The vibrant world of James Cameron’s Avatar movies is a stunning work of special effects mastery, but it wouldn’t be possible without the real locations that inspired it. The natural beauty of Avatar’s alien world, Pandora, is essential to the film’s success. Not only does it provide a stunning backdrop to the mythic story of Jake Sully’s gradual embrace of the Na’vi way of life, but the striking beauty of Pandora is one of the largest factors in Jake’s choice to fight for the planet. It’s necessary that the audience is able to recognize this beauty in order for Avatar to work.
Avatar is a movie decades in the making. Cameron dreamed up the concept in 1995, but his ambitious vision for the film caused him to wait until digital technology caught up with his ideas. There’s an endlessly vast lore to Pandora, one that will certainly be explored further in the upcoming Avatar 3, as well as other sequels. However, the core of Pandora’s appeal lies in its familiarity. Rather than depicting a remote alien planet with an unfamiliar ecosystem, Cameron’s Avatar world functions by expanding on the vivid beauty of the real world. To do this, the Avatar team took influence from some of the most magnificent sites on Earth.
