Disney theme parks have a big summer ahead of them with major new attractions opening May 27 based on two movies, one about the Marvel Comics superheroes from “Guardians of the Galaxy” and the other about the lush alien world of Pandora from the James Cameron film “Avatar.”

The Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission BREAKOUT! attraction opens at Disney California Adventure in Anaheim, California.

Pandora - The World of Avatar is a 12-acre land opening at Walt Disney World's Animal Kingdom in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.

But the creative designer behind the attractions says you don't need to know anything about either movie to enjoy them.

“This is not a revisitation of a plot line of a film you already saw,” said Disney Imagineer Joe Rohde at an event Monday in New York City previewing the attractions.

“This is your opportunity to go to an amazing world and have adventures of your own. ... The story is about you.”

The premise of the Guardians of the Galaxy ride is that the Guardian superheroes have been captured and riders must participate in an adventure with a character called Rocket Raccoon to free them. “It is a prison breakout story,” Rohde said. The ride incorporates multiple scenarios for resolving the story line so that riders have a slightly different experience each time they go through it.

Guardians of the Galaxy is located in a redesigned drop tower structure that once housed the Twilight Zone of Terror.

At Pandora, there are two rides plus retail and dining components. Riders on Avatar Flight of Passage fly through the forest on the backs of creatures called banshees to participate in a tribal coming of age ceremony. Riders on the Na'vi River Journey move through the bioluminescent forest on a boat, guided by a mystical singing figure.

Rohde described Pandora as an “obsessively real” environment that “reacts to the change of day on its own.” The sounds of creatures in the forest change from day to night, and the Pandoran plants glow by night, Rohde said. Rohde took his team on field trips to Hawaii, Bali and China for design inspiration from real landscapes and cultural touchstones.

You will visit the following 2 places:

Anaheim

Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. Anaheim's name is a blend of "Ana", after the nearby Santa Ana River, and "heim", a common German language place name compound originally meaning "home". Its second claim to fame is hosting the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks and Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It is also best known for being the home of the Disneyland Resort, a massive, colorful complex of family-friendly, Disney-themed rides, restaurants, hotels and shops. Anaheim is a city in Orange County, California. Anaheim's name is a blend of "Ana", after the nearby Santa Ana River, and "heim", a common German language place name compound originally meaning "home". Its second claim to fame is hosting the National Hockey League’s Anaheim Ducks and Major League Baseball’s Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. It is also best known for being the home of the Disneyland Resort, a massive, colorful complex of family-friendly, Disney-themed rides, restaurants, hotels and shops.  

Orlando

Orlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County, and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region. The Orlando metropolitan area has a population of 2,082,628 and it is the 27th largest metropolitan area in the United States, the 5th largest metropolitan area in the Southeastern United States, and the 3rd largest metro area in Florida. The city-proper population is 235,860 making Orlando the 80th largest city in the "United States". It is Florida's fifth largest city by population. Orlando was incorporated on July 31, 1875, and became a city in 1885.