100 YEARS OF DISNEY

A review by Tanya Howard

Anyone who knows me well knows how much I love Disney and after seeing Disney On Ice at Wembley Arena in the Spring I couldn’t wait to see it again for the Winter show; 100 Years Of Magic.

My first thought was would it really be that different from the previous show and enough that I was remain interested throughout. And I’m happy to report that aside from the extended Frozen performance I was happy to see the show had been completely shaken up.

Opening with a Mickey and Minnie Mouse lead performance 100 Years Of Magic began with an upbeat Pinocchio routine and not only were we in awe of the spectacular lifts and skating expertise, we were in awe of being sat in the very front row with an incredible view of the show.

Following Pinocchio, we saw Dory taking Marlin and Nemo on an adventure to find her parents, including a really fun routine with Crush, Squirt and all the turtles helping the trio get to Morro Bay, California, whilst singing Joy To The World.

Next up was Beauty And The Beast, which is one of my top three Disney movies, so I was happy to see them get an extended performance as some are just one song in contrast to the full story being shortened into a small set. Personally, I can’t not sing along to the title song, who am I kidding I can’t not singalong to all Disney songs, and I loved how they created the transformation scene of Beast to Prince.

Once again, I was sad to see The Little Mermaid didn’t having a larger part in the show, only because it’s my absolute favourite, and Eric and Ariel were only featured in a Princess medley. The medley also featured Snow White, Cinderella, Jasmine, Rapunzel, Tiana and their respective Princes’, finishing off the first half of the show.

As Frozen ll has been on everyone’s minds and has just been released I can understand why this was still given such a large portion of the show, and although I have seen this particular piece before the skating and performance was so stunning that I was more than happy to watch it again.

After Frozen, we saw Aladdin and the Genie skating to Friend Like Me, before the Toy Story 4 characters took to the stage, including Forky and Bo Peep. Next up everyone sat around me had the absolute joy of seeing me absolutely belt out I’ll Make A Man Out Of You” when there was an extended Mulan performance which may have been my favourite of the night.

Finishing the show was The Lion King, which personally is not one of my favourites but the girls I went with absolutely loved this performance with one even getting choked up and close to the tears. As three thirty-year olds and one teenager in attention I think you can safely say you are never too old for a bit of Disney magic!