Do you think Avatar would have worked as an Animation?
 

Do you think "Avatar" would have worked as a cartoon movie similier to "Heavy Metal" or "Gandahar"? I think so.

No I don't. Enough people accuse Avatar of being a ripoff of Ferngully (amongst several...... dozen hundred thousand million.... other things) already, being an actual animation would have put that particular claim over the top and I don't think anyone would have bothered to see it.

I think it could have passed as animated, but only if the style were a lot different, pretty much for the same reason Crickett said.

Mostly no - it was the technology that made Pandora seem real, and animation just doesn't do the same things. Then there's the (mostly western) issue of animation not being considered a serious medium but 'for children'.