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Sandstone pillars covered in trees rising out of a green valley
Sandstone pillars at Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, July 2023. 颐园居 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Captured in a room 72 by 32 feet · 2009

Avatar

The film began on a taped floor in Los Angeles and borrowed its mountains from China. Switch the cameras on below.

Sources

The borrowed mountains

Three places in China

Production designer Dylan Cole named three places behind the floating mountains. Pick one.

Sandstone pillars covered in trees rising out of a green valley
Sandstone pillars at Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, July 2023. 颐园居 · CC BY-SA 4.0

Wulingyuan, Hunan

Avatar Hallelujah Mountain

/Film reported in January 2010 that China had renamed the Southern Sky Column in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, as “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”.

The city’s tourism director, Ding Yunyong, later denied the film was the reason, calling it a “civil spontaneous action” tied to the area’s World Natural Heritage status.

Wikipedia lists Zhangjiajie among the places Dylan Cole said inspired the floating mountains.

The pillar already stood there. The 2010 renaming gave it the film’s name.

A sandstone pillar in the Wulingyuan scenic area. Check the park’s own visitor information before travelling; none was read for this page. The photograph shows pillars at Wulingyuan, not this one.

Sources

The Volume

Switch the cameras on

The capture volume measured 72 by 32 feet, and Knight said 102 cameras fed it. Of those cameras, 95 captured the live performance data and seven served a separate scaling volume for range-of-motion work. The plan is drawn to scale: ten pixels to a foot.

Sources
72 ft × 32 ftperformance floorseparate range-of-motion volume (not to scale)

All 102 cameras are off. The floor is dark.

The system was passive optical: every marker on the performers was reflective. Wikipedia calls the stage six times larger than any previously used, and says facial performance was caught by skull caps carrying small cameras.

Los Angeles · restricted

Large sycamore trees beside low office buildings on a business campus
Sycamore trees on the Hercules East Campus, Playa Vista, Los Angeles, 2022. Jengod · CC BY-SA 4.0

Playa Vista capture stage

Wikipedia says the motion-capture filming took place at the Hughes Aircraft stage in Playa Vista, Los Angeles.

Producer James Knight said the shoot was in a former Howard Hughes office building, where Hughes used to maintain the engines of the Spruce Goose.

Cameron’s virtual camera showed him the actors inside their digital settings in real time while he shot, Wikipedia says.

Knight spent the better part of four years on the film’s motion capture, with many 18-hour days and two 26-hour ones.

Working business premises. The building is not pinned: the marker shows the mapped Hercules Campus in Playa Vista, and nothing on this page places the stage inside it. No public entry.

Sources

Kauai · public

Green river valley with forest on Kauai
Wailua River State Park, Kauai, 2025. Keahua Arboretum lies up the Wailua River valley. Farragutful · CC BY-SA 4.0

Keahua Arboretum

Wikipedia says Cameron sent the cast to Hawaii to experience a rainforest before the soundstage shoot. The page does not name Keahua.

Emerge Film Solutions lists Avatar (2009) as filmed at Keahua Arboretum. The page names no scene and no production source.

Explore says some non-CGI Avatar scenes were shot on Kauai, and describes the arboretum as a place to feel something of the film.

The arboretum sits in the Lihue-Koloa Forest Reserve and covers about 30 acres with 20 varieties of tree, Explore reports. Entry is free, and the Kuilau Ridge Trail of 1.5 miles starts here, leading to waterfalls and views of Mount Waialeale.

Free to enter, up the Wailua River valley. The way in crosses a spillway that can flood in bad weather. The photograph shows Wailua River State Park nearby, not the arboretum.

Sources

Built and shown

From a 72-foot floor to 156-foot mountains

Pandora’s floating mountains in Florida stand more than twice as tall as the capture floor was long.

Capture floor · 72 ft long
Disney’s floating mountains · 156 ft tall
The floor length is from the mocap producer; the mountain height is from Wikipedia’s Pandora page. Bars are to the same scale.
Sources

Wellington · restricted

A low industrial-style building in a Wellington suburb
One of the Weta buildings in Miramar, Wellington, 2007. Duane Weller · CC BY 2.0

Weta Digital, Miramar

Wikipedia says the live-action filming took place in Wellington, New Zealand, on Weta Digital’s soundstages.

