (Wii)". Nintendo Power 248: 88. January 2010.
51.Jump up ^ Clark, Alex (December 3, 2009). "Avatar". Official Xbox Magazine. Archived from the original on December 6, 2009. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
52.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar: The Game". PC Gamer: 84. January 2010.
53.Jump up ^ "James Cameron's Avatar". The A.V. Club. January 11, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
54.Jump up ^ Mastrapa, Gus (December 7, 2009). "Avatar: The Game (X360)". The A.V. Club. Archived from the original on October 17, 2010. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
55.Jump up ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/avatar-the-video-game-is-a-flop-2010-1
56.Jump up ^ http://www.thetechherald.com/articles/Avatar-popularity-pushes-game-sales-to-2-7-million-units/10190/
External links[edit]
##Official website
##www.avatarmoviegame.com
##James Cameron's Avatar: The Game at the Internet Movie Database
##James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360) at MobyGames
##James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (PSP, Wii) at MobyGames
##James Cameron's Avatar: The Game (Nintendo DS) at MobyGames


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Categories: 2009 video games
3D platform games
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Video games based on films directed by James Cameron
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Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture

Soundtrack album by James Horner

Released
December 15, 2009 (worldwide)
Recorded
2009 with the Hollywood Studio Symphony
Genre
Soundtrack
Length
78:51
Label
Atlantic, Syco
Producer
Executives:
Craig Kallman
Kevin Weaver

James Horner chronology

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas Avatar The Karate Kid


Professional ratings

Review scores

Source
Rating
AllMusic 3.5/5 stars
Empire 4/5 stars
Filmtracks 5/5 stars
IGN 8.9/10 stars
Movie Music UK 4/5 stars
Movie Wave 5/5 stars
ScoreNotes 9/10 stars
Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture is the soundtrack album of the 3-D science fiction epic film Avatar, directed by James Cameron. The original score and songs were composed, co-orchestrated and conducted by James Horner. The album's deluxe edition, featuring six bonus tracks, was released on April 19, 2010 to promote the DVD release of the film.[1]


Contents  [hide]
1 Album information
2 Nominations
3 Track listing
4 Chart history 4.1 Chart positions
4.2 Chart procession and succession
4.3 I See You
5 References

Album information[edit]
Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic.[2] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the Na'vi language in March 2008.[3] He also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race. Horner took advice from his assistant, and they put an unusual amount of virtual instruments in this project. The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in spring 2009.[4] Leona Lewis sang the theme song, "I See You". An accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, premiered on MySpace on December 15, 2009.[5]
A bonus track called "Into the Na'vi World" is available exclusively through the official site.[6] It was not included on the physical and digital releases of the soundtrack.
Nominations[edit]
The score was nominated for Best Original Score at the 82nd Academy Awards, but lost to Up. "I See You" was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Original Song category for the 67th Golden Globes.
Track listing[edit]
All lyrics written by James Horner, except where noted.

No.
Title
Length

1. "You Don't Dream in Cryo. ...."   6:09
2. "Jake Enters His Avatar World"   5:24
3. "Pure Spirits of the Forest"   8:49
4. "The Bioluminescence of the Night"   3:37
5. "Becoming One of "The People", Becoming One with Neytiri"   7:43
6. "Climbing Up "Iknimaya – The Path to Heaven""   3:18
7. "Jake's First Flight"   4:49
8. "Scorched Earth"   3:32
9. "Quaritch"   5:01
10. "The Destruction of Hometree"   6:47
11. "Shutting Down Grace's Lab"   2:47
12. "Gathering All the Na'vi Clans for Battle"   5:14
13. "War"   11:21
14. "I See You (Theme from Avatar)" (performed by Leona Lewis) (written by Horner, Thaddis Harrell, Simon Franglen[7]) 4:20

Deluxe Edition bonus tracks[1]

No.
Title
Length

15. "Pandora"   3:17
16. "Viperwolves Attack"   3:49
17. "Great Leonoptryx"   1:33
18. "Escape from Hellgate"   3:25
19. "Healing Ceremony"   2:21
20. "The Death of Quaritch"   5:20
Chart history[edit]
Chart positions[edit]
The album has also charted on the Billboard 200 album chart on the week of January 2, 2010, debuting at number 172. The following week it climbed the chart to gain a new peak at number 119, and then the following week it leaped to number 32. On the week of January 23, 2010 the soundtrack hit its current peak at number 31.

Chart (2010)
Peak
 position

Australian ARIA Albums Chart[8] 89
Austrian Albums Chart[9] 11
Belgian Albums Chart (Flanders)[9] 37
Belgian Albums Chart (Wallonia)[9] 55
Dutch Albums Chart[9] 74
French Albums Chart[10] 19
French Digital Albums Chart[11] 1
German Albums Chart[12] 10
Greek Albums Chart[13] 10
Mexican Albums Chart[9] 69
Polish Albums Chart[14] 53
Spanish Albums Chart[9] 75
Swiss Albums Chart[9] 9
UK Albums Chart[9] 15
U.S. Billboard 200 Chart[15] 31
U.S. Billboard Digital Albums[15] 4
U.S. Billboard Soundtrack Albums[15] 5

Chart procession and succession[edit]
Preceded by
The E.N.D. by Black Eyed Peas French Digital Albums Chart number-one album
 January 3, 2010 Succeeded by
The E.N.D. by The Black Eyed Peas
I See You[edit]
"I See You" entered the Irish Singles Chart on the 14th January 2010 at number 47.

Chart (2010)
Peak
 position[16]

Irish Singles Chart 47

References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b "iTunes - Music - Avatar (Music from the Motion Picture) [Deluxe Edition] by James Horner". Itunes.apple.com. 2010-04-16. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
2.Jump up ^ Mikael Carlsson (2007-06-19). "Fox confirms Horner on Cameron's 'Avatar'". Film Music Weekly.
3.Jump up ^ Jim Dorey (2008-04-02). "Na'vi Alien Language Incorporated In 'Avatar' Music Soundtrack". MarketSaw Blog. Archived from the original on 8 April 2008. Retrieved 2008-04-21.
4.Jump up ^ Mikael Carlsson (2009-01-03). "Top-10 Most Anticipated Scores of 2009". Upcoming Film Scores. Archived from the original on 17 January 2009. Retrieved 2009-01-07.[dead link]
5.Jump up ^ Fukushima, Glenn (2009-11-16). "Atlantic Unveils "AVATAR: MUSIC FROM THE MOTION PICTURE"; Official Companion Album to James Cameron's Upcoming Epic Adventure Features Music Composed & Conducted by Oscar-Winner James Horner, Plus "I See You (Theme From Avatar)," Performed by Leona Lewis". marketwire. Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
6.Jump up ^ "AVATAR - Music from the Motion Picture". Avatarscore.com. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
7.Jump up ^ Balls, David (November 16, 2009). "Leona Lewis records 'Avatar' theme song". Archived from the original on 19 November 2009. Retrieved 2009-11-22.
8.Jump up ^ "Australia's Official Music Charts". ARIA Charts. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
9.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h Steffen Hung. "Soundtrack / James Horner - Avatar". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
10.Jump up ^ "Disques : les Prêtres conservent la tête des ventes !" (in French). Ozap. Archived from the original on 1 May 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-29.
11.Jump up ^ Steffen Hung. "Les charts français". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
12.Jump up ^ ":: MTV | Album Top 50 KW 2 | charts". Mtv.de. 2011-09-22. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
13.Jump up ^ "Ελληνικό Chart". Ifpi.gr. Retrieved 2012-01-15.
14.Jump up ^ "Official Retail Sales Chart - Top 100". Polish Music Charts (in Polish). ZPAV. Retrieved 2011-10-20.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c http://www.billboard.com/artist/280012/soundtrack/chart
16.Jump up ^ "Leona Lewis - I See You - Music Charts". Acharts.us. Retrieved 2012-01-15.


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I See You (Theme from Avatar)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

"I See You (song)" redirects here. For other uses, see I See You.

"I See You (Theme from Avatar)"

Song by Leona Lewis from the album Avatar

Recorded
2009
Genre
Pop
Length
4:20
Label
Atlantic
Writer
James Horner ·
 Kuk Harrell
 
Producer
Simon Franglen
Avatar track listing

"War"
 (13) "I See You (Theme from Avatar)"
 (14) 

"I See You (Theme from Avatar)" (also referred to as "I See You") is the official theme song recorded by British singer Leona Lewis for the 2009 film Avatar, directed by James Cameron, and its accompanying soundtrack (2009). It was written by James Horner and Kuk Harrell, with production done by Simon Franglen. A pop inspired ballad, the lyrics, which reflect the story line of the film, are about love, emotion and power. The song received multiple comparisons to Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", which is the official theme song written by Horner for film directed by Cameron, Titanic (1997). Lewis has performed the song on So You Think You Can Dance and The Today Show, and it was included on the set list of her debut concert tour, The Labyrinth (2010). It peaked at number 47 on the Irish Singles Chart and number 24 on the US Adult Contemporary chart.


Contents  [hide]
1 Background
2 Composition and critical reception
3 Accolades
4 Promotion
5 Track listing
6 Credits
7 Charts
8 References
9 External links

Background[edit]
"I See You" was written by James Horner and Kuk Harrell and produced by Simon Franglen as the official theme song to James Cameron's 2009 film, Avatar.[1][2] It is the second time that Horner and Franglen have collaborated on a theme song for a film directed by Cameron, the first being "My Heart Will Go On", performed by Celine Dion and used for his 1997 film Titanic.[1] In an interview with Rick Edwards for 4Music called Under the Skin of Leona Lewis, Lewis explained how she became involved with Avatar and recording the theme tune.[3] The singer said that she had known about the project for some period of time as she is very interested in film in general, and that she was approached by Cameron to record Avatar's official theme song.[3] She continued to say that she was very excited about seeing the film, even before her involvement with the film came to be.[3] Cameron invited Lewis to listen to what they had in mind for the song, and upon hearing it, she "immediately wanted to be on board."[3] One of the reasons Lewis gave as to why she accepted the proposal was that a lot of her second studio album, Echo (2009), was inspired by various films, and she thought it would be a great opportunity to appear on a soundtrack.[3]
She described being personally shown how the film was being made by Cameron as one of the highlights of being involved with the film.[3] According to Lewis, recording the song required a lot of power in her vocal performance, and that she had to emotionally connect with the song in order to sing it.[4] "I See You" serves as the song which plays during the closing credits of the film.[1] Cameron had intended to have "I See You" released as single, as he thought it was capable of matching the success of Dion's "My Heart Will Go On", however Lewis expressed her reluctancy in the choice as she had only released the lead single from Echo, "Happy", the month before.[5] A reviewer for The Sun reported that "Leona was delighted to be part of Avatar but the song was never supposed to be released. But her cover of "Run" wasn't meant to be released either — and look how well that did."[5]
Composition and critical reception[edit]
"I See You" is a pop ballad,[2] which lasts for a duration of four minutes and 20 seconds.[6] It was composed in the key of A minor using common time and a slow groove at 72 beats per minute.[7] Lewis' vocal range spans two octaves, from the low note of F♯3 to the high note of F5, on the song.[7] Ben Child for The Guardian likened the lyrics "I offer my life as a sacrifice and live through your love" to those performed by Dion in "My Heart Will Go On".[1] The lyrics are about encouraging a person to open their eyes and envisage a new and different world, and develop a new way of thinking.[8] According to Lewis, the inspiration behind the song was all of the emotion, love and strength that is displayed by the characters in the film.[8] "I See You" garnered a mixed response from music critics. Brian Linder for IGN praised Horner for asking Lewis to perform "I See You", describing her as a "vocal powerhouse," but was unsure if the song would manage to achieve the same success as Dion's "My Heart Will Go On".[2] J. Hoberman for The Village Voice wrote that the closing credits features Lewis as a "Celine Dion clone singing in Na'vi."[9]
Accolades[edit]

Year
Ceremony
Award
Result

2010
Golden Globe Award Best Original Song Nominated[10]
2011
Grammy Award Best Song Written for Visual Media Nominated[11]
Promotion[edit]
The music video for "I See You" was directed by Jake Nava and premiered on Myspace on 15 December 2009.[8][12] Nava stated that it was important to him to create a world for Lewis to perform in for the video, which he described as "sexy and modern" but also complimentary of the film.[8] He continued to say that it need to be "futuristic" but retain the naturalness of what is featured in Avatar.[8] The inspiration for the ultra-violet forest and the light piercing through the canapes of the trees in the video came from the film itself, which were re-created in a controlled studio environment.[8] Nava went to visit Cameron in his studio to choose clips from the film which would be included intercut with Lewis in the video.[8]
Lewis performed "I See You" for the first time on the season six series finale of So You Think You Can Dance in the United States on 16 December 2009.[13] On 14 January 2010, she performed the song on The Today Show and gave an interview about how she became involved with the project.[14] It was included as the second song on the set list of her debut concert tour, called The Labyrinth (2010).[15] It was later included on the DVD release of the tour, called The Labyrinth Tour: Live from the O2.[15] Lewis performed "I See You" in the second section of the set list, along with "Can't Breathe", "Forgive Me" and "Happy".[15] Lewis wore "an amazing peacock blue ballgown on a sparkling stage."[16][17] The singer performed "I See You" and "Bleeding Love" at China's 2013 New Year Gala.[18]
Track listing[edit]
Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture[6]14."I See You (Theme from Avatar)" [Album only] – 4:20
The Labyrinth Tour: Live from the O2[15]6."I See You" (Live from the 02) – 2:41
Credits[edit]
Songwriting – James Horner, Kuk Harrell
Production – Simon Franglen
Credits adapted from The Guardian.[1]
Charts[edit]
In Ireland, "I See You" debuted at number 47 for the week of 15 January 2010.[19] Two weeks later on 28 January 2010, the song re-entered the chart at number 48.[20] In the United States, the song peaked at number 24 on the US Adult Contemporary chart.[21]

Chart (2010)
Peak
 position


Ireland (IRMA)
47
Taiwan (Taiwan Top 10)
2
US Adult Contemporary (Billboard)[21]
24

