Disney Reveals Inner Workings of it’s Avatar Robot

Pandora: World of Avatar themed Area

In May this year, Disney opened the doors to an Avatar themed area. Known under the name, Pandora: World of Avatar. Located within its Animal Kingdom park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. What’s more is that the attraction features a real true to life Na’vi.

A Real Life Avatar?

Na’vi is the name of the race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids, inhabiting the lush jungle of Pandora. The species, from James Cameron’s Avatar films, are 10ft tall, with smooth, striped cyan-coloured skin, large amber eyes, and long, sweeping tails with a much more slender body shape than human’s. At the end of the Na’vi River Journey at the Disney World Resort, you’ll see a real Na’vi. Of course, the Na’vi isn’t real. However, it is designed using some of the most advanced animatronics seen to date. The hyper realism created by this robot is enough to convince even the most technically minded amongst us, that it is in fact real.

What is an Animatronic Robot?

An Animatronic Robot is a robot that features life like movements and characteristics to give a sense of hyper reality. In this instance, we see a Na’vi character created with incredible attention to detail. Sensors and individual motors move each part of the face and body to create true to life movements, even down to eye and tongue movements. Of course, something as complex and advanced as this will not have come cheap. However, the result is certainly worth any costs to bring forward possibly the most expressive and realistic animatronic in the world.

The finished Product

Curious to see just how the animatronic Na’vi looks with all its skin on? Check out the video’s above and below. See the outstanding build quality. It’s an incredible insight into the future of animatronics.