Disney on Ice–It’s Pocahontas, not Sacajawea

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend Disney On Ice 100 Years of Magic at US Bank Arena with O, courtesy of Mom Central, Disney, and Feld Entertainment. Cara was there with her daughter, as well as AmyInOHio and her family.

Some background: O is a VERY active three-year-old boy. I often get comments like, “Does he always have that much energy?” And the answer is “Um, yes.” Kid can run for hours.

So I was a little worried about what Disney on Ice would be like. Getting him to sit down in one place for more than about 30 minutes is usually pushing it, and then we add in the following:

I told O that we were going to see Mickey, “Minty,” Donald, and the gang soon, and that they would be skating on ice, and he asked,

“Why are they gonna be on ice, Mom?”

“Um, because some people like to watch people skating on ice. It’s pretty,” was my lame reply.

Why WAS it on ice? I wasn’t exactly sure. Luckily O accepted that at face value and didn’t ask any more questions. I grew a little more worried, but it turned out I needn’t be worried at all.

Fast forward to last night. I now know why it’s on ice. I think. Disney On Ice 100 Years of Magic was little snippets of some of the best Disney tales (the whole 100 years of magic thing…) reenacted on ice. They’re mostly musical numbers, and when the characters are skating around, you always get a good look. It’s not like two tiny people way far away on a stage. The skaters are always moving, twirling, spinning, and jumping, and it feels much more energetic than your run-of-the-mill play. Or that’s my theory, at least, and I’m sticking to it.

I was pleased to see that there was a good mix of the newer, Pixar Disney films, as well as the “princesses.” I was a little worried if it was too heavy on princesses, O would be scaling the walls at US Bank Arena, but it was a great mix. Some of the acts we both enjoyed more than others. For O it was the acts he knew—Nemo, Lion King, Toy Story, and Mickey (Mickey and the gang both act as emcees, as well as have their own little skits peppered within the show) were what he called out after as his favorites. Not surprisingly, those were some of my faves, too.

The princesses definitely made an appearance, and O even liked that part. It helped that there was lots of smoke and waving of sticks during those numbers. I was quizzed on a few of the princesses by AmyinOHio’s P, and failed big time when I told her that Pocahontas was Sacajawea. I also told both O and P that it was probably the rose that had a big part in transformation of the beast into a prince during the Beauty and the Beatst number. (The rose was in a spotlight on a pedestal! I was trying to take pictures of the kids enjoying the show!) So yeah, I gotta brush up on my princess knowledge.

After watching the Mulan number, I was intrigued and am now interested in seeing the movie. However, I did feel that particular number lasted a little too long, especially considering how late in the show it was. In fact, I don’t know if I was just tired (I had just worked all day) or what, but the latter half of the second act seemed to drag a little, personally.

Overall, O and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. He was engaged the entire time, was SO into clapping along whenever the music beat gave him a chance, and he loved dancing to the “Mickey Mouse Club” song. He was super upset when it was over, and didn’t want to leave. He obviously didn’t have the same feelings as the second act as I did, and that’s what’s most important, isn’t it? The children. Think of the children.

So Disney On Ice 100 Years of Magic kept my active 3-year-old content and happy for almost two hours. I guess there is a reason Disney has been around 100 years. Imagine that.

Want to go? You can get discount tickets by visiting ticketmaster.com and entering the code MOM for 4 tickets for $44 for a Monday-Friday matinee show or $4 off tickets for a weekend show. The show is in Cincinnati through the Sunday, September 27.