References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c d e Child, Ben (9 December 2009). "Avatar: a first listen to Leona Lewis's theme tune". The Guardian (Guardian News and Media). Retrieved 1 February 2013.
2.^ Jump up to: a b c Linder, Brian (15 December 2009). "Avatar Soundtrack Review". IGN. News Corporation. Retrieved 7 February 2013.
3.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Lewis, Leona (28 February 2010). Under the Skin of Leona Lewis (Television). Interview with Rick Edwards. London: 4 Music. Retrieved 19 April 2010.
4.Jump up ^ "Leona's on another planet". The Sun (News International). 14 December 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
5.^ Jump up to: a b "See You in Charts, Leona?". The Sun (News International). 7 December 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
6.^ Jump up to: a b "'Avatar (Music from the Motion Picture)' – James Horner". iTunes Store (Great Britain). Apple. 7 December 2012. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
7.^ Jump up to: a b "Digital Sheet Music, Rihanna 'I See You'". Musicnotes.com (Peer International Music Publishing). 2009.
8.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g "Avatar: Leona Lewis and Director Jake Nava on the Music Video Set". MovieWeb. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
9.Jump up ^ Hoberman, J (15 December 2009). "Avatar's Sticker Shock (and Awe): There are some things that even money can't buy". The Village Voice (Voice Media Group). Retrieved 7 February 2013.
10.Jump up ^ "Best Original Song - Motion Picture". Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
11.Jump up ^ "2011 Grammy Nominees Full List". PopSugar. 2 December 2010. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
12.Jump up ^ Daw, Robbie (15 December 2009). "Leona Lewis Is Out Of This World In Her ‘I See You’ Video". Idolator. Buzz Media. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
13.Jump up ^ "Leona Lewis on So You Think You Can Dance Tonight". Sony Music Entertainment Ltd. 16 December 2009. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
14.Jump up ^ "Leona Lewis Performs On The Today Show". Sony Music Entertainment Ltd. 14 January 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
15.^ Jump up to: a b c d "'The Labyrinth Tour - Live from the O2' – Leona Lewis". iTunes Store (United States). Apple. 14 December 2010. Retrieved 20 January 2013.
16.Jump up ^ "Review: World class Leona Lewis at Sheffield Arena". The Star (Northern & Shell). 29 May 2010. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
17.Jump up ^ Smart, Gordon (21 January 2011). "Caught Live: Leona Lewis". The Sun (News International). Retrieved 1 February 2013.
18.Jump up ^ "Leona Lewis sings 'I See You' and 'Bleeding Love' at CCTV New Year's Gala video" (video). NME. IPC Media. Retrieved 1 February 2013.
19.Jump up ^ "Top 50 Singles, Week Ending 14 January 2010". Chart-Track. Irish Recorded Music Association. 14 January 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
20.Jump up ^ "Top 50 Singles, Week Ending 28 January 2010". Chart-Track. Irish Recorded Music Association. 28 January 2010. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
21.^ Jump up to: a b "Leona Lewis - Chart History Billboard - Adult Contemporary". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media. Retrieved 22 February 2013.
External links[edit]
Music video on YouTube
Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics


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Categories: Leona Lewis songs
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The Art of Avatar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
  (Redirected from The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure)
Jump to: navigation, search

Ahmad Kan Clalu Juzur
Avatar picture.jpg
Author
Lisa Fitzpatrick,
Peter Jackson (preface),
Jon Landau (foreword),
James Cameron (epilogue)
Country
United States
Language
English
Published
2009 (Abrams Books)
Media type
Hardcover
Pages
108
ISBN
978-0-8109-8286-4
OCLC
317927266
The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure is a film production art book released on November 30, 2009, by Abrams Books.[1] The book is an official movie tie-in for the film Avatar and features some of the concept artwork used in the production of the film. The main author is Lisa Fitzpatrick. Producer Jon Landau wrote the foreword, James Cameron wrote the epilogue, and director Peter Jackson wrote the preface. It also contains illustrations from and interviews with the movie's artists, including Robert Stromberg, Wayne Barlowe, Yuri Bartoli, Jordu Schell, and John Rosengrant.
The book contains over 200 full-color images including sketches, matte paintings, drawings, and film stills.[2] The book details the production phase of set designs for the vistas, landscapes, aerial battle scenes, bioluminescent nights, and creatures featured in the film. Throughout the book are different interviews with the various art directors, visual effects designers, animators, costume designers, and creature designers about their roles in the production and insight as to how the pre-production artwork process worked for the film.[3]
In December 2009, USA Today chose the book as their #1 gift book in the Pop Culture category for 2009.[4]
References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "The Art of Avatar". Abrams Books. Retrieved 2010-02-08.
2.Jump up ^ "The Official Artbook Companion". Lisa Fitzpatrick. Abrams Books. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
3.Jump up ^ "Book will reveal the art behind James Cameron's Avatar". SciFiWire.com. SyFy. Retrieved 2010-02-08.
4.Jump up ^ "Great gift books". USA Today. Retrieved 2010-02-15.
External links[edit]
Official website


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Avatar Land
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search


Avatar Land
Avatar Land concept.jpg
Concept art

Location
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Status
Under construction
Opening date
2017[1]
Theme
Avatar
Attractions

Attractions
2 total
Water rides
1
Other rides
1
Avatar Land is a themed area currently being constructed at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida based upon the film franchise by James Cameron.[2] Construction began on January 10, 2014, with the land expected to open by early 2017.[3][1][4][5]


Contents  [hide]
1 History
2 Design 2.1 Attractions
2.2 Location
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

History[edit]
In Spring 2011, James Cameron was approached by The Walt Disney Company's chief executive officer, Bob Iger, regarding the possibility of Avatar-themed attractions in Walt Disney Parks & Resorts.[6] On September 17, 2011, a long-term, exclusivity deal was signed between Disney, James Cameron's Lightstorm Entertainment and 20th Century Fox.[6][7] This deal was officially announced to the public on September 20, 2011, on the Disney Parks Blog.[8] The highlight of the announcement was that Disney's Animal Kingdom would receive a new themed area dubbed Avatar Land.[2] The area is set to cost approximately $500 million.[6] Construction began in January of 2014,[3] with a planned opening date between 3 and 5 years later.[4][5] The deal could see Avatar attractions added to other Disney theme parks in the future, however, there are no immediate plans to do so.[9]
Design[edit]
Avatar Land is designed by Walt Disney Imagineering with Avatar producers James Cameron and Jon Landau also providing creative assistance.[7][10] The area will be an immersive world based upon the fictional exoplanetary moon, Pandora and will include Pandora's floating mountains and bioluminescent plants.[11] Avatar Land is expected to span several acres and will feature multiple rides and attractions, entertainment, audio-animatronics, 3-D holograms as well as retail, food and beverage outlets.[4][5][12] Although exact details of the attractions have not yet been announced or even devised,[13] James Cameron confirmed that a flying attraction featuring "3-D projections and creature designs that were cut from the original film" was a concept on the drawing board for the area.[6] Avatar Land will include elements from the original Avatar film as well as its three, yet-to-be-released sequels.[10]
Attractions[edit]
At the 2013 Japan D23 Expo, Disney revealed two major attractions.[1]
A flying E ticket simulator attraction, where guests will learn to fly with a mountain Banshee.
A boat ride attraction showcasing the native fauna and flora of Pandora. It may include small drops.
Location[edit]
Avatar Land is being built in the former location of Camp Minnie-Mickey,[14] which was originally earmarked for the Beastly Kingdom, a never-built themed land which would have been based around mythological creatures.[7][15]
See also[edit]
Cars Land, a themed land at California's Disney California Adventure Park
The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, a themed land at Universal's Islands of Adventure theme park
References[edit]
1.^ Jump up to: a b c Staggs, Tom. "First Look: AVATAR to Come to Life at Disney’s Animal Kingdom". The Walt Disney Company. The Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
2.^ Jump up to: a b Cody, Anthony (22 September 2011). "Disney to build Avatar attractions at its theme parks". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
3.^ Jump up to: a b Smith, Thomas. "Construction Begins For AVATAR-Inspired Land At Disney’s Animal Kingdom". The Walt Disney Company. The Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 10 January 2014.
4.^ Jump up to: a b c Staggs, Tom (20 September 2011). "Answering Your Questions About AVATAR at Disney Parks". Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
5.^ Jump up to: a b c Associated Press (21 September 2011). "Disney to Build 'Avatar' Attraction in Theme Parks". Fox News. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
6.^ Jump up to: a b c d Chmielewski, Dawn C.; Keegan, Rebecca (21 September 2011). "Disney to license rights to 'Avatar' for theme park attractions". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
7.^ Jump up to: a b c Chmielewski, Dawn C.; MacDonald, Brady (20 September 2011). "Details emerge on Disney's plans to bring 'Avatar' to its parks". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
8.Jump up ^ Smith, Thomas (20 September 2011). "AVATAR Coming To Disney Parks". Disney Parks Blog. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
9.Jump up ^ Australian Associated Press (22 September 2011). "Coming to Disney World: Avatar Land". New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
10.^ Jump up to: a b Weinstein, Joshua L. (21 September 2011). "James Cameron on 3D, "Titanic" and all things "Avatar"". Reuters. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
11.Jump up ^ Richwine, Lisa (21 September 2011). "Disney, Cameron to create theme-park "Avatar"". Reuters Canada. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
12.Jump up ^ Clark, Jayne (22 September 2011). "'Avatar' land is coming to Disney World". USA Today. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
13.Jump up ^ "'Avatar' attraction coming to Disney's theme parks". The Independent. 21 September 2011. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
14.Jump up ^ "What’s Next for Disney’s Animal Kingdom". The Walt Disney Company. Disney D23. 11 October 2013. Retrieved 12 October 2013.
15.Jump up ^ Associated Press (21 June 1995). "Disney Plans Wild Animal Kingdom in Florida". The Journal Record. Retrieved 23 September 2011.
External links[edit]
Official announcement at the Disney Parks Blog


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List of accolades received by Avatar
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List of awards won by Avatar




Writer, producer, and director of Avatar, James Cameron


[show]Awards and nominations
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Total number of wins and nominations
Totals 73 148
Footnotes
Avatar is an American science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron that was released in 2009. The film was premiered by 20th Century Fox in London, England on December 10, and was released in the United States and Canada on December 18, grossing $27 million on its opening day and $77 million during its opening weekend in 3,461 theaters, ranking number one at the box office.[1] Avatar grossed $2.7 billion worldwide, to become the highest-grossing film of all time,[2] as well as in the United States and Canada. It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion worldwide.[3] Avatar was also well criticized and accumulated an approval rating of 83% on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.[4]
Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. While losing most of the major awards that year to Cameron’s ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow’s film The Hurt Locker, Avatar still managed to take home a third of the Oscars it was nominated for including crafts awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects.[5] The film garnered four nominations at the 67th Golden Globe Awards ceremony, and received two awards for Best Film – Drama and Best Director.[6] Avatar was nominated for eight British Academy Film Awards, winning Best Production Design and Best Special Visual Effects. The film's achievement in visual effects were praised by the Visual Effects Society, who honored it with six accolades during their annual awards ceremony. Avatar was also nominated for the Directors Guild of America Awards, the Producers Guild of America Awards, and the Writers Guild of America Awards. The film was nominated for ten Saturn Awards and it went on to win all ten at the 36th Saturn Awards ceremony. Zoe Saldana's win for the Saturn Award for Best Actress marked a rare occurrence for an all-CG character.[7]
Avatar received recognition from numerous North American critics' associations. The film garnered nine nominations for the Critics' Choice Awards of the Broadcast Film Critics Association where it won Best Action Film and several technical categories.[8] The Austin Film Critics Association and the Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association placed the film on their lists of the year's top ten films.[9][10] Phoenix Film Critics Society honored the film with Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Production Design and Best Visual Effect awards and also included it on its top ten films of the year list.[11] It won two of the St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association awards for Best Visual Effects and Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film,[12] and the New York Film Critics Online honored the film with its Best Picture award.[13]
In December 2009, the American Film Institute recognized the film and Cameron's advances in CGI effects with their yearly "AFI Moments of Significance" award claiming it "will have profound effects on the future of the art form".[14] In January 2010, it was announced that the Southern Sky Column, a 3,544-foot (1,080 m) quartz-sandstone mountain in the Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China, had been renamed "Avatar Hallelujah Mountain" (阿凡达-哈利路亚山) by the city government in honor of the film.[15] According to park officials, photographs from the park became a source of inspiration for the floating Hallelujah Mountains seen in Avatar.[16] Time ranked Avatar number 3 in their list of "The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)"[17] also earning it a spot on the magazine's All-Time 100 list,[18] and IGN listed Avatar as number 22 on their list of the top 25 Sci-Fi movies of all time.[19]

Awards and nominations[edit]




