Arts & Entertainment

The Toys are Back in Town—and on Ice!

Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3 show is—wait for it—pretty cool.

World-class figure skating! Rousing musical numbers! Merciless merchandising! If you want to see the little Disney fan in your life's head explode (based on my very limited sample of one very happy 3-year-old girl), then get thee to an indoor arena near you for Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3.

The show runs through Christmas Day at the Honda Center before moving to the Long Beach Arena on Jan. 4-8. If you're a fan of the Toy Story films, this show follows the plot of the third movie pretty well and, in general, the format is very creative in terms of how the show progresses from one part of the plot to the next.

It's all set up with a visit from Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Donald Duck and Goofy, who give way to the Sarge and his plastic troops, cleverly tasked with introducing the rest of the characters, getting you up to speed on their lives to this point and, quite literally, setting the stage.

Find out what's happening in Fountain Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

As far as the skating goes, it's so well-done it almost seems effortless. At times, it was easy to forget the entire cast was on skates. And although the aerial acrobatics of the principal skaters were certainly impressive, it was hard to not to be even more impressed by the ability of the other skaters—two at a time in some cases—to navigate the ice as Rex, Ham, Slinky Dog and Lotso in costumes that were very much to scale.

If skating's not your thing, the music and the lighting effects are very entertaining on their own. The run time is pretty long—about two hours—for kids and grownups alike, especially for the 7:30 p.m. start times. But there's an intermission about halfway through, and plenty of hair-raising adventures in Act 2 to help you get your second wind.

Find out what's happening in Fountain Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here