IF YOU GOWhat: "Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic."When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday and Oct. 28; 2 and 6 p.m. Oct. 29; 1 and 5 p.m. Oct. 30.Where: UTC's McKenzie Arena, Fourth and Mabel streets.Admission: $14-$45.Phone: 423-266-6627.Website: www.tickettracks.com.
It's kind of like "The Avengers." But Disney. On ice skates. And with fewer superpowers.
"Disney on Ice: 100 Years of Magic" celebrates the history of beloved stories and characters from Mickey Mouse and Jiminy Cricket to Buzz Lightyear and Nemo.
The full repertoire of Disney personae welcomes friends of all ages. Since 1981, Disney characters have stepped off the screen and out of the Magic Kingdom to glide over the ice as favorite tunes play. Next week, the gang will skate its way into Chattanooga for seven performances over five days at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga McKenzie Arena.
Fans will see Donald Duck drive a Zamboni; the Blue Fairy descend from a star to soar across the ice to the strains of "When You Wish Upon a Star"; Aladdin's genie (and a chorus of doppelgangers) inform audience members that they "never had a friend like me"; and Belle and her formerly beastly prince in a romantic pas de deux staged by Sarah Kawahara, an Emmy Award-winning choreographer who has worked with Olympic figure skater Michelle Kwan.
All this and so much more is part of the retrospective spectacular, in which guests travel across time and space, through more than 100 years of Disney stories and songs.
Sixty-five well-loved characters from 18 stories will be appearing, sporting familiar costumes and faces. Famed designer Bob Mackie, best known for outfitting Cher, even lends his talents to the spectacular, creating a red sequined evening gown for the first lady of Disney, Minnie Mouse herself.
Forty-seven performers, ranging in age from 18 to 43, spent more than 1,200 hours rehearsing for the tour, which will take them across 13,500 miles, to 32 U.S. and six South American cities.
Among the cast is Knoxvillian Adam Blake, a trick skater who first took to the ice as a small child, according to his bio from Feld Entertainment, the company that produces Disney on Ice.