Behind-the-Scenes: Disney on Ice: Let's Celebrate
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Mickey and Minnie lose each other as they’re jaunting around the world, with the aid of Mickey’s malfunctioning Digital Global Destinator. Trying to find each other, they’re transported from place to place, their outfits changing to reflect the local celebrations every time they arrive at a different destination.
“It was really fun to think about what Mickey and Minnie would be wearing when they were being magically transported and traveling around,” Leuck said. “I’m such a huge fan of Disney and working down there and visiting so much at the Epcot Center, I sort of took the idea of the Epcot World Showcase area as a template for making it, you know, Disnified.”
A lot of additional hours of research by the designers went into bringing Mickey and Minnie to their various destinations.
“Like all holidays, each festival has some types of colors associated with it and one of the best ways to take us from place to place and really change the mood and feelings was to change the colors.” Leuck said.
The first stop after Hawaii is Brazil, for Carnivale, costumes and lights awash with pinks, greens and oranges - bright party colors - though Stuart wasn’t able to adopt the party spirit right away. Even the best creative minds struggle at times. She had a hard time getting into the music, which she initially found cheesy.
“I didn’t get it,” she said, “and I just had to go on YouTube and watch these crazy people having a fabulous time on the streets in all their feathers and all their ridiculousness and just open up into it.”
Score one for the World Wide Web.
“That was a really fun experience because usually if I don’t like the music I just can’t move to it, and this time it was like I was having a breakthrough!” Stuart laughed. “I had a block!” The end result of which will have you ready to dance through the streets wearing feathers of your own.
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“There’s one more that I love, love, love!” Stuart said of our next celebration, Sakura, the cherry blossom festival in Japan.
Among things to research here was fan dancing. The color palette of lavender, light pink and white enhances a feeling of calmness while Minnie and the ensemble perform a mesmerizing number with light up fans, gliding gracefully beneath a cherry blossom tree. It’s all quite Zen, and very beautiful.
“It doesn’t get a thunderous applause, but I think people appreciate the beauty of it and the quietness of that little section.” Stuart said.
Off to Chinese New Year, gold and reds, a Chinese dragon and another special new treat: indoor kite flying.
“It lends itself to the ice,” Stuart said, “because you can do indoor kite flying in your shoes on the floor but it doesn’t really have the glide like the skating does.”
We then visit New Orleans for Mardi Gras, where Tiana and Naveen have their chance to shine as they “Dig a Little Deeper” in a 1920s style number, joined by Minnie, decked out in a flapper dress, and Mickey in pinstripes and a spiffy bright yellow fedora. With many hats in the show for characters like Mickey and Minnie, Leuck decided to go for a modern and sleek look with them.
“I gave them hats that fit them more like a hat would fit a human so everything sort of goes in between their ears and over, say, Donald Duck’s hair and Goofy’s hair so that things fit them in a more realistic and streamlined sort of way.” Leuck said. “A pretty big part of the design and making them look the way they did was what the correct proportions of the hats were and it needed to be the same throughout the show for consistency.”
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The show concludes with an outstanding Winter Holiday segment, the full cast finale of which proved to be the biggest choreography challenge for Stuart. It took a lot of planning and plotting.
“In order to reintroduce all those characters we have to stage it in a way that is visually appealing, that doesn’t look like a big jumbled mess.” she said. “If we focus on, say, four of the princess couples, we have to make sure everybody else is clear out to the side so that we can see what we want to see, otherwise it can get really confusing seeing all those characters meandering around.”
When asked about their personal favorite holidays, at this time of year it’s only natural that all three ladies have family and friends on their minds.
“I know I’ve said Christmas before, but I love Thanksgiving,” Cindy Stuart said, “and I’m not always with my friends or family then because of my work which travels me around, but I really do have so much to be thankful for. I love my life, I love what I do, and sometimes it doesn’t even feel like work to me, you know? It’s a gift. And so I’m really thankful for that.”
For Vanessa Leuck the winter holidays strike the strongest chord. “Not necessarily the cold weather part,” she said. “I’m not a fan of that. Just the togetherness and the connection to family during the winter holidays is probably my favorite actual celebration.”
“I like Halloween,” Tetona Jackson said, “the whole dressing up thing. Christmas is always fun. You know, I think my favorite part about Christmas and Thanksgiving, though, is honestly the food. The food is amazing!” A Los Angeles native, having been on the road these past several years, she is looking forward to being close to family while the show is in town. “I’m actually lucky enough to be able to spend Christmas at home this year, so I’m really excited to have a home cooked meal!”
Related Links
- Disney on Ice Official Site
Includes Let's Celebration Touring Schedule
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-- Posted November 19, 2010
-- Story by Kaszandra Liput