A most imaginative landscape I would love to actually see and experience is one that comes from the mind of James Cameron of the movie Avatar. Incredibly based on many aspects of the real world, real plants and places come to cinematic life in a fantastically new way. One of the most astounding discoveries of a possible new place is a study done by Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics claiming a planet such as Pandora may actually exist. Out of the mind and into reality.
If I want to make the trip and show you the splendor of place, I would have to do so as a blue, ammonia breathing avatar capable of living in an environment having the air much thicker than here on earth. The planet has a higher magnetic field and a weaker gravity than Earth.
So to prepare for my journey, I made my transformation to avatar and am now ready for my transport. You would have to know me to see the resemblance, but that is actually me below as a Photoshop Na’vi. This and the Title Blocks are the only images in this post that are my works, most others are credited. I loved this movie for the story and spectacular cinema graphics. The color and magnitude of it all had me captivated. So come along as I introduce you to the plants and places of Pandora.
This optical feast of fanciful, magical, fictional universe is so incredibly engaging. The real life inspirations of plant and wildlife are stunning and almost as unbelievable and otherworldly as well.
Bridge above the Forest Floor
If you have not seen the movie, in it’s most simplistic terms, it will take you on a journey to a far, far away world in the year 2154, where greedy humans exploit the planet by mining for the valuable and rare mineral, Unobtanium. The indigenous inhabitants are in touch with nature, the environment, kind to animals, and grateful and appreciative to anything that they must use for sustenance from the planet. There is a clash that occurs as you would expect from two opposing and drastically different cultures.
Pandora is home to the Na’vi, a more highly developed and more ecologically aware humanoid. Let’s take a hot new eco-tour of Pandora and see for ourselves. It would be so great to stand on a branch and have this view, below.
With so much vibrant and unusual color on Pandora, it’s kind of striking that most of the vegetation on the planet is actually green. Partially the decision to make the landscape an Earth green was that we psychologically associate green with life.
Many plants that we know are illustrated in the forest images. Plants such as ferns, succulents, palms, mosses, agave (see fellow blogger, Onenezz post on Agave), grasses, and bamboo are seen in form, but not necessarily the correct color or texture. See what I mean in the two cycads. Cycad from Pandora, left. Cycad from Earth, right.
See a similarity in the above images between the real root bridge crossing a stream bed in Bangladesh, and the one the Na’vi are traversing.
At night, things become bioluminescent and magical with illumination.
The themes of life and nature were very important to the premise of the movie. Check out the real water fall image below. Compare that to the image of the branch I wanted to view the water from, earlier in the post.
One of the most striking correlations of plant and natural form was the Hallelujah Mountains from the movie, with the actual karst limestone formations in China. They drew inspiration from the real mountains and we can see them from images on Wikipedia. And the one below from a region in China called Zhangjiajie, found here. They probably inspired the general terrain in Pandora, but also became inspiration for the Floating Mountains I pictured at the end of the post. They are a dream like experience in creativity and imagination.
Actual Huangshan, Anhui, China with trees and clouds, image from here, and the Pandoran Floating Mountains. below.
The flora of the alien tropical forest of Pandora is similar to rainforests on earth but they are larger than life in this alien environment. Three of the prominent trees are; the Tree of Souls; the Trees of Voices; and the Giant Hometree.
The Hometree is used for housing the clans. This reminds me of the Gnome Birthday Tree. Families of gnomes can live in a gnome’s Birthday Tree. A big difference is, in a gnome home, they have built furniture, where in the Hometree, the Na’vi sleep in net like hammocks, made of the tree itself. They have no architecture of any kind on Pandora. Everything is of the planet.
The Tree of Voices allows the Navi to hear the voices of their ancestors. They gain wisdom and knowledge by prayers that are heard and sometimes answered.
The Tree of Souls is a tree where the Na’vi are able to communicate with the biological network that exists throughout Pandora connected by the vast root system of the plants and trees. They connect with their deity here also. This tree, like the Tree of Voices, has bioluminescence.
Pandoran Hometree
Forest of Tree of Voices
The Tree of Souls looks a little like a Weeping Willow, and has the extensive and exposed root system.