Date of ceremony
Award
Category
Recipients and nominees
Result

March 7, 2010 Academy Awards[5] Best Picture James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
Best Director James Cameron Nominated
Best Art Direction Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg (Art Direction); Kim Sinclair (Set Decoration) Won
Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Won
Best Film Editing Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, and James Cameron Nominated
Best Original Score James Horner Nominated
Best Sound Editing Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle Nominated
Best Sound Mixing Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, and Tony Johnson Nominated
Best Visual Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew R. Jones Won
February 27, 2010 American Society of Cinematographers[20] Outstanding Achievement in Theatrical Releases Mauro Fiore Nominated
February 13, 2010 Art Directors Guild Awards[21] Excellence in Production Design for a  – Fantasy Film Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Won
December 15, 2009 Austin Film Critics Association[22] Top 10 Films James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
February 21, 2010 British Academy Film Awards[23] Best Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
Best Director James Cameron Nominated
Best Music James Horner Nominated
Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Nominated
Best Editing Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, and James Cameron Nominated
Best Production Design Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair Won
Best Sound Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson, and Addison Teague Nominated
Best Special Visual Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew Jones Won
February 12, 2010 Black Reel Awards[24] Best Supporting Actress Zoe Saldana Nominated
January 15, 2010 Broadcast Film Critics[8] Best Action Movie James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Best Art Direction Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Won
Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Won
Best Directing James Cameron Nominated
Best Editing James Cameron, John Refoua, and Stephen Rivkin Won
Best Picture James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
Best Makeup Avatar Nominated
Best Sound Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson, and Addison Teague Won
Best Visual Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andy Jones Won
February 27, 2010 César Awards[25] Best Foreign Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
December 21, 2009 Chicago Film Critics Association[26] Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Nominated
Best Original Score James Horner Nominated
February 27, 2010 Cinema Audio Society Awards[27] Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing Tony Johnson, Chris Boyes, Gary Summers, and Andy Nelson Nominated
June 8, 2010 Cinema of Brazil[28][29] Best Foreign Film Avatar Won
February 25, 2010 Costume Designers Guild Awards[30] Excellence in Fantasy Costume Design – Fantasy Film Mayes Rubeo and Deborah Lynn Scott Nominated
December 16, 2009 Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association[31] Top 10 Films James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
January 30, 2010 Directors Guild of America Awards[32] Outstanding Directing – Feature Film James Cameron Nominated
February 14, 2010 Eddie Awards[33] Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic James Cameron, John Refua, and Stephen Rivkin Nominated
March 28, 2010 Empire Awards[34] Best Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Best Sci-Fi / Fantasy James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
Best Actor Sam Worthington Nominated
Best Actress Zoe Saldana Won
Best Director James Cameron Won
October 17, 2010 Environmental Media Awards[35] Feature Film Avatar Won
December 21, 2009 Florida Film Critics Circle[36] Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Won
January 17, 2010 Golden Globe Awards[6] Best Director James Cameron Won
Best Film – Drama James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Best Original Score James Horner Nominated
Best Original Song James Horner, Simon Franglen, and Kuk Harrell for "I See You (Theme from Avatar)" Nominated
February 20, 2010 Golden Reel Awards[37] Best Sound Editing – Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film Jim Henrikson, Dick Bernstein, and Michael Bauer Won
Best Sound Editing – Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Kim Foscato, Cheryl Nardi, Marshall Winn, Petra Bach, Richard Hymns, Stuart McCowan, and Steve Slanec Nominated
Best Sound Editing – Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film Addison Teague, Chris Boyes, Luke Dunn Glelmuda, Jim Likowski, Ken Fischer, Shannon Mills, Tim Nielsen, Chris Scarabosio, Dennie Thorpe, and Jana Vance Won
February 13, 2011 Grammy Awards[38] Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media James Horner Nominated
Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media "I See You" (Leona Lewis) Nominated
November 11, 2010 Hollywood Post Alliance Awards[39] Outstanding Compositing - Feature Film Erik Winquist, Robin Hollander, Erich Eder and Giuseppe Tagliavini - Weta Digital Won
December 19, 2009 Houston Film Critics Society[40] Best Picture James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
Best Director of a Motion Picture James Cameron Nominated
Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore and Vince Pace Nominated
Best Original Score James Horner Nominated
September 2, 2010 Hugo Awards[41] Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form James Cameron Nominated
February 26, 2010 International Film Music Critics Association Awards[42] Film Score of the Year James Horner Nominated
Film Composer of the Year James Horner Nominated
Best Original Score for a Fantasy/Science Fiction Film James Horner Nominated
Film Music Composition of the Year, for "War" James Horner Nominated
February 20, 2010 Irish Film and Television Awards[43] Best International Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
June 19, 2010 Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists[44] Best 3D Film Director James Cameron Won
February 18, 2011 Japan Academy Prize Outstanding Foreign Language Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
December 17, 2009 Las Vegas Film Critics Society[45] Sierra Award (Best Art Direction) Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Won
February 18, 2010 London Film Critics' Circle[46] Director of the Year James Cameron Nominated
Film of the Year James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
February 23, 2010 Lumière Awards[47] Live Action 3D Feature James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Best 3D Character Neytiri Won
Best 3D Scene Jake Sully's first flight Won
Best 3D Stereography / Live Action Avatar Won
Outstanding Achievement in 3D Visual Effects Avatar Won
Outstanding Achievement for Marketing 3D Content / Live Action 20th Century Fox Won
June 6, 2010 MTV Movie Awards[48] Best Movie Avatar Nominated
Best Female Performance Zoe Saldana Nominated
Best Villain Stephen Lang Nominated
Best Fight Sam Worthington vs. Stephen Lang Nominated
Best Kiss Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington Nominated
February 26, 2010 NAACP Image Awards[49] Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture Zoe Saldana Nominated
May 26, 2010 National Movie Awards[50] Fantasy Film Avatar Nominated
January 3, 2010 National Society of Film Critics[51] Best Production Design Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Nominated
December 13, 2009 New York Online Film Critics[52] Best Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Top 11 Films James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
March 27, 2010 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards[53] Cutest Couple Neytiri and Jake (Zoe Saldana & Sam Worthington) Nominated
Favorite Movie Actress Zoe Saldana Nominated
December 22, 2009 Oklahoma Film Critics Circle[54] Best Ten Films James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
January 5, 2010 Online Film Critics Society[55] Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Nominated
Best Director James Cameron Nominated
January 6, 2010 People's Choice Awards[47] Favorite 3D Live Action Movie Avatar Won
Favorite 3D Animated Movie Avatar Won
December 22, 2009 Phoenix Film Critics Society[56] Best Cinematography Mauro Fiore Won
Best Film Editing James Cameron, John Refoua and Stephen Rivkin Won
Best Production Design Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Won
Best Visual Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andy Jones Won
July 15, 2010 Premios Juventud Actriz que se Roba la Pantalla Zoe Saldana (also for Star Trek) Won
Película Más Padre Avatar Won
January 24, 2010 Producers Guild of America Awards[57] Theatrical Motion Picture – Producer of the Year James Cameron and Jon Landau Nominated
January 20, 2010 PETA's Proggy award[58] Outstanding Feature Film James Cameron Won
December 15, 2009 San Diego Film Critics Society[59] Best Director James Cameron Nominated
Best Production Design Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Nominated
February 6, 2010 Santa Barbara International Film Festival[60] Lucky Brand Modern Master Award James Cameron Won
June 24, 2010 Saturn Awards[7][61][62] Visionary Award for Avatar James Cameron Won
Best Science Fiction Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
Best Actor Sam Worthington Won
Best Actress Zoe Saldana Won
Best Supporting Actor Stephen Lang Won
Best Supporting Actress Sigourney Weaver Won
Best Director James Cameron Won
Best Writing James Cameron Won
Best Music James Horner Won
Best Production Design Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Won
Best Special Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, and Andrew Jones Won
October 16, 2010 Scream Awards[63] Best Director James Cameron Won
Best F/X Avatar Won
The Ultimate Scream Avatar Nominated
Best Science Fiction Movie Avatar Nominated
Best Science Fiction Actress Zoe Saldana Nominated
Best Villain Stephen Lang Nominated
Best Supporting Actress Sigourney Weaver Nominated
Fight Scene of the Year "Final Battle: Na'vi vs Military" Nominated
3-D Top Three Award Avatar Won
December 21, 2009 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards[64] Best Visual/Special Effects Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andy Jones Won
Most Original/Innovative or Creative Film James Cameron and Jon Landau Won
August 8, 2010 Teen Choice Awards[65] Sci-Fi Movie Avatar Won
Actress Sci-Fi Zoe Saldana Won
Actor Sci-Fi Sam Worthington Won
Villain Stephen Lang Nominated
Fight Sam Worthington vs. Stephen Lang Nominated
Hissy Fit Giovanni Ribisi Nominated
February 28, 2010 Visual Effects Society Awards[66][67] Lifetime Achievement, for Making of James Cameron Won
Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects Driven Feature Motion Picture Richard Baneham, Joyce Cox, Joe Letteri, and Eileen Moran Won
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year, for Quarich's Escape Jill Brooks, John Knoll, Frank Losasso Petterson, and Tory Mercer Nominated
Best Single Visual Effect of the Year, for Neytiri Drinking Thelvin Cabezas, Joyce Cox, Joe Letteri, and Eileen Moran Won
Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture, for Neytiri Andrew Jones, Joe Letteri, Zoe Saldana, and Jeff Unay Won
Outstanding Matte Paintings in a Feature Motion Picture, for Pandora Jean-Luc Azzis, Peter Baustaedter, Brenton Cottman, and Yvonne Muinde Won
Outstanding Models and Miniatures in a Feature Motion Picture, for Samson, Home Tree, Floating Mountains, & Ampsuit Simon Cheung, Paul Jenness, John Stevenson-Galvin, and Rainer Zoettl Won
Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture, for Floating Mountains Dan Lemmon, Keith F. Miller, Jessica Cowley, and Cameron Smith Nominated
Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture, for Jungle / Biolume Shadi Almassizadeh, Dan Cox, Ula Rademeyer, and Eric Saindon Won
Outstanding Created Environment in a Feature Motion Picture, for Willow Glade Thelvin Cabezas, Miae Kang, Daniel Macarin, and Guy Williams Nominated
Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture Erich Eder, Robin Hollander, Giuseppe Tagliavini, and Erik Winquist Nominated
Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture, for End Battle Jay Cooper, Beth D'Amato, Eddie Pasquarello, and Todd Vaziri Nominated
October 23, 2010 World Soundtrack Awards[68] Best Original Song "I See You" by Leona Lewis Nominated
Best Original Soundtrack James Horner Nominated
February 20, 2010 Writers Guild of America Awards[69] Best Original Screenplay James Cameron Nominated

References[edit]
1.Jump up ^ "Avatar (2009) – Weekend Box Office Results". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
2.Jump up ^ "All Time Worldwide Box Office Grosses". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
3.Jump up ^ "'Avatar' Wins Box Office, Nears Domestic Record". ABC News. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
4.Jump up ^ "Avatar". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixster. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
5.^ Jump up to: a b "The 82nd Academy Awards (2010) Nominees and Winners". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved August 22, 2012.
6.^ Jump up to: a b "The Golden Globe Awards 2010 Nominees". NBC. Retrieved January 14, 2010.[dead link]
7.^ Jump up to: a b Cohen, David S. (June 24, 2010). "Saturn Awards open Pandora's box". Variety. Retrieved June 24, 2010.
8.^ Jump up to: a b "The 15th Critics' Choice Awards Nominees". Broadcast Film Critics Association. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
9.Jump up ^ Robinson, Anna (December 15, 2009). "Austin Film Critics Awards 2009"[dead link]. Alt Film Guide. Retrieved December 16, 2009.
10.Jump up ^ Wilonsky, Robert (December 16, 2009). "DFW Crix Up in the Air With Year-End Tally". Dallas Observer. Retrieved April 7, 2010.
11.Jump up ^ Boyd, Colin (December 22, 2009). "'Basterds' Dominates Phoenix Film Critics Awards". Get the Big Picture. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
12.Jump up ^ Robinson, Anna (December 21, 2009). "St. Louis Film Critics Awards 2009"[dead link]. Alt Film Guide. Retrieved December 22, 2009.
13.Jump up ^ Davis, Don (December 14, 2009). "N.Y. Online Critics like 'Avatar'". Variety. Retrieved December 15, 2009.
14.Jump up ^ "AFI Moments Of Significance". American Film Institute. December 2009.[dead link]
15.Jump up ^ ""Avatar" inspires China province to rename mountain". China Daily. January 26, 2010.
16.Jump up ^ "Found! The stunning mountain that inspired Avatar's 'floating peaks'". Mail Online. January 27, 2010. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
17.Jump up ^ Corliss, Richard (May 17, 2012). "The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)". Time. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
18.Jump up ^ Corliss, Richard (May 17, 2012). "Rethinking the Movie Masterpieces: Richard Corliss Expands TIME’s List of Cinematic Greats". Time. Retrieved May 21, 2012.
19.Jump up ^ "Top 25 Sci-Fi Movies of All Time". IGN. September 17, 2010. Retrieved November 28, 2010.
20.Jump up ^ "ASC Names Feature Nominees". American Society of Cinematographers. January 11, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
21.Jump up ^ "14TH Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards". Art Directors Guild. Retrieved February 14, 2010.
22.Jump up ^ "Austin Film Critics Association 2009 Awards". Austin Film Critics Association. December 15, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
23.Jump up ^ "Film Awards Winners". British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
24.Jump up ^ ""Precious" and "Princess" Top Black Reel Awards Nominations". WordPress.com. Retrieved January 14, 2010.
25.Jump up ^ "'A Prophet' scores nine Cesar Awards". The Hollywood Reporter. February 27, 2010. Retrieved February 27, 2010.[dead link]
26.Jump up ^ "2009 – Winners of the 22nd Annual Chicago Film Critics Awards". Chicago Film Critics Association. December 21, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
27.Jump up ^ "2009 CAS Award Winners and Nominees". Cinema Audio Society. Retrieved March 8, 2010.[dead link]
28.Jump up ^ "Grand Prize of the Brazilian Cinema (2010): Finalists". Academiabrasileiradecinema.com. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
29.Jump up ^ "Grand Prize of the Brazilian Cinema (2010): Avatar". Academiabrasileiradecinema.com. Retrieved May 2, 2013.
30.Jump up ^ "Costume Designers Guild nominates 'Avatar,' 'Bruno,' 'Julie & Julia'". Los Angeles Times. January 26, 2010. Retrieved January 26, 2010.
31.Jump up ^ "DFWFCA 2009 awards" (PDF). Dallas-Fort Worth Film Critics Association. December 16, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
32.Jump up ^ "DGA Announces Nominees for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for the year 2009". Directors Guild of America. January 7, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
33.Jump up ^ "ACE Eddie awards". American Cinema Editors. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
34.Jump up ^ Reynolds, Simon (March 28, 2010). "In Full: Empire Awards 2010 – Winners". Digital Spy. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
35.Jump up ^ "'Avatar,' '30 Rock' win eco-tainment awards". USA Today. October 18, 2010. Retrieved October 18, 2010.
36.Jump up ^ "FFCC Winners Announcement – 2009". Florida Film Critics Circle. December 21, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
37.Jump up ^ "2010 Golden Reel Award Nominees: Feature Films". Motion Picture Sound Editors. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
38.Jump up ^ "53rd Grammy Awards: Nominees And Winners". National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Retrieved June 6, 2011.
39.Jump up ^ Kilday, Greg (November 11, 2010). "'Avatar,' 'District 9' Nab Hollywood Post Alliance Awards". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved November 13, 2010.
40.Jump up ^ "Las Vegas Film Critics Winners". Houston Film Critics Society. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
41.Jump up ^ "2010 Hugo Award Nominees – Details". World Science Fiction Society. April 4, 2010. Retrieved April 6, 2010.
42.Jump up ^ "IFMCA announces winners of 2009 awards". International Film Music Critics Association. March 1, 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2010.
43.Jump up ^ "Meryl Streep, 'Hurt Locker' win at IFTA". The Hollywood Reporter. February 21, 2010. Retrieved March 6, 2010.[dead link]
44.Jump up ^ "Nastri D'Argento". Cinegiornalisti.com. Retrieved December 9, 2012.
45.Jump up ^ Clark, Krystal (December 21, 2009). "2009 Las Vegas Film Critics Award Winners". Screencrave.com. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
46.Jump up ^ "The 30th Critics' Circle Awards". London Film Critics' Circle. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
47.^ Jump up to: a b "'Avatar' Wins Six 'Lumiere Awards,' While 'Avatar' and 'Coraline' Win First-Ever '3D People's Choice Awards,' During Tonight's Presentation in Hollywood of First-Ever Honors from Newly Formed International 3D Society". Earth Times. February 24, 2010. Retrieved February 25, 2010.
48.Jump up ^ "2010 MTV Movie Awards". MTV.com. Retrieved 31 March 2010.
49.Jump up ^ "Nominees for 41st NAACP Image Awards Announced Live at Press Conference". National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. January 6, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
50.Jump up ^ "National Movie Awards nominees - Fantasy". ITV. Retrieved April 27, 2010.
51.Jump up ^ ""Hurt Locker" leads 2009 awards". National Society of Film Critics. January 3, 2010. Retrieved April 3, 2010.
52.Jump up ^ "New York Film Critics Online 2009 Awards". Movie City News. Retrieved April 3, 2010.[dead link]
53.Jump up ^ "Kids' Choice Awards Nominees 2010". Nick.com. Retrieved March 27, 2010.[dead link]
54.Jump up ^ "Oklahoma Film Critics Circle Names "The Hurt Locker" Best Movie of 2009". Oklahoma Film Critics Circle. December 22, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
55.Jump up ^ "‘Hurt Locker’ named Best Picture of 2009 by Online Film Critics Society". Online Film Critics Society. January 6, 2010. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
56.Jump up ^ "Local Film Society Announces Awards". KPHO-TV. December 22, 2009. Retrieved April 3, 2010.[dead link]
57.Jump up ^ "Producers Guild Awards 2010 Winners". Producers Guild of America. Retrieved March 19, 2010.
58.Jump up ^ "James Cameron Takes Home PETA’s Proggy Award for Avatar". OK!. January 20, 2010. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
59.Jump up ^ "2009 Awards". San Diego Film Critics Society. Retrieved January 24, 2010.[dead link]
60.Jump up ^ "SBIFF Modern Master – James Cameron" (PDF). Santa Barbara International Film Festival. November 12, 2009. Retrieved March 8, 2010.[dead link]
61.Jump up ^ "The 36th Saturn Award nominations". Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. Retrieved February 21, 2010.
62.Jump up ^ Reich, Ashley (April 22, 2010). "Saturn kudos for 'Avatar'". Variety. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
63.Jump up ^ "Live Blogging the Scream 2010 Awards Tonight!". CraveOnline. October 16, 2010. Retrieved October 17, 2010.
64.Jump up ^ "2009 St. Louis Film Critics' Awards". St. Louis Film Critics. December 21, 2009. Retrieved January 24, 2010.
65.Jump up ^ "2010 Teen Choice Awards Winner announced". Entertainment Weekly. August 9, 2010. Retrieved August 10, 2010.
66.Jump up ^ King, Susan (March 1, 2010). "Visual effects, sound and cinematography awards". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 8, 2010.[dead link]
67.Jump up ^ "VES Awards-Nominees-2010" (PDF). Visual Effects Society. January 19, 2010. Retrieved March 10, 2010.
68.Jump up ^ "World Soundtrack Academy 2010". Worldsoundtrackacademy.com. Retrieved 2013-06-12.[dead link]
69.Jump up ^ King, Susan (February 20, 2010). "'The Hurt Locker' and 'Up in the Air' win Writers Guild of America Awards". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 8, 2010.
External links[edit]
Official website
"Awards for Avatar". IMDb.com.


