Disney On Ice, Genting Arena, Birmingham - review and pictures

What better way to forget those winter blues, embrace the spring and kick off the Easter holidays than with a good old dose of Disney magic to warm your heart.

The Genting Arena was transformed into the Worlds of Enchantment as Disney On Ice 2018 skated into town on what was the last day of school for many yesterday.

And the evening truly had that 'school's out' feel with hundreds of families flocking to see the spectacular show, with many little Disney-mad princesses turning out in their favourite frocks - my two girls included.

Toy Story, The Little Mermaid, Cars and Frozen are all adapted for the rink in this year's show. Mickey and co make an appearance as always and this year included a little Fit to Dance warm-up for the crowd to join in at the start before sitting back to enjoy the show.

First on the ice were the characters from Toy Story, including Woody and Buzz Lighyear of course, along with their pals like Slinky Dog and Mr Potato Head. How they were moving around the ice in those huge outfits is anyone's guess but it looked amazing.

The Green Army Men segment particularly had the audience at attention and was choreographed with military precision. So a big salute there. The story mainly follows the Toy Story 3 storyline with Lotso Huggin' Bear, Ken and Barbie gliding into the limelight. The sequence with Ken's outfit changes was fun to watch and sliding across the rink on a chair looks like a lot of fun - though I'm sure they make it look easier than it is.

After Toy Story it was off Under The Sea to the world of The Little Mermaid. Who can resist a sing-a-long to Under the Sea? Complete with bubbles drifting across the arena - the underwater world was magically brought to life on the rink. Who knew mermaids could skate? Or fish for that matter.

Another of the highlights came immediately after the interval when some life-sized cars from Cars hit the ice for a race. Lightning McQueen and his pals have been re-created for the show and really add something special - plus it gives the boys in the audience a break from all the princesses.

Finally... and still queen of the ice.. it was the turn of Elsa to take the spotlight with the big Frozen finale. It must be said the two skaters playing Elsa and her sister Anna were truly astonishing zipping around the place, even making me completely forget I was listening to Let it Go for the umpteenth time. The children are also always happy to see Olaf make an appearance with another sing-a-long number from the film, In Summer raising many smiles from those young and old.

A lovely evening with a happy ending of course.

Skate on down to the Genting to see Disney on Ice running there until April 1.