Avatar (2009) - Movie Trailr, Clips and Info

Movie Trailer

MPAA Rating: PG-13, for intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking
Genre: Action/Adventure/Fantasy
Runtime: Approx. 162 minutes
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Peter Mensah, Laz Alonso, Wes Studi, Stephen Lang, Matt Gerald
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Director: James Cameron
Release Date: December 18, 2009 (conventional 3D theaters and IMAX 3D)
Avatar Movie Review for Parents

Avatar - Official Synopsis

Avatar takes us to a spectacular world beyond imagination, where a newcomer from Earth embarks on an epic adventure, ultimately fighting to save the alien world he has learned to call home.

James Cameron, the Oscar-winning director of Titanic, first conceived of the film 15 years ago, when the means to realize his vision did not yet exist. Now, after four years of production, AVATAR, a live action film with a new generation of special effects, delivers a fully immersive cinematic experience of a new kind, where the revolutionary technology invented to make the film disappears into the emotion of the characters and the sweep of the story.

We enter the alien world through the eyes of Jake Sully, a former Marine confined to a wheelchair. But despite his broken body, Jake is still a warrior at heart. He is recruited to travel light years to the human outpost on Pandora, where a corporate consortium is mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving Earth's energy crisis. Because Pandora's atmosphere is toxic, they have created the Avatar Program, in which human "drivers" have their consciousness linked to an avatar, a remotely-controlled biological body that can survive in the lethal air.

These avatars are genetically engineered hybrids of human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives of Pandora... the Na'vi.

Reborn in his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is given a mission to infiltrate the Na'vi, who have become a major obstacle to mining the precious ore. But a beautiful Na'vi female, Neytiri, saves Jake's life, and this changes everything. Jake is taken in by her clan, and learns to become one of them, which involves many tests and adventures. As Jake's relationship with his reluctant teacher Neytiri deepens, he learns to respect the Na'vi way and finally takes his place among them. Soon he will face the ultimate test as he leads them in an epic battle that will decide the fate of an entire world.

Avatar - Fun Facts for Kids

Is Avatar live action or animated? The answer is, both. While much of the film is live action, the avatars and their world are computer animated. The computer animated world had to be rendered to look absolutely real in order to fit in with the rest of the movie. The movie is a first in that it brings the idea of performance capture to a whole new level. Real people actually acted out each scene, but then their characters were animated and things like ears and tails were added and animated as well. In the production notes, director James Cameron relates, "Every nuance and bit of performance was created by the actors, who do all the things you see their CG characters do in the film, down to the slightest hand gesture. These characters ARE precisely and only what the actors created."
*Note: Avatar is not a "kid's" movie. The movie is marketed to kids, however, through kids' meals, toys, and other advertising, so many kids will want to see it. For more information on the movie, see the clips below.