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List of box office records set by Avatar
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

James Cameron's Avatar was released in December 2009, and went on to break multiple North American and worldwide box office records, including becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide.


Contents  [hide]
1 US and Canada records
2 Worldwide records
3 Records in other countries 3.1 All-time records
3.2 Other records
4 References

US and Canada records[edit]
Highest grossing 3rd weekend[1]
Highest grossing 4th weekend[2]
Highest grossing 5th weekend[3]
Highest grossing 6th weekend
Highest grossing 7th weekend[4][5]
Biggest January weekend.[6]
Highest grossing movie in US and Canada
Fastest to reach $600 million.[7]
Main contributor to the biggest aggregated weekend of all time.[8]
Highest opening weekend for an environmentalist film[9]
Largest gross on New Year day[10][11]
Highest-grossing CGI star movie[12]
Highest-grossing paraplegic film[13]
Highest-grossing environmentalist movie[14]
Highest-grossing SCI-FI film[15]
Highest grossing movie released in 2009[16]
Highest PG-13 grossing movie of all time[17]
Highest-grossing Martin Luther King weekend[18]
Most Oscar Nominations of 2010 (9, tied with The Hurt Locker)
Worldwide records[edit]
Avatar became the highest-grossing movie in history on January 25 after only 41 days of play[19][20][21]
The film was No. 1 in all of the 106 markets it opened the week of December 20[22]
Except for India, it was No. 1 in every market worldwide in its second week of release.[23][24]
It was the highest-grossing movie worldwide for 7 weeks in a row[25]
It became the second-highest-grossing movie worldwide only 20 days after its initial release[26]
Highest grossing movie of 2009
Fastest pirated movie in history[27][28]
First 3-D movie to reach $1 billion worldwide
Reached $1 billion sales outside US and Canada in 28 days[29]
First movie in history to reach $2 billion worldwide[30]
Records in other countries[edit]
All-time records[edit]
After 41 days of release it held the record in 24 markets:[21]
China ($204 million) [31]
Germany ($157.6 million)[32][33]
United Kingdom ($150.02 million)[34] (now beaten by Skyfall)
Russia ($117.1 million) [21][32][35][36]
South Korea ($105.5 million)[18][37]
Spain ($110.0 million)[21][35][36]
Australia ($105.8 million)[21][36][38][39][40]
Chile ($10.5 million)[21][35]
Hong Kong ($22.9 million)[21][35][41]
UAE ($7.3 million)[21][42]
Colombia ($13.6 million)[21]
Czech Republic ($11.8 million)[21]
Portugal ($9.3 million)[21]
Singapore ($8.1 million)[21]
Ukraine ($8.7 million)[21]
Hungary ($7.3 million)[21]
Romania ($5.6 million)[21]
Bulgaria ($3.4 million)[21]
Slovenia ($1.8 million)[21]
Dominican Republic ($1.3 million)[21]
Latvia ($1.5 million)[21]
Serbia ($1.3 million)[21]
Kuwait ($1.1 million)[21]
Qatar ($883,412)[21]
Jordan ($752,520)[21]
Jamaica ($476,301)[21]
Bahrain ($896,623)[21]
Other records[edit]
Highest sixth week sales (over 100M) overseas[43]
Over $100M in France, China, Germany, UK, Russia[4]
Highest opening week Italy[18][44]
Russia opening theaters[45]
Highest fourth weekend sales [36]
Highest Dominican Republic opening weekend[22]
Gained six weekends in a row at least 100M per weekend abroad[46]
References[edit]
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2.Jump up ^ "Top Grossing Movies in Their 4th Weekend at the Box Office". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
3.Jump up ^ "Top Grossing Movies in Their 5th Weekend at the Box Office". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
4.^ Jump up to: a b "Weekend Report: ‘Avatar’ Unfazed in Seventh Outing". Box Office Mojo. 2010-02-01. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
5.Jump up ^ "Top Grossing Movies in Their 7th Weekend at the Box Office". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
6.Jump up ^ "All Time Box Office Record, Biggest Weekend Box Office, Biggest Single Day Box Office". The Numbers. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
7.Jump up ^ Subers, Ray. "The Avengers Hits $600 Million", June 26, 2012
8.Jump up ^ "BIGGEST WEEKENDS Aggregated Top 12 Weekend Totals, 1982-Present". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
9.Jump up ^ "All Time Environmentalist Opening Weekends". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
10.Jump up ^ "Weekend Report: ‘Avatar’ Rocks New Year’s". Box Office Mojo. 2010-01-04. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
11.Jump up ^ "Single Day Records: High Grossing Movies on New Year's Day". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
12.Jump up ^ "CGI Star Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
13.Jump up ^ "Disability - Paraplegic / Quadriplegic Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
14.Jump up ^ "Environmentalist Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
15.Jump up ^ "Sci-Fi - Adventure Movies at the Box Office". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
16.Jump up ^ 2009 Yearly Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo
17.Jump up ^ "DOMESTIC GROSSES BY MPAA RATING". Boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved 2011-07-03.
18.^ Jump up to: a b c "Weekend Report: ‘Avatar’ Reigns with Record MLK Gross". Box Office Mojo. 2010-01-19. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
19.Jump up ^ Segers, Frank. "'Avatar' breaks 'Titanic' worldwide record". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
20.Jump up ^ Cieply, Michael (2010-01-26). "Cameron’s ‘Avatar’ Tops His ‘Titanic’ as Highest Grosser". NYTimes.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
21.^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y "‘Avatar’ Is New King of the World". Box Office Mojo. 2010-01-26. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
22.^ Jump up to: a b Segers, Frank. "'Avatar' dominates int'l boxoffice". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.[dead link]
23.Jump up ^ Segers, Frank. "'Avatar' wows 'em worldwide". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.[dead link]
24.Jump up ^ [1][dead link]
25.Jump up ^ "'Avatar' receipts in Taiwan close in on 'Titanic' box office record - Taiwan News Online". Etaiwannews.com. 2010-02-01. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
26.Jump up ^ Finke, Nikki (2010-01-06). "‘Avatar’ Now #2 All-Time Grossing Movie — And In Just 20 Days! –". Deadline.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
27.Jump up ^ ""Avatar" Fastest-Pirated Movie In History". Popcrunch.com. 2010-01-07. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
28.Jump up ^ Savage, Michael. The Times (London) http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/film/article7004686.ece |url= missing title (help).
29.Jump up ^ "Life & Leisure - Birmingham Culture - Film - Why IMAX and 3D movies are the future of cinema". Birmingham Post. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
30.Jump up ^ 2009 Yearly Box Office Results - Box Office Mojo
31.Jump up ^ "China boxoffice tops $700 mil in first half". The Hollywood Reporter. 2011-07-05. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
32.^ Jump up to: a b "UPDATE 2-'Avatar' replaces 'Titanic' in record books". Reuters. 2010-01-24. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
33.Jump up ^ "All Time German Box Office". Moviemarshal.com.au. 2004-11-22. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
34.Jump up ^ "Weekend Report: ‘Dear John’ Delivers, ‘Avatar’ Flies High Again". Box Office Mojo. 2010-02-08. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
35.^ Jump up to: a b c d Segers, Frank (2010-01-24). "'Avatar' passes 'Titanic's' overseas record". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
36.^ Jump up to: a b c d "Weekend Report: ‘Avatar’ Obtains More Records in Fourth Outing". Box Office Mojo. 2010-01-11. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
37.Jump up ^ "The Chosun Ilbo (English Edition): Daily News from Korea - 'Avatar' Approaches Korean Attendance Record". English.chosun.com. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
38.Jump up ^ Bulbeck, Pip (2010-01-21). "Australia tops A$1 billion b.o. for 2009". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
39.Jump up ^ Goodsell, Luke (2010-01-11). "Avatar Sinks Titanic In Australia". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
40.Jump up ^ "All Time Australian Box Office". Moviemarshal.com.au. 2010-01-30. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
41.Jump up ^ Chu, Karen (2010-01-19). "'Avatar' takes HK boxoffice crown". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
42.Jump up ^ "Emirates24|7 - Emirates24|7". Business24-7.ae. 2010-01-09. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
43.Jump up ^ "Weekend Report: ‘Avatar’ Breaks 'Titanic's Foreign Record". Box Office Mojo. 2010-01-25. Retrieved 2010-08-29.
44.Jump up ^ Segers, Frank. "'Avatar' nears 'Titanic's' overseas boxoffice". Hollywoodreporter.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
45.Jump up ^ ""Avatar" sets record in Russia". RT. Retrieved 2010-02-03.
46.Jump up ^ Smith, Olivia (2010-01-26). "'Avatar' ends 'Titanic's reign as highest grossing movie ever". New York: Nydailynews.com. Retrieved 2010-02-03.[dead link]


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Avatar (2009 film)
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Avatar
On the upper half of the poster are the faces of a man and a female blue alien with yellow eyes, with a giant planet and a moon in the background and the text at the top: "From the director of Terminator 2 and Titanic". Below is a dragon-like animal flying across a landscape with floating mountains at sunset; helicopter-like aircraft are seen in the distant background. The title "James Cameron's Avatar", film credits and the release date appear at the bottom
Theatrical release poster

Directed by
James Cameron
Produced by
James Cameron
Jon Landau

Written by
James Cameron
Starring
Sam Worthington
Zoe Saldana
Stephen Lang
Michelle Rodriguez
Sigourney Weaver

Music by
James Horner
Cinematography
Mauro Fiore
Edited by
James Cameron
John Refoua
Stephen E. Rivkin

Production
   company
Lightstorm Entertainment
Dune Entertainment
Ingenious Film Partners

Distributed by
20th Century Fox
Release date(s)
December 10, 2009 (London premiere)
December 18, 2009 (United States)

