Weekend Event Planner

Jimmy Buffett and Oak Cliff Film Festival top best weekend events in Dallas

It's another packed weekend in Dallas-Fort Worth, with a music icon performing two shows in vastly different locations, another stellar film festival on tap and two must-see games, one that's just for fun and one that'll have the whole nation riveted.

Below are your best options for your precious free time Thursday through Sunday. Don't like what you see? Lucky for you, we have a much longer list of the city's best events.

Thursday, June 19

Jimmy Buffett in concert
Jimmy Buffett, after visiting Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday, will be all over the place in Dallas-Fort Worth this weekend. First, he'll put in this show on Thursday at Coyote Drive-In in Fort Worth that will be simulcast to other drive-ins nationwide. But that's just a prelude to his regular tour stop at Toyota Stadium on Saturday with John Fogerty as opening act/co-headliner. If you're a Parrothead, you're guaranteed to be in nirvana.

2014 Oak Cliff Film Festival
The Oak Cliff Film Festival, now in its third year, doesn't quite have the clout of other area film festivals, but it's well on its way. Things open up Thursday at Texas Theatre with a secret-but-not-so-secret screening from Sailor Bear Productions and To Be Takei, a documentary about actor George Takei, and the festival only gets better from there. Screenings and other events will take place at multiple locations, including Bishop Arts Theatre Center, The Kessler, Oak Cliff Cultural Center, Oil and Cotton and Jefferson Tower, through Sunday.

Michael McDonald in concert with Kenny Loggins, The Pointer Sisters and Nile Rodgers & Chic
This concert is titled "Night of the Proms," and it's not hard to see why. It features a bevy of musicians whose heyday was in the ’80s, reminding people of a certain generation of their high school days. But it also blends together pop and classical music, with the headliners backed by classical group Il Novecento, Fine Fleur, a 24-person choir and British pop star John "Music" Miles. They'll all perform at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie, the start of a busy weekend for that venue.

Friday, June 20

Dallas Arts District Summer Block Party
It's the official start of summer, so the Dallas Arts District will celebrate with an all-out block party. The usual third Friday of the month events — Crow Collection After Dark, Late Nights at the DMA and Nasher Sculpture Center's 'til Midnight — will be combined with the closure of the streets around the museums for visitors to mix and mingle, grab some grub from food trucks and enjoy different fun activities.

Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra presents Star Wars & Beyond: A Laser Light Spectacular
The Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra is in the midst of their annual Concerts in the Garden series at Fort Worth Botanic Garden, and their first offering this weekend is bound to be memorable. It combines the playing of popular soundtracks like Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Star Trek with a laser light show. You'll never look at classical music the same.

Saturday, June 21

2014 Pegasus Music Festival
The second big event of the weekend at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie will be the inaugural Pegasus Music Festival featuring "carefully selected" bands like Brand New, Cold War Kids, Circa Survive, Bad Books, PMToday, Dustin Kensrue of Thrice and Residual Kid. Even though the festival is indoors, there will also a beer garden and selection of food trucks to give it that extra atmosphere.

Dirk Nowitzki’s 2014 Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game
The annual Heroes Celebrity Baseball Game at Dr Pepper Ballpark in Frisco used to be the domain of Mike Modano, but Dirk Nowitzki has stepped in since Modano's retirement a few years ago. As always, the game will be filled with a variety of local sports stars like Monta Ellis, Devin Harris, Dez Bryant, Tony Romo, Jason Witten, Tyler Seguin and more.

Blake Shelton in concert with The Band Perry, Neal McCoy and Dan + Shay
Another theme of the weekend will be an invasion by those associated with The Voice. Now that mentor Blake Shelton has some time off from the show, he'll use it to entertain his fan base at Gexa Energy Pavilion. Shelton, still riding high on last year's Based on a True Story..., will be joined by The Band Perry, Neal McCoy and Dan + Shay.

Sunday, June 22

FC Dallas 2014 World Cup Tour: USA vs. Portugal
Anybody who has even a passing interest in soccer was riveted by the United States' last minute win over Ghana in their first game of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. Now, with a win over Portugal, which was utterly dominated by Germany in its first game, the U.S. could move on to the knockout round. FC Dallas will host this free viewing party at Klyde Warren Park, hopefully giving Dallasites a chance to celebrate en masse.

