Joshua Izzo - The World of Avatar: A Visual Exploration

When I first embarked on my Avatar journey, I really had no idea what to expect. The story was amazing, the visuals were unlike anything I had ever seen before in my career and every single part of the world of Pandora was perfectly and exactingly craftedfrom Pandora herself, to the Navi language, to the culture and more. It was absolutely incredible.

In the years since Avatar was released I have been blessed with three amazing children. They are my light and I could not think of my life now without them. Theyve grown up with Avatar and know all about Pandora and Neytiri and Jake and the amazing and beautiful alien moon that their mother lives on.

When I returned to reprise my role as Neytiri for the Avatar sequels, I learned that Neytiri was a mother. My life experience was now experience for stepping back into that role. What I learned during filming was that the story of Avatar is really the story of familyand that is something that is relatable to every single person on Earth.

One of the things I did every day with my children was read to them. DK books have been a part of my household forever and when I filmed Avatar , I would never in my wildest dreams imagine I would one day be able to share a DK book like this with my family.

Its been an honor and privilege to share this incredible Avatar journey with my children, and I hope that you, dear reader, will be able to do the same.

Zoe Saldana

Ill never forget reading Jims Avatar scriptment in 1995. Depicted on those pages were some of the most evocative, emotional, and incredibly cinematic ideas that I had ever read. The characters were endearing and relatable. The themes of the story were universal. And the world? Well, simply put, it was amazingwith limitless possibilities.

To create that world cinematically, we engaged the brightest and most creative people we knew. The team included not only some of the film industrys top concept designers, but also an astrophysicist, a professor of botany, a world-renowned painter, a linguist to create the Navi language, and many other incredibly talented people. The beautiful and breathtaking world they created revealed only a small section of Pandora and its inhabitants.

Since the initial release of the film, Jim and our team have continued to expand the world of Avatar . We have done this through collaborations with Cirque du Soleil on the touring arena show Toruk: The First Flight ; with Disney Imagineers on the groundbreaking Pandora: The World of Avatar at Disneys Animal Kingdom; with Ubisoft on their state-of-the-art PC/Console game Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora ; and with others in such areas as publishing and location-based entertainment.

With each of these expansions of the Avatar universe we added new Navi clans, new stories and lore, as well as new creatures and plants to the already rich tapestry created in the film. Which leads me to the book you are holding now.

The World of Avatar: A Visual Journey is a celebration of the Avatar universe. The book pulls together threads from various pockets of our known universe and also provides a sneak peak of what will be revealed in our upcoming Avatar film sequels. It is my hope that this book not only reminds you of the richness and depth of the Avatar world but also provides a tantalizing glimpse of the beauty and majesty yet to be discovered.

As the Navi say, Irayo . Thank you. Enjoy your trip back to Pandora.

Jon Landau
Producer

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PANDORA

4.5 light years from Earth lies the beautiful moon of Pandora, a seemingly unspoiled paradise

The awe-inspiring, magical beauty of Pandora and the mysteries of its Navi inhabitants, flora, and fauna are more than enough to fire the imagination of a visitor from Earth. Indeed, the discovery of this primal paradise 4.5 light years away has contributed to a seismic shift in humankinds perception of our place in the universe and relationship with our own fragile planet.

Pandora possesses natural beauty surpassing anything on Earth. At night, almost every living thing blazes with bioluminescencean enthralling, flashing, flickering, rainbow-hued display. On a spiritual level, a strange harmony pervades all Pandoran life. Humans that embrace it experience a sense of peace and belonging unlike anything they have ever known before.

Yet no paradise is perfect. Pandora experiences enormous volcanic eruptions as well as magnetic storms, caused by interactions with the magnetic field of neighboring gas giant Polyphemus. It also has a number of dangerous, even deadly, plants and animals.

Data file

NAVI NAME: Eywaeveng or Eywas Child.

ENVIRONMENT: Earth-like, but humans need an exomask to breathe its air.

RESOURCES: The only known source of the superconductor unobtanium, vital to Earths economy.

Uncharted territory

Pandora is covered in massive oceans and continents, most of which remain totally unexplored by humans.

A DECEIVING PARADISE

Pandora is similar in size and appearance to Earth and has lush forests, spectacular mountains, valleys, plains, lakes, rivers, islands, and continents surrounded by seas.

But Pandora is not Earth. Its nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere is much denser than our own and contains so much carbon dioxide that humans who breathe it soon become unconscious and die. Another toxic gas, hydrogen sulfide, is spewed out by hundreds of continually erupting volcanoes.