Running time
162 minutes[1]
 171 minutes (re-release)[2]
 178 minutes (Extended Collector's Edition)[3]
Country
United States
 United Kingdom[4]
Language
English
Budget
$237 million[5]
 $9 million+ (re-release)[2]
Box office
$2,782,275,172[6][7]
Avatar is a 2009 American[8][9] epic science fiction film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by James Cameron, and starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Joel David Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, and Sigourney Weaver. The film is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are mining a precious mineral called unobtanium on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system.[10][11][12] The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi – a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The film's title refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body with the mind of a remotely located human, and is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.[13]
Development of Avatar began in 1994, when Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for the film.[14][15] Filming was supposed to take place after the completion of Cameron's 1997 film Titanic, for a planned release in 1999,[16] but according to Cameron, the necessary technology was not yet available to achieve his vision of the film.[17] Work on the language of the film's extraterrestrial beings began in summer 2005, and Cameron began developing the screenplay and fictional universe in early 2006.[18][19] Avatar was officially budgeted at $237 million.[5] Other estimates put the cost between $280 million and $310 million for production and at $150 million for promotion.[20][21][22] The film made extensive use of cutting edge motion capture filming techniques,[23] and was released for traditional viewing, 3D viewing (using the RealD 3D, Dolby 3D, XpanD 3D, and IMAX 3D formats), and for "4D" experiences in select South Korean theaters.[24] The stereoscopic filmmaking was touted as a breakthrough in cinematic technology.[25]
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was internationally released on December 16 and in the United States and Canada on December 18, to positive critical reviews, with critics highly praising its groundbreaking visual effects.[26][27][28] During its theatrical run, the film broke several box office records and became the highest-grossing film of all time, as well as in the United States and Canada,[29] surpassing Titanic, which had held those records for twelve years (and was also directed by Cameron).[30] It also became the first film to gross more than $2 billion.[31] Avatar was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director,[32] and won three, for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects. The film's home media release went on to break opening sales records and became the top-selling Blu-ray of all time. Following the film's success, Cameron signed with 20th Century Fox to produce three sequels, making Avatar the first of a planned tetralogy.[33]


Contents  [hide]
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production 3.1 Origins
3.2 Development
3.3 Themes and inspirations
3.4 Filming
3.5 Visual effects
3.6 Music and soundtrack
4 Marketing 4.1 Promotions
4.2 Books
4.3 Video games
4.4 Action figures and postage stamps
4.5 Theme park attraction
5 Release and reception 5.1 Initial screening
5.2 Box office 5.2.1 General
5.2.2 Commercial analysis
5.3 Critical reception
5.4 Accolades
5.5 Extended theatrical re-release
5.6 Home media
6 Sequels
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links

Plot
By 2154, humans have severely depleted Earth's natural resources. The Resources Development Administration (RDA) mines for a valuable mineral – unobtanium – on Pandora, a densely forested habitable moon orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system.[12] Pandora, whose atmosphere is poisonous to humans, is inhabited by the Na'vi, 10-foot tall (3.0 m), blue-skinned, sapient humanoids[34] who live in harmony with nature and worship a mother goddess called Eywa.
To explore Pandora's biosphere, scientists use Na'vi-human hybrids called "avatars", operated by genetically matched humans; Jake Sully, a paraplegic former marine, replaces his deceased twin brother as an operator of one. Dr. Grace Augustine, head of the Avatar Program, considers Sully an inadequate replacement but accepts his assignment as a bodyguard. While protecting the avatars of Grace and scientist Norm Spellman as they collect biological data, Jake's avatar is attacked by a thanator and flees into the forest, where he is rescued by Neytiri, a female Na'vi. Witnessing an auspicious sign, she takes him to her clan, whereupon Neytiri's mother Mo'at, the clan's spiritual leader, orders her daughter to initiate Jake into their society.
Colonel Miles Quaritch, head of RDA's private security force, promises Jake that the company will restore his legs if he gathers intelligence about the Na'vi and the clan's gathering place, a giant arboreal called Hometree,[35] on grounds that it stands above the richest deposit of unobtanium in the area. When Grace learns of this, she transfers herself, Jake, and Norm to an outpost. Over three months, Jake grows to sympathize with the natives. After Jake is initiated into the tribe, he and Neytiri choose each other as mates, and soon afterward, Jake reveals his change of allegiance when he attempts to disable a bulldozer that threatens to destroy a sacred Na'vi site. When Quaritch shows a video recording of Jake's attack on the bulldozer to Administrator Parker Selfridge,[36] and another in which Jake admits that the Na'vi will never abandon Hometree, Selfridge orders Hometree destroyed.
Despite Grace's argument that destroying Hometree could damage the biological neural network native to Pandora, Selfridge gives Jake and Grace one final chance to convince the Na'vi to evacuate before commencing the attack. While trying to warn the Na'vi, Jake confesses to being a spy and the Na'vi take him and Grace captive. Seeing this, Quaritch's men destroy Hometree, killing Neytiri's father (the clan chief) and many others. Mo'at frees Jake and Grace, but they are detached from their avatars and imprisoned by Quaritch's forces. Pilot Trudy Chacón, disgusted by Quaritch's brutality, carries them to Grace's outpost, but during the escape, Quaritch fires at them, hitting Grace.
To regain the Na'vi's trust, Jake connects his mind to that of Toruk, a dragon-like predator feared and honoured by the Na'vi. Jake finds the refugees at the sacred Tree of Souls and pleads with Mo'at to heal Grace. The clan attempts to transfer Grace from her human body into her avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls, but she dies before the process can complete.
Supported by the new chief Tsu'tey, who acts as Jake's translator, Jake speaks to unite the clan and tells them to gather all of the clans to battle against the RDA. Noticing the impending gathering, Quaritch organizes a pre-emptive strike against the Tree of Souls, believing that its destruction will demoralize the natives. On the eve of battle, Jake prays to Eywa, via a neural connection to the Tree of Souls, to intercede on behalf of the Na'vi.
During the subsequent battle, the Na'vi suffer heavy casualties, including Tsu'tey and Trudy; but are rescued when Pandoran wildlife unexpectedly join the attack and overwhelm the humans, which Neytiri interprets as Eywa's answer to Jake's prayer. Then Jake destroys a makeshift bomber before it can reach the Tree of Souls; Quaritch escapes from his own damaged aircraft, wearing an AMP suit and breaks open the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. Quaritch then prepares to slit the throat of Jake's avatar, but Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake from suffocation.
With the exceptions of Jake, Norm, Max and a few other scientists, all humans are expelled from Pandora and sent back to Earth, after which Jake is transferred permanently into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls.
Cast
Further information: Fictional universe of Avatar
HumansSam Worthington as Jake Sully, a disabled former Marine who becomes part of the Avatar Program after his twin brother is killed. His military background helps the Na'vi warriors relate to him. Cameron cast the Australian actor after a worldwide search for promising young actors, preferring relative unknowns to keep the budget down.[37] Worthington, who was living in his car at the time,[38] auditioned twice early in development,[39] and he has signed on for possible sequels.[40] Cameron felt that because Worthington had not done a major film, he would give the character "a quality that is really real". Cameron said he "has that quality of being a guy you'd want to have a beer with, and he ultimately becomes a leader who transforms the world".[41]
Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, the head of the mining operation's security detail. Fiercely loyal to his military code, he has a profound disregard for Pandora's inhabitants that is evident in both his actions and his language. Lang had unsuccessfully auditioned for a role in Cameron's Aliens (1986), but the director remembered Lang and sought him for Avatar.[42] Michael Biehn, who was in Aliens, read the script and watched some of the 3-D footage with Cameron,[43] but was ultimately not cast in the role.
Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine, an exobiologist and head of the Avatar Program. She is also Sully's mentor and an advocate of peaceful relations with the Na'vi, having set up a school to teach them English.[44]
Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacón, a combat pilot assigned to support the Avatar Program who is sympathetic to the Na'vi. Cameron had wanted to work with Rodriguez since seeing her in Girlfight.[42]
Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge, the corporate administrator for the RDA mining operation.[45] While he is at first willing to destroy the Na'vi civilization to preserve the company's bottom line, he is reluctant to authorize the attacks on the Na'vi, doing so only after Quaritch persuades him that it is necessary, and the attacks will be humane. When the attacks are broadcast to the base, Selfridge displays discomfort at the violence.
Joel David Moore as Dr. Norm Spellman, a xenoanthropologist[46] who studies plant and animal life as part of the Avatar Program.[47] He arrives on Pandora at the same time as Sully and operates an avatar. Although he is expected to lead the diplomatic contact with the Na'vi, it turns out that Jake has the personality better suited to win the natives' respect.
Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel, a scientist who works in the Avatar Program and comes to support Jake's rebellion against the RDA.[48]
Na'viZoe Saldana as Neytiri, the daughter of the leader of the Omaticaya (the Na'vi clan central to the story). She is attracted to Jake because of his bravery, though frustrated with him for what she sees as his naiveté and stupidity. She serves as Jake's love interest.[49] The character, like all the Na'vi, was created using performance capture, and its visual aspect is entirely computer generated.[50] Saldana has also signed on for potential sequels.[51]
C. C. H. Pounder as Mo'at, the Omaticaya's spiritual leader, Neytiri's mother, and consort to clan leader Eytukan.[52]
Wes Studi as Eytukan, the Omaticaya's clan leader, Neytiri's father, and Mo'at's mate.
Laz Alonso as Tsu'tey, the finest warrior of the Omaticaya. He is heir to the chieftainship of the tribe. At the beginning of the film's story, he is betrothed to Neytiri.
Production
Origins
In 1994,[15] director James Cameron wrote an 80-page treatment for Avatar, drawing inspiration from "every single science fiction book" he had read in his childhood as well as from adventure novels by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard.[14] In August 1996, Cameron announced that after completing Titanic, he would film Avatar, which would make use of synthetic, or computer-generated, actors.[17] The project would cost $100 million and involve at least six actors in leading roles "who appear to be real but do not exist in the physical world".[53] Visual effects house Digital Domain, with whom Cameron has a partnership, joined the project, which was supposed to begin production in the summer of 1997 for a 1999 release.[16] However, Cameron felt that the technology had not caught up with the story and vision that he intended to tell. He decided to concentrate on making documentaries and refining the technology for the next few years. It was revealed in a Bloomberg BusinessWeek cover story that 20th Century Fox had fronted $10 million to Cameron to film a proof-of-concept clip for Avatar, which he showed to Fox executives in October 2005.[54]
In February 2006, Cameron revealed that his film Project 880 was "a retooled version of Avatar", a film that he had tried to make years earlier,[55] citing the technological advances in the creation of the computer-generated characters Gollum, King Kong, and Davy Jones.[14] Cameron had chosen Avatar over his project Battle Angel after completing a five-day camera test in the previous year.[56]
Development
 Wikinews has related news: Elvish, Klingon and Na'vi: Constructed languages gain foothold in film
From January to April 2006, Cameron worked on the script and developed a culture for the film's aliens, the Na'vi. Their language was created by Dr. Paul Frommer, a linguist at USC.[14] The Na'vi language has a lexicon of about 1000 words, with some 30 added by Cameron. The tongue's phonemes include ejective consonants (such as the "kx" in "skxawng") that are found in the Amharic language of Ethiopia, and the initial "ng" that Cameron may have taken from New Zealand Māori.[19] Actress Sigourney Weaver and the film's set designers met with Jodie S. Holt, professor of plant physiology at University of California, Riverside, to learn about the methods used by botanists to study and sample plants, and to discuss ways to explain the communication between Pandora's organisms depicted in the film.[57]
From 2005 to 2007, Cameron worked with a handful of designers, including famed fantasy illustrator Wayne Barlowe and renowned concept artist Jordu Schell, to shape the design of the Na'vi with paintings and physical sculptures when Cameron felt that 3-D brush renderings were not capturing his vision,[58] often working together in the kitchen of Cameron's Malibu home.[59] In July 2006, Cameron announced that he would film Avatar for a mid-2008 release and planned to begin principal photography with an established cast by February 2007.[60] The following August, the visual effects studio Weta Digital signed on to help Cameron produce Avatar.[61] Stan Winston, who had collaborated with Cameron in the past, joined Avatar to help with the film's designs.[62] Production design for the film took several years. The film had two different production designers, and two separate art departments, one of which focused on the flora and fauna of Pandora, and another that created human machines and human factors.[63] In September 2006, Cameron was announced to be using his own Reality Camera System to film in 3-D. The system would use two high-definition cameras in a single camera body to create depth perception.[64]
Fox was wavering because of its painful experience with cost overruns and delays on Cameron's previous picture, Titanic, even though Cameron rewrote Avatar's script to combine several characters together and offered to cut his fee in case the film flopped.[54] Cameron installed a traffic light with the amber signal lit outside of co-producer Jon Landau's office to represent the film's uncertain future.[54] In mid-2006, Fox told Cameron "in no uncertain terms that they were passing on this film," so he began shopping it around to other studios, and showed his proof-of-concept to Dick Cook (then chairman of the Walt Disney Studios).[54] However, when Disney attempted to take over, Fox exercised its right of first refusal.[54] In October 2006, Fox finally agreed to commit to making Avatar after Ingenious Media agreed to back the film, which reduced Fox's financial exposure to less than half of the film's official $237 million budget.[54] After Fox accepted Avatar, one skeptical Fox executive shook his head and told Cameron and Landau, "I don't know if we're crazier for letting you do this, or if you're crazier for thinking you can do this …"[65]
External audio
James Cameron interviewed by F. X. Feeney on writing Avatar.
 Interview, from here[66]
In December 2006, Cameron described Avatar as "a futuristic tale set on a planet 200 years hence … an old-fashioned jungle adventure with an environmental conscience [that] aspires to a mythic level of storytelling".[67] The January 2007 press release described the film as "an emotional journey of redemption and revolution" and said the story is of "a wounded former Marine, thrust unwillingly into an effort to settle and exploit an exotic planet rich in biodiversity, who eventually crosses over to lead the indigenous race in a battle for survival". The story would be of an entire world complete with an ecosystem of phantasmagorical plants and creatures, and native people with a rich culture and language.[51]
Estimates put the cost of the film at about $280–310 million to produce and an estimated $150 million for marketing, noting that about $30 million in tax credits will lessen the financial impact on the studio and its financiers.[20][21][22] A studio spokesperson said that the budget was "$237 million, with $150 million for promotion, end of story."[5]
Themes and inspirations
Main article: Themes in Avatar
Avatar is primarily an action-adventure journey of self-discovery, in the context of imperialism and deep ecology.[68] Cameron said his inspiration was "every single science fiction book I read as a kid", and that he was particularly striving to update the style of Edgar Rice Burroughs's John Carter series and the deep jungles of Pandora were visualized from Disney's 37th animated film, Tarzan.[39] He acknowledged that Avatar shares themes with the films At Play in the Fields of the Lord, The Emerald Forest, and Princess Mononoke, which feature clashes between cultures and civilizations, and with Dances with Wolves, where a battered soldier finds himself drawn to the culture he was initially fighting against.[69][70]
In a 2007 interview with Time magazine, Cameron was asked about the meaning of the term Avatar, to which he replied, "It's an incarnation of one of the Hindu gods taking a flesh form. In this film what that means is that the human technology in the future is capable of injecting a human's intelligence into a remotely located body, a biological body."[13]



 Jake's avatar and Neytiri. One of the inspirations for the look of the Na'vi came from a dream that Cameron's mother had told him about.[68]
The look of the Na'vi – the humanoids indigenous to Pandora – was inspired by a dream that Cameron's mother had, long before he started work on Avatar. In her dream, she saw a blue-skinned woman 12 feet (4 m) tall, which he thought was "kind of a cool image".[68] Also he said, "I just like blue. It's a good color … plus, there's a connection to the Hindu deities,[71] which I like conceptually."[72] He included similar creatures in his first screenplay (written in 1976 or 1977), which featured a planet with a native population of "gorgeous" tall blue aliens. The Na'vi were based on them.[68]
For the love story between characters Jake and Neytiri, Cameron applied a star-crossed love theme, and acknowledged its similarity to the pairing of Jack and Rose from his film Titanic. An interviewer stated, "Both couples come from radically different cultures that are contemptuous of their relationship and are forced to choose sides between the competing communities."[73] Cameron felt that whether or not the Jake and Neytiri love story would be perceived as believable partially hinged on the physical attractiveness of Neytiri's alien appearance, which was developed by considering her appeal to the all-male crew of artists.[74] Though Cameron felt Jake and Neytiri do not fall in love right away, their portrayers (Worthington and Saldana) felt the characters do. Cameron said the two actors "had a great chemistry" during filming.[73]

A gray mountain in the middle of a forest.

