Avatarland: The Last Airbender Experience
By Tanner Gardner and Maya Shabati
Welcome to Avatarland: The Last Airbender Experience! This theme park extends the universe of the hit Nickelodeon show, Avatar: The last Airbender. In the experience, guests can explore all four elemental nations (air, fire, water, and earth). Upon their arrival to the park, guests are presented with the opportunity to ride Apa, the show’s lovable flying bison, to the air nation. From there, guests are free to explore the different nations, each with their own distinct cultural feel. The fire nation presents skilled fire dancer performances, the water nation offers thrilling water rides, the air nation allows guests to fly on a wind glider, and the earth nation has an interactive rock climbing experience. Each nation would also have their own restaurants and gift stores, with distinct flavor palates and merchandise. The guests can purchase Uncle Iroh’s tea set, Sokka’s sword, and plush characters.
Guests are also given the chance to take a test to learn which kind of elemental bender they are. Through a brand partnership with a cutting edge virtual/augmented reality company, guests can then experience what it’s like to bend the element they’re assigned- contributing to even more detailed worldbuilding.
When guests leave the park, they’re given an exclusive code to access an online portal with a never-before-seen Avatar episode which follows the show’s principal characters as they explore the theme park themselves.
Upon revisiting this project after our theme park week, I found that
and I touched on several different types of fandom, particularly haptic fandom through riding Apa and the park merchandise. We also touched on different types of immersion, with the entire park contributing to thematic immersion. The Apa ride would also be a form of symbolic immersion, as it occurs upon entry to the park. It was really interesting going back to see our writing and the inklings of the course terminology without even knowing we were doing it!