This image to the left is actually from Huangshan, China. It looks like a Hometree.
The jellyfish looks very similar to the seeds of the holy Tree of Souls below.
The Woodsprites, or seeds of the holy tree are also similar on appearance to the glowworms from New Zealand below.
New Zealand Cave Ceiling lighted by real Glowworms
Pandora field of Helicoradian above and actual Christmas Tree Worm below.
An agaricoid puffball, Podaxis pistillaris, the False Shaggy Mane in the image to the left. This real tree is grown in Hawaii. The forest floor in Pandora, above with strange puffball like plants, called Puffers.
The Octoshroom mushroom is larger than life, and Na’vi use it to make tea. That is one thing about Pandora, anytime the Na’vi take from the forest, they thank Eywa for what she has provided and thank the animal for its life. Eywa is the guiding force and deity of Pandora, who is assumed to keep the ecosystem in perfect equilibrium.
The mushroom grow to enormous size on Pandora. The one above is probably over 12 feet tall and possibly as wide.
Many real Earth mushrooms, like those pictured above are bioluminescent. These actually exist and are not made by movie magic. The colors are fantastical and almost radiate the brilliance. The blue is my favorite.
Even the perennials are beautiful. Fireweed is pictured at the left.
Even the pitcher plants look similar. No little lid on top of the ones on Pandora. The Pandora image looks so real because the Direhorse Pitcher Plant sits in a bed of ferns. The Direhorse drinks from the Pitcher Plant.
Indonesian Pitcher Plant, below right
Direhorse Pitcher Plant, on Pandora, below left
But what I would be sure not to miss is the sacred Floating Mountains. I would charter a helicopter and take the dangerous ride through these moving mountains. The mountains float like clouds among the fixed mountains and swirling clouds. They circulate slowly in the magnetic currents and act like icebergs at sea on Earth. When they are in clear sunlight they cast distinct shadows on the land below.
Floating Mountains, here.
This tour of course was imaginary, but the real plants and locations that inspired the recreations are quite fantastical and amazing. In a Chinese province, they actually renamed a limestone formation Hallelujah Mountain in hopes of profiting on the success of the movie. Sometimes gardening inspiration can come from the most unlikely sources. What we might take away from this is the caring nature and respect in which the Na’vi give their planet. We can profit from the ecological and moral wisdom of the movie as well.
Update: See Garden In Paradise, Flaunting My Favorites This Month
It is part of My Ten Favorite Things post, hosted by Oneezz.
Absolutely fascinating!
Thank you very much. I had fun putting this post together. Happy Monday.
Oh Donna! I am extremely impressed with your knowledge and ability to put everything together so well. From 1 to 5, I would rate this a 10!!!
You may have noticed that in Blotanical, I put down The Tree of Souls in Avatar as my favourite tree.
Thank you for the link.
Thanks for the vote of 10, even if 5 was what was allowed. I am glad you liked it. And the Tree of Souls was my favorite too. I loved the scene at the end with all the Na’vi at the tree praying to have Jake become truly one of them.
Before I saw Avatar, I must admit I ridiculed stories I read of people wanting to live on Pandora – it’s make believe for crying out loud – but after seeing the film and being totally lost in that world, I can understand the desire to leave here and walk with the Na’vi for a while. James Cameron did an exceptional job, and I think it was the very similarities between Pandora flora and fauna and Earth flora and fauna that made this make believe world so believable.
I have to completely agree with you. I too had my doubts, I looked at it as a glorified video game for the movie circuit and game-crazed masses. But after seeing the movie, then seeing the thought that went into the story with a vision of how a world could be if we all got along without conflict and cared for environment with the utmost respect, I was hooked. Utopia, sure it tries to be, but who could not go for that.
What really amazed me was how many people became so absorbed and had difficultly separating the fiction from fact. Reading the blogs and news stories really had me astounded by the sheer number of people affected by this movie. To have a country like China rename a land mass millions of years old really made me think. Stories were written by Fox News, CNN and the Huffington Post that I read on this. The Pandora like exo-planet that was found with the potential to have water present in liquid form was written up in the major science journals, like Science Daily, and the standard news media, like USA Today, just to name a few.
