Weekend Event Planner

These are the 11 best things to do in Dallas this weekend

While many events in and around Dallas have either been postponed or canceled during the coronavirus pandemic, some organizations have pivoted to virtual or socially-distanced events to continue offering the masses some entertainment while we need it the most.

Below are the best ways to spend your free time this weekend. For the first time in a long time, each event will be in-person but with all of necessary precautions during this strange time.

Thursday, November 19

Rocky Mountain High: Songs of John Denver by Rick Schuler
Ever since singer, songwriter, and adventurer Rick Schuler wore his first pair of round glasses at age 13, it was undeniable that he looked like John Denver. Nearly four decades later, Schuler has emerged as the leading performer of Denver’s music. In his Rocky Mountain High experience, Schuler performs favorite hits such as “Sunshine on My Shoulders,” “Take Me Home Country Roads,” “You Fill Up My Senses,” and “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” He'll perform on Thursday and Friday at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts in Richardson.

Friday, November 20

SnowDay Dallas
At SnowDay, taking place through January 3 at Galleria Dallas, guests will navigate their way through 5,000+ square feet of wondrous holiday fun. It includes multiple photo opportunities throughout, with integrated professional cameras and lighting. Photos are delivered instantly to visitors' phones, with the opportunity to print pictures in the gift shop.

Luminova Holidays
At the new Luminova Holidays, visitors will be able to view millions of twinkling lights, take to the ice on an outdoor rink, and snap selfie-worthy pics. The sprawling indoor and outdoor wonderland, located at Globe Life Field in Arlington through January 3, marks the first event to be open to the general public at the new stadium. It also includes appearances by Santa Claus, a 65-foot Christmas tree, interactive activities like light up hopscotch, train rides for the kids, strolling holiday entertainers, and booths with food and special mementos.

Six Flags Over Texas presents Holiday in the Park
Holiday in the Park is back for select days at Six Flags Over Texas in Arlington. The winter wonderland features a variety of interactive activities, festive shows, an extravagantly decorated Christmas tree, holiday treats, unique holiday-themed attractions, seasonal entertainment, a Merry Marketplace, The Frosty Snowhill, and, of course, world class thrill rides. It will take place through January 3.

Magic of Lights
The Magic of Lights at The Lakefront is a COVID-19-safe, drive-thru event taking place at Little Elm Park in Little Elm. The 1.25-mile experience features favorite holiday scenes and characters of the season using the latest LED technology and digital animations. It will take place through January 2.

Dallas Zoo Lights
Dallas Zoo Lights, presented by Reliant, has been reimagined so guests can drive through a holiday safari of lights in their own vehicles. Visitors will cruise through a newly constructed pathway — and through familiar parts of the Dallas Zoo — while viewing more than one million lights in elaborate displays, silk-covered animal lanterns depicting Zoo favorites, an ice palace fit for a trio of penguins, and more. The event takes place through January 3.

TITAS/Dance Unbound presents Parsons Dance
Parsons Dance is everything that is right about American modern dance. Their bold, joyous and athletic movement has solidified them as one of the world’s leading modern dance companies. Stunning works like the iconic Caught exemplify this company’s innovation and huge audience appeal. They'll perform at Winspear Opera House in the venue's first event since the pandemic started.

Saturday, November 21

Chamberlain Ballet presents Nutcracker Sweets
Nordstrom and Galleria Dallas will hold a limited-attendance production of the abbreviated Nutcracker Sweets, presented by Chamberlain Ballet. Tickets include a continental breakfast for each guest, a pass to SnowDay on the day of the performance, and a Galleria Ice skating pass, including skate rental. Additionally, Chamberlain Ballet will bring The Nutcracker story to life via photography with an exhibit featuring decades of performances captured in photographs. The exhibit will be onsite on Level I at Galleria Dallas near Apple, December 1-31.

