Disney on Ice

 

     “I think we may have got the B-Team.”

     That comment came from a dancer who watched the wavy lines of the “dancers” on ice skates as they stretched across the hockey rink.  True, the chorus line didn’t line up nearly as precisely as the Rockettes.  I noticed it, too, but it wasn’t that much of a distraction for 2-left-feet me.

      I got lost in the lighting and the special effects, and trying to follow the Disney story lines.  I recognized Aladdin, Snow White, and of course Mickey and Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck (no nephews), and a few others.  I had to rely on Grandson to enlighten me when it came to sisters Elsa and Anna, one of the major story lines.

     Elsa was a goddess whose anger could turn July into winter, complete with snow falling, and inflict Anna’s heart with ice because she wanted to marry the handsome Prince after only one brief meeting.  Elsa departs and Anna sets out to find her to convince her to return the weather to July and bless her union with the handsome Prince. 

    In the quest, Anna runs into some real characters including a snowman who is the only one who truly appreciates winter in July, and a wart hog, which had to be a skater with skates on his hands, skating around bent over enough for his hands to contact the ice.  What a backache he must have after his appearance.

 

     Anna also encounters a young, humble woodsman who has an interest in helping to find Elsa and convincing her to return the climate to July (a refreshing change from climate warming).  Together, they  find Elsa, who in anger not only refuses to correct the weather, but turns Anna’s heart to ice.

     The only way for Anna to get her warm heart back is by true love.  The handsome Prince tries to revive her but fails!  It takes the young woodsman kneeling by her side to revive Anna.  The truth dawns on all of them, except the poor old obtuse Prince. 

     Elsa was right.  A match between Anna and the Prince was not made in heaven.  When the Prince steps in and tries to claim the newly-revived Anna, he is rewarded with a brisk slap to the face from Anna.  She and the woodsman are destined to live happily ever after.

      The snow stops, the sun comes out, every body is happy except the poor old snowman, who has been such a help in locating and placating Elsa. He realizes that his day is about done, but he says it’s worth a meltdown to see Elsa, Anna, and the woodsman so happy.  Elsa rewards him with a permanent cloud of snow flakes and cold to accompany him everywhere he goes.   Thus, they ALL live happily ever after, a truly Disney ending, with a year-round snowman.

      As I watched the story unfold in lots of song and dance, I thought this is just like opera, except for the absence of fat ladies and rigidly-erect baritones singing with vibrato ranging a full step above and below the note.  I had to back off that judgment and think, this is a musical on ice, with the skaters doing the dancing to canned music, music like most performances these days, too loud.

     It wasn’t as loud as the noise played during a hockey game, but loud enough I had crammed pieces of Kleenex in my ears because I forgot to bring my ear plugs.  I told the usher that he should have a private concession and offer ear plugs for sale to those he helped to seat.  He laughed and said I could probably get ear plugs from the head office, but I said Kleenex would work.

    There were other characters I hadn’t a clue about, such as the Chinese warriors, whom I mistakenly referred to as Samurai.  I got severely corrected for not knowing that they were Chinese and not Japanese.  Oh well. They all rook arike.  Uh oh.  I have crossed the line of political correctness.

     The whole experience took me back nearly 70 years when Uncle Wilbur and Aunt Dell took us all to the “ice follies” or “ice capades.”  I remember the colored lighting, especially the blue.  There were probably a lot more colors that I couldn’t see.  I remember Peter Pan, in green, streaking across the sky in front of us, and later Wendy and maybe a kid or two, all able to fly.

    The other thing I remember was Uncle Wilbur insisting he buy snow cones for us, and I insisted on a blue one.  It was pina colada, and it tasted terrible.  I sat there with the thing melting in my hand.  The adults didn’t want it and they were debating what to do with it. 

      Uncle Wilbur took it from me and threw it down behind the seats.  We must have been near the top of the coliseum, because there weren’t any chairs behind us.  I’m sure Mom was scandalized.  I guess I must have felt something in that way, too, as I still remember Uncle Wilbur’s trespass all these years later.

 

       From an old person’s point of view:  As this show opened, the skaters all came out in their leotards and circled the ice several times, as a sort of warm up, I think.  One of the best skaters I saw out there had a bald spot on the top of his head near the back, and a receding hairline. 

 

       I enjoyed the experience of Disney on Ice.  Everyone should take in the ice follies once or twice in a lifetime.  One of the best things about this experience: It was right here in Loveland.   I didn’t have to go to Denver to enjoy it.

 

In the audience: