Review: Disney 100: The Concert at AO Arena

The Disney team visited Manchester as part of a whistle-stop tour, performing a special concert to celebrate Disney’s 100th anniversary. The show celebrates the greatest storyteller that ever lived, and his ongoing legacy that has captivated all generations, and audiences across the globe.

The multimedia production is pitch perfect and seamless, but I expect nothing less with a Disney production. The show is brought to life with the help of gigantic screens, the Hollywood Sound Orchestra, conductor Willhelm Keitel, and an ensemble of amazing singers and soloists from the West End, Broadway and beyond.

The concert is hosted by Strictly Come Dancing's Janette Manrara, who looks incredible In her sequin dresses and heels with her pregnancy bump. Janette takes us on a journey through our childhood, and our parents and probably most of our grandparents' childhoods too. It’s a celebration for all ages, and the AO arena has a very mixed audience to prove this. There is no age limit for wearing Mickey Mouse ears.

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The show starts with images of the great man himself, Mr Walt Disney flashes on the screen, with his characters including snippets of the earliest cartoon dating back to the 1920’s.

Then we see Fantasia, which was a groundbreaking film and won an Oscar in 1941 for outstanding video music. With this video the Hollywood Sound Orchestra really shows us what they can do, and the dramatic music makes it all the more captivating.

We see snippets of all my childhood favourites such as Dumbo, Snow White and Cinderella- including a captivating solo from Charlie Burn who sang “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes’ so beautifully. Some of these films I’ve not