Park character question: CHILDREN DON'T LOOK!!!

[freepixie]

Check this out, it really doesn't answer your question but may help if you have any more questions wondering about the characters --> http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm

 

[freepixie]

Nope, Mickey is a male.

Actually, I found this webpage, written by a former cast member, who gave some interesting insight on costumed character roles:

Hmmm, I think Joanna is referring to the Mouse himself, I think when you go up to meet Mickey he would be offended if you call him a girl...

 

[perla75]

Check this out, it really doesn't answer your question but may help if you have any more questions wondering about the characters --> http://allears.net/tp/fur.htm

Thanks for sharing!! I really like the tips list on the bottom, after the "PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW SMALL CHILDREN TO READ disclaimer" .....Joanna71985, you might not want to read that page!!

I like the photo of Daisy Duck on there. I've always wanted to get my picture taken with her, but I haven't yet run into her.

 

[perla75]

Hmmm, I think Joanna is referring to the Mouse himself, I think when you go up to meet Mickey he would be offended if you call him a girl...

Yup, the mouse himself is indeed a male. The costumed character is a female

 

[freepixie]

Might I direct you to the title of the thread in bold print where it says, "CHILDREN DON'T LOOK!!!"

LOL ya see, I'm a preschool teacher and I can tell you from experience if you tell kids NOT to look at something, that is probably the first thing they will look at... I'm not trying to be snarky or anything, because it was very good that you did put a disclaimer on there, however knowing the psyche of a young child, whatever you tell them NOT to do, they will probably go ahead and try to do anyhow! Luckily the children I teach don't read yet!!

 

[perla75]

LOL ya see, I'm a preschool teacher and I can tell you from experience if you tell kids NOT to look at something, that is probably the first thing they will look at... I'm not trying to be snarky or anything, because it was very good that you did put a disclaimer on there, however knowing the psyche of a young child, whatever you tell them NOT to do, they will probably go ahead and try to do anyhow! Luckily the children I teach don't read yet!!

I believe you that you are not being snarky I also work with preschool children (and elementary school children as well). I'll tell you though, if I had my own preschool aged child, I probably would not let them roam a public message board by themselves. I think a preschool aged child is going to run into MANY more doses of reality that are a bit more concerning than the height of the person who plays Donald Duck!!

The fact is, there is nothing wrong with having one thread discussing these things. A bunch of threads? Ok, maybe....but it seems to silly (and borderline weird) for others to make such a stink about one WDW related thread (with a disclaimer) on a WDW related message board.

 

[poohbear227]

Anyone ever seen this from the Disney website?

http://corporate.disney.go.com/auditions/

It's neat to poke around there and read up on the audition processes!

 

[Joanna71985]

Wow, that's really interesting to hear insight from someone who once played a character performer!

I wonder if there are fans inside the costume-must get really hot in there!

Of course not. Humans don't have fans inside of them.

Yup, the mouse himself is indeed a male. The costumed character is a female

Why would Mickey dress up like a girl? He only wears manly costumes for Halloween.

 

[perla75]

Of course not. Humans don't have fans inside of them.



Why would Mickey dress up like a girl? He only wears manly costumes for Halloween.

I'm starting to wonder about your mental status....

 

[Disneenut]

You have said you had kids right? Whats the best thing to do when they are acting in a non-desirable fashion... Don't listen to them.

Anywho... I guess i never thought about how tall the characters are and that there would need to be of appropriate height so as their "clothes" would fit. Is that P.C.

 

[perla75]

You have said you had kids right? Whats the best thing to do when they are acting in a non-desirable fashion... Don't listen to them.

Anywho... I guess i never thought about how tall the characters are and that there would need to be of appropriate height so as their "clothes" would fit. Is that P.C.

Well, the other kicker is, those that are young enough to believe the costume characters are not people are too young to read!

Yes, when I read the costumed characters auditions page, it says that they measure your height as soon as you get there & it is a deciding factor for which character you might get to be if you pass the audition.

They also want to make sure the characters are correct height when relative to each other-i.e. in the cartoons, goofy & pluto are taller than mickey & minnie.

 

[mainegal]

 

[mainegal]

Interesting that the same human can portray different characters.

I assume that a character can be portrayed by different humans in different parks at different times.

We saw Alice in Epcot's England. A day later we saw her in the MK parade. My friend is sure it was the same person (human, not character). I think a blonde wig and blue dress can make almost anyone look like Alice.

I have read that there is never more than one Mickey in the park at the same time, even in different places. Don't want to chance that they might run into each other!

 

[perla75]

I have read that there is never more than one Mickey in the park at the same time, even in different places. Don't want to chance that they might run into each other!

You know, I wonder if this is why they got rid of the LTT character dinner-? It cuts right into Spectro & I remember the last time we were there, the handlers were scurrying to round up the characters to get them in the back saying "Goofy's gotta go to the parade now"Maybe it was too hard to handle, since Spectro goes right by LTT.

 

[Joanna71985]

You know, I wonder if this is why they got rid of the LTT character dinner-? It cuts right into Spectro & I remember the last time we were there, the handlers were scurrying to round up the characters to get them in the back saying "Goofy's gotta go to the parade now"Maybe it was too hard to handle, since Spectro goes right by LTT.

Nope, not at all.

 

[Tabatha]

Joanna - not trying to mean, please do not take this the wrong way...BUT why are you still a CP? Are you ever planning on moving on and graduating your original college degree, not just the Ducktorate?

okay so to answer the original OP's question it definitely depends on the costume. After my original CP program I stayed on and worked for Disney for a while in the character dept. Women do in fact play the majority of the "fur" roles like Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, etc... due to height.

The characters world is a world like no other. The closest way to describe it would be like revisiting high school all over again There are strong social hierarchies in this "school" and many cliques.

The "preps" typically were the face characters. These are your princesses, princes, and villains. Work is pretty good for this group and they rule the utilidors.

After that you had the "jocks" - who are usually your entertainers. These were your parade dancers and on stage performers. Fun job, you get to be animated, more around, carry your body weight in equipment and wear skin tight costumes that would make a waif look fat.

The "nerds" wore the "fur". Hot, sweaty (no fans inside), only washed once per week, used by many, personal saunas. poor unfortunate souls

Auditions are packed and you know immediately if you chosen. Critics could get pretty harsh. For some reason (my dance background) I didn't start in "fur" like most and went straight to the parade route. I was glad to not be suffering in those costumes, but it was still hard work. After about 4 months I was ready for a change. The next time I auditioned for a face character and was chosen to play Jasmine and subbed as Pocahantas (in conservation station). It was weeks before I was ever able to go "stage" (meet the guests), because first you have to watch your characters movies, learn the dialect, learn how to put on your makeup and wig, and a short easy test to make sure that you grasped the information, signature classes (each character is unique and must be consistent with all the performs).

SO...finally you get to go "on-stage" and its a blast, totally awesome....for about 2-3 months and then the magic really starts to fade... You would occasionally have those special guests who just really stand out and bring the magic back, but all too often the next guest is snippy that you didn't immediately gravitate to their child or its some guy who thinks that you are there for his "hand" candy and since its Disney he has the right to totally invade your personal space and sometimes inappropriately hit on you and they wipe it all away (the magic that is)

Ahh...My time at Disney as both a CP and a employee was great and I would have missed many great things by not doing it, but I'm definitely glad that I have moved on in my life. As a side note - those souls are way underpaid - depending on the role anywhere from $7-10 /hr. be kind and don't, trust me they have heard all the stupid jokes and Jasmine, Ariel, and Pocahontas do NOT like to be fondled so stay clean you pervert

 

[Joanna71985]

Joanna - not trying to mean, please do not take this the wrong way...BUT why are you still a CP? Are you ever planning on moving on and graduating your original college degree, not just the Ducktorate?

