Sustainable Disney Gift Ideas

Sustainable Disney Gift Ideas

Disney Theatre Tickets

There are so many Disney theatre shows to go and see at the moment. “Frozen” the musical, “The Lion King”, “Mary Poppins”, “Bedknobs and Broomsticks” and “Beauty and the Beast” are all available to go and see in 2022. If you don’t like the sound of theatre tickets you could go and see “Disney on Ice”.

Reusable Disney Make-Up Removal Pads

I bought some last year from the independent seller: “The Fun Impossible”, and I’ve reused them many times before. They would be a great gift that’s not too expensive either, the ones that I bought were only £6 and they have Disney princesses on them. There are plenty of available designs on Etsy.

Vintage Disney Clothing

Did you know that there is roughly 100 billion items of clothing that are made every year, when there’s only 7 billion people on the planet. Buying second hand clothing is something that needs to become to norm and what better time than at Christmas. Websites like Vinted and Depop are perfect for finding vintage clothing, but I also recommend “Beyond Retro” which is online, but you can visit in person shopping in Brighton, Bristol and a few in London. There’s also “Handsome Freaks” in Margate and I’m sure there are several other places all over the UK. If you know a great place to get vintage Disney clothing please leave the info in a comment down bellow.

Disney VHS Notebooks

Notebooks are such versatile gifts and to make the gift a little more sustainable, you can get one that’s recycled out of old Disney books, Disney DVD’s and videos.

Just find out what their favourite film is and I’m positive you’ll be able to find a notebook with their favourite film/character on it. “Retro from Scratch” is an online store that makes them, but you can also go onto ETSY and find many sellers that make recycled Disney notebooks.

Similarly you can also purchase repurposed Disney DVD and video’s into clocks.

Disney Plus

You could gift a year’s subscription to Disney Plus. This is rather expensive at £80 but just think how many Disney movie nights you could have together, how many times the recipient could watch their favourite movies again and again. There are lots of films and shows coming to Disney Plus in 2022 like “Pinocchio”, “Peter Pan and Wendy”, “Mandalorian” S3, “Hocus Pocus 2”, “Disenchanted” (Enchanted sequel) and so much more.

Disney Bath Bombs

“Bath Enchanted” creates Disney inspired bath bombs which are all vegan, cruelty free and come in eco-friendly and biodegradable packaging.  I’ve tried these bath bombs and I absolutely love them, they add magic to bath time and are great for a Disney inspired pamper evening. They’re also really affordable. The average bath bomb cost £3.50. One is great as a stocking filler, or you could purchase several and make a hamper.

Disney Pouches

From many online shops, you can purchase Disney pouches. I bought metal straw holder pouch which is Pixar themed and the I bought a reusable knife fork and spoon set pouch which have Disney Princesses on it. These are so handy to have because I can just throw them in my bag whenever I go anywhere and it means I don’t have to use plastic straws or throw away cutlery. There are also reusable sandwich pouches you can get off of Etsy. It’s a fun way to add Disney into your day to day objects.  

There is a lot of Disney merchandise out there at the moment and it would be great if we all took a second and thought, is this really the right gift? Is this person going to love and treasure this for the years to come, or are they going to discard it after wearing/using it once?

Gift giving is such a beautiful thing to do, but we all need to do it with the consideration of the effects that it will have.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my list of possible gift ideas that are that little bit more environmentally conscious and sustainable. If you have any ideas, please leave them linked bellow and come back next week for another Disney blog.

Mary Poppins Theatre Review

Mary Poppins at the Theatre Review

 

Recently I went to go and see Mary Poppins at the Prince Edward Theatre, the same theatre where I went to go and see Aladdin.

 

The show lasts for 3 hours, including a small interval. Available to buy is a £4 booklet which tells you who plays each of the parts and a bit about the history of the show. Then for £10 you can buy the picture book which shows you pictures of scenes from the show. You can buy a mug which says “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” on it and a blanket with the same pattern, a magnet or the umbrella for £35. I bought both books and a pin which on its own turned out to be a whopping £14 which if I knew was going to be that much I wouldn’t have bought it.

The sets they used for the show were amazing, really imaginative and completely transported you. Every time the house opened it was jaw dropping good. If you’ve seen the show you’ll know what I mean but to explain without giving away any spoilers, they use a kind of origami to make the house come alive. It’s really quite clever. Another scene I really love is the bank, the artwork is phenomenal and the fact they create it using forced perspective is ingenious. Just for the sets it’s a worthwhile show to see.

 

Zizi Strallen plays Mary Poppins and I really hate to say this but I didn’t like her performance of the character. I know, I feel terrible saying that but I have to be honest. Her singing was at a pitch I really didn’t like, it was half opera, half not, it was rather peculiar and made me not enjoy the songs as much. I didn’t have a problem with her acting, that was fine, but the way her character was directed meant that she wasn’t the warm and caring Mary Poppins that I’ve come to know and love, she was so strict and not at all fun.

A character I loved was Mrs. Brill, the families cleaner and cook and she was played by Claire Machin. She reminded me so much of Ellen from the original Mary Poppins, she sounded the same, had the same sense of humour and was the perfect choice for the role. Another character I liked was George Banks who was played by Joseph Millson, his portrayal was perfect.

 

In the film Winifred Banks is a suffragette and that was a really interesting aspect to her character and I liked that but in the play she’s not. This small change meant that her character was so lacking in personality and purpose.

 

One problem shows have, that are made from films, is that they don’t want to be too predictable, they don’t want to copy the film scene by scene or audiences will switch off so it’s good to have some changes. Personally I loved some of the changes but I really hated other parts of the show. There’s a really horrid and actually quite creepy, scary and unnecessary scene involving humongous puppets/clowns/dolls that I could have done without but the scene where the character are making the cake was rather fabulous.

There was lots of magic in the play, some that would rival the magic in Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. For example Mary Poppins’s arrival and departure is pretty spectacular, how she takes the items out of her carpet bag were done really well and lots of other little magical moments throughout the film which you didn’t always see coming. There’s a scene where Bert walks around the edge of the stage and it looks effortlessly good.

 

The songs of the original and the sequel are some of my favourite Disney songs mainly because they’re written by such talented writers – the Sherman Brothers, but none of the songs were how I imagined that they should be. There were all the favourites like “Step in Time” and “Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” but none of the them sounded right, they weren’t sung like they are in the films. This was a big problem for me, it made me not enjoy it as much as I wanted to.

Due to the current pandemic the world is experiencing, called the Coronavirus, all performances are cancelled up until 26th April but once this is all over I do recommend you go and watch the show and see for yourself what you think. Let me know in the comments below if you’ve seen the show and come back on Friday 27th March for another blog.