Bear Witness to the Surreal Terrors of Cirque du Soleil’s ‘Avatar’-Themed Show

For anyone sorely missing James Cameron’s 2009 feature Avatar, today’s about to become a good day. It was not enough for Cameron to schedule three (3!) sequels to the sci-fi fantasia, and it was not enough for him to guarantee that they will “be bitchin’” and “make you s--- yourself with your mouth wide open.” It was not enough for Disney to begin development on an Avatar theme park, effectively making the world of the movie real. The only place left to take Avatar-branded entertainment is to the realm of unsettlingly surreal, and that is where Cirque du Soleil comes in.

The hypnotic and occasionally disturbing traveling acrobatics troupe has been working on a new show called Toruk: The First Flight, modeled after the imagery and characters of Avatar. It’ll debut later this month, commencing a national tour that will stretch on for about a year’s time and travel all throughout the United States and Canada, but the official web site offers us an advance glimpse at what wonders/terrors audiences can expect from this performance.

Those with a good memory for make-believe words will remember that the Toruk are the giant, colorful pterodactyl-looking creatures that the nine-foot-tall Na’vi ride in the film, syncing up to them braid-to-braidhole. The new show will chronicle the legend of the very first Na’vi to successfully claim an airborne mount, with the following plot synopsis clarifying a little further:

TORUK – The First Flight envisions a world beyond imagination set thousands of years before the events depicted in the film. The word Toruk, in the Na’vi language, refers to the great leonopteryx, the mighty red and orange predator that rules the Pandoran sky. Central in Na’vi lore and culture, this fascinating creature is crucial to the Na’vi clans’ sense of destiny and interconnectedness – and is about to be ridden for the very first time by a Na’vi.

Should be a real smash with anyone that’s been hurting for some hot braid-on-braidhole action in the six years since Avatar came out. In other news, good lord it’s been six years since Avatar came out. Time is a precious commodity that we cannot hope to hold on to.