Pixar in Concert

At the end of February, we headed to Oklahoma City to see the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra play Pixar in Concert. The concert took place in the Civic Center Music Hall, which was much more modern on the inside than it looks on the outside. It was very clean and had lots of clear sign posts to find where you were going.

The Oklahoma City Civic Hall

The orchestra played two nights in a row, Friday and Saturday, and we were attending the second performance. We bought our tickets closer to the event than we probably should have, but luckily got tickets before the event sold out.

Thankfully, despite booking late, we had some fantastic seats in the balcony! I did feel vertigo a little from how steep the seats were and also the steps to get to them. I was surprised at how people dressed. I saw everything from ballgowns, to jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes. Two ladies were even dressed in costume as Merida from Brave! There were also a lot more children there than I thought.

They served some Pixar themed adult beverages in the foyer

There were two halves of the show with a 15 minute intermission. They opened with Andy's Birthday from Toy Story. It gave me chills to hear such an epic piece of music performed live. They continued with musical selections from Toy Story while the respective clips from the movie played on the screen behind the orchestra. I didn't expect to see movie clips, but that worked really well and was a great touch.

They moved on to Finding Nemo, Ratatouille, A Bug's Life, WALL-E, Toy Story 2, Cars and closed with Up, which left everyone crying and sniffling at Intermission. It was extra special for us to hear Up, as a couple of songs from the soundtrack were played at our wedding :)

After the break they came back with Toy Story 3, Cars 2, Monsters Inc., Brave, The Incredibles and ended with Monsters University. They came back with an encore of "You've Got A Friend In Me" , while playing clips from all Pixar movies and ending with the jumping lamp. It was superb!

I never realized how sad Pixar movies can be until I saw it all together like that. Finding Nemo got me teared up, I cried at the Up montage, and got teared up again at Monsters Inc. (when Sulley goes to see Boo) and Toy Story 3 when Andy gives Woody to Bonnie. We had the best evening and it was fun to have a road trip over to OKC and back. We ate dinner out before the drive and stopped at Sonic on the way home for a caffeine fix to stay awake!

I fully recommend Pixar in Concert to all Disney fans and anyone who appreciates good music and movies. It's just incredible!