DWTS S22 Week 4: Disney Night a Mixed Bag

Dancing with the Stars Season 22 Disney night begins (as with all things Disney) with Tinkerbell. And then Mickey and Minnie, and some mouse ears, and then the opening number (choreographed by Mandy Moore) to "Be Our Guest." Nice.

Valentin comes out, playing a violin (also nice), then hands it off, and gets right in there with the dance.

Then, the judges, including Val's former partner (whom he should've won with, IMHO) Zendaya. She's guest judging tonight. They all dance with Disney creatures.

As to the rest of Disney night? There were some glorious things, and some really cringe-worthy things. Let's examine them, shall we?

First, this delectable morsel. Sharna and Antonio dance (with some of the male troupe) to Aladdin's "Never Had a Friend Like You." Simply wonderful. Loved it. (Shoutout to this new troupe guy, Shannon. Pretty wonderful, that one.)

Dazzling is a good word for it. And it kicked off the night. Fabulous.

Then, there was this.

Now, I quite like Marla Maples and consistently voted for her on this show. But, compared to some of the other competitors, she seems to be holding back. I love Tony, and wish he'd win another Mirror Ball, but his partners often struggle. And, indeed, on this episode, it was Marla and Tony who got eliminated. :-(

It went from bad to worse. Cause then we had this.

Nyle and Peta were one of those couples that on Night One I thought could win it all maybe. But by Disney Night, I'm already starting to get annoyed with him. This, in case you can't tell, is Tarzan. A Tarzan samba. Ugh. Really hated it.

One of the problems with Disney night is that they often keep going back to the same well. How many times have we seen Mary Poppins on Disney Night? (A LOT!) Here we have Karina and Doug again trotting out Mary Poppins (this time, thankfully, "A Spoonful of Sugar"). But wow, I hated this one too. So did the judges.

OK, so, my favorite moment of this show came up next. (And I can say this, being a large-breasted woman myself...) Apparently Sasha isn't used to dancing with large-breasted women. He says to his partner Kim Fields, as they are rehearsing (which, btw, was rude): "Hm. Need a sports bra, eh?" And she says: "I've got one on!" (That made me laugh.)

Unfortunately, that was about the extent of the excitement in this dance. Ugh.

Len said it had "a lot of zippity de doo dah... a lot of zip in the performance, and a lot of doo dah in the footwork." :-/  For me, the best thing about this dance was Jenna in a catsuit. :-) (See the leopard on the left.)

So we have an interesting thing happening here (well, interesting for longtime watchers of the show). Both Sasha and Keo tend to get bumped out early. They usually don't last past Week 3. So it's going to be interesting to see which of them has the stamina to continue to pump out the great dances. Because neither of them has really been tested as a choreographer or as a pro who gets into the Finals. We shall see what happens, but they are both lucky in that there are many more terrible partners here than the ones they have.

That said, the Jodie and Keo partnership is one that I really hope gets into the Finals. Sadly, on Disney Night, she had a bad night where she couldn't hear the music (from Zootopia). Which is one thing maybe the technicians forget. Sure there was a lot going on on this night, lots of green screen animation stuff, in this dance, a crowd of people cheering, etc. But REALLY, the most important factor is that the dancers are able to hear their own music, so they can dance their best. RIGHT?

This wasn't one of their best dances. But Jodie looked spectacular! And other people fared worse.

These football players, so modest. Von Miller: "I'm Prince Charming on a daily basis." *eyeroll*

Whatever.

DWTS' real Prince Charming, Valentin Chmerkovskiy, knows a bit about winning this thing.

You will notice that about this time, there is a whole pack of people getting 6s and 7s. Val even says in their package about how they have to step it up. And Val knows that a big splashy Disney number will propel a couple forward, above the pack. (I still swoon over his "Be Our Guest" years ago.)

So this foxtrot was beautiful, a lot was going on, but it was jammed with content for the judges. And they responded, giving this team the highest scores of the night (tied with Mark and Paige). Whereas other teams are still preoccupied with just getting their partner to make the right moves.

Another couple to watch, simply for pure determination is Wanya and Lindsay.

Just as ABC's Ginger Zee embodied the lovely Disney princess Belle, Wanya rocked the fierce Mouphasa from The Lion King. A samba to The Lion King. Just wonderful stuff. I also like how Wanya's determination is really pushing Lindsay too. Definitely a team to watch.

But my favorite on this Disney night was the toys from Toy Story, embodied by Paige and Mark.

Mark really seems to be teaching Paige about character, and how to maintain one, cause she performed this toy really well. He, of course, was perfect. It was great fun to watch.

MICHE'S FAVORITES OF DISNEY NIGHT
1. Paige and Mark (quickstep)
2. Ginger and Val (foxtrot)
3. Wanya and Lindsay (samba)
4. Antonio and Sharna (jazz)
5. Jodie and Keo (cha cha)

NEXT TO GO (no order)
Doug and Karina
Von and Witney
Kim and Sasha
Nyle and Peta

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