On December 18, 2009, Disney On Ice presents Princess Classics opened for a ten-day run at Toronto, Ontario’s Rogers Centre (formerly known as the SkyDome). The audience consisted largely of six-year-old girls, proudly dressed as Cinderella, Belle, Snow White or Jasmine (crowns and all!), and clearly very excited about the show as well as the glittering souvenir booths.
With Mickey and Minnie Mouse as hosts (and a little help from Tinker Bell), the show sketches out fast-paced retellings of the Disney movie versions of Aladdin, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Mulan, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Beauty and the Beast and Cinderella. The production comes to a climax with six stories sketched and resolved by the time the intermission arrives (precisely at the one-hour mark), so little ones up past their bedtime could be discreetly whisked back home without feeling they’d missed anything.
Disney Princesses Come to Life on Ice
The Princess Classics production is Disney-level polished, with ingenious quick-change sets that can transform in the blink of an eye from a forest to a fairytale castle, then blossom with fluorescent multicoloured coral to transport the audience “under the sea”. As one might expect from Disney, the costumes are exceptionally pleasing; they manage to convey all the familiar Disney sweethearts and their comic companions and villainous adversaries in detail while still allowing for acrobatic motion.
Among standout effects are an enormous wrinkled skating elephant, a flying carpet, Sleeping Beauty’s dress (which changed from pink to blue at the wave of a fairy’s wand), and several magical transformations that happen right before the spectators’ eyes.
The skating performances are – if not of Olympic medal quality – more than satisfying and well executed enough to please the skate dancing enthusiasts among the parents in the crowd. Especially noteworthy is Beauty’s Beast, who executes his spins and jumps in an enormous furry costume.
Princess Classics on Tour in North America
The Toronto Rogers Centre production of Disney On Ice Princess Classics continues until December 27, 2009. There’s a wide range of ticket prices, from a rather affordable starting point of $15 up to $90 for rinkside seats, where spectators may get a personal wave or wink from Aladdin’s Genie or Tinker Bell. The Toronto Rogers Centre box office can be reached online, or by telephone at 416-870-8000.
Princess Classics travels to Bridgeport, Connecticut (December 30 to January 3); Hartford, Connecticut (January 6 to 10); Buffalo, New York (January 20 to 24); Winnipeg, Manitoba (February 17 to 21); London, Ontario (February 25 to 28); Montreal (March 3 to 7); Ottawa (March 10 to 14) and Hamilton, Ontario (March 17 to 21) before the company returns for another Toronto engagement with an entirely new production calles Disney on Ice presents Let's Celebrate! from March 3 to 7, 2010. Disney On Ice continues to tour North America indefinitely.
Disney On Ice in Europe and Asia
Currently, there are several other Disney On Ice productions on North American tour. These include Disney / Pixar’s Finding Nemo and 100 Years of Magic. International Disney On Ice productions include Mickey and Minnie’s Magical Journey, touring the Czech Republic, Finland, Denmark and Germany through to the end of February 2010; Disneyland Adventure in China in January 2010, and Princess Wishes, touring Belgium in February 2010.
Sarah B. Hood - Author of We Sure Can! How Jams and Pickles are Reviving the Lure and Lore of Local Food and Toronto: The Unknown City.