I can not wait for the sequel, and I never said that about any movie before.
I think the true tragedy of your comment is the fact that so many people did find it difficult to separate fact from fiction. Earth isn’t altogether a horrible place to live – I think the truly beautiful parts are overshadowed by the anxiety and fear that haunt too many people in this day and age.
Let the fear go and see what nature on this real and fabulous planet has to offer.
Saying that – I can’t wait to see what else comes out of James Cameron’s head in the sequel!
Haven’t seen the film, but it sounds like a world Sheri S Tepper wrote about.
I have to look into that. I am not familiar with Sheri S. Tepper. If that was a book you liked and has a similar premise, you should really see the movie, or at least read about it on the web. I saw the movie twice after reading how it affected people.
Me, I was taken by it of course, but it still remains imaginary. But many bloggers are looking into how to take the principles and apply them to real life. The Psychology Today articles were very well written discussing a phenomenon they coined as the Avatar Blues, where they studied depression resulting from viewing the movie. Now that was an eye opener.
I guess I will have to see the movie now. Great images.
The movie is really worth the time. I know not everyone likes this type of film, but the message is worthwhile, as are the visual graphics. I am disappointed that I never saw it in the cinema on a huge screen with the great sound, and only got to see it on my little 22 inch flat screen TV. I would have been better off watching it on my computer. Then I could have taken by own screenshots and the video would have displayed larger.
The movie was GREAT as was the world of Pandora! I really enjoyed your post and noticing the similarities.
Thanks. I looked all over the internet to find correlations. Then I found that Wiki site that most of them in one place. But I did find some really interesting analysis and commentary by my research. Really, those on the science and psychology sites were great. I did not use their material, because it would have been a a much longer post.
I loved this movie and need to see it again soon. I love it for all the reasons you mention. Native Americans are more similar to the Na’vi . . . maybe you said this and I missed it, as I am so tired and read through your fab text quickly. Well done! We have an astonishingly beautiful planet. ;>)
I should have mentioned Native Americans, thank you for doing so. This is the only movie ever that I watched and had to pay for twice. I saw much I did not see the first time, and also picked up on the themes a lot better. Thanks for commenting and the picks too.
Very nicely done — like so many others, the movie touched me deeply in many ways. I absolutely love seeing the direct comparison between images from the movie and real-life scenes and species — thank you!
I liked finding comparisons, but was not the first to make the associations. I looked a little deeper and I think I was the first to bring it into this forum though. Researching inspirations for the movie got me to the sites that had the mountain comparisons. They were quite remarkable. Thanks for commenting, it is always appreciated.
Dear Donna, thank you for returning us to the beloved land of Pandora. We dreamt about it for days after watching, even after the third viewing! It speaks to us as gardeners and lovers of nature and the earth in a way that cannot be communicated to those without that connection. Ahhh, what a glorious way to start a morning!
Frances
I too thought about it for days after. I thought like you, that it speaks to gardeners and anyone who really cares about the planet we live on. Thanks, Frances for dropping by and the picks too. I so much appreciate that.
Fantastic post. I really enjoyed the movie for the artwork and the creation of a world I would certainly love to live in. I did not realize that the film used our world as the backdrop -silly me. Thanks for putting this together.
I think it was more inspiration than backdrop, but you might be right. I guess if you take a close look during the movie, some of the backdrops looked awfully real. I did notice that the second time I watched, but did not see it written anywhere. Good catch.
What a fun post. I love Earth’s bioluminescent creatures, they’ve always fascinated me. The Christmas Tree Worms are most intriguing, not sure I’ve seen those before.
I know, I know. It amazes me when I see plants and animals glow. When I was a kid, there were millions of lightening bugs at night. I would go out and catch them. They fascinated me. But I never see them anymore. Wonder why. Maybe I will research that for a post. I am glad you liked the post. thanks for leaving a comment.
Love this movie, love your blog!!!!! You out did yourself on this one!!!!!!!
Thank you so much. I am glad you liked it. It was a lot of fun researching what I thought was might be true, that real plant life and places had at least a little influence on the artists. The bioluminescent plants and animals is where I started, then I found all the places in China after looking.
How could I have missed this post? It is excellent reading. Well done!