 Pandora's floating "Hallelujah Mountains" were inspired in part by the Chinese Huang Shan mountains (pictured).[75]
For the film's floating "Hallelujah Mountains", the designers drew inspiration from "many different types of mountains, but mainly the karst limestone formations in China."[76] According to production designer Dylan Cole, the fictional floating rocks were inspired by Mount Huang (also known as Huangshan), Guilin, Zhangjiajie, among others around the world.[76] Director Cameron had noted the influence of the Chinese peaks on the design of the floating mountains.[77]
To create the interiors of the human mining colony on Pandora, production designers visited the Noble Clyde Boudreaux[78] oil platform in the Gulf of Mexico during June 2007. They photographed, measured and filmed every aspect of the platform, which was later replicated on-screen with photorealistic CGI during post-production.[79]
Cameron said that he wanted to make "something that has this spoonful of sugar of all the action and the adventure and all that" but also have a conscience "that maybe in the enjoying of it makes you think a little bit about the way you interact with nature and your fellow man". He added that "the Na'vi represent something that is our higher selves, or our aspirational selves, what we would like to think we are" and that even though there are good humans within the film, the humans "represent what we know to be the parts of ourselves that are trashing our world and maybe condemning ourselves to a grim future".[80]
Cameron acknowledges that Avatar implicitly criticizes the United States' role in the Iraq War and the impersonal nature of mechanized warfare in general. In reference to the use of the term shock and awe in the film, Cameron said, "We know what it feels like to launch the missiles. We don't know what it feels like for them to land on our home soil, not in America."[81] He said in later interviews, "… I think it's very patriotic to question a system that needs to be corralled …"[82] and, "The film is definitely not anti-American."[83] A scene in the film portrays the violent destruction of the towering Na'vi Hometree, which collapses in flames after a missile attack, coating the landscape with ash and floating embers. Asked about the scene's resemblance to the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Cameron said he had been "surprised at how much it did look like September 11".[81]
Filming
Principal photography for Avatar began in April 2007 in Los Angeles and Wellington, New Zealand. Cameron described the film as a hybrid with a full live-action shoot in combination with computer-generated characters and live environments. "Ideally at the end of the day the audience has no idea which they're looking at," Cameron said. The director indicated that he had already worked four months on nonprincipal scenes for the film.[84] The live action was shot with a modified version of the proprietary digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, developed by Cameron and Vince Pace.[85] In January 2007, Fox had announced that 3-D filming for Avatar would be done at 24 frames per second despite Cameron's strong opinion that a 3-D film requires higher frame rate to make strobing less noticeable.[86] According to Cameron, the film is composed of 60% computer-generated elements and 40% live action, as well as traditional miniatures.[87]
Motion-capture photography lasted 31 days at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista in Los Angeles.[56][88] Live action photography began in October 2007 at Stone Street Studios in Wellington, New Zealand, and was scheduled to last 31 days.[89] More than a thousand people worked on the production.[88] In preparation of the filming sequences, all of the actors underwent professional training specific to their characters such as archery, horseback riding, firearm use, and hand-to-hand combat. They received language and dialect training in the Na'vi language created for the film.[90] Before shooting the film, Cameron also sent the cast to the Hawaiian tropical rainforests[91] to get a feel for a rainforest setting before shooting on the soundstage.[90]
During filming, Cameron made use of his virtual camera system, a new way of directing motion-capture filmmaking. The system shows the actors' virtual counterparts in their digital surroundings in real time, allowing the director to adjust and direct scenes just as if shooting live action. According to Cameron, "It's like a big, powerful game engine. If I want to fly through space, or change my perspective, I can. I can turn the whole scene into a living miniature and go through it on a 50 to 1 scale."[92] Using conventional techniques, the complete virtual world cannot be seen until the motion-capture of the actors is complete. Cameron said this process does not diminish the value or importance of acting. On the contrary, because there is no need for repeated camera and lighting setups, costume fittings and make-up touch-ups, scenes do not need to be interrupted repeatedly.[93] Cameron described the system as a "form of pure creation where if you want to move a tree or a mountain or the sky or change the time of day, you have complete control over the elements".[94]
Cameron gave fellow directors Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson a chance to test the new technology.[67] Spielberg said, "I like to think of it as digital makeup, not augmented animation … Motion capture brings the director back to a kind of intimacy that actors and directors only know when they're working in live theater."[93] Spielberg and George Lucas were also able to visit the set to watch Cameron direct with the equipment.[95]
To film the shots where CGI interacts with live action, a unique camera referred to as a "simulcam" was used, a merger of the 3-D fusion camera and the virtual camera systems. While filming live action in real time with the simulcam, the CGI images captured with the virtual camera or designed from scratch, are superimposed over the live action images as in augmented reality and shown on a small monitor, making it possible for the director to instruct the actors how to relate to the virtual material in the scene.[90]
Visual effects

The left image shows the blue cat-like alien Neyitiri shouting. The right image shows the actress who portrays her, Zoe Saldana, with motion-capture dots across her face and a small camera in front of her eyes.

 Cameron pioneered a specially designed camera built into a 6-inch boom that allowed the facial expressions of the actors to be captured and digitally recorded for the animators to use later.[96]
A number of innovative visual effects techniques were used in the production of Avatar. According to Cameron, work on the film had been delayed since the 1990s to allow the techniques to reach the necessary degree of advancement to adequately portray his vision of the film.[16][17] The director planned to make use of photorealistic computer-generated characters, created using new motion-capture animation technologies he had been developing in the 14 months leading up to December 2006.[92]
Innovations include a new system for lighting massive areas like Pandora's jungle,[97] a motion-capture stage or "volume" six times larger than any previously used, and an improved method of capturing facial expressions, enabling full performance capture. To achieve the face capturing, actors wore individually made skull caps fitted with a tiny camera positioned in front of the actors' faces; the information collected about their facial expressions and eyes is then transmitted to computers.[98] According to Cameron, the method allows the filmmakers to transfer 100% of the actors' physical performances to their digital counterparts.[99] Besides the performance capture data which were transferred directly to the computers, numerous reference cameras gave the digital artists multiple angles of each performance.[100] A technically challenging scene was near the end of the film when the computer-generated Neytiri held the live action Jake in human form, and attention was given to the details of the shadows and reflected light between them.[101]
The lead visual effects company was Weta Digital in Wellington, New Zealand, at one point employing 900 people to work on the film.[102] Because of the huge amount of data which needed to be stored, cataloged and available for everybody involved, even on the other side of the world, a new cloud computing and Digital Asset Management (DAM) system named Gaia was created by Microsoft especially for Avatar, which allowed the crews to keep track of and coordinate all stages in the digital processing.[103] To render Avatar, Weta used a 10,000 sq ft (930 m2) server farm making use of 4,000 Hewlett-Packard servers with 35,000 processor cores with 104 terabytes of RAM and three petabytes of network area storage running Ubuntu Linux, Grid Engine cluster manager, and 2 of the animation software and managers, Pixar's Renderman and Pixar's Alfred queue management system.[104][105][106][107] The render farm occupies the 193rd to 197th spots in the TOP500 list of the world's most powerful supercomputers. A new texturing and paint software system, called Mari, was developed by The Foundry in cooperation with Weta.[108][109] Creating the Na'vi characters and the virtual world of Pandora required over a petabyte of digital storage,[110] and each minute of the final footage for Avatar occupies 17.28 gigabytes of storage.[111] Often, it would take each frame of the movie several hours to render.[112] To help finish preparing the special effects sequences on time, a number of other companies were brought on board, including Industrial Light & Magic, which worked alongside Weta Digital to create the battle sequences. ILM was responsible for the visual effects for many of the film's specialized vehicles and devised a new way to make CGI explosions.[113] Joe Letteri was the film's visual effects general supervisor.[114]
Music and soundtrack
Main article: Avatar: Music from the Motion Picture




James Horner – "Jake Enters His Avatar World"







listen to a clip from the score of the 2009 film Avatar.

Problems playing this file? See media help.
Composer James Horner scored the film, his third collaboration with Cameron after Aliens and Titanic.[115] Horner recorded parts of the score with a small chorus singing in the alien language Na'vi in March 2008.[116] He also worked with Wanda Bryant, an ethnomusicologist, to create a music culture for the alien race.[117] The first scoring sessions were planned to take place in spring 2009.[118] During production, Horner promised Cameron that he would not work on any other project except for Avatar and reportedly worked on the score from four in the morning till ten at night throughout the process. He stated in an interview, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken."[119] Horner composed the score as two different scores merged into one. He first created a score that reflected the Na'vi way of sound and then combined it with a separate "traditional" score to drive the film.[90] British singer Leona Lewis was chosen to sing the theme song for the film, called "I See You". An accompanying music video, directed by Jake Nava, premiered December 15, 2009, on MySpace.[120]
Marketing
Promotions

James Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con promoting Avatar.

