This is The BEST Way To See 'Avatar,' And We're Not Hearing Any Arguments

We’re just a few short days away from the release of Avatar: Fire and Ash on Disney+, and to celebrate, we just got to do something EXTREMELY cool!

‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ ©Disney

To celebrate the release of the film on the streaming platform, Walt Disney Theater in Orlando, Florida hosted the US premiere of Avatar in Concert, combining the beloved film with the incredibly powerful art of a live orchestra. We were so thrilled to be invited to the event, which left us not only thrilled to see the third installment of the franchise again on our screens at home, but also reminded us just how stunning and immersive the original 2009 film is.

You’ve likely heard of other films being “in concert” before, and this followed a similar pattern. This was an experience where the original Avatar film was shown on a big screen and was accompanied by a live performance of James Horner’s score by the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Orlando. The orchestra was conducted by John Jesensky, and the performance also featured “ethnic flutes and whistles” by Eric Rigler and vocals by Eleanor Grant.

We’re here!

What absolutely blew our minds about this experience was how balanced the orchestra and vocals were with the original film, which had all of its music taken out, so every note we heard was live. In fact, the balance was so precise and the execution so flawless that at times it was difficult to remember you were listening to a live orchestra at all! We also have to give a special shout-out to the vocals performed by Eleanor Grant — to say she nailed it would be a massive understatement!

What an incredible night!

However, we do feel the need to point out that we did hear audience members saddened by the fact that there was no face paint, as was originally stated to be offered, and there was also no special merchandise for the event. We heard several longtime fans note that exclusive merchandise has often been part of previous film concert presentations, and the empty merchandise location was easily the biggest source of disappointment among attendees. Instead, the area where it’s been in the past was just used for seating.

Only seating, no merchandise

Again, though, the actual show itself was incredible, and it amazes us every time we see Avatar how well it holds up. The movie remains ahead of its time, and it’s wild to think that these incredible visual effects were done 16 years ago! It was a great way to get us excited for the Disney+ release of the newest film, which we’ll absolutely be putting on our TVs first thing on June 24th.

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Disclosure: In nearly all circumstances, Disney Food Blog writers and photographers pay full price for their own travel, hotel, food, beverage, and event tickets. We do this because it’s important to us as journalists to ensure not only that we give you unbiased opinions, but also that you can trust us to do so since we’re paying our own way. On rare occasions, when we are invited by a company to attend a preview as media, and when we choose to accept that invitation, we will always make you, our readers, aware of that situation. Today, we were invited by Disney to attend their ‘Avatar’ in Concert. Note that when we attend events as media we are 1) Not required to review that event/food on any of our channels, and 2) Not required to review that event/food favorably. You can always count on DFB to give you a 100% unbiased and honest review of any event that we attend, food that we eat, or beverage that we drink. You can see more in our Disclosure Policy. Thank you for reading. — AJ