The land based on the film "Avatar" at Disney's Animal Kingdom will be big and blue, if scenes from this week's groundbreaking are any indication.

Disney World released images and video of Disney executives and Imagineers with blue, bigger-than-life shovels. In the center of the action, designated a photo illustration, is the character Na'vi, towering over the assembled earthlings, including Tom Staggs, chairman of Walt Disney Parks and Resorts.

The scene is within the Animal Kingdom area known as Camp Minnie-Mickey, where attractions have recently been shuttered. "The Festival of the Lion King" show is getting a new auditorium in the park's Africa section later this year.

No fresh details were released in conjunction with the ceremony.
Pandora, as park officials call the "Avatar" land, will be unlike anything at any other Disney park and it will allow guests to "fly with banshees," they say.

The project, based on the film by director James Cameron, was announced in 2011 and is expected to open around 2017.

"I think part of the allure is the escapism, the thrill and the excitement of the idea of going to Pandora," "Avatar" producer Jon Landau said in the video. "Now, thanks to Disney's Animal Kingdom, fans are going to have the opportunity to go to Pandora … It's everything I think that a fan could have dreamed of."

Staggs noted that additions will be made beyond Pandora, including a nighttime version of Kilimanjaro Safaris.

"This will be a true full-day park," Staggs says.