My Life With Disney Movies – A Great Disney Experience

“I know you I walked with you once upon a dream. I know you the gleam in your eyes is so familiar, a gleam”

Those were the lines my four-year-old daughter, Denise, would sing while fixing her eyes on the forest dance of Rose and Prince Philip. Sleeping Beauty is now her favorite Disney Movie after watching a countless rerun of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. (My next mission is for her to watch Beauty and the Beast over and over again, after she gets over the macabre form of the beast.)

After she heard of my Disney playlist, she then became a fan and started bothering me to play the songs over and over again before sleeping.

                              Denise: Ma, a whole new world.

                             (That’s my cue!)

                             Me: okay. But you go to sleep.

I thought she would sleep by then, but hey, I heard a second voice beside me.

I love cartoons. I love the bright colors, I love the songs, I love the way turtles tumble on stairs, I love how Mickey Mouse made several brooms fetch water from the well. I love singing fishes under the sea and lovely flowers in chorus. I even wished I were in their world. (As if it’s possible!)

My passion for cartoons was even obvious when my mother warned me one day that my indulgence to watching cartoons would soon make my children look like a two-dimensional figure. (Well, she’s wrong because my love for these two-dimensional caricatures was manifested in the interest my daughter have now with these drawings than to her physique. I’m a proud mother!)

My love for cartoons started when I was little (sorry, can’t remember the exact age, but I know I was not beyond Grade 2). Our old cable provider offered a channel where Disney movies (especially the Princess movies and the classics of Mickey Mouse) were played repeatedly. I was glued.

Soon, my aunt took me to a mall show of Mickey Mouse and Friends where they did a musical with lots of songs and dances. I was so thrilled since we get to stay near the stage. Imagine, the miniature characters you see on TV Is now twice or thrice your size and they are dancing, really dancing. (A real miracle for any child!) Since then, I dreamed of flying to Disneyland and meet these “come-alive characters” once more.

That dream will be a reality not only for me but for other Disney fanatics out there. The Disney Live! is coming to the Philippines on September  to December this year. A magical event where you can see live Mickey Mouse, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, Ariel, Eric, Jasmine, Aladdin, Genie, Woody and Buzz.

Here’s their press release:

DISNEY LIVE!

A NEW BRAND OF LIVE FAMILY ENTERTAINMENT

FROM THE PRODUCERS OF DISNEY ON ICE

COMES TO MANILA AND CEBU CITY FOR THE FIRST TIME

September 12, 2011 –– Mickey Mouse and his band of friends, Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck and Goofy will be performing in a music mash-up of mega proportions  as Disney Live! comes to Manila and Cebu City for the first time with its newest stage show Mickey’s Music Festival.  Concert goers will hear greatest hits from the blockbuster movies, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, and Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story remixed to rock, pop, reggae, hip-hop, jazz and country, among other jams.  Produced by Feld Entertainment, Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival brings the biggest concert experience to hit live family entertainment. This show is presented in the Philippines by Vivre Fort Entertainment Inc., Guess Kids and Fox International Channels.

 “One song can touch millions of people around the world and Disney has been at the beat of this concept for years by making music a main ingredient of storytelling,” said Producer and CEO of Feld Entertainment Kenneth Feld.  “In Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival we are celebrating with the Disney characters to a soundtrack of the latest sounds and chart-topping hits. We want our guests to walk away with lasting memories and singing these unforgettable melodies long after they leave the show.”

Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival, featuring an all star line-up of more than 25 Disney characters,   begins with audiences watching a state-of-the-art video projection of the frenzy backstage which spills onto the stage as Mickey welcomes guests to his concert tour.  Soon thereafter, they will be transported to a new world of hip hop beats, dizzying acrobatics, flying carpets and magical transformations with Aladdin, Jasmine and Genie.  Underwater is where the crowd will meet up with Ariel, Sebastian and their nautical pals to groove to the reggae rhythm. And, family and friends will stomp to the beat as Woody, Buzz and Jessie teach them how to boogie rodeo-style.  Anyone can be a member of the band as giant-sized balloons fall from the ceiling in one scene and then in the next, Disney characters are dancing in the aisles.

“We’ve created an environment where audience members will be able to connect with the Disney stars,” said Alana Feld, Producer and Executive Vice President of Feld Entertainment. “Within each concert moment are elements of personal interaction and they will be harmonizing, dancing, laughing and having an outrageously good time with the characters right there in their city.”

Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival was built with a global audience in mind and a goal of being as universal as its featured music.  The father-daughter production team, Kenneth Feld and Alana Feld, has hand selected award-winning creative talents whose credits span from working with Madonna to winning a Latin Grammy®  Award to designing hundreds of costumes for Disney theme park shows:

• Director/Choreographer Fred Tallaksen is the award-winning choreographer of Madonna’s “Sorry” video and the finale of her Confessions World Tour.  In 2008, he earned a Latin Grammy® in the Best Video category for Juanes’s “Me Enamora.” Tallaksen was also skating choreographer for “Austin Powers III-Goldmember”
• Writer Jeremy Desmon’s credits include The Girl in the Frame, If You Give A Mouse A Cookie & Other Storybooks and Curious George Live! He received the 2007 Kleban Award for excellence in Musical Theatre Bookwriting, and is also a recipient of the Dramatists Guild’s Jonathan Larson Fellowship
• Scenic Designer Rick Papineau is the vice president of Scenic Elements at Feld Entertainment and is credited for leading the creation of life-like versions of the characters from Disney/Pixar’s Cars that move on ice for Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy
• Costume Designer Cynthia Nordstrom designed costumes for more than 15 original dance shows in Downtown Disney from 1996 until 1999 and is credited for designing costumes for Disney On Ice presents Worlds of Fantasy
• Lighting Designer Sam Doty is eager to work on his second Disney Live! show after Disney Live! Mickey’s Rockin’ Road Show put him in the spotlight
• Music Director Stan Beard has arranged and written the musical score for numerous domestic and international Disney On Ice productions; has worked in the recording studio with such luminaries as Barbra Streisand and Frank Sinatra

Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival is set to be staged this year at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel from September 23-25 and at the Smart Araneta Coliseum from October 5-9. For Manila shows, tickets are exclusively available at Ticketnet (911-5555) located in SM Department stores and at the Smart Araneta Coliseum. For Cebu shows, tickets can be purchased at SM Tickets (032-231-3876) located in SM Cinemas, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel (032-232-6888) and at Ayala Center Cebu. For more details, visit www.disneylive.com.ph or call Vivre Fort Entertainment at (02) 470 6956.

Disney Live! Mickey’s Music Festival is also brought to you by Smart Araneta Coliseum, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, Citibank, ABS-CBN, ABS-CBN Regional Group, Araneta Center, Gateway Cineplex 10, Alimall Cineplex 4, SM Cinemas, SM City Cebu, Discovery Suites, Renowed Sound and Various Production, MYX, Manila Bulletin, Businessworld, Sunstar, Cebu Daily News, Crossover 105.1, Power FM Cebu, Love Radio 97.9, Y101 Cebu, Alcordo Advertising, Greenworld LED Solutions and Manila Concert Scene. This event is for the benefit of Senyas Kamay Pilipinas.

About Feld Entertainment

Feld Entertainment is the worldwide leader in producing and presenting live touring family entertainment experiences that lift the human spirit and create indelible memories, with 30 million people in attendance at its shows each year. Feld Entertainment’s productions have appeared in more than 70 countries on six continents and include Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey^®, Feld Motor Sports, Disney On Ice and Disney Live!.

DISNEY THEATRICAL GROUP (DTG) operates under the direction of Thomas Schumacher and is among the world’s most successful commercial theatre enterprises.  Through Disney Theatrical Productions, Disney On Ice and Disney Live! , DTG brings live entertainment events to a global annual audience of more than 19 million people in more than 50 countries.  Under the Disney Theatrical Productions banner, the group produces and licenses Broadway musicals around the world, including: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Elton John & Tim Rice’s Aida, TARZAN® and Mary Poppins, a co-production by Disney and Cameron Mackintosh and The Little Mermaid.  Disney Theatrical Group also delivers live shows globally through its license to Feld Entertainment, producer of Disney On Ice and Disney Live!  For the past 30 years, Disney On Ice and Disney Live! have brought beloved Disney stories and characters annually to over 12 million guests in nearly 70 countries worldwide through productions such as Disney On Ice presents Disney/Pixar’s Finding Nemo, Princess Wishes and Mickey & Minnie’s Amazing Journey as well as Disney Live! Mickey’s Magic Show and Three Classic Fairy Tales. In addition, DTG licenses musical titles for local, school and community theatre productions through Music Theatre International.