New Pandoran Food Offerings Arrive at Satu’li Canteen in Animal Kingdom

 by Beth Keating

News/Review

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 17, 2022

 

One of the first places our family heads for quick service food in Disney’s Animal Kingdom is the Satu’li Canteen in Pandora, as much for the uniqueness of the food as for the immersive theming.  In fact, it’s not unusual to find some of us waiting in the former RDA mess hall, corralling the family members too young to ride “Flight of Passage,” snacking on cheeseburger pods ($8.59 and $13.29) while we wait for the more adventurous park-goers to return from riding banshees.

 
With James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, arriving yesterday (Friday, December 16), Disney is celebrating the Valley of Mo’ara by adding a few new selections to the menu at Satu’li Canteen.

Courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

Let’s start with dessert, shall we?  The “Metkayina Mousse” ($6.29) is reminiscent of the beautiful and hauntingly-shaped flowers in Pandora.  It’s a flourless chocolate cake with chocolate mousse, decorated with raspberry gelee, mango coulis, boba pearls, and a milk and white chocolate garnish. Satu’li Canteen is known for its bowl options, so for your entrée, you might want to try the new “Ocean Moon Bowl” ($17.49).  A riot of bright colors, this dish contains tuna, blue noodles (!), watermelon radish, pickled daikon, rainbow carrots, avocado, cucumbers and red cabbage, finished off with a miso and sweet soy drizzle.

Courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

Green seems to be the color of beverages in Pandora, as the Hawkes’ Grog Ale ($9.75 and $11.00) is specially made for Disney, and Pandora is the only place in the world that the beverage is available. It’s been a favorite of Pandoran visitors for a long time now.  Joining it is another forest-hued drink, the brand new “Ilu Splash Margarita” ($13.50), made from kiwi Monin syrup with lime juice, sour mix, Corazon Tequila Blanco, and a floating slice of Kiwi.

Courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

See you at the canteen… If you get there first, save us a bowl. Or maybe the Metkayina Mousse.  It never hurts to save room for dessert, especially at Disney!

   

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

New Tree of Life Show in Celebration of “Avatar” Debuts

 by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 15, 2022

 

There are a lucky few guests who’ve actually been able to catch the Tree of Life Awakenings show at Disney’s Animal Kingdom during the year, in part because, for a portion of the year, it simply doesn’t get dark enough to see the show before the Animal Kingdom closes up shop for the evening.  If you’ve been fortunate enough to be there when the sun goes down on the savannah, you’ve been treated to a special “kiss goodnight” with Awakenings. The uplifting  scenes of adorable woodland creatures, projected onto the tree, share short vignettes, and are a dazzling way to wrap up your Animal Kingdom day.

 

With the new Avatar: The Way of Water movie premiering this week (Friday, December 16), Animal Kingdom is incorporating a new story sequence into Awakenings as darkness descends on the park. The Tree of Life is celebrating the characters from the new movie, and you’ll even get a sneak peek at scenes from the new film.  We got a look on Wednesday night and the accompanying video at least provides an idea of what it looks like (obviously, it’s far better in person).

Like the Valley of Mo’ara in the Pandora area of the park itself, the tree is filled with vibrant, glowing colors as the scenes unfold on the bark of the Tree of Life. The new limited time segment was produced by Lightstorm Entertainment in collaboration with Disney Live Entertainment.

  

The Tree of Life Awakenings begins at sunset (roughly 6:00 p.m.), and repeats in a continuing loop (about every ten minutes) until park close, so you can stay as long as you’d like, or just pop in for a few minutes on your way through Discovery Island.   

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

Could “Avatar: The Way of Water” Be a Money-Losing Hit?

 by Ray Keating

Analysis

DisneyBizJournal.com

December 2, 2022

 

My mouth fell open when I first read it. In a GQ interview, director James Cameron said that he told the studio that his forthcoming film (which opens on December 16), Avatar: The Way of Water, represented “the worst business case in movie history.” 

 

Excuse me?

But when you look at the numbers, The Way of Water could turn out to be exactly that. The full point from the GQ piece is as follows:

 

The Way of Water was expensive to make—How expensive? “Very fucking,” according to Cameron, who told me he’d informed the studio that the film represented “the worst business case in movie history.” In order to be profitable, he’d said, “you have to be the third or fourth highest-grossing film in history. That’s your threshold. That’s your break even.”

 

The Hollywood Reporter has noted: “The Way of Water's production budget is one of the priciest in Hollywood’s history, and is in the $350 million to $400 million range, according to sources.” And that excludes marketing dollars, which could run double the production costs.

