Review of Disney on Ice presents Frozen – April 2016

I must say, I was very impressed with this show!  I really had no doubt that I would be as I have never seen anything by Disney to disappoint, but as I had never been to a Disney on Ice show, I didn’t know what to expect.  I really and truly thought that we would only see the characters from Frozen, so I was so happy when the show was opened by my personal favorite character – Mickey Mouse!!!  He along with Minnie, Donald and Goofy opened and closed the show along with other Disney favorites including:  Buzz & Woody, Timon & Pumba, Nemo and the gang who were lots of fun and sometimes silly on their skates. And there were lots of Princes and Princesses:  Snow White & her Prince, Rapunzel & Flynn, Cinderella & Prince Charming and Ariel & Eric who skated gracefully and did some amazing leaps and turns.  This excited me to no end and was such a surprise because I was not expecting them!  Mickey and the rest of the Fab Four were so cute decked out in their winter best!

Now onto Frozen…  the show opened with Anna & Elsa as small girls who just wanted to play and frolic and build a snowman.  Then a tragedy occurs when Anna is hit in the head by Elsa’s powers and has to be whisked away to the trolls for help.  Kristoff & Sven are also so cute as their younger selves running around with a tiny sled full of ice. 

Then the show followed the movie with them growing up and Anna asking to build a snowman and Elsa ignoring her, leading up to coronation day.  My favorite character from this scene is the Duke of Weaselton!!!  He is hilarious and ‘dances’ so entertainingly on his skates and the hair…  don’t even get me started on the hair that flips on and off his head as he moves around! 

Anna & Elsa begin to argue because she wants to marry Hans who she just met and the glove flies off a the lights start flashing and smoke is exploding from her powers.  Let me say here that the show did a really good job on the effects from Elsa’s powers with the use of lighting, sound, smoke and flashes of fireworks.  Of course, ‘Let It Go’ was the highlight of the show!  When Elsa jumps up on a small side platform and throws off her cloak to reveal the blue ice dress beneath… wonderful!  And of course it began to snow everywhere! 

-Intermission where we were all able to go down by the ice and take pictures, no characters though, just us with the stage as a background.  And they brought out the machines to smooth the ice for the second half.-

Then we meet grown up Kristoff & Sven on a giant sleigh!  Sven is huge too with two actors filling the reindeer suit.  (I wish we would have seen the guy from the Wandering Oaken’s Trading Post – Woo Hoo – but he was not part of the show.)  And Olaf…  I just LOVE Olaf!  There was a full/tall Olaf that was a tall as the human actors and then when he lost his head, there was what seemed to be a remote control bottom half running around the stage.  Both were cute!  Ok, so ‘Summer’ was my absolute favorite part of the show!  All of the extra actors came out skating/dancing as bees or flowers or seagulls wearing Hawaiian shirts.  It was happy and fun!!!

So they make it to the ice palace – in the show it was represented by a huge double sided staircase – and confront Elsa who sends them on their way with Marshmallow in tow.  Now, I just loved this part!!!  He was also remote control and came out on a flat platform and began to inflate.  And he got bigger and bigger until he was just enormous.  Well done!

Now on to Kristoff’s family.  He’s crrraaazzyyy!  haha that always makes me smile!  But they do the cutest rendition of ‘Fixer Upper’!

So you know the rest of the story…  They rush Anna back to kiss Hans who ends up being the bad guy….  Elsa is imprisoned by Hans but breaks out…  Olaf comes to Anna’s rescue because she is worth melting for…  Anna saves Elsa from Hans just as she is frozen into solid ice, but her act of true loved saved her!  Anna punches Hans in the face – yes!  And the two sisters live happily ever after!

One item to note about the entire show…  I expected the characters to talk and sing as they do in the Frozen Sing-a-long show at Hollywood Studios, but they did not.  They lip synced to the original voices from the movie.  I actually liked this as it seemed to help the show feel authentic having the same character’s voices and music from the movie that we have all see a billion times and are so familiar with.

Also, seating was not what I expected.  I have been to concerts at this venue before, so I got seats in a section that I associated with being close to the ‘stage’.  But Disney on Ice is set up differently.  The ‘theater’ was set up in a horseshoe shape with the ice in the center and the seating around.  At the rear of the ice is a backdrop that leads to back stage.  The best seats would be at the center of the horseshoe looking straight down the ice towards the back drop as these seats would be at the front of the ice/stage.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think you can get a bad seat, but if you can choose, these would be the best!

Overall, I was very happy with the show and will definitely be taking my family to productions in the future!

I did take video of the show and I hope to have that posted on our YouTube channel on Sunday!

Honesty… My camera did not do very well with a zoom in low light, so these are not my photos, except the ones of my family.  I give full credit to Frozen on Ice – Instagram.  Please follow them for more awesome photos of the show!

Alisa