Review: Disney On Ice, Finding Nemo, Echo Arena, Liverpool

Sep 25 2008 by Emma Pinch, Liverpool Daily Post

Disney On Ice's production of Finding Nemo _220

IT'S a well established fact, fish don't have legs. So they don't walk. And they certain- ly don't ice skate. The frozen retelling of the film, Finding Nemo, by Disney, was a concept which left some people I know, completely cold.

In fact the fishy tale, which in the cartoon version shimmered with the Pixar genius and undersea marvels, adapted itself to ice swimmingly.

The Disney On Ice version follows the film loyally, with Ellen Degeneres, Willem Defoe, Barry Humphries and other stars voicing the characters and a backdrop showing ocean and the out-of-water scenes from the movie.

Finding Nemo, for those who have spent the last few years under a barnacle-encrusted rock, follows the adventures of father and son clownfish, Marlin and Nemo. Nemo defies his father to swim out of their safe reef and into the perilous ocean beyond, ending up in a dentist's fish tank in Sydney. Marlin and his forgetful friend, Dory, set off to find him.

The production hinges on whether the undersea effects are creative enough to reel you in. And they are. Disney has gone to town on the 30-strong cast's extravagant costumes, stylish set and seamless choreography, and thrown in aerial acrobatics and even pyrotechnics to create a luminous visual banquet.

The second half outshines the first, which at times became a little bogged down with dialogue and the extra heads on the two star charac- ters took a little getting used to. Highlights were the ensemble pieces. The forest of jellyfish, in particular, was breathtaking. Bill- owing parachutes shimmered across the ice and up into the air, and the performance resembled a ballet in its grace. Nemo's South Pacific- style initiation into the fish tank also cranks up the pace with huge grinning masks and tribal (???) drawing gasps.

Scale is handled masterfully, too. A ghostly 30ft whale glides onto the ice at one point, and swallows our heroes, and the goldfish bowl, with perspex running up the height of the auditorium, a treasure chest spewing bubbles and a luminous plastic mountain creating the illusion perfectly.

As with the filmThere was plenty to entertain adults here, but children are the target, audience and it’s a testament to its quality that, despite the two-hour show, they remained enthralled.

Even if they do have legs and extra heads, these fish are definitely friendly.

emmapinch@dailypost.co.uk