The Voice Tour 2014
The Voice has supplanted American Idol as the most popular reality singing competition on TV, although they'll be hard-pressed to turn out the stars that Idol did at its height. This concert at Verizon Theatre at Grand Prairie will feature the best of the best, including Season 6 winner Josh Kaufman, runner-up Jake Worthington and third place finisher Christina Grimmie, as well as Season 5 winner Tessanne Chin and others.

Jeff Tweedy in concert
Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy is getting ready to release his first-ever solo album, and to get fans hyped up, he's previewing it on a tour that will come to the Majestic Theatre. Tweedy, backed by a band that includes his son Spencer, will play selections from the new album, as well as acoustic versions of Wilco and Uncle Tupelo songs.

Jeff Tweedy, lead singer for Wilco, will play at Majestic Theatre on June 22 to preview his forthcoming debut solo album.

Wilco Facebook

Jeff Tweedy, lead singer for Wilco, will play at Majestic Theatre on June 22 to preview his forthcoming debut solo album.

unspecified

Movie Review

Zootopia 2 Disney is an OK sequel that keeps the fun of the original

Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Animation Studios

Nick (Jason Bateman) and Judy (Ginnifer Goodwin) in Zootopia 2.

When Zootopia came out in 2016, Walt Disney Animation Studios was in the midst of a great run of original films, including Wreck-It Ralph, Frozen, Big Hero 6, and finally Moana. Their output since then has not been as good, including three mediocre sequels, three so-so originals, and only one truly great film, Encanto.

All of which is to say that the odds for Zootopia 2 breaking that trend were low even before they started working on it. The odd couple pair of rabbit Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) and fox Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman) are now officially detectives in the Zootopia Police Department, but they still have a penchant for not following the orders of Chief Bogo (Idris Elba). Such mischievous behavior doesn’t sit well with the other detective teams, which include pairs of zebras, hippos, hogs, and goats.

Still, their slightly insubordinate ways put them on the path toward discovering the infiltration of Gary De’Snake (Ke Huy Quan), the first reptile to be seen in Zootopia in a long time. He’s trying to steal a book that would prove that his relative was the rightful inventor of a weather technology that gives all animals in Zootopia an ideal climate. But the high-powered Lynxley family, including father Milton (David Straithairn) and son Pawbert (Andy Samberg), lay claim to the idea and won’t give it up easily.

Written and directed by Jared Bush, and co-directed by Byron Howard, the film retains the fun of the first film if not the consistently interesting story. Though Judy and Nick get along much better than they did previously, they still don’t see eye-to-eye on everything. It’s Judy who takes more risks this time around, with Nick’s rule-breaking ways seeming to have rubbed off on her, a nice twist that leads to some ironic situations.

The filmmakers struggle to make the story as easily coherent this time around, with the new characters a decidedly mixed bunch. The Lynxleys are supposed to be the bad guys of the film, but they’re not featured enough to drum up any enmity for them. The detective duos are fun comic relief, especially the two who refer to themselves as the Ze-bros, but none of them factor very much in the actual story.

Instead, the filmmakers fall back on things like cameos from small characters from the first film and a flurry of groan-worthy animal puns. While it’s fun to see the sloth Flash (Raymond S. Persi), sheep Bellwether (Jenny Slate), and Gazelle (Shakira), their appearances are too brief to carry the movie overall. The visuals are as fantastic as expected of Disney films, especially the myriad fur/hides/scales of the different creatures, but the film is not designed to necessarily wow in that respect.

Both Goodwin and Bateman prove again that they were cast perfectly for their respective roles, as Goodwin fully embodies Judy’s relentless enthusiasm and Bateman brings the wry tone to his street smart character. If you know them, it’s fun to have people like Samberg, Straithairn, Quinta Brunson, and Patrick Warburton in supporting roles, but no one but Warburton and his distinctive voice elevates the film.

Like most of Disney’s recent sequels, Zootopia 2 is a pleasant enough movie that lets fans revisit some favorite characters. But when a bar is set high with the first film as it was with Zootopia, it takes more outside-of-the-box thinking to have the second one measure up in any significant way.

---

Zootopia 2 opens in theaters on November 26.

movies film