Disney Character Signatures

[attackwithnorth]

I have a question regarding Disney character signatures/autographs that I hope someone can answer for me. I have wondered for years what kind of training or protocol the cast members who play characters go through to get the classic signatures "just right"? Clearly, Mickey's signature always has to be the same, as do all of the others. How do they go about that?

 

[bradk]

mickey spends a lot more time than you might think learning to sign his name.

dunno anything about cast members though

 

[Disney1976]

mickey spends a lot more time than you might think learning to sign his name.

dunno anything about cast members though

I don't remember if I read this here, or a CM who was a character was telling me this (!), but apparently depending on your height, you can be assigned to play various characters,and you generally don't find out who you are going to be on what day until the schedule for that week comes out. They also said that they did spend a couple of days to learn how to sign signatures of various characters, and that because of some of the costumes, certain signatures are easier to learn than others (easier to hold the pen).

They also said that one day they were playing Pluto, and realized that they had signed another character's autograph, so they quickly ripped out the page and pretended to eat it to cover their mistake, lol!

 

[foodrocksluver]

I don't remember if I read this here, or a CM who was a character was telling me this (!), but apparently depending on your height, you can be assigned to play various characters,and you generally don't find out who you are going to be on what day until the schedule for that week comes out. They also said that they did spend a couple of days to learn how to sign signatures of various characters, and that because of some of the costumes, certain signatures are easier to learn than others (easier to hold the pen).

That's true. I have a friend who works down there and he said that not only do they have to learn how to sign correctly but they are given a list of trivia about that character incase someone were to ask them a question pertaining to their character or the movie in which they star.

 

[bradk]

sorry.. still confused on this playing character thing.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

sorry.. still confused on this playing character thing.

I'm with you on this one Brad have no Idea what they are referring to.

 

[One Year Pin]

"Playing" a character? I don't get it.

 

[kswm30b]

Clearly, Mickey's signature always has to be the same, as do all of the others. How do they go about that?

I don't know. I met Mickey on a Wednesday at Epcot, and then a Friday at Chef Mickey's, and somehow, his signature was completely different. Same with Minnie & Goofy (though not as different as Mickey's), but Pluto's looked exactly the same. I figure one of those days, the character had a cramp from signing so many autographs or something, since there's no other explanation.

 

[WDSearcher]

I don't know. I met Mickey on a Wednesday at Epcot, and then a Friday at Chef Mickey's, and somehow, his signature was completely different. Same with Minnie & Goofy (though not as different as Mickey's), but Pluto's looked exactly the same. I figure one of those days, the character had a cramp from signing so many autographs or something, since there's no other explanation.

Seriously -- do you sign YOUR name exactly the same way every time you sign it? Probably not!

But the reason Mickey's signature looks mostly the same no matter where is because only Mickey is signing it!

That's my story,a nd I'm stickin' to it.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

Sadly, I had characters misspell their own names! There was an obscure character named Rebecca Cunningham, from the Tail Spin show with Baloo. When I met her and she signed my autograph book, she misspelled her own name as "Rebbecca" (with 2 b's instead of one). Yikes!

But usually, I find the signatures usually look very similar, when getting them from the same character on different days or in different parks.

 

[chrismb22]

Hey, no kidding my father's been known to misspell his name so maybe a character did too! Dad did it on a beautiful birthday card he wrote my mother a while back. He was so excited to give her the card and was rushing. He wrote a beautiful sentiment and then love FRNK (Frank is his name!) so ever since, he's been known as FRNK among all of us!)

 

[Vickie46]

I don't understand what you mean playing a character????????????

 

[Disney1976]

O.K., a little OT from the original question, but the "signatures all looking alike" thing got me thinking. Several years ago, I worked for a law firm that represented a construction company in a law suit against Disney. They had done a lot of work on AKL and there were some work/payment issues being litigated. Among all the paperwork, exhibits, etc. and other tedious litigation, one of the people who was deposed for Disney was a person whose sole job, apparently, was quality control. For example, if a new statute of Mickey Mouse was going to be built in one of the parks this person had final say as to design, so to ensure that all the Mickey statutes on property looked similar. This QC job apparently applied to hotels, merchandising, parks, etc. Obviously, for consistency purposes, only a select few people do quality control (or did at the time). I just thought it was really impressive that Disney took that much time and paid that much attention to details that guests might not even ever appreciate.