The frigid, icy “Frozen” is part of a double feature based on two of the biggest Disney animated features of this century for the latest Disney On Ice spectacular to hit Hartford. The other Disney film adapted, “Encanto,” takes place in a warmer climate, the mountains of Colombia.
“Frozen & Encanto” is at PeoplesBank Arena for seven performances Jan. 15-18. It’s the first Disney on Ice spectacular since the arena was renovated and renamed last year.
The ice show retells the familiar stories from both films. The fairy tale “Frozen” adventure of royal sisters Elsa and Anna takes up the first act while the Madrigal family of “Encanto” and their magic candle fills the second act. The whole Disney On Ice spectacle is framed by big production numbers featuring other Disney characters on ice skates. The performers skate in costumes as princesses, Madrigals, townspeople, animals or whatever is needed. The vast arena rink allows for expansive figure skating routines, but there is also room for sets and props and platforms.
It takes a cast of over 40 skaters to perform “Frozen & Encanto,” many of whom came to the show after impressive careers as competitive skaters. The six principal skaters are Miles Addison, Hannah Callahan, Alexis Gagnon, Diana Gonzalez Flores, Jesse MacDonald and Gabriel St. Jean. MacDonald and St. Jean are Canadian, while the rest of the current principals are from the U.S. The supporting ensemble is diverse, with skaters from South Africa, Ukraine, Brazil, France, Thailand, Russia, the UK, Japan, Estonia and Germany.
Even the village donkeys skate in Disney On Ice’s “Frozen & Encanto.” (Geo Rittenmyer)
Adam Loosley is the creative director of the “Frozen & Encanto” edition of Disney On Ice. It is the first show he directed for the series. He’s directed five more since then, one of which is so new that it hasn’t debuted yet and Loosley can’t even say what it is. He says most Disney On Ice shows tour for a decade and may travel “the entire world.” The shows are produced by Feld Entertainment, the same company that brings the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus and the Monster Jam monster truck show to arenas.
Loosley began with Disney On Ice as a performer. He’s toured through Connecticut many times before in a number of different capacities. He likes to check in on the shows on the road when he can.
He calls “Frozen” and “Encanto” “the two biggest Disney films ever.” “Frozen” in particular, he said, is a natural tie-in for an ice show. “It makes sense, it works.” But with both stories, he said, “you get speed, flow, athleticism.” These are some of the building blocks he needs to create a fluid, fast-moving ice show that entertains on multiple levels.
“I’m so proud of it,” Loosley said. “An ice show is a blank canvas. It’s a huge undertaking to record a two-hour show from scratch. You get to build something with the cast members that’s going to last. You collaborate with all these people to create something really cool.”
It’s only fitting that “Frozen” gets performed on ice. Disney On Ice’s “Frozen & Encanto” is at PeoplesBank Arena Jan. 15-18. (Geo Rittenmyer)
Sometimes the process of developing new shows is affected by the release of a new Disney film that speeds the process of adapting it to ice rinks. “Frozen” was released in 2013 and was adapted to an ice show a year later. The “Encanto” movie came out in 2021, but instead of getting its own show, the existing “Frozen” tour was modified to allow for one half of it to be “Encanto.” Both stories have been condensed to their main scenes and songs but still contain full stories with beginnings, middles and ends. The storytelling is helped along by characters who narrate some of the transitional bits.
“I love diving into a story a little deeper, but the TikTok approach is fun too,” Loosley said. “It keeps it moving.”
It’s not unusual for Disney On Ice to condense movie stories into tidy ice skating scenarios. “Disney’s Jungle Adventure,” which toured from 2000 to 2006, offered scenes from “The Jungle Book,” “Tarzan” and “The Lion King,” and featured an environment that seemed as inappropriate for an ice-skating adaptation as “Frozen” seems tailor-made for it.
Each Disney on Ice show, whether it’s adapting a single movie or feels more like a variety show, is hosted by some of the most famous characters in Disney history: Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy. At the end of “Frozen & Encanto,” there are brief appearances by characters from several other Disney movies.
Special sets and effects enhance the figure skating in “Disney On Ice” shows. (Geo Rittenmyer)
“It can be completely different worlds,” Loosley said of turning an animated cartoon into a live ice show using techniques drawn from live theater, pageantry, arena concert spectacles and sports events. But some of the work suggests itself naturally. “Disney does a really good job fusing athleticism with storytelling. Feld Entertainment works very closely with Disney. They’ve been partners for a long time. Everything is done with the utmost integrity.”
One thing that the creators make sure is not lost amid all the flashy skating and arena-sized antics: “People are drawn to the heart of the story, the heart of the characters,” Loosley says. The performers go through “intensive training,” he explains, not just for the difficult skating moves but so they can fully embody the characters.
The Broadway musical theater production of “Frozen” toured to Hartford in February 2024. That version of the animated classic was based around spectacular technical effects and live full-throated Broadway-style singing. The cartoon snowman Olaf was performed by a visible onstage puppeteer standing behind the character. Disney on Ice uses other equally valid creative methods to interpret the same animated feature as an ice show. As with all Disney On Ice shows, whenever possible the characters are voiced and sung by the original actors from the movie versions, with the ice performers skating and emoting to the pre-recorded voice tracks.
While there are certainly some impressive technical effects in the show, Broadway level of fancy lighting effects aren’t required when you have actual ice. As for Olaf, there’s no puppeteer. As Loosley puts it, “we wanted more skate ability.”
Disney On Ice shows feature favorite scenes from classic Disney movies, voiced and sung by the performers who appeared in the original movies. (Geo Rittenmyer)
The director noted that an ice show features “not just skating, but flying in the air” and argued for it as a unique art form whose practitioners have to perfect actions that other performers never have to consider.
“Let’s be real,” he said. “They have knives in their boots. They need zippers on the inseams of their pants. Some costumes are inflatable. You push a button when you’re in them and they inflate around you. There are tricks we need to learn to make this all happen. And, of course, we sparkle.”
Disney On Ice shows sparkle not only with sequins and glitter and fancy lights. The grand emotions of these cartoons-come-to-life culminate in huge song and dance numbers, the songs sung by the voices you know and love from the movies and the dances enhanced by the grace of topflight figure skating.
“Everything is built to bring on the songs,” Loosley said. “There are these big dances. ‘Frozen’ has the full ensemble waltzing. In ‘Encanto’ there’s the big cumbia number. It’s so arena-friendly, so arena-large. It’s a full-bodied lean into the mix.” A wintry mix, performed on ice.
Disney On Ice: “Frozen & Encanto” runs Jan. 15-18 at PeoplesBank Arena, 1 Civic Center Plaza, Hartford. Performances are Thursday and Friday at 7 p.m., Saturday at 11 a.m. and 3 and 7 p.m. and Sunday at noon and 4 p.m. $26-$127. peoplesbankarena.com.