 Cameron at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con promoting the film
The first photo of the film was released on August 14, 2009,[121] and Empire magazine released exclusive images from the film in its October issue.[122] Cameron, producer Jon Landau, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver appeared at a panel, moderated by Tom Rothman, at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con on July 23. Twenty-five minutes of footage was screened[123] in Dolby 3D.[124] Weaver and Cameron appeared at additional panels to promote the film, speaking on the 23rd[125] and 24th[126] respectively. James Cameron announced at the Comic-Con Avatar Panel that August 21 will be 'Avatar Day'. On this day the trailer for the film was released in all theatrical formats. The official game trailer and toy line of the film were also unveiled on this day.[127]
The 129-second trailer was released online on August 20, 2009.[128] The new 210-second trailer was premiered in theatres on October 23, 2009, then soon after premiered online on Yahoo! on October 29, 2009, to positive reviews.[129][130] An extended version in IMAX 3D received overwhelmingly positive reviews.[128] The Hollywood Reporter said that audience expectations were coloured by "the [same] establishment skepticism that preceded Titanic" and suggested the showing reflected the desire for original storytelling.[131] The teaser has been among the most viewed trailers in the history of film marketing, reaching the first place of all trailers viewed on Apple.com with 4 million views.[132] On October 30, to celebrate the opening of the first 3-D cinema in Vietnam, Fox allowed Megastar Cinema to screen exclusive 16 minutes of Avatar to a number of press.[133] The three-and-a-half-minute trailer of the film premiered live on November 1, 2009, during a Dallas Cowboys football game at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on the Diamond Vision screen, one of the world's largest video displays, and to TV audiences viewing the game on Fox. It is said to be the largest live motion picture trailer viewing in history.[134]
The Coca-Cola Company collaborated with Twentieth Century Fox to launch a worldwide marketing campaign to promote the film. The highlight of the campaign was the website AVTR.com. Specially marked bottles and cans of Coca-Cola Zero, when held in front of a webcam, enabled users to interact with the website's 3-D features using augmented reality (AR) technology.[135] The film was heavily promoted in an episode of the Fox Network series Bones in the episode "The Gamer In The Grease" (Season 5, Episode 9). Avatar star Joel David Moore has a recurring role on the program, and is seen in the episode anxiously awaiting the release of the film.[136] A week prior to the American release, Zoe Saldana promoted the film on Adult Swim when she was interviewed by an animated Space Ghost.[137] McDonald's had a promotion mentioned in television commercials in Europe called "Avatarize yourself", which encouraged people to go to the website set up by Oddcast, and use a photograph of themselves to change into a Na'vi.[138]
Books
Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora, a 224-page book in the form of a field guide to the film's fictional setting of the planet of Pandora, was released by Harper Entertainment on November 24, 2009.[139] It is presented as a compilation of data collected by the humans about Pandora and the life on it, written by Maria Wilhelm and Dirk Mathison. HarperFestival also released Wilhelm's 48-page James Cameron's Avatar: The Reusable Scrapbook for children.[140] The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure was released on November 30, 2009, by Abrams Books. The book features detailed production artwork from the film, including production sketches, illustrations by Lisa Fitzpatrick, and film stills. Producer Jon Landau wrote the foreword, Cameron wrote the epilogue, and director Peter Jackson wrote the preface.[141] In October 2010, Abrams Books also released The Making of Avatar, a 272-page book that detailed the film's production process and contains over 500 color photographs and illustrations.[142]
In a 2009 interview, Cameron said that he planned to write a novel version of Avatar after the film was released.[143] In February 2010, producer Jon Landau stated that Cameron plans a prequel novel for Avatar that will "lead up to telling the story of the movie, but it would go into much more depth about all the stories that we didn't have time to deal with", saying that "Jim wants to write a novel that is a big, epic story that fills in a lot of things".[144] In August 2013 it was announced that Cameron hired Steven Gould to pen four standalone novels to expand the Avatar universe.[145]
Video games
Main article: James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
Cameron chose Ubisoft Montreal to create an Avatar game for the film in 2007. The filmmakers and game developers collaborated heavily, and Cameron decided to include some of Ubisoft's vehicle and creature designs into the film.[146] James Cameron's Avatar: The Game was released on December 1, 2009,[147] for most home video game consoles (PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, Nintendo DS, iPhone), Microsoft Windows and December 8 for PSP.
Action figures and postage stamps
Mattel Toys announced in December 2009 that it would be introducing a line of Avatar action figures.[148][149] Each action figure will be made with a 3-D web tag, called an i-TAG, that consumers can scan using a web cam, revealing unique on-screen content that is special to each specific action figure.[148] A series of toys representing six different characters from the film were also distributed in McDonald's Happy Meals in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, the United States and Venezuela.[150]
In December 2009, France Post released a special limited edition stamp based on Avatar, coinciding with the film's worldwide release.[151]
Theme park attraction
At Disney's 2013 D23 event, a themed land based on Avatar was announced for Disney's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Construction began in 2014 and is set to open in 2017.[152]
Release and reception
Initial screening
Avatar premiered in London on December 10, 2009, and was released theatrically worldwide from December 16 to 18.[153] The film was originally set for release on May 22, 2009, during filming,[154] but was pushed back to allow more post-production time (the last shots were delivered in November),[97] and to give more time for theatres worldwide to install 3D projectors.[155] Cameron stated that the film's aspect ratio would be 1.78:1 for 3D screenings and that a 2.39:1 image would be extracted for 2D screenings.[156] However, a 3D 2.39:1 extract was approved for use with constant-image-height screens (i.e. screens which increase in width to display 2.39:1 films).[157] During a 3D preview showing in Germany on December 16, the movie's DRM 'protection' system failed, and some copies delivered could not be watched at all in the theaters. The problems were fixed in time for the public premiere, however.[158] Avatar was released in a total of 3,457 theatres in the US, of which 2,032 theatres ran it in 3D. In total 90% of all advance ticket sales for Avatar were for 3D screenings.[159]
Internationally, Avatar opened on a total of 14,604 screens in 106 territories, of which 3,671 were showing the film in 3D (producing 56% of the first weekend gross).[160][161] The film was simultaneously presented in IMAX 3D format, opening in 178 theaters in the United States on December 18. The international IMAX release included 58 theaters beginning on December 16, and 25 more theaters were to be added in the coming weeks.[162] The IMAX release was the company's widest to date, a total of 261 theaters worldwide. The previous IMAX record opening was Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which opened in 161 IMAX theatres in the US, and about 70 international.[163] 20th Century Fox Korea adapted and later released Avatar in 4D version, which included "moving seats, smells of explosives, sprinkling water, laser lights and wind".[24]
Box office
General
Main article: List of box office records set by Avatar
Avatar was released internationally on more than 14,000 screens.[164] Avatar earned $3,537,000 from midnight screenings domestically (United States and Canada), with the initial 3D release limited to 2,200 screens.[165] The film earned $26,752,099 on its opening day, and $77,025,481 over its opening weekend, making it the second largest December opening ever behind I Am Legend,[6][27] the largest domestic opening weekend for a film not based on a franchise (topping The Incredibles), the highest opening weekend for a film entirely in 3D (breaking Up's record),[166] the highest opening weekend for an environmentalist film (breaking The Day After Tomorrow's record),[167] and the 40th largest opening weekend in North America,[6] despite a blizzard which blanketed the East Coast of the United States and reportedly hurt its opening weekend results.[20][27][28] The film also set an IMAX opening weekend record, with 178 theaters generating approximately $9.5 million, 12% of the film's $77 million (at the time) North American gross on less than 3% of the screens.[162]
International markets generating opening weekend tallies of at least $10 million were Russia ($19.7 million), France ($17.4 million), the UK ($13.8 million), Germany ($13.3 million), South Korea ($11.7 million), Australia ($11.5 million) and Spain ($11.0 million).[168] Avatar's worldwide gross was US$241.6 million after five days, the ninth largest opening-weekend gross of all time, and the largest for a non-franchise, non-sequel and original film.[169] 58 international IMAX screens generated an estimated $4.1 million during the opening weekend.[162]
Revenues in the film's second weekend decreased by only 1.8% in domestic markets, marking a rare occurrence,[170] earning $75,617,183, to remain in first place at the box office[171] and recording the biggest second weekend of all time[172] (since surpassed by Marvel's The Avengers).[173] The film experienced another marginal decrease in revenue in its third weekend, dropping 9.4% to $68,490,688 domestically, remaining in first place at the box office,[174] to set a third-weekend record.[175]
Avatar crossed the $1 billion mark on the 19th day of its international release, making it the first film to reach this mark in only 19 days[176] (a record now matched by both Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 in 2011 and The Avengers in 2012).[177] It became the fifth film grossing more than $1 billion worldwide, and the only film of 2009 to do so.[178] In its fourth weekend, Avatar continued to lead the box office domestically, setting a new all-time fourth-weekend record of $50,306,217,[179] and becoming the highest-grossing 2009 release in the United States.[180] In the film's fifth weekend, it set the Martin Luther King Day four-day weekend record, grossing $54,401,446,[181] and set a fifth-weekend record with a take of $42,785,612.[182] It held to the top spot to set the sixth and seventh weekend records earning $34,944,081[183] and $31,280,029[184] respectively. It was (and still is) the fastest film to gross $600 million domestically, on its 47th day in theatres.[185]
On January 31, it became the first film to earn over $2 billion worldwide,[186] and it became the first film to gross over $700 million in North America, on February 27, after 72 days of release.[187] It remained in the number one spot at the domestic box office for seven consecutive weeks – the most consecutive No. 1 weekends since Titanic spent 15 weekends at No. 1 in 1997–'98[188] – and also spent 11 consecutive weekends at the top of the box office outside the United States and Canada, breaking the record of 9 consecutive weekends set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.[189] By the end of its first theatrical release Avatar had grossed $749,766,139 in the U.S. and Canada, and $1,999,298,189 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $2,749,064,328.[6]
Including the revenue from a re-release of Avatar featuring extended footage, Avatar grossed $760,507,625 in the U.S. and Canada, and $2,021,767,547 in other territories for a worldwide total of $2,782,275,172[6][7] with 72.7% of its total worldwide gross in international markets.[6][7] Avatar has set a number of box office records during its release: on January 25, 2010, it surpassed Titanic's worldwide gross to become the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide 41 days after its international release,[190][191][192] just two days after taking the foreign box office record,[193] and on February 2, 47 days after its domestic release, Avatar surpassed Titanic to become the highest-grossing film of all time in Canada and the United States.[194] It became the highest-grossing film of all time in at least 30 other countries[195][196][197][198][199][200] and is the first film to earn over $2 billion in foreign box office receipts.[30] IMAX ticket sales account for $228 million of its worldwide gross,[201] more than double the previous record.[202]
Box Office Mojo estimates that after adjusting for the rise in average ticket prices, Avatar would be the 14th-highest-grossing film of all time in North America.[203] Box Office Mojo also observes that the higher ticket prices for 3D and IMAX screenings have had a significant impact on Avatar's gross; it estimated, on April 21, 2010, that Avatar had sold approximately 75 million tickets in North American theatres, more than any other film since 1999's Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace.[204] On a worldwide basis, Avatar ranks third after adjusting for inflation, behind Gone with the Wind and Titanic,[205] although some reports place it ahead of Titanic.[206]
Commercial analysis
Before its release, various film critics and fan communities predicted the film would be a significant disappointment at the box office, in line with predictions made for Cameron's previous blockbuster Titanic.[207][208][209] This criticism ranged from Avatar's film budget, to its concept and use of 3-D "blue cat people".[207][208] Slate magazine's Daniel Engber complimented the 3D effects, but criticized them for reminding him of certain CGI characters from the Star Wars prequel films and for having the "uncanny valley" effect.[210] The New York Times noted that 20th Century Fox executives had decided to release Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel alongside Avatar, calling it a "secret weapon" to cover any unforeseeable losses at the box-office.[211]



"I think if everybody was embracing the film before the fact, the film could never live up to that expectation … Have them go with some sense of wanting to find the answer."
James Cameron on criticism of Avatar before its release.[208]
Box office analysts, on the other hand, estimated that the film would be a box office success.[207][212] "The holy grail of 3-D has finally arrived," said an analyst for Exhibitor Relations. "This is why all these 3-D venues were built: for Avatar. This is the one. The behemoth."[212] The "cautionary estimate" was that Avatar would bring in around $60 million in its opening weekend. Others guessed higher.[212][213] There were also analysts who believed that the film's three-dimensionality would help its box office performance, given that recent 3D films had been successful.[207]
Cameron said he felt the pressure of the predictions, but that pressure is good for film-makers. "It makes us think about our audiences and what the audience wants," he stated. "We owe them a good time. We owe them a piece of good entertainment."[208] Although he felt Avatar would appeal to everyone and that the film could not afford to have a target demographic,[208] he especially wanted hard-core science-fiction fans to see it: "If I can just get 'em in the damn theater, the film will act on them in the way it's supposed to, in terms of taking them on an amazing journey and giving them this rich emotional experience."[214] Cameron was aware of the sentiment that Avatar would need significant "repeat business" just to make up for its budget and achieve box office success, and believed Avatar could inspire the same "sharing" reaction as Titanic. He said that film worked because, "When people have an experience that's very powerful in the movie theatre, they want to go share it. They want to grab their friend and bring them, so that they can enjoy it. They want to be the person to bring them the news that this is something worth having in their life."[208]
After the film's release and unusually strong box office performance over its first two weeks, it was debated as the one film capable of surpassing Titanic's worldwide gross, and its continued strength perplexed box office analysts.[215] Other films in recent years had been cited as contenders for surpassing Titanic, such as 2008's The Dark Knight,[216] but Avatar was considered the first film with a genuine chance to do so, and its numbers being aided by higher ticket prices for 3D screenings[215] did not fully explain its success to box office analysts. "Most films are considered to be healthy if they manage anything less than a 50% drop from their first weekend to their second. Dipping just 11% from the first to the third is unheard of," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office analysis for Hollywood.com. "This is just unprecedented. I had to do a double take. I thought it was a miscalculation."[170] Analysts predicted second place for the film's worldwide gross, but most were uncertain about it surpassing Titanic because "Today's films flame out much faster than they did when Titanic was released."[170] Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, believed in the film's chances of becoming the highest-grossing film of all time, though he also believed it was too early to surmise because it had only played during the holidays. He said, "While Avatar may beat Titanic's revenue record, it will be tough, and the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s."[170] Cameron said he did not think it was realistic to "try to topple Titanic off its perch" because it "just struck some kind of chord" and there had been other good films in recent years.[217] He changed his prediction by mid-January. "It's gonna happen. It's just a matter of time," he said.[218]



