Add Some Sumptuous Silence to Your Halloween Watchlists with Lon Chaney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ September 20, 2021
Witness the Birth and Evolution of a Genius: Three Early Makoto Shinkai Films Land on Blu-ray June 16, 2022
(Disney on Ice:100 Years of Magic is currently playing at the Royal Farms Arena in Baltimore, MD, through Sunday, November 1. Buy tickets here. The show is currently touring around North America, and there are lots of dates in lots of different cities, so check the full calendar to see if it’s playing near you.) There are currently five different touring Disney on Ice shows, and if you live in a major city, then you’re likely to see one of them come your way with some regularity. Earlier this year, we here in the Baltimore/DC region got World of Fantasy, and now 100 Years of Magic is coming through town. The shows do have some distinct differences, but in all honesty, they’re remarkably similar. Even though we were prepared for this show to be cobbled together from recycled bits we’ve seen in other Disney on Ice performances, we were still pleasantly surprised to see some new characters and musical numbers. Why 100 years of magic? Good question. As far as I can tell, that name is just figurative. Almost nothing of lasting significance happened in 1915, and it wasn’t until 1923 that Walt and Roy Disney moved to Hollywood and set up their first animation studio. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit first appeared in 1926, and Mickey Mouse made his debut (with sound) in Steamboat Willy in 1928. So if we’re really meant to celebrate 100 years of magic with these characters, we still have a ways to go. Despite the seemingly random name, this show actually has a rather nice variety of performances. The show begins, as all Disney on Ice shows do, with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, and Goofy. Here, they lead a marching band, which segues into the character numbers. The first half consists of Pinocchio, Finding Nemo, Beauty and the Beast, a medley with almost all of the princesses (and their princes), and multiple songs from Frozen. The indestructible Let It Go finishes up the first half. The highlight of the first half had to be the Finding Nemo segment. The costumes for Marlin, Nemo, and Dory are inventive, and a larger-than-life Crush rolls around the ice. Plus, the costumes for Squirt and his friends are just beyond adorable. The second half includes Aladdin, Toy Story, Mulan, and The Lion King. The addition of Mulan was a nice surprise, since it’s one of my daughter’s favorite movies, and it was an extended segment that ended with a huge Chinese dragon (Mushu, of course) parading across the ice. The finale features almost all of the characters together at once, and it’s then that you get a real sense for how big the cast for the show truly is. One of the “selling features” of 100 Years of Magic is that it doesn’t dwell too much on any one story. Almost every song from Frozen was included, but I think that’s probably to be expected at this point. But even then, they didn’t attempt to tell the entire story. If you’ve been to Disney on Ice before, you know what to expect. 100 Years of Magic is definitely in keeping with the established formula. If you like what you’ve seen before, then you’ll probably like this one. If you don’t care for Disney on Ice, then there’s not much here that will win you over. However, if you’ve never been to a Disney on Ice show, I’d recommend this one since it gives a good flavor from many different movies, and there’s enough here to satisfy kids and families with wildly different tastes. (Disclosure: I am a Feld Family Ambassador. As part of this program, I received complimentary tickets to Disney on Ice. All opinions remain my own.) You Might Also Like...
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Add Some Sumptuous Silence to Your Halloween Watchlists with Lon Chaney’s ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ September 20, 2021
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