Monday, March 14, 2016

Disney on Ice Review: A magical adventure!

Magical and spectacular!

Disney on Ice was that and more as it brought Dumpling on a magical journey and I got to relive my childhood. It was with a undercurrent of excitement as we waited for the show to start. There's something about that Disney magic that touches us in different ways.


(The young and the not so old, were all waiting eagerly)

The show mainly consists of 4 stories ~ The Little Mermaid, Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and of course, Frozen. The show started with the classic characters Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald and I could hear the squeals from the parents (yes! The parents!) at this stage. Ha ha ha ha



:: The Little Mermaid 

After a colourful introduction, Disney's well-loved crab, Sebastian came on stage and began the segment with Ariel's 6 other sisters. And true to the original tale, Ariel was missing and that marked the start of the story of The Little Mermaid. Each of the 4 stories was a condensed version of the original cartoon (since the show lasts for about 2 hours with a short intermission) but it does not lose the plot.


This was actually the segment that I enjoyed the most. Being so caught up with the show, I did not realise that I sang quite loudly to "Part of your World" until the song was over and the mum in the row in front of me, turned around and (ahem) said that yours truly have a lovely voice!!! (My hubs would disagree by the way!) So yes, I would say that my evening started on a great note!

What to watch out for:
The underwater scene was beautifully created with vibrant backdrops. The costumes were bright and colourful; even the hubs found Flounder really cute. What impresses me most from this act was not just her skating but Arielle's aerial performance with just a cloth panel.

There were moments where she was hands-free and was suspended on the rope with just some twirls around her legs!

:: Rapunzel

The show then moved on to the story of Rapunzel. Rapunzel's "mother" was not overly scary / evil in so it is great for young kids too. The story starts with Rapunzel longing to view the "Floating Lights" to the vehement disagreement of "mother". "Mother" then left to acquire some paints and this is where Flynn accidentally stumbles upon the castle.

What to watch out for: 
I personally love the horse with its grumpy expression and I love the beautiful floating lights scene. Against the darkened backdrop, the effect was beautiful.


More than that, I thought that the actress played the sassy Rapunzel very well. From a choreography standpoint, this ice skating pair was really impressive. Both were clearly very strong skaters with amazing pair lifts in the syncronised dance - eagle spreads and curved lifts were beautifully executed. :)



:: Beauty and the Beast

Finally, it was Belle's turn to enter into the rink. Dumpling was waiting eagerly for as she has been a big fan of Beauty and Beast, where I brought her to watch the musical 2 years back. She likes that Beauty is a bookworm (haha!) and yes, in Belle's words, she finds Gaston "boorish" too! :p


The segment started after a short 10 - 15 mins intermission (they have to "zamboni" the ice surface) with Gaston having identified Belle as the "luck girl" who will be his wife. It then transitions into Belle stumbling upon Beast's castle and that started her friendship with the enchanted characters in the castle.


The Beast was tyrannical yet vulnerable and even in that short segment, I felt his despair being trapped by the spell. Being her favorite segment, Dumpling sang to all the songs and my favorite was the signature "Be Our Guest". :)


What to watch out for

I have always loved the costumes when I first caught the cartoon years back and to see it "live" was an enjoyable experience for me. I love Cogsworth and at one point, Luminere was standing at one of the raised corner platform waving to us. Of course, for the kiddo, she likes Chip the most. :)

Belle had many wonderful solo skating and fanciful moves - standing splits, camel, eagle spreads, etc. (I hope that I remember them correctly!) and from an aesthetic perspective, they were beautiful to watch.



:: Frozen

And of course, the show had to end with "Frozen" as the final segment. :) This story needs no introduction since it hit our shores about 3 years back. Every girl fell in love with Elsa and Anna while the boys favored Sven and Olaf.

The story started with Sven and Kristoff and here's a sneak peak:



And true to that, squeals of delight when Olaf came on stage and yours truly was clapping and cheering for the adorable snowman too. :)



This final segment started as a flashback with Anna meeting Kristoff and Sven where she shared what happened and asked him for help in locating Elsa.


Songs that were sang included "Love is an Open Door", "For the First Time in Ever", besides the famous "Let it Go". Elsa and Anna were of course absolutely gorgeous. The plot quickly escalated to Anna having located Elsa and got injured in the process before returning to look for Hans.


What to watch out for

Elsa was definitely the one to watch out for in terms of skating prowess. Her skating moves (standing splits and triple jumps) were choreographed to Let It Go which was complemented with Pyrotechnics. Snowflakes, foam and blue light added to the whole winter feel which was truly a sight to behold.


You can hear how loudly the girls were singing along with Elsa and see how graceful the snow queen was in this clip:


Olaf, in his usual fashion, also provided some lighthearted humor (watch out for my Olaf favorite scene with his famous line "some people are worth melting for") with some physical comedy (let's just say that he's got his head loose at some point :p).

The show definitely ended on a "high" with pyrotechnics and Micky, Minnie, Donald and Goofy to bid everyone farewell.


If you have not bought tickets yet, you should do so because this Magical Ice Festival is a "must-watch" this March holidays. And judging from the clapping, singing and cheers, I believe that I am not the only one who feels that way. :)

Tickets for Disney On Ice presents Magical Ice Festival can be purchased online here
Show Schedule is as below:
 

To learn more about the magical experience - Magical Ice Festivalplease visithttp://www.disneyonice-asia.com/magical-ice-festival/

Disclaimer: We were invited to watch Disney on Ice: Magical Ice Festival to give our opinions about it. All opinions expressed are entirely ours. 

Photo credit: images without watermark are provided by Feld Entertainment. 

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