The magic of Disney
THE SWEET smell of caramel popcorn was in the air as children dressed up as princes and princesses were seen running along the hallway of the Plenary Hall in the KL Convention Centre.
It was a perfect weekend out for parents with their children to catch the live performance of Three Classic Fairy Tales presented by Disney Live! from Oct 24 to 26.
The interactive show was based on the Disney animated films of three timeless fairytales – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast.
By 7.45pm, the hall was filled with excited children who couldn’t wait to see their favourite icons from both Disney films and cartoons.
When Goofy pranced on to the stage at 8pm sharp, the children screamed with joy. He then introduced the audience to the mischievous Donald Duck and sweet Minnie Mouse.
Goofy then made the children shout out Mickey Mouse’s name before the iconic cartoon character appeared and proceeded to open a book of fairytales to present the first classic story of the night – Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
The scene opened with Snow White singing I’m Wishing By the Well as she dreamed of her Prince Charming.
The scene then cut to the Evil Queen in her chamber asking the Magic Mirror who is the fairest of them all.
When the Seven Dwarfs appeared on stage, the children screamed in excitement and sang along to Heigh-Ho.
Later, as the Evil Queen transformed into an old lady, there was a hush in the hall.
But when she was about to offer the poisoned apple to Snow White, she asked the children if Snow White should eat the apple.
The children shouted “no” in unison. But of course, Snow White ate the apple and fell into a deep slumber.
It all ended well when the prince later appeared and saved her from her predicament.
As we all knew how the classic fairytale played out, there wasn’t much of a surprise in the story but it still kept the children watching in awe and gasping at the Queen’s evil doings.
The next tale was Cinderella with the poor girl dressed in rags and being bullied to do more house chores by her stepmother, Lady Tremaine, and her ugly stepsisters, Anastasia and Drizella.
When an invitation to the royal ball arrived, Cinderella begged Lady Tremaine to let her go as well. She agreed on two conditions – first, Cinderella must finish all her chores and second, she must have a suitable dress to wear for the ball.
To the tune of The Work Song, the mice found and fixed Cinderella’s late mother’s dress for her. But as she donned the dress, her stepsisters stepped in and destroyed it.
While crying in misery, Cinderella’s fairy godmother appeared and turned the ripped dress into a beautiful ball gown with the help of the young audience singing along to the song, Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo.
Cinderella then met the prince who fell in love with her but she had to rush home by the stroke of midnight and accidentally left behind one glass slipper.
But of course, this fairytale once again ended happily when the prince finally found Cinderella whose foot was the only one to fit perfectly into the glass slipper.
There was a 20-minute intermission before Beauty and the Beast took to the stage.
Belle was introduced to the audience reading in the middle of the streets of France and approached by the arrogant hunter Gaston.
Gaston tried to woo her but was promptly rejected as he made fun of her reading habit.
When Belle discovered her father has been captured by the Beast in his castle for trespassing, she offered to take his place.
Here, the audience were entertained by the ever-familiar musical numbers, Be Our Guest and Beauty and the Beast, as slowly, the Beast fell in love with her and was willing to let her go when she found out that her father was sick.
When Gaston realised that Belle too had fallen for the Beast, he threatened to kill him while convincing the villagers that the Beast is a man-eating monster.
A fight ensued but, of course, once again, all ended well when Belle professed her love to the Beast which broke the curse and returned him to his human form.
The performance then ended with a dance with all of the characters together with the Disney icons themselves.
The performance as a whole was enjoyable with scene transitions beautifully and smoothly executed.
Cinderella’s ball gown transformation was also impressively done while the royal ball scene was magnificently displayed on stage with the dancers all dressed in elegant costumes.
Though the children did lose some patience by the end of it, standing in their seats and moving around a lot, it was obvious they enjoyed the performance much more than the adults.