James Camerons avatar captivated audiences when it hit theaters in 2009. The nearly three-hour sci-fi epic takes viewers on a journey to the lush, habitable moon Pandora, inhabited by the native Na’vi people.
The Na’vi can grow up to 12 feet tall with blue skin and yellow eyes. They are strange, but they are also unmistakable human— an intentional choice by Cameron, subliminally urging viewers to side with the Na’vi when humans begin invading Pandora to exploit its natural resources. The director spoke with Empire Magazine to explain how this motivation contributed to the character designs for the Na’vi.
“I wanted the audience to side with the indigenous people and see the humans as the invaders from outer space who destroyed their world. A nod to all the ‘alien invading earth’ stories we grew up with. I bet that through the power of film, audiences could be taken on a journey where they became the enemy, and thereby perhaps saw themselves, however briefly, as nature sees us. Alien. Invader. Destroyer. The design of the Na’ vi was the result of an intensive design process with some really talented creatures and character artists some of the early designs came out too amphibious or lizard like I wanted relatability I thought we can emotionally relate to dogs and cats so we gave the Na’vi expressive tails and ears that had that familiarity, and ultimately their strangest features were their scale and their color.
While it’s hard to imagine the iconic Na’vi being any color, Cameron says making them blue wasn’t exactly cut and dry — it was a process of elimination.
“As for the color, green was taken. There was a long history of green aliens. Plus, the Hulk. And the human colors, pink and brown, weren’t alien. Spongebob was yellow. That pretty much left blue and purple. “
While the director says purple is his favorite color, that seemed more appropriate for the brilliant bioluminescence on Pandora, so blue it was.
Cameron Shares Scrapped Character Design Concepts For Na’vi: ‘It Would Mess With The Rating’
Once the color was decided, Cameron had to work out a few other character design changes until the final Na’vi design was complete – including a concept his mother saw in a dream that would have radically changed the film.
“Also, my mom told me about a dream she had in which there was a three-foot-tall blue woman with six breasts. Cool image. I drew her, but the six-breasted thing didn’t come out as good as it sounds, plus it would mess with the rating. So anyway… blue.”
avatars long awaited sequel, Avatar: the way of the water will be in cinemas from December 16.