Seltzerland
Seltzerland is a socially distanced, hard seltzer celebration where attendees will sample from 50+ flavors of the popular alcoholic drink. Taking place at Irving Golf Club, it features the best hard seltzer brands, from iconic national brands to beloved local companies, who will be on-site offering a variety of beverage samplings, along with Hormel Black Label Bacon providing brunch bites.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra presents The Concert Truck
The Dallas Symphony Orchestra will present the residency of The Concert Truck during the holiday season. Taking place on various dates through December 18, the DSO and The Concert Truck will present collaborative community concerts across the city, featuring musicians of the DSO and other arts organizations. The performances kick off at The Potter's House Church on Saturday and The Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza on Sunday.

Sarah Jaffe in concert
Singer/songwriter Sarah Jaffe has been on the verge of stardom for a decade. After getting her start in Denton, she's gone on to release four acclaimed albums, including 2017's Bad Baby, and has toured with the likes of Norah Jones, The Polyphonic Spree, and Old 97's. She'll perform at Granada Theater as part of the venue's reopening weekend.

Rocky Mountain High: The Songs of John Denver by Rick Schuler will be at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts on November 19 and 20.

Rick Schuler as John Denver in Rocky Mountain High

Photo courtesy of Rick Schuler

Rocky Mountain High: The Songs of John Denver by Rick Schuler will be at Eisemann Center for the Performing Arts on November 19 and 20.

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Movie Review

Animated Disney film Elio is fun but falls short of Pixar top tier

Photo courtesy of Pixar

Elio (Yonas Kibreab) and Glordon (Remy Edgerly) in Elio.

Pixar has done a ton of different things in the 28 feature films they’ve released over the past 30 years, but the one they’d never done is deal with aliens (and, no, the alien toys in Toy Story don’t count). Now they’re going where many storytellers have gone before, but in their own unique way, in the new film Elio.

Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) is a space fanatic who has recently lost both of his parents in an unnamed event. His Aunt Olga (Zoe Saldaña) is now his guardian, and because she happens to be a member of the U.S. Space Force, Elio finds himself tantalizingly close to communications from space. With a desire to be abducted by aliens for both curiosity and sentimental reasons, Elio sends a message into space, hoping for some kind of response.

He gets that and more when a ship full of multiple types of beings takes him into space, believing him to be a leader instead of a child. An encounter with a hostile force led by Lord Grigon (Brad Garrett) gives Elio both a new friend, Grigon’s son Glordon (Remy Edgerly), and responsibility for maintaining peace during an unexpected galactic crisis.

Pixar has not typically followed the route of many Disney movies of giving their child protagonist the trauma of dead parents, and doing so here is the first of a few minor missteps. Having Olga be his mom instead of his aunt would have altered their dynamic, but only slightly. While Elio is shown to miss his parents, his major focus is on making contact with aliens. Since the film only briefly deals with his grief, it would have been better served by excising it altogether.

For the most part, the film is goofy, with Elio’s enthusiasm for aliens matched by the oddness of the creatures he meets in space. The filmmakers - there are three credited directors and three credited writers - seem to have taken inspiration from sea creatures and Pixar’s own history, as the main bad guy emulates Mike and Sully’s boss from Monsters, Inc. Almost every character in the film is heightened to a degree that makes for funny situations, but not as much sentimentality as other Pixar offerings.

Surprisingly, especially since the film ends with a voiceover from notable astronomer Carl Sagan, the filmmakers play fast and loose with real-life science. Elio’s journeys to and from the alien spaceship are treated as close-to-instantaneous trips, even involving portals directly to Earth. The idea of the story doesn’t allow them to delve into things like relativistic time dilation, but there still could have been other scientific references to keep the story aboveboard.

There are very few stars to be found among the film’s voice cast other than Saldaña and Garrett, who are each fine if unmemorable. Kibreab and Edgerly are given many more scenes than anyone else, and they each do a great job of bringing out both the joy and naivete of their characters. Some lesser-known actors like Jameela Jamil, Atsuko Okatsuka, and Brendan Hunt show up in minor roles, but they don’t stand out in any way.

The story and characters in Elio are sweet and fun, but the film as a whole falls well short of the top tier Pixar movies. The filmmakers could have gone many different directions with a story about a boy who wants to be abducted by aliens, and the way they chose ended up being innocuous and less than compelling.

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Elio opens in theaters on June 20.

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