"You've got to compete head on with these other epic works of fantasy and fiction, the Tolkiens and the Star Wars and the Star Treks. People want a persistent alternate reality to invest themselves in and they want the detail that makes it rich and worth their time. They want to live somewhere else. Like Pandora."
James Cameron on the success of Avatar[219]
Though analysts have been unable to agree that Avatar's success is attributable to one primary factor, several explanations have been advanced. First, January is historically "the dumping ground for the year's weakest films", and this also applied to 2010.[220] Cameron himself said he decided to open the film in December so that it would have less competition from then to January.[208] Titanic capitalized on the same January predictability, and earned most of its gross in 1998.[220] Additionally, Avatar established itself as a "must-see" event. Gray said, "At this point, people who are going to see Avatar are going to see Avatar and would even if the slate was strong."[220] Marketing the film as a "novelty factor" also helped. Fox positioned the film as a cinematic event that should be seen in the theatres. "It's really hard to sell the idea that you can have the same experience at home," stated David Mumpower, an analyst at BoxOfficeProphets.com.[220] The "Oscar buzz" surrounding the film and international viewings helped. "Two-thirds of Titanic's haul was earned overseas, and Avatar [tracked] similarly …Avatar opened in 106 markets globally and was No. 1 in all of them", and the markets "such as Russia, where Titanic saw modest receipts in 1997 and 1998, are white-hot today" with "more screens and moviegoers" than before.[220] According to Variety, films in 3D accumulated $1.3 billion in 2009, "a threefold increase over 2008 and more than 10% of the total 2009 box-office gross". The increased ticket price – an average of $2 to $3 per ticket in most markets – helped the film.[220] Likewise, Entertainment Weekly attributed the film's success to 3D glasses, but also to its "astronomic word-of-mouth". Not only do some theaters charge up to $18.50 for IMAX tickets, but "the buzz" created by the new technology was the possible cause for sold-out screenings.[221] Gray said Avatar having no basis in previously established material makes its performance remarkable and even more impressive. "The movie might be derivative of many movies in its story and themes," he said, "but it had no direct antecedent like the other top-grossing films: Titanic (historical events), the Star Wars movies (an established film franchise), or The Lord of the Rings (literature). It was a tougher sell …"[220]
Critical reception
See also: Themes in Avatar for more reviews
The film received mostly positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 83% of 291 professional critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 7.4 out of 10.[222] The site's consensus is that "It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking."[222] On Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, the film has a "universal acclaim" rating score of 83 based on 35 reviews.[223] CinemaScore polls conducted during the opening weekend revealed the average grade cinemagoers gave Avatar was A on an A+ to F scale. Every demographic surveyed was reported to give this rating. These polls also indicated that the main draw of the film was its use of 3D.[224]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times called the film "extraordinary" and gave it four stars out of four. "Watching Avatar, I felt sort of the same as when I saw Star Wars in 1977", he said. Like Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings, the film "employs a new generation of special effects. "Avatar" is not simply a sensational entertainment, although it is that. It's a technical breakthrough. It has a flat-out Green and anti-war message".[225] A. O. Scott of At The Movies also compared his viewing of the film to the first time he viewed Star Wars, and added that although "the script is a little bit … obvious," it was "part of what made it work".[226] Todd McCarthy of Variety praised the film. "The King of the World sets his sights on creating another world entirely in Avatar, and it's very much a place worth visiting."[227] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter gave the film a positive review. "The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-'em-ups you care to mention" he stated.[228] Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers awarded Avatar three and a half out of four stars and wrote in his print review, "It extends the possibilities of what movies can do. Cameron's talent may just be as big as his dreams."[229] Richard Corliss of Time magazine thought that the film was, "the most vivid and convincing creation of a fantasy world ever seen in the history of moving pictures."[230] Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times felt the film has "powerful" visual accomplishments but "flat dialogue" and "obvious characterization".[231] James Berardinelli, film critic for ReelViews, praised the film and its story, giving it four out of four stars; he wrote, "In 3-D, it's immersive – but the traditional film elements – story, character, editing, theme, emotional resonance, etc. – are presented with sufficient expertise to make even the 2-D version an engrossing 2½-hour experience."[232]
Avatar's underlying social and political themes attracted attention. Armond White of the New York Press wrote that Cameron used villainous American characters to misrepresent facets of militarism, capitalism, and imperialism.[233][234] Evo Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous president, praised the film for its "profound show of resistance to capitalism and the struggle for the defense of nature".[235] Russell D. Moore in The Christian Post concluded that propaganda exists in the film and stated, "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country in war, then you've got some amazing special effects."[236] Some commentators sympathetic to anarcho-primitivism have even praised the film as a manifesto for their cause.[237][238] Adam Cohen of The New York Times was more positive about the film, calling its anti-imperialist message "a 22nd-century version of the American colonists vs. the British, India vs. the Raj, or Latin America vs. United Fruit".[239] Ross Douthat of The New York Times opined that the film is "Cameron's long apologia for pantheism … Hollywood's religion of choice for a generation now",[240] while Saritha Prabhu of The Tennessean called the film a misportrayal of pantheism and Eastern spirituality in general,[241] and Maxim Osipov of The Hindustan Times, on the contrary, commended the film's message for its overall consistency with the teachings of Hinduism in the Bhagavad Gita.[242] Annalee Newitz of io9 concluded that Avatar is another film that has the recurring "fantasy about race" whereby "some white guy" becomes the "most awesome" member of a non-white culture.[243] Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune called Avatar "the season's ideological Rorschach blot",[244] while Miranda Devine of The Sydney Morning Herald felt that, "It is impossible to watch Avatar without being banged over the head with the director's ideological hammer."[245]
Critics and audiences have cited similarities with other films, literature or media, describing the perceived connections in ways ranging from simple "borrowing" to outright plagiarism. Ty Burr of the Boston Globe called it "the same movie" as Dances with Wolves.[246] Like Dances with Wolves, Avatar has been characterized as being a "white savior" movie, in which a "backwards" native people is impotent without the leadership of a member of the invading white culture.[247][248] Parallels to the concept and use of an avatar are in Poul Anderson's 1957 novelette "Call Me Joe", in which a paralyzed man uses his mind from orbit to control an artificial body on Jupiter.[249][250] Cinema audiences in Russia have noted that Avatar has elements in common with the 1960s Noon Universe novels by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, which are set in the 22nd century on a forested world called Pandora with a sentient indigenous species called the Nave.[251] Various reviews have compared Avatar to the films FernGully: The Last Rainforest,[252][253] Pocahontas[254] and The Last Samurai.[255] NPR's Morning Edition has compared the film to a montage of tropes, with one commentator stating that Avatar was made by mixing a bunch of film scripts in a blender.[256] Some sources noted similarities to the artwork of Roger Dean, which featured fantastic images of floating rock formations and dragons.[257][258] Similarities have been found between Avatar and Ursula Le Guin's novel The Word for World is Forest, with Gary Westfahl writing for Locus Online that "… the science fiction story that most closely resembles Avatar has to be Ursula K. Le Guin's novella "The Word for World Is Forest" (1972), another epic about a benevolent race of alien beings who happily inhabit dense forests while living in harmony with nature until they are attacked and slaughtered by invading human soldiers who believe that the only good gook is a dead gook."[259] The science fiction writer and editor Gardner Dozois said that along with the Anderson and Le Guin stories, the "mash-up" included Alan Dean Foster's 1975 novel, Midworld.[260]
Avatar received compliments from filmmakers, with Steven Spielberg praising it as "the most evocative and amazing science-fiction movie since Star Wars" and others calling it "audacious and awe inspiring", "master class", and "brilliant". Noted art director-turned-filmmaker Roger Christian is also a noted fan of the film.[261] On the other hand, Duncan Jones said: "It's not in my top three James Cameron films. … [A]t what point in the film did you have any doubt what was going to happen next?".[262] Time ranked Avatar number 3 in their list of "The 10 Greatest Movies of the Millennium (Thus Far)"[263] also earning it a spot on the magazine's All-TIME 100 list,[264] and IGN listed Avatar as number 22 on their list of the top 25 Sci-Fi movies of all time.[265]
Accolades
Main article: List of accolades received by Avatar
Avatar won the 82nd Academy Awards for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, and was nominated for a total of nine, including Best Picture and Best Director.[32] Avatar also won the 67th Golden Globe Awards for Best Motion Picture – Drama and Best Director, and was nominated for two others.[266] At the 36th Saturn Awards, Avatar won all ten awards it was nominated for: Best Science Fiction Film, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Music, Best Production Design and Best Special Effects.
The New York Film Critics Online honored the film with its Best Picture award.[267] The film also won the Critics' Choice Awards of the Broadcast Film Critics Association for Best Action Film and several technical categories, out of nine nominations.[268] It won two of the St. Louis Film Critics awards: Best Visual Effects and Most Original, Innovative or Creative Film.[269] The film also won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for Production Design and Special Visual Effects, and was nominated for seven others, including Best Film and Director.[270] The film has received numerous other major awards, nominations and honors.
Extended theatrical re-release
In July 2010, Cameron confirmed that there would be an extended theatrical re-release of the film on August 27, 2010, exclusively in 3D theaters and IMAX 3D.[271] Avatar: Special Edition includes an additional nine minutes of footage, all of which is CG,[272] including an extension of the sex scene[273] and various other scenes that were cut from the original theatrical film.[272] This extended re-release resulted in the film's run time approaching the current IMAX platter maximum of 170 minutes, thereby leaving less time for the end credits. Cameron stated that the nine minutes of added scenes cost more than $1 million a minute to produce and finish.[2] During its 12-week re-release, Avatar: Special Edition grossed an additional $10.74 million in North America and $22.46 million overseas for a worldwide total of $33.2 million.[6]
Home media
20th Century Fox Home Entertainment released the film on DVD and Blu-ray in the US on April 22, 2010[274] and in the UK on April 26.[275] The US release was not on a Tuesday as is the norm, but was done to coincide with Earth Day.[276] The first DVD and Blu-ray release does not contain any supplemental features other than the theatrical film and the disc menu in favor of and to make space for optimal picture and sound. The release also preserves the film's native 1.78:1 (16:9) format as Cameron felt that was the best format to watch the film.[277] The Blu-ray disc contains DRM (BD+ 5) which some Blu-ray players might not support without a firmware update.[278][279]
Avatar set a first-day launch record in the U.S. for Blu-ray sales at 1.5 million units sold, breaking the record previously held by The Dark Knight (600,000 units sold). First-day DVD and Blu-ray sales combined were over 4 million units sold.[280] In its first four days of release, sales of Avatar on Blu-ray reached 2.7 million in the United States and Canada – overtaking The Dark Knight to become the best ever selling Blu-ray release in the region.[281][282] The release later broke the Blu-ray sales record in the UK the following week.[283] In its first three weeks of release, the film sold a total of 19.7 million DVD and Blu-ray discs combined, a new record for sales in that period.[284] As of July 18, 2012, DVD sales (not including Blu-ray) totaled over 10.5 million units sold with $190,806,055 in revenue.[285]
The Avatar Three-Disc Extended Collector's Edition on DVD and Blu-ray was released on November 16, 2010. Three different versions of the film are present on the discs: the original theatrical cut, the special edition cut, and a collector's extended cut[3] (with the DVD set spreading them on two discs, but the Blu-ray set presenting them on a single disc). The collector's extended cut contains 6 more minutes of footage, thus making it 16 minutes longer than the original theatrical cut. Cameron mentioned, "you can sit down, and in a continuous screening of the film, watch it with the Earth opening". He stated the "Earth opening" is an additional 41⁄2 minutes of scenes that were in the film for much of its production but were ultimately cut before the film's theatrical release.[286] The release also includes an additional 45 minutes of deleted scenes and other extras.[3]
Cameron initially stated that Avatar would be released in 3D around November 2010, but the studio issued a correction: "3-D is in the conceptual stage and Avatar will not be out on 3D Blu-ray in November."[287] In May 2010, Fox stated that the 3D version would be released some time in 2011.[284] It was later revealed that Fox had given Panasonic an exclusive license for the 3D Blu-ray version and only with the purchase of a Panasonic 3DTV. The length of Panasonic's exclusivity period is stated to last until February 2012.[288] On October 2010, Cameron stated that the standalone 3D Blu-ray would be the final version of the film's home release and that it was, "maybe one, two years out".[289] On Christmas Eve 2010, Avatar had its 3D television world premiere on Sky.[290][291][292]
On August 13, 2012, Cameron announced on Facebook that Avatar would be released globally on Blu-ray 3D.[293] The Blu-ray 3D version was finally released on October 16, 2012.[294]
Sequels
In 2006, Cameron stated that if Avatar was successful, he hoped to make two sequels to the film.[295] In 2010, he said the film's widespread success confirmed that he would.[296] The prospect of sequels was something he planned from the start, going so far as to include certain scenes in the film for future story followups.[295][297] In August 2010, Cameron stated that his plans are to shoot both sequels in the planned trilogy back-to-back. He also mentioned, "what I'm working on primarily is the novel" and "presumably, once the novel is nailed down, work will begin in earnest on getting the sequel going."[298]
Cameron stated that they are going to widen the universe while exploring other moons of Polyphemus.[287] The first sequel will focus on the ocean of Pandora but will also feature more of the rainforest from the original movie.[299] Later in 2010, Cameron announced his intention to capture footage for this sequel at the bottom of the Mariana Trench using a deepwater submersible.[300] In December 2011, Cameron revealed that he is writing second and third films together, but that he is just starting to design the ocean ecosystem of Pandora and the other worlds to be included in story. The storyline, although continuing the environmental theme of the first film, will not be "strident", as the film will concentrate on entertainment.[301]
In 2012, Cameron announced that he intended to film the Avatar sequels in HFR, like Peter Jackson had recently done with his film The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.[302]
The sequels will continue to follow the characters of Jake and Neytiri.[303] Cameron implied that the humans would return as the antagonists of the story. "I expect that those nasty humans didn't go away forever," he said.[304] Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana have signed on to reprise their roles in future sequels.[297] In February 2010, Cameron confirmed that Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Grace Augustine, will also be appearing in Avatar 2, stating that "no one ever dies in science fiction."[305] Stephen Lang is also expected to return despite the demise of his character, Colonel Miles Quaritch.[306]
The sequels, to be produced by Cameron's own Lightstorm Entertainment in partnership with 20th Century Fox, were originally scheduled to be released in December 2014 and December 2015.[307] During the 2011 CinemaCon in Las Vegas, James Cameron stated his intention to film the two Avatar sequels at a higher frame rate than the industry standard 24 frames per second, in order to add a heightened sense of reality.[308] In May 2012, Cameron said that "[he was] making Avatar 2, Avatar 3, maybe Avatar 4".[309] In June 2012, Sigourney Weaver revealed that the three sequels were shooting simultaneously, and that she was not sure how long shooting for the movies was expected to take.[310] In early September 2012, Cameron told MTV he had a concept for a fourth movie. It would be a prequel, set 35 years before the events of the first film, that deals with the early colonisation of Pandora.[311] That same month, while promoting the 3D Blu-ray release of Titanic, he stated that the scripts for the second and third Avatar parts are still being written, with both being "separate stories that have an overall arc inclusive of the first film", and the second having a clear conclusion instead of a cliffhanger to the third film. Cameron expected to start pre-production in January 2013 and release Avatar 2 in 2015.[312]
On August 1, 2013 it was announced there would be three sequels, not two as previously expected. Screenwriters were also announced: Josh Friedman (Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles) for the first, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) for the second, and Shane Salerno (Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem) for the third. Production was re-scheduled for 2014 with the first to be released in December 2016, the second in December 2017, and the third in 2018.[313] On October 18, 2013 Sam Worthington revealed that filming for the first sequel will begin in October 2014.[314]
On August 22, 2013 it was announced Cameron had brought Steven Gould (Jumper) on board to write four novels based on the films.[315]
On December 16, 2013, Cameron announced that the three sequels to Avatar would be filmed in New Zealand. He stated that performance capture would take place in the second half of 2014 and that as much post-production will be done in New Zealand as possible. A deal made with the New Zealand government includes at least one world première would be held in Wellington and that at least NZ$500 million (approximately US$410 million at December 2013 exchange rates) would be spent on production activity in New Zealand, including live-action filming and visuals effects by Weta Workshop. In tandem with this announcement, the New Zealand government announced it would raise its baseline tax rebate for filmmaking from 15% to 20%, with 25% available to international productions in some cases, and 40% for New Zealand productions (as defined by section 18 of the New Zealand Film Commission Act 1978).[316][317]
On April 12, 2014, during a talk to Reddit, Cameron revealed that he was currently working on the three scripts for Avatar's sequels, which would be finished within six weeks. He said that all three sequels will be into production simultaneously, slated for December 2016 to 2018.[318][319]
See also
White savior narrative in film
List of films featuring powered exoskeletons


United States film.svgFilm in the United States portal
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225.Jump up ^ Ebert, Roger (December 11, 2009). "Avatar". Chicago Sun-Times. Archived from the original on December 13, 2009. Retrieved December 17, 2009. 4/4 stars
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234.Jump up ^ See also last paragraph of the above section Avatar Themes and inspirations.
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Further reading
Armstrong, Jeffrey (2010). Spiritual Teachings of the Avatar: Ancient Wisdom for a New World. New York: Atria Books. ISBN 978-1-58270-281-0. A detailed analysis of the film's parallels with the teachings of the Vedas.
Duncan, Jody; Fitzpatrick, Lisa (2010). The Making of Avatar. New York: Harry N. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-9706-6. OCLC 555654027.
Mahoney, Kevin Patrick (2010). The Ultimate Fan's Guide to Avatar, James Cameron's Epic Movie (Unauthorized). London: Punked Books. ISBN 978-0-9533172-5-7.
External links
Find more about Avatar (2009 film) at Wikipedia's sister projects
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Avatar at the Internet Movie Database
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Categories: 2009 films
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