Christmas: Disney's Christmas Fantasy On Ice

Hello & welcome back to A Look at Disney and the Christmas celebration here on A Look at Disney. Now, I originally hadn't planned on doing anymore Christmas blogs after finishing up my look at A Christmas Carol but over the weekend, I found a Christmas special that I've not seen since I was a young child about 3 or 4 years old but I had a vivid memory of this special since seeing it all those years ago and I'd always cherished the memories of watching this special and getting to see it again was a real treat. I brought this special up once before on my Top 6 Disney Specials list that I did ages ago.

Now to kick things off with, I'm going with a Christmas special from '92. Disney's Christmas Fantasy On Ice. This is set in Disneyland as we follow Bronson Pinnchot and his niece Alice as he tells her the story of how it snowed in Disneyland. The characters had to gather pieces of a magical snowflake to put it together. They got help from Jack Frost. It was pretty cool seeing the characters come together and I remember watching this as a little kid, I thought it was so cool. Somehow I must have blocked out the ice skating routines from this special and only remembered the story. This special has stayed with me all these years and I was able to discover some clips on YouTube. I only ever recall watching it once on TV but it stayed with me a very long time and I was rather sad that for years I could not find anything on this special but finally last year, it came back to me. 

Now, admittedly there is very little in terms of plot as this is an ice skating special but there is a story that served as a wraparound to ties all the performances together.




The Plot


An uncle and his niece are at Disneyland and the young girl wants to go on more rides but her uncle wants to rest and he goads his young niece into taking a break by telling her the story of the time that it snowed at Disneyland.

Our two leads are Uncle Bronnie played by Bronson Pinchot perhaps best known to my older readers as Cousin Balki from Perfect Strangers And Lindsay Ridgeway who was the second actress to play Morgan Matthews on Boy Meets World.  Well, that explains why I thought that this aired on ABC but no, it was a CBS special. So,  Uncle Bronnie tells his young niece the story of how a young girl named Allison (nothing to do with her) wished that it would snow at Disneyland and Disney characters including Mickey, Minnie, Snow White, Dopey, Belle and The Beast, Chip 'n' Dale, Goofy and Roger Rabbit, and Donald and Pluto all went to see Jack Frost to grant the young girl's wish.

 

 

And yes, Jack Frost is also played by Bronson Pinchot and compared to his theaterical counterpart played by Martin Short, I like this take on Jack Frost more.

Because A, he's actually an enjoyable character and also I prefer it when Jack Frost isn't portrayed as a villain. Though this'll always be my favorite iteration of Jack Frost.    Well, anyways we learn that in order for Jack Frost to grant the wish to make it snow at Disneyland, he needs two things.  The wish of a young girl and a magic snowflake.  They've already got the first piece but the snowflake  is divided into 6 pieces and protected by guardians. And really, this part of the special is just an excuse for the ice skaters to perform.And the performers included Nancy Kerrigan, Kurt Browning, Peter and Kitty Caruthers,  Ekaterina Gordeeva and Sergei Grinkov,  Katarina Witt,  Brian Boitano,
Scott Hamilton

Although one of the segments with Scott Hamilton was cut from the version that I watched.

When the special reaired in 1994, the scene of Scott Hamilton skating to "The Twelve Days of Christmas" sung by Roger Whittaker, with Winnie the Pooh and Eeyore watching was inserted and some scenes from the original airing had to be cut due to time constraints.

So, I'm assuming that I watched the original version as according to information that I've come across, this special only ever aired twice.  And the skaters would skate to either Disney songs such as Beauty and The Beast or Christmas songs such as Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas.  Here's the Beauty and The Beast segment from the special. 

It's quite a treat to watch.

You'll notice how they insert clips from the animated movie into the sequence.  It's really cool and I don't know much  about skating but I loved all of the performances here with perhaps my favorite being the Under The Sea segment. Which sadly is not available on it's own as a segment but it was so much fun to watch. And after each performance, the characters that were sent out would be given a piece of the snowflake. And afterwards, they'd take it back to Jack and he'd put the snowflake together and story ended with the snowflake being put altogether or so we thought as the special ends with young Alice wishing that it would snow at Disneyland and who should show up but Mickey and Snow White with the magic snowflake.

 

And just then, they toss the magic snowflake into the air and to the surprise of Uncle Bronnie, it does start snowing at Disneyland.  That was something that Alice had wanted.  And well, while at Disneyland, anything can happen. I absolutely love this special!  It has stayed  with me all these years after seeing it and I never thought that I'd get to see it again but finding it on YouTube was such a treat and I was so happy to watch it again. It's just as good as when I saw it as a little kid but now I can appreciate it even more because as a kid, I enjoyed it for the Disney characters but now as an adult, I enjoy it for both the Disney characters and the stellar ice skating performances.  

Characters

Now, I'll only be focusing on three characters as while I love seeing the Disney characters on this special, they really didn't have much to do as they were just sent to a location to get the piece of the snowflake. With that outta the way, let's begin.

Uncle Bronnie played by Bronson Pinchot

I'll be honest and say that this is the only thing that I've ever seen Bronson Pinchot in and I enjoy him here is this role as he plays him like a lovable slakcer that does love his niece and while he does enjoy spending time with her, doesn't want to do everything at the parks and that's how and why he came up with the idea of telling his niece the story.

Alice played by Lindsay Ridgeway

Alice's role was just to be that of a cute kid and well, she worked well.  She was a lot of un here and you could really feel the joy in her as she was spending the holidays at Disneyland with her uncle.

Jack Frost also played by Bronson Pinchot

I loved Pinchot's Jack Frost as he was just so playful and silly.  There was a childlike charm to him and the joy that he took in doing his job was just so infectious. That you couldn't help  but have a smile on your face, whenever he was on screen.

My Final Thoughts

I adore this special.  This is one of my all time favorite Christmas specials and to just see it again, was a huge Christmas treat. It may not be perfect or even the best Christmas special made by Disney but it's perhaps the one that I love the most.   If you are curious in checking it out, it is on YouTube as that's where I watched it.  I hope that you enjoyed my review of this Christmas treasure (at least in my heart) as much as I enjoyed the chance to watch it again.