“Enter the World”: James Cameron’s Avatar (2009) and the Family-Adventure Movie

The tagline on some of the posters for the original theatrical release of James Cameron’s movie Avatar (2009) read “Enter the World,” which can be understood as an invitation, a promise or even a command.1 The most widely used poster designs show an otherworldly landscape, including mountains that float in the air and giant flying, dragon-like animals, dense forests and some futuristic technology as well as-magnified and superimposed on these strange surroundings-two faces, one human, the other humanoid with feline features and blue skin. These images combine iconographic elements associated with traditions of “fantasy” literature and cinema (often centered on unnatural or supernatural creatures and events, and situated in an alternative universe or a mythical past), and those associated with “science-fiction” (typically dealing with more or less scientific extrapolations from the here and now into the future and onto other places in the universe).