Weta Digital did most of the film’s visual effects, led by Joe Letteri, and adapted its MASSIVE software to animate the flora and fauna of Pandora.

It was renamed Wētā FX in 2021, and is a private studio owned by Peter Jackson.

A working effects studio, now called Wētā FX, with no public entry. The pin is OpenStreetMap’s Wētā Digital point in Miramar. The photograph shows a Weta building in Wellington, 2007.

Sources

London · public

The pale tall front of a cinema on a London square
The Odeon, Leicester Square, May 2010. John Salmon · CC BY-SA 2.0

Odeon Leicester Square

Wikipedia gives the film’s premiere as 10 December 2009 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London.

Worldwide release ran from 16 to 18 December 2009, with the United States on 18 December, according to Wikipedia.

The film was first scheduled for 22 May 2009; the date moved to allow more post-production time and for cinemas to install 3D projectors.

A working cinema on the east side of the square. Walk up to the front; inside with a ticket.

Sources

Florida · public

Rocky mountains with waterfalls hovering above a themed park landscape
A floating mountain in the Valley of Mo'ara, Pandora, Disney's Animal Kingdom, May 2017. elisfkc · CC BY-SA 2.0

Pandora – The World of Avatar

Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened the 12-acre Pandora – The World of Avatar on 27 May 2017, replacing Camp Minnie-Mickey; building began on 10 January 2014.

The Valley of Mo’ara’s floating mountains stand 156 feet tall, use forced perspective and are held up by hidden steel beams. Wikipedia says the mountains were inspired by the Wulingyuan peaks of China.

Cameron and producer Jon Landau were creative consultants, and Joe Rohde, the park’s creative executive, was creative director.

A themed land inside Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Check the resort’s own page for entry and opening times; its page could not be read for this one.

Sources

Go there

Find the pieces

Huangshan, Guilin, Wulingyuan, Keahua Arboretum, the Odeon and Pandora can be visited. The Playa Vista stage and Wētā’s Miramar base are working studios, and the Playa Vista building is not pinned.

Sources

Where it is now

6 places across China, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Wellington, London and Florida.

Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.

  • Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A national scenic area in Anhui with its own visitor arrangements. Check the official park information before travelling; none was read for this page.

  • Area reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A city with river cruises and hills in the surrounding country. The pin marks the city; the photograph shows the Li River hills nearby.

  • Site reference · Public access · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A sandstone pillar in the Wulingyuan scenic area. Check the park’s own visitor information before travelling; none was read for this page. The photograph shows pillars at Wulingyuan, not this one.

  1. Granite peaks and twisted pines at Huangshan
    Granite peaks and pines at Huangshan, Anhui, 2019. Miaulian · CC BY-SA 3.0

    The borrowed mountains · Huangshan Scenic Area, Anhui, China

    Huangshan

    Wikipedia says the film’s floating mountains were inspired in part by the Huangshan mountains of China.

    A national scenic area in Anhui with its own visitor arrangements. Check the official park information before travelling; none was read for this page.

    Sources
  2. Steep green limestone hills along a river
    Karst hills beside the Li River, Guilin, 2014. Huangdan2060 · CC0

    The borrowed mountains · Guilin and the Li River, Guangxi, China

    Guilin

    Wikipedia names Guilin first among the karst limestone formations that Dylan Cole said inspired the floating mountains.

    A city with river cruises and hills in the surrounding country. The pin marks the city; the photograph shows the Li River hills nearby.

    Sources
  3. Sandstone pillars covered in trees rising out of a green valley
    Sandstone pillars at Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, July 2023. 颐园居 · CC BY-SA 4.0

    The borrowed mountains · Yuanjiajie, Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China

    Avatar Hallelujah Mountain

    /Film reported in January 2010 that China had renamed the Southern Sky Column in Zhangjiajie, Hunan, as “Avatar Hallelujah Mountain”.

    A sandstone pillar in the Wulingyuan scenic area. Check the park’s own visitor information before travelling; none was read for this page. The photograph shows pillars at Wulingyuan, not this one.

