We have been to several of the Disney on Ice productions and while we have loved them all, this one was by far my favorite. All the major and most beloved Toy Story 3 characters made their appearance. My children screamed out their names while “The Toys are back in town” rang through the arena. There were even a few surprises as several other Disney friends took the stage.

Act I provided a nice background summary of the first two movies. Even if you are like my family and own all three movies which have each been played recently, you would still enjoy the way Disney on Ice pieced the three stories together.

The green army men had a fantastic number, soaring through the sky on parachutes and marching in cadence.

All of the Toy Story friends came out in support as Rex battled the evil Zurg.  

Just as all seemed lost, Buzz Lightyear arrived to save the day!

In perhaps my favorite number, Jesse told the story of what it felt like to be loved and then given away.

But it was Barbie who stole the show with her outrage of being left behind, followed by a pump it up number with some nostalgic adult tunes as she prepared for her new life at Sunnyside Daycare.

In the second act we traveled into the heart of the Toy Story 3 plot as we met Lotso and Barbie met Ken! Ken was a riot, giving us possibly the best fashion show to ever grace the ice.

Not to be bested, Spanish-Mode Buzz had the audience in giggles as he wooed a rather bemused Jesse.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching Barbie best Ken, and I am happy to say that the fiery pit o’ despair at the end of the real movie was handled quite pleasantly, causing the little ones in the audience no fear.

Oh, but these guys? They gave ME the creeps.

In the end the toys make it back to Andy, and as he prepares to leave for college he decides that Woody and all of his favorite toys will stay together and go to a new home.

If you are looking for something to do this school vacation week, take the kids to see Disney on Ice presents Toy Story 3. It was a fantastic time. Darn tootin’!

I actually find two common themes in Disney movies quite troublesome. The princess needs to be rescued (especially in the older movies) and at least one parent, usually the mother, is no where to be found. I do acknowledge that Disney did not create these stories, most of which have been altered by story tellers over centuries.  Some of the Disney movies are quite aged themselves, Snow White being over 70 years old.  There is no doubt in my mind that in 1937 there was no argument against the behavior of the docile and naïve Snow White. But what place does she hold in America today? What messages do to the films send to our daughters, who are just beginning to understand their place in society and their power within?  Are we stifling their independence?  Are we leading them to believe they cannot, or feel as though they should not want to save themselves? I could write a literary criticism on each script but that’s a whole lot of posts.  Instead let’s see if I can briefly make my point:

Snow White: Her mother dies shortly after Snow White is born, her father remarries, and her wicked step mother the evil queen tries to kill her. The dwarves defeat the queen, and the Prince brings Snow White back to the world of the living with his powerful kiss we can presume to be that of true love.  The original Grimm fairytale is similar with the exception of how the spell was broken. The prince happens upon the coffin and convinces the dwarves to give it to him.  The coffin is shaken up in the course of travel and the poison apple is dislodged from Snow White’s throat, causing her to awaken. No true love saving prince is required, just someone who knows the Heimlich.

Cinderella: Like Snow White her mother had died and her father remarried before he also passed away.  In the absence of her father her stepmother and step sisters made Cinderella their slave. With the assistance of her fairy godmother she gets dressed up and goes to the ball. She and the prince fall in love, she loses track of the time and her shoe, and takes off before the spell breaks and all of her pretty adornments disappear. I haven’t seen this one in a while so I’m a little sketchy on the details, but I think that in the movie someone in the royal guard searches for the maiden by having every woman in the kingdom try on the slipper. In the original story it was the prince who did the searching. What troubles me is that this prince, though so in love will only know he’s found the right girl again if her foot fits into the lost slipper. So in theory if you wore a size 7 and lived in the kingdom back then you actually had a shot at the thrown! This story is intended to represent goodness and its importance over beauty.  While it was her goodness that brought her the fortune of a fairy godmother, it still took beautification on the outside for Cinderella to capture the prince’s heart, and in turn deliver her from a life of poverty and servitude.

Sleeping Beauty: Upon her birth Princess Aurora is cursed by a wicked and slighted fairy to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die before she comes of age. A good fairy alters the curse; not in death but in sleep would she wait for her true love of a prince to come along and kiss her to save the day. The good fairies take the princess away from her parents and hide her for just shy of 16 years, in hopes of concealing her from the wicked fairy and pointy spindles. That is until the day of her 16^th birthday; the same day she meets a handsome stranger in the woods and falls instantly in love.  Regardless, that very last day the curse would work is the day they choose to send her home. Because they could not wait that one silly little day to start celebrating, the fairies send her back full of woe to her estranged parents and an arranged marriage.  As a result, the wicked fairy finds her at the castle and prick…Sleeping Beauty.  In the end the prince who happens to also be the handsome stranger bests the evil fairy and wakes the princess with his stunning smooching skills. They are then free, along with the rest of the kingdom who were put to sleep having been deemed incapable of dealing with heartache and disappointment, to live happily ever after.

