DISNEY ON ICE

A review by Tanya Howard

Disney On Ice returned to London, at Wembley SSE Arena, last weekend and as a massive Disney lover I was so excited to hear the songs and see the stories performed on the ice. I wondered if the costumes would be true to the films, how they would put the performance together and would I be the only singing along to every song.

I’m happy to report that my inner child is still ageless, and she was more than happy to make an appearance on Saturday especially as my favourite Disney film The Little Mermaid would be featuring in the show. I was like a kid at Christmas when the show opened with Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy explaining how we were all going on an adventure in search of the World’s Greatest Treasure with a storybook lending us clues along the way.

The first half features Lion King, Snow White, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, Tangled and a finale dance to ‘Someday my Prince will come’ with all the Disney Princes and Princesses performing. From the applause at the interlude and the end I would say the show was a hit with both boys and girls, young and old, basically anyone who is happy to let a little Disney magic into their lives.

The Lion King performance was quite a long one in comparison to the rest of the first half stories, which was a little disappointing for me as I felt they could have finished up a bit earlier and included another story like Beauty and The Beast, Mulan, or any of the Disney Princesses featured in the first half finale.

This is more of a personal preference rather than an actual complaint about the show because aside from this I found no issues with the show. The ice-skating skill shown by all of the cast was incredible, and if anyone knows where I can train up to be their next Ariel please point me in the right direction.

In the second half we got to see songs from Toy Story, Finding Dory and a larger segment of Frozen to lead to the final closing number; a second rendition of Let It Go which saw everyone come out for bows and encore. We found that the World’s Greatest Treasure is in fact love, the love between family, friends, partners and everything and anything in between.

Like The Lion King my friends felt that the Frozen performance was too long and would have rather seen a more classic Disney film close the show. Personally, I got a little choked up watching the final scene when Anna sacrifices herself for Elsa, so I was more than happy with the ending choice.

The sets for each performance were well thought through and true to the stories we know and love, and had some great special effects supporting the performances. During the Frozen performance they seamlessly made a water fountain turn to ice and had snow falling just like in the film when Elsa’s powers are revealed.

The show was quite mesmerising, with the songs you can’t help but sing along to, the beautiful sets, the effective special effects and the incredible skating. And you just can’t beat seeing Minnie and Mickey Mouse on the ice with Donald and Goofy at their sides. If you get a chance to get tickets you won’t be disappointed and if you missed the show this time round they’ll be back next year with a whole new concept.