Disney On Ice’s latest show, Worlds of Enchantment skated into Cardiff Motorpoint Arena on Wednesday evening bringing its usual magical mix of dance, music and storytelling to the ice rink.
Over the last few years I’ve been fortunate enough, along with my children, to witness several of these ice spectaculars, usually hosted by Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie Mouse and Goofy.
The one thing I notice on each occasion is how the magic of seeing Disney characters and ice dancing live has a broad appeal from toddlers to octogenarians. There’s something for everyone, and that’s the winning formula for this years show again, which revisits the familiar and adds a few new surprises in along the way.
Of course, the show starts with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse, Goofy and Donald Duck clowning around on the ice as they prepare their vacation.
Uncovering a box of toys leads neatly into an ice adaptation of Toy Story 3, in which the toys owner, Andy has now grown up and preparing for a change in his life including parting with his childhood toys. This leads into magical dance sequences for toy soldiers and appearances from Toy story characters Space hero, Buzz Lightyear and cowboys Woody and Jessie.
The in depth plot seems a little drawn out in places but the magical dance sequences featuring Barbie and Ken go down well (particularly with my 11 year old son who enjoyed Barbie turning the tables on Ken to save her friends).
Next up was a brief retelling of The Little Mermaid story, always a magical favourite with smaller children , particularly for its use of colour and underwater creatures including the ever-popular Flounder and Sebastian, For me, the seahorses particularly stood out, especially the beautiful white one that skated onto the rink.
The second half commenced with Mickey and Minnie Mouse running into car trouble which opened up a magical but brief sequence for the stars of Cars, Mator, Lightning McQueen and Sally Carrera. If anything, its fun to see the motorised megastars spring to life on the ice rink,
Last, but certainly not least were the characters from Frozen, the film favourite which has risen in popularity over the last few years and lends itself perfectly to the ice show format. From Anna and Elsa to Olaf the snowman, there’s no question that these characters are now firmly positioned among Disney’s all-time greats as children gasp and grown ups are transfixed as the musical fantasy unfolds.
As ever, Disney On Ice has plenty for the family to enjoy be they Mickey Mouse’s madcap exploits, the classic story-lines or even the magical ice dancing, which, if your not too careful, you can start taking for granted as there’s so much else going on.
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Disney On Ice runs at Cardiff Motorpoint Arena until April 29.