Disney’s Toy Story 3, which just won an Oscar for Best Animated Feature, is now winning hearts with Disney on Ice: Toy Story 3.
The new, live show—with cool stage lighting, special effects, and realistic costumes and characters dancing along to your favourite tunes from the movie—will be in Toronto during the March Break (March 15-20) at the Rogers Centre.
“With companies like Disney on Ice, it’s all about the story,” says Adam Loosley, who plays Woody in the production. “I love becoming a character and getting really involved in the story, what a great story to tell.”
Loosley, who’s been performing with Disney on Ice for seven years, first played Woody in Toy Story 2.
This year, just like in the movie, there are new additions to the team: Barbie’s prince charming, Ken, and Lots-o’-Huggin’ Bear. Not to worry if you haven’t kept up to date with the Toy Story trilogy; in this performance, some of the plot from Toy Story 2 is intertwined with Toy Story 3.
“So in a sense we’re telling the full Toy Story,” says Loosley.
Although Loosley, 25, grew up in Ontario, this is his first time performing in Toronto. He began skating at age 3. His parents are both skating coaches, so it isn’t surprising that he “grew up in a cold Canadian ice rink.”
Disney on Ice: Toy Story 3 takes us inside Andy’s room, where cowboy Woody finds himself as second favourite to a new toy character, action figure Buzz Lightyear. Woody struggles with the fact that he has a competitor and tries to win back Andy’s attention through a string of adventurous events, only to end up making a new toy friend.
“I feel like I’m Woody when I’m performing, I feel like I become him a little bit,” Loosley says of his part in the production.
“With the costumes and with the effects, it kind of shrinks the audience down to toy size and you feel like ... you’re in their toy world. That’s really cool, that’s a really neat feeling.”
With its unique staging and plot, the ice production will delight not only the kids, says Loosley.
“Their parents appreciate the skating, their dads appreciate the lighting and the special effects.
With all the costumes and the colour, there really is something for everybody,” he says, adding that the humour will get all ages laughing.
“I think we’re their heroes,” Loosley says of the kids. “Their faces just light just up and that’s the result that we love.”
He says that because the production is new, the performers had the chance to get more involved in the creative process, and Loosley helped out as an assistant performance director—something he hopes to become in the future.
“I’d love to keep skating and I’d love to work up to being a performance director.”
In addition to Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3, Loosley has had roles in The Incredibles in a Magic Kingdom Adventure (2005-2007), High School Musical: The Ice Tour (2007-2009), and Mickey and Minnie’s Disneyland Adventure (2009-2010).