There are some really creepy origins for the story of Sleeping Beauty involving rape and cannibalism (thank you Google) and a rather sketchy prince/king, so kudos to Disney for leaving that part out. In these versions however, the princess is not separated from her mother and father to go into hiding. All spinning wheels are banished from the kingdom and the princess is happily raised by both parental units until the wicked fairy manages to sneak one into the castle. Though they are still living we again see a princess separated from her parents.

Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty; these are all old stories which were retold long ago and therefore speak of a different world for women. They are old to my generation as we re-watch them, but not to our daughters who are seeing them on first sight. The new princesses have a little more to offer.  Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, and Tiana are all brave, smart, and for the most part do not require a prince to complete their lives (even Ariel just wanted to live among the humans before falling for Prince Eric).  Yet Ariel, Belle, and Jasmine are all motherless.  Tiana loses her father after he has a presence in The Princess and the Frog. Thanks a lot Disney, that line of questioning from my four year old was a lot of fun. Slightly off topic, same goes for Bambi.  Don’t even get me started on the murder of Bambi’s mother and the subsequent re-appearance of his otherwise dead beat dad. 

These issues of heartache and loss, and familial separation are all tools for teaching our youth that hard times will come and people do die.  These are difficult lessons to learn, and yes they must be taught, but at what age? The princess theme that is adored by little girls is marketed towards them as early as pre-school. You can try and hide it from them, but good luck.  And what do they take from these stories? One of my daughter’s favorite games is to lay in wait for a prince to come and save her with true love’s kiss (Director’s Note: the part of The Prince will be played by Mommy for the foreseeable future).

The damsel in distress, this is not the role I would choose for my daughter. Instead, I have this in mind:

I LOVE THIS SHIRT!*

A self-rescuing princess, wouldn’t that be something?  Disney almost had it right with Mulan.  Unfortunately Mulan is not a princess, but that chick joined the army (albeit in disguise as a boy), kicked ass, and saved China.  What’s that Sofia? You want to watch Mulan again? Well let me just swell with pride and lament that we do not own it on DVD.

Hey Disney, are you listening?  Release that baby on Blu-ray, STAT!

*Want the t-shirt? I got it at Think Geek. I purchased it with my own money and geeky joy, and they did not compensate me for the endorsement.

A couple of months ago my daughter started reporting the presence of people in her bedroom at night.  She referred to them mostly as pictures, but was insistent that she sees a ghost, and most importantly a witch.  She is afraid.  She expels genuine tears, which are prompted by the knowledge that once I leave the room her visitors will appear to her.  At a loss I probed her with questions such as “where do you see them”, “have you seen them before on TV or in a book” and “are you talking about dreams while you are sleeping?”

She is insistent that she has never seen them before (still, my immediate response is to curse myself for letting her watch that damn Snow White), and she is certain she is awake.  Despite one questionable experience I have had in my home thus far, I am inclined to shy away from suggestion of paranormal activity, and choose instead to dive a little deeper into the mind and eyes of my four year old child. 

While there are specific areas of the room where the ghost and witch appear, she has also reported the presence of faces in her headboard.  This is where it became all too clear for me.  As I ran my fingers over the wood, trying to find the patterns, I had a flash of memory.

Lying in my bedroom in my childhood home, I was crying and pleading with my mother to make the faces go away.  “Look at the faces, they are right there!” I called out from my little twin bed.  I watched my mother run her fingers along the new paneling, trying in earnest to see what she could not.  In the end, my father had to paint the paneling a lovely shade of blue.  I’m not sure if I ever told them, but even with the paint I could still see the faces.  They were, however, less pronounced and I was able to sleep at night without feeling watched.

I saw no pattern in my daughter’s my headboard, but I do not doubt that for her the faces exist.  So here we are in yet another phase of childhood development that I probably should have anticipated, but haven’t bothered to educate myself upon yet beyond memories of my own personal experience.  Thus far my encouragement has been to think happy thoughts, to not look at them, reassurance that they are not real, and to trust in that I am never far away.

I can’t help but wonder if the night light is the problem.  She is too afraid of the dark to go without one, but for this little imaginative child, I believe the shadows from the light are causing more harm than the darkness.  My next steps will involve lying with her before sleep, dissecting the room, giving names to the objects in the shadows, and attempting to bring what is real to the forefront while banishing away the fallacies the mind can create.

I would love to hear if you have experienced this problem with your children, and what were your methods to combat the nighttime fears of preschoolers?  As I reflect upon my task ahead, I am reminded of an old Suzanne Vega song:

I could shelter you

Keep you in light

But I can only teach you

Night vision