DISNEY ON ICE

It is good to see that Disney continues to make sure they offer something for the whole family.

I realized this recently when I attended Disney on Ice, which puts some of your favorite characters on ice skates to lip sync to movie tracks.

For my wife, there was the graceful choreography of dozens of ice dancers. For my daughter, there were some of her favorites, in particular the Little Mermaid. For me, there was what appeared to be a burlesque show on ice, performed by a scantily dressed Cruella De Vil.

Prior to attending Disney of Ice, we were a little concerned about my daughter’s reaction. At 3 years old, she has decided to develop a fear of anything that is either moving or still. I know that most of the fears are just for show, such as when she tells me she is fearful of her bed, and that she would only feel safe lying in Mommy and Daddy’s bed and watching Beauty and the Beast for the 47,000th time.

But sometimes you can tell that she is getting a little spooked by things. We found this out when we went to Disney World a few months ago. During the performance of a Little Mermaid show, she made it very clear that she was not happy there. We left after about two minutes, when she bellowed, “I WANT TO GO. NOW.” I am not positive, but I think several of the on-stage crabs were subtly motioning to us the location of the exits.

But we decided that we would give Disney on Ice a try, as it certainly seemed to be a very upbeat performance, and we had told her all about what to expect. Granted, those conversations went like this:

US: Now remember, if you get scared, just remember that it’s people pretending to be Disney characters.

ALLIE: What if Ursula’s there?

US: That will just be a character. Just like The Little Mermaid.

ALLIE: Ursula’s a sea witch.

US: But it’s a person who’s pretending to be Ursula.

ALLIE: The person’s a sea witch?

Perhaps trying to reason with her was a mistake. But we decided to brave it. When we got to our seats, Allie found out that we had, in her opinion, terrible seats. They were on the second row. Most would have been thrilled with the seats. Allie saw this as a prime opportunity to be grabbed by a sea witch.

When the show started, the lights dimmed, and Allie reacted the way we were afraid of: She climbed in my lap, saying, “I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home...” I tried to calm her, and she responded by climbing to her mother’s lap and saying, “I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home...”

Her mood changed quite a bit when Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Daisy Duck,

Goofy and Mickey Mouse came skating out. She hopped off of her mother’s lap and into her seat between us. A smile crawled across her face. Her eyes were transfixed on her characters. And she kept saying, “I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home...” For the next hour or so, Allie laughed, clapped, grinned and giggled, continuing her requests to head homeward. After about five minutes, my wife and I just shrugged it off, figuring she was letting her fear response mechanism fly on autopilot.

We decided that she was enjoying the show, and the “I want to go homes” were now just an under-the-breath mutter. We went through Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians and The Little Mermaid bits, all being greeted with equal joy. Even when they brought out about a 40-foot tall inflatable Ursula, Allie didn’t freak out, something that surprised me a little because, frankly, that was one really big sea witch.

When we got to the final segment, we headed into foreign territory.

That part of the show was about Lilo and Stitch, a movie Allie has not seen. And, whether you have seen it or not, I think we can all agree on one thing: Stitch is one of the creepiest looking things going. I’m not sure which Disney artist was tasked with creating the alien’s look, but perhaps he should turn his attentions back to assisting Rick Baker. When Stitch came out, Allie again told us that she wanted to go home, but added the actual act of going home to the mix. At that point, my wife retreated with her to the top of the section level, where Allie could watch the show at a safe distance.

But other than a little fear at the end, Allie seemed to have a good time. She told us over and over about The Little Mermaid part of it, which was clearly her favorite. As my wife and I discussed it, my wife told me that I missed some great action during the 101 Dalmatians part. Apparently, there were performers OTHER than Cruella De Vil. Who knew?