    Sources

Stay

A room by the park.

A resort hotel listed in the Animal Kingdom area, the park that holds Pandora.

Walt Disney World Resort

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

Lake Buena Vista, Florida

A resort hotel in Lake Buena Vista that Disney lists in the Animal Kingdom Resort Area, the park that holds Pandora. Pictured: a floating mountain in the Valley of Mo’ara, 2017.

Check rooms

Go there

Rivers, pillars and a workshop.

Tours in Wellington, up the Wailua River, in Wulingyuan and round London’s West End.

Wētā Workshop

Wētā Workshop experiences

Miramar, Wellington

Guided tours at Wētā Workshop in Wellington. Check the site for times; no prices were read. Pictured: a Weta building, 2007.

See the tours
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Kauai Wailua River tours

Wailua, Kauai

Live marketplace results for tours of the Wailua River valley, where Keahua Arboretum lies up the road. Check what each tour includes. Pictured: Wailua River State Park, 2025.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
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Zhangjiajie and Wulingyuan tours

Zhangjiajie, Hunan

Live marketplace results for tours of the Wulingyuan scenic area. Check which stops each includes. Pictured: Wulingyuan, 2023.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours
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London film location tours

Leicester Square, London

Live marketplace results for film walks in the West End, where the Odeon stands on Leicester Square. Check each route. Pictured: the Odeon, 2010.

Live marketplace results · itineraries change

Compare tours

What’s on

No dates yet.

Nothing dated for the film is listed at these places now.

No current dated events are listed. Check providers for the latest programme.

Dates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.

The archive

Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.

8 of 8 places · 8 of 8 stories

  • Huangshan

    Huangshan Scenic Area, Anhui, China

    • The look of the peaks

      Huangshan’s peaks feed the film’s floating mountains.

  • Guilin

    Guilin and the Li River, Guangxi, China

    • The karst hills

      Dylan Cole names Guilin’s karst among the inspirations.

  • Avatar Hallelujah Mountain

    Yuanjiajie, Wulingyuan, Zhangjiajie, Hunan, China

    • A pillar renamed

      The Southern Sky Column becomes Avatar Hallelujah Mountain.

  • Keahua Arboretum

    Wailua, Kauai, Hawaii

    • The rainforest trip

      Cameron sends the cast to Hawaii to feel a rainforest before the soundstage.

  • Playa Vista capture stage

    Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California

    • The Volume

      Performers work inside a 72 by 32 foot capture space watched by 102 cameras.

  • Weta Digital, Miramar

    Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand

    • Live action in Wellington

      Live-action filming takes place on Weta Digital’s soundstages.

  • Odeon Leicester Square

    24–26 Leicester Square, London

    • The premiere

      Avatar opens to the world at the Odeon on Leicester Square.

  • Pandora – The World of Avatar

    Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Bay Lake, near Orlando, Florida

    • Pandora opens

      Floating mountains held up by steel beams open to visitors in Florida.

Places to stay

Stay near these placeswithin easy reach.

  • 450 m from Odeon Leicester Square

    Hotel Café Royal

    The Regent Street café where Oscar Wilde held court, now a hotel.

    56 Regent Street, Mayfair, City of Westminster, W1B 5AS · Source · Check dates on Expedia (Ad / affiliate)

  • 950 m from Odeon Leicester Square

    The Ritz London

    Piccadilly’s Ritz, named for its Palm Court tea and used on screen for decades.

    150 Piccadilly, Mayfair, City of Westminster, W1J 9BR · Source · Check dates on Expedia (Ad / affiliate)

  • 1.3 km from Odeon Leicester Square

    Claridge’s

    Mayfair hotel with a long record as a London screen and society setting.

    47-57 Brook Street, Mayfair, City of Westminster, W1K 4HR · Source · Check dates on Expedia (Ad / affiliate)

What’s on

On near these places

We may earn a commission on qualifying hotel bookings. Affiliate disclosure.

Links go to each venue’s or organiser’s own site. Check dates, access and availability there before you go.

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Image credits
  • Leadenhall Market, the City of London · Diego Delso · CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Los Angeles at night, seen from Griffith Observatory · dubassy / Mixkit · CC BY-SA 4.0
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