Avatar yourself to celebrate the blockbuster film's DVD release

Ben Stiller did it at the Academy Awards. Ashley Madison's commercial did it to a couple of unsuspecting chicks. And now visitors to Los Angeles' open-air mall, The Grove, can do it, too. Remake themselves, that is, into blue-skinned Avatar creatures. As a promotion for the upcoming Earth Day release of Fox's $2.7 billion blockbuster Avatar on DVD, the studio will set up a free exhibition with facial-recognition technology to morph shoppers' faces in real time. Never mind that the pro-environment message of the movie isn't exactly at home in a consumer mecca where Nordstrom, Baby Gap and Baccarat rule. Whatever. The folks will love their Na'vi makeovers, which they'll be able to watch again and again if they supply their e-mail addresses at the morphing stations. The state-of-the-art digital stations, via Inwindow Outdoor, will send them a video of the process and info on where to buy the DVD. Trip to Pandora, sadly, not included.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley