As an Easter holiday treat I took 3 very excited Disney fans to see Disney on Ice – Worlds of Enchantment – at the Echo Arena in Liverpool. The show started promptly at 6:30pm with high energy warm up group to get everyone dancing and in the mood. We had already met some of the stars of Disney backstage such as Woody and Minnie and Mickey Mouse so we were all even more excited to see the same characters performing in those outfits. The backstage meet and greet was really well done. Streamlined and organised with no huge queues to wait in with bored and restless kids. We were ushered straight in to meet the stars and given a healthy smoothie too!
The skill of the dancers combined with the staging and choreography is spine tingling even for grown ups in the audience!
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We had been allocated really good seats and had a brilliant view.
The main story in this version of Disney on ice follows the movie Toy Story, which was very well explained and would have been easy to follow even for those in the audience who were not familiar with the story of Woody, Buzz Lightyear and friends (Bo Peep the shepherdess, Mr. Potato Head, Rex the Dinosaur, Hamm the Piggy Bank, and Slinky the Dog) – all motionless objects in the toy store when humans are around, who later burst into life to compete for the attention of Andy the toy store owner. Our kids knew the story very well so they sat captivated and enthralled. The solo dance by Andy was spellbinding and the Toy soldiers were brilliantly choreographed – one solider even entered on parachute coming down from the ceiling!
Particularly impressive were the characters who had 2 skaters working in combination – so a big shout out to Slinky the dog and the horse. The skating was flawless.
Next an entrance was made by Ariel and Flounder – some of our household Disney favorites. Their outfits were very cleverly thought out and bubbles came down floating from the ceiling to accompany our favourite Disney song , “Part of you World”. The dazzling array of sea creatures and coral made for a beautiful spectacle, which ended the first half of the show.
The second half of the show started with Mickey and Minnie entering in a car complete with fireworks and smoke effects, which promptly broke down. Cue the “cars” Strip “The King” Weathers, infamous runner-up Chick Hicks, and rookie Lightning McQueen to come the rescue! The animation of the car scene was quite incredible – bodies lifted up and down and each car had facial expressions. We were so swept up in the magic of the whole scene that by the end we still hadn’t worked out whether the cars were actually driven or remote control! It was the subject of much debate for us all in the car on the way home. We had no idea how they did it- but we all agreed it was fantastic. My group were all girls (aged 6,7 and 8) but I am sure the show would appeal equally to boys, girls given the fact that it is not just about princesses.
The show also contained a Frozen section, which was a big hit with the whole audience, it seemed. The set was magical – complete with real water fountain.
The costumes and set design were outstanding throughout but the Frozen and Toy Story adaptions were the definite stars of the show and the two central stories. The highlights were the magical castle that appears on the ice, the fire works and the costumes for Anna and Elsa which enchanted all of my group of girls! Olaf makes his welcome appearance and sings the popular song “In Summer” with the audience joining in too. Elsa’s rendition of “Let it Go” was also a huge crowd-pleaser. It is also easy to combine a family day out to the theatre there with a trip to the Liverpool Big Wheel or some lunch at one of the nearby eateries such as Pizza Express, Prezzo or Costa Coffee.
We were given a programme which the kids have loved looking back over and reading the stories from.
We would thoroughly recommend this event. It is something I feel my group will remember for years to come.
NB We were invited to Disney on Ice but all views and opinions are our own. Also with thanks to Extraordinary Chaos for the photos.