Not that it's anyone's business. But I had to change majors (and 2 of my CPs were just over the summer, so I didn't miss any school time), so I had to take 2 extra semesters. And as for graduating, I am graduating this summer (and going to work for Disney FT).

 

[perla75]

Joanna - not trying to mean, please do not take this the wrong way...BUT why are you still a CP? Are you ever planning on moving on and graduating your original college degree, not just the Ducktorate?

okay so to answer the original OP's question it definitely depends on the costume. After my original CP program I stayed on and worked for Disney for a while in the character dept. Women do in fact play the majority of the "fur" roles like Mickey, Minnie, Chip, Dale, etc... due to height.

The characters world is a world like no other. The closest way to describe it would be like revisiting high school all over again There are strong social hierarchies in this "school" and many cliques.

The "preps" typically were the face characters. These are your princesses, princes, and villains. Work is pretty good for this group and they rule the utilidors.

After that you had the "jocks" - who are usually your entertainers. These were your parade dancers and on stage performers. Fun job, you get to be animated, more around, carry your body weight in equipment and wear skin tight costumes that would make a waif look fat.

The "nerds" wore the "fur". Hot, sweaty (no fans inside), only washed once per week, used by many, personal saunas. poor unfortunate souls

Auditions are packed and you know immediately if you chosen. Critics could get pretty harsh. For some reason (my dance background) I didn't start in "fur" like most and went straight to the parade route. I was glad to not be suffering in those costumes, but it was still hard work. After about 4 months I was ready for a change. The next time I auditioned for a face character and was chosen to play Jasmine and subbed as Pocahantas (in conservation station). It was weeks before I was ever able to go "stage" (meet the guests), because first you have to watch your characters movies, learn the dialect, learn how to put on your makeup and wig, and a short easy test to make sure that you grasped the information, signature classes (each character is unique and must be consistent with all the performs).

SO...finally you get to go "on-stage" and its a blast, totally awesome....for about 2-3 months and then the magic really starts to fade... You would occasionally have those special guests who just really stand out and bring the magic back, but all too often the next guest is snippy that you didn't immediately gravitate to their child or its some guy who thinks that you are there for his "hand" candy and since its Disney he has the right to totally invade your personal space and sometimes inappropriately hit on you and they wipe it all away (the magic that is)

Ahh...My time at Disney as both a CP and a employee was great and I would have missed many great things by not doing it, but I'm definitely glad that I have moved on in my life. As a side note - those souls are way underpaid - depending on the role anywhere from $7-10 /hr. be kind and don't, trust me they have heard all the stupid jokes and Jasmine, Ariel, and Pocahontas do NOT like to be fondled so stay clean you pervert

Tabatha:

Thank you for sharing your story and insight!! I find this stuff so interesting!! I wish there was a section on this board for CM's. Even the special vocab (like "on-stage") is so interesting to me!

I guess I can see why/how it ends up to be very cliquey.

Did you get to do any character/princess meals? I just wondered if the guests were generally better behaved at character meals than in the parks during meet & greets because it was more structured, they were eating & relaxing, etc...

 

[playswithstars]

I'm confused-didn't you mentioned that you work WITH the characters??? I would think you already ruined it for yourself by working at WDW & witnessing all of the behind the scenes stuff. No one is ruining magic by asking a simple question. WDW is a magical place to me, which is why I am so fascinated with all of the details of it.



Exactly!!

Nope, Mickey is a male.

A girl in my class at college said her sister has worked at disney for five years so far and she's has played Mickey before. She said this as part of her introduction that everyone had to do because she was explaining why she had such a big Disney Album. SHOCK all those college kids fantasies are probably ruined.

 

[Joanna71985]

Did you get to do any character/princess meals? I just wondered if the guests were generally better behaved at character meals than in the parks during meet & greets because it was more structured, they were eating & relaxing, etc...

Not always. People could be just as bad at character dining, as they can be in the parks. Sometimes, it was worse.