 

And Bloomberg has reported: “But the economics of The Way of Water are tougher. With a production budget that analysts say could be as high as $400 million, it’s one of the most expensive movies ever made. Add in marketing expenses that can reach hundreds of millions of dollars for A-list films, and it’s not hard to imagine Disney needing ticket sales approaching $1 billion before it earns a penny of profit.”

 

Cameron is notorious for running up big production budgets. But he’s also known for bringing in the dollars so that those expensive films turn out to be profitable. Can he do that again with The Way of Water? Disney certainly hopes so, as Cameron’s Avatar was part of their $71 billion purchase of 21st Century Fox in 2019. But there’s a lot working against Cameron this time, including box office uncertainty post-pandemic and the fact that most people can’t recall any characters or much of the story from the first Avatar film.

 

After the Lightyear and Strange World flops, Chapek getting fired, and Wall Street having lots of questions, Disney needs a profitable hit. Weirdly, though, Disney might wind up with The Way of Water being a hit, and yet a money loser. Economics can be such a bitch.

 

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Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com; and author of the Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries, and the Alliance of Saint Michael novels; and assorted nonfiction books. Have Ray Keating speak your group, business, school, church, or organization. Email him at raykeating@keatingreports.com.

 

The views expressed here are his own – after all, no one else should be held responsible for this stuff, right? Also, Keating is a Disney shareholder.

 

Consider books by Ray Keating…

 

• The Weekly Economist: 52 Quick Reads to Help You Think Like an Economist. Signed paperbacks at RayKeatingOnline.com or paperbacks, hardcovers and Kindle editions at Amazon.com.

 

• Cathedral: An Alliance of Saint Michael Novel. Signed paperbacks and/or paperbacks, hardcovers and the Kindle edition at Amazon. 

 

• The Pastor Stephen Grant thrillers and mysteries. The latest in the series is Persecution: A Pastor Stephen Grant Novel. Get the signed books here, or paperbacks and Kindle editionsright here.

 

• The Lutheran Planner: The TO DO List Solution combines a simple, powerful system for getting things done with encouragement, inspiration and consolation from the Christian faith.

 

• Behind Enemy Lines: Conservative Communiques from Left-Wing New York  –  signed books  or at  Amazon.

 

•  Free Trade Rocks! 10 Points on International Trade Everyone Should Know is available at  Amazon  in paperback or for the Kindle edition, and signed books at  www.raykeatingonline.com. 

 

Also, check out Ray’s podcasts – the Daily Dose of Disney, Free Enterprise in Three Minutes, and the PRESS CLUB C Podcast.

If You Haven’t Seen “Avatar” on the Big Screen, Now’s Your Chance

by Beth Keating

News

DisneyBizJournal.com

September 15, 2022

 

The first time our boys rode “Flight of Passage” at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, they hadn’t seen the 2009 Avatar movie that the ride is based on.  And while, strictly speaking, you can thoroughly enjoy this amazing ride without having seen the movie, it certainly helps to have the origin story for the spectacular land of Pandora.  (Seriously, don’t miss Flight of Passage… it is arguably one of the two best rides at Disney World.)

 

If you want the opportunity to see the Avatar movie on the big screen, now’s your chance.  Avatar will be back in select theatres in 4K High Dynamic Range on September 23, and will run through October 6. Avatar is rated PG-13.  It’s the top-grossing film of all time, at $2.84 billion in ticket sales, according to The Hollywood Reporter. 

Avatar was written and directed by Academy Award winner James Cameron, and stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver.  The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director; and won three Oscars for Best Cinematography, Production Design and Visual Effects.

The four – yes, four -- sequels to Avatar are currently in production, and will no doubt bring even bigger crowds to the already popular land of Pandora at Animal Kingdom.  The first of the sequels, Avatar: The Way of Water, is expected December 16, 2022, having been previously pushed back several times.

 

In addition to “Flight of Passage,” where guests take a 3D ride on the back of their very own mountain banshee through the Pandoran landscape, the land also includes the slower moving “Na’Vi River Journey,” a boat ride that takes visitors past the bioluminescent flora and fauna of Pandora in search of “the Shaman of Song,” an animatronic that is so lifelike many guests mistake her for an actual cast member.  The rest of the Valley of Mo’ara, especially at night, wows visitors with plunging waterfalls, floating mountains, and, if you are lucky enough to be there after dark, a stunning glowing landscape.  Stop in at the Satu’li Canteen, the former “mess hall,” for some of the coveted cheeseburger pods, or grab a glass of Hawkes’ Grog Ale, a green shaded draft beer brewed just for the land of Pandora.

 

If you missed the movie in the past, now’s your chance to catch up before the storyline continues on… or just so you know what’s happening at Animal Kingdom.

 

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Beth Keating is a theme parks, restaurant and entertainment reporter for DisneyBizJournal.

 

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