Disney on Ice cast its magic when it returned to Liverpool this week for the first time in four years.
The ice skating spectacle was due to visit the city in March 2020, but the tour was cancelled due to lockdown. This week, the waiting was over for Disney fans who saw their heroes come to life on the ice in a mesmerising two hour show.
Many young children in the audience arrived having dressed the part, wearing costumes to match their favourite characters and there was plenty of Disney merch on sale for those willing to pay the price (£12 for popcorn, wow). The show began with Mickey’s crew, which included Minnie, Donald and Pluto taking to the ice to welcome everyone and begin a search for Tinkerbell who had been captured by pesky pirates.
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The crew whipped around the arena performing synchronized tricks, flicks and back flips, setting the tone for what was to come throughout the night. We then began meeting characters from all our favourite Disney films including Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Coco and more.
One of the highlights from the first half was the Toy Story segment, which impressed not least for the performances by the ‘Hamm’ piggy bank and ‘Rex’ dinosaur skaters who mastered the ice while wearing huge inflated costumes.
The stunts left the audience captivated throughout the night - we saw ice skaters doing somersaults on trampolines, leaping over giant blocks of ice and skating down a huge slide. To do so while wearing crazy constricting costumes and making it all look so effortless, was seriously impressive.
While this was a show that primarily appealed to the members of the audience who were tottering around in miniature Elsa, Woody and Belle costumes, it was clear the ‘grown ups’ were having just as much fun throughout. Indeed, the younger members of the audience squealed like super fans at a Harry Styles concert whenever their heroes appeared on stage, but I could also clearly hear much older voices belting out ‘I AM MOANAAAAA’ and other Disney classics, throughout the night.
A highlight of the second half of the show included the Aladdin sequence, which saw some of the skaters spinning round on aerial silks, Greatest Showman-style, while others somehow waltzed effortlessly around the ice on stilts. Of course, the night wouldn’t have been complete without a Frozen segment and the arena was captivated as Elsa belted out Let It Go, as ‘snow’ began to fall all around her.
There was no reference to the more recent Disney hit Encanto, or even Frozen 2, but no one seemed to mind and the evening ended with all the characters returning to the stage, including Tinkerbell who had been freed from the lantern in which she was trapped.
It was a packed night at the arena and hopefully it won’t be another four years before the spectacle returns to the city once more. Disney on Ice is at M&S Bank Arena until today (Sunday, March 19, before moving onto Glasgow OVO Hydro from March 22-26. Tickets are on sale now via www.disneyonice.co.uk.
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