Icy Toy Story lacks warmth

For every child who loved Toy Story, there's an adult who loved it just as much. Tom Hanks as the guileless Woody was irresistible, as was the impossibly square-jawed Buzz Lightyear, with his manly stride and phoney laser beam.

Adults could wonder if Disney was gently spoofing Hanks's acting in Big and Apollo 13, as the children ran around pretending to be cowboys and spacemen. And when Jessie the Cowgirl came along in Toy Story 2, she charmed us with her Annie Get Your Gun good cheer.

This production of Toy Story 2 is an almost straight transfer of the film to skates. Woody, Buzz and Jessie lead the cast of toys who outwit the mercenary toy-collector and defeat the planet-zapping Evil Emperor Zurg. With clever costumes and full face masks, the toys are the image of their celluloid selves and most are almost as endearing.

Jessie is especially good, her girlish cheek and loose-limbed larks the highlight of the show. Buzz was almost as appealing, powerfully striding out with infinite optimism, although Woody was not quite as smiley as his on-screen version and his body lacked the fallabout floppiness the character requires.

Watching the toys whoosh around the rink made the audience of two-to-six-year-olds ooh! and aah! They also booed the baddies and cheered the special effects.

For the parents, the spectacle was almost surreally funny - toys with human emotions created by digital technology become flesh-and-bloodskaters who glide on ice.

But somewhere in this complex transfer, the soul of the original has been lost.

Despite being big Hollywood productions, the Toy Story films felt small scale. They had charm, humour and a quietness that evoked happy childhood times. This show feels like a business proposition, with tightlymanaged routines, tinny music, gaudy sets, tired ice-scapades, trademarks, merchandise, and booming voice-overs in ludicrous American-ese.

Big can be beautiful, as Disney's celluloid-to-stage Lion King proves. But the producers of this Toy Story don't seem to have much affection for it.

The show runs to 24 October.

Disney On Ice: Toy Story 2