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Are there many variants of Disney character autographs?

DodgerGirl

Crazy For The Mandalorian
Joined
Dec 18, 2020
When I was looking through my childhood Disneyland autographs I noticed that several of my character autographs have several variants and I would like to know if I have something unique? For example I noticed on several autographs of Donald Duck I noticed that some say #1 and I want to know what it refers to? Is there more than one Donald Duck character actor? Another Donald Duck autograph variant has a year on it and mine is from 1994? I noticed that there's also variants of Princess autographs and I found one of Cinderella and I want to know if it is variant as well? Because the Cinderella autographs I've seen she writes a fancy C and a sparkle instead of the dot on the I. And also with Marvel character autographs I've noticed variants as well because on several Marvel plushies tags Star Lord's autograph is the same as the letters on his shirt but the Disney character uses red ink to write his autographs. Are these autograph variants common?
 
I've noticed that sometimes the characters will add some extra flair depending how much time they're spending with each person, but the actual name part of the signature is as consistent as possible. Over the years some of them might have shifted a bit (just like my own signature is a bit different than it was 10 years ago), but if you get the same character's signature at two different locations on the same visit, it should be essentially the same. Again, some might add some extra decorations or a little note or something, but the autograph is considered as much a part of the characters as their costume.

Donald likes to say that he's #1 because he wants to be considered better than Mickey. One of the character's defining traits is his ego and he wants to be the most important. If someone tells Donald that Mickey is their favorite, or if they're wearing a Mickey shirt or something, he'll sometimes have a little tantrum or otherwise mime that he disapproves. On the flip side, he usually reacts with great excitement to being told that he is someone's favorite or if he sees merch with himself on it.
 
Oh, what a cute story about Donald Duck's autograph Merida. How about Tiana's autograph? Is there many variants of Tiana's autograph as well?
 
Mickey shirt or something, he'll sometimes have a little tantrum or otherwise mime that he disapproves.
This happened to me at a character dining at Disneyworld the last trip. It was hilarious.

I’m not typically one for character interactions as I would rather they spend more time with some random kid than a dude in his 30s. If it’s a dining experience meet and greet and not with my kid I typically just take the picture and let the character carry on, but that Donald was a funny one.

It is really impressive how these actors bring the characters to life. They really extract the kid out of you when you interact with them.
 


Mom and I witnessed the same thing at Goofy's Kitchen during Christmas and when my dad and I were eating I just had gotten Donald Duck's autograph when Donald Duck came to the table behind ours and Donald freaked out a woman and the woman was screaming her head off and Donald had to go outside until he could control himself but it was so funny. I also got Princess Aurora's autograph for the first time during Christmas and she signed it Sleeping Beauty? Is this another Princess autograph variant? Because I know she normally signs her autograph as Princess Aurora
 
How about Belle's autograph? Is there different variants of it? Because when my cousins met Belle for the first time on their first trip to Disneyland she signed simply Belle and on mine Belle writes her name with a rose at the end. Is this a rare Belle autograph? Also I have noticed several autograph variants of Aladdin and he usually writes with the logo but several I have has Aladdin's name and sparkles
 
How about Belle's autograph? Is there different variants of it? Because when my cousins met Belle for the first time on their first trip to Disneyland she signed simply Belle and on mine Belle writes her name with a rose at the end. Is this a rare Belle autograph? Also I have noticed several autograph variants of Aladdin and he usually writes with the logo but several I have has Aladdin's name and sparkles

There is some variety. It's not like Belle (or any other character) is told "today you should sign slightly differently" or anything like that. They have a standard for their signature and sometimes they may add a little more detail or flair and sometimes they may not. Some days Belle might add a rose to her name and some days she might be in a bit more of a hurry or she might not feel as confident in her own rose-drawing skills that particular day or she might want to put some other fun detail instead based on her conversation with the autograph-seeker or one person's pen is easier to draw with than another's or whatever other reason.

You seem to possibly be thinking of it like a "shiny" Pokemon, where there's the official version and then there's also a special edition version that you can get if you're lucky enough, but it's not like that. It's just that (especially due to the Disney magic that allows characters to be available at all times and in multiple parks at once), the characters who sign by hand won't sign in perfectly identical ways every single time.

And think of it this way, too - my personal signature isn't the exact same as it was ten years ago. I've shifted the style over time. And it's going to look different when I'm quickly signing large stacks of paper at work versus when I'm signing for a package versus when I'm signing on a tablet with my finger when I use my credit card at a small business versus if I'm making it extra fancy to sign a special formal document versus if I'm signing a card for a coworker and I want it to be a bit less stylized so that my name is more legible. It's the same for the characters - with the exception of the few characters who don't sign by hand (for example, Buzz Lightyear uses a stamp since he would have trouble holding pens/markers), they're going to do their best to make their signature relatively consistent, but it's not going to look like a perfect photocopy every time they give an autograph.

If signatures are something that you like and you enjoy seeing the differences that naturally will pop up from time to time, then by all means get the same characters' signatures as many times as possible during your trips (once they're signing again post-pandemic, of course) and you'll probably get a noticeable difference every once in a while. But if you're trying to come up with a checklist of Aladdin Signature Type 1, Aladdin Signature Type 2, etc, and trying to "collect them all", it's just not that formalized. I hope that helps clarify.
 



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