Kids day brings 750 to Triangle Square

Stefanie Frith

Krysten White says Donkey Kong is “kinda” a good dancer.

And Krysten, 11, should know. The Newport Beach resident and two of

her friends, Rebecca Prince and Khloe Keeler, danced Saturday afternoon

away with the goofy cartoon gorilla during the Fox Family Kids Day at

Triangle Square in Costa Mesa. The event was hosted in order to film

promotion spots for Fox Family Channel, which will be shown on Time

Warner cable channels.

“My mom thought it would be fun for us to come here and dance and have

fun,” Krysten said. “We were dancing with Donkey Kong.”

“Yeah, he’s groovy,” Rebecca, also a Newport Beach resident, added.

About 750 children and their families took part in the filming,

karaoke, bounce houses, face painting, educational tables and exhibits at

Triangle Square. Fox Family Channel cartoon characters Digimon, Bad Dog,

Angela Anaconda and, of course, Donkey Kong, were also on hand for

dancing and pictures.

“We wanted to create an event with all the characters for a promotion

spot,” said Dina Giacobone, Time Warner Communications promotions

coordinator. “It worked out that Triangle Square already advertises with

us, so we got it all organized with Fox Family. We knew this would be a

good place to do it.”

Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Abba songs were the artists of

choice for the afternoon, as mostly girls ages six to 11 took to the

stage for karaoke. Nine-year-old Costa Mesa residents Makenna Brown and

Jamie Wisdom sang “I Want to Love You Forever” by Simpson and said they

weren’t nervous at all about performing for the crowd of hundreds.

“We did this in front of our class [last year] in second grade,”

Makenna said. “We know all the words by heart now so we didn’t need to

look at the screen. It’s fun to be here and sing and dance.”

Angela Anaconda, a character from a show of the same name, was

definitely one highlight of the afternoon. Try thinking of a person

dressed in an almost six foot tall little girl costume, with a giant head

and red jumper dress. Then picture her bouncing around to “Dancing

Queen.”

“We’ve really blown this day up [from just being exhibits]. Especially

Angela [Anaconda’s] head,” said Jamia Bigalow, director of marketing for

the Fox Family Channel, as Angela clapped her hands to the beat of yet

another Britney Spears song.

Krysten said she has never seen Angela Anaconda’s show, but has

watched commercials and danced with her. She said she thinks she’s funny.

Well, more like funny-looking.

“Kinda weird. Kinda funny. Big head,” Krysten said with a laugh.