What do you tell kids why characters don’t speak?

[Chrisizzle]

I’ll be travelling with kids for the first time. I’m curious what you tell kids when they ask why Mickey and other characters don’t speak.

eg. Mickey will talk and sing when on stage but he only uses gestures during meet & greets.

 

[Willow Ufgood]

I’ll be travelling with kids for the first time. I’m curious what you tell kids when they ask why Mickey and other characters don’t speak.

eg. Mickey will talk and sing when on stage but he only uses gestures during meet & greets.

I will tell them that they are outside of their magical sphere, which includes the castle and parade vehicles. Mice can't talk in the real world and neither can Mickey.

 

[Karin1984]

Always ask the question "what do you think?" Let them think of an answer and if it sounds plausible to them, you only have to confirm it.

And otherwise, just tell them that Mickey meets so many people, he has to save his voice.

 

[Chrisizzle]

Always ask the question "what do you think?" Let them think of an answer and if it sounds plausible to them, you only have to confirm it.

And otherwise, just tell them that Mickey meets so many people, he has to save his voice.

Saving his voice is exactly the story I was going to go with.

 

[nursejackie]

You could meet Talking Mickey years ago (in his theatre in MK), is that still a thing? We had amazing experiences with those one to one interactions.

 

[Chrisizzle]

You could meet Talking Mickey years ago (in his theatre in MK), is that still a thing? We had amazing experiences with those one to one interactions.

That seems to have ended in May 2018.

 

[sponica]

Honestly, my kids have NEVER asked about why fur characters don't talk...

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Whenever I get a question about a character I don’t know how to answer, I just tell my kid “why don’t you ask Mickey/whomever when you see them?”

She usually forgets or is too awestruck to remember to ask. And if she does I’m sure the handlers have far better answers than I could ever come up with.

 

[nursejackie]

That seems to have ended in May 2018.

Oh how sad. We're way past character meet and greets now (17 year old boy!), but have such lovely memories and photos of Mickey having a conversation with him in his younger years.

 

[sethschroeder]

We always have talked about the characters being people dressed up.

 

[juxtapose]

Honestly, my kids have NEVER asked about why fur characters don't talk...

Same.

However, my kids realized they weren't "real" pretty quick but still love meeting them, especially all the fur characters.

 

[sponica]

Same.

However, my kids realized they weren't "real" pretty quick but still love meeting them, especially all the fur characters.

My almost 4 year old thinks they're real. My almost 8 year old is somewhere in the middle. Face characters are just people dressed up, but that life size mouse, he's real.

 

[katyjeka]

Honestly, my kids have NEVER asked about why fur characters don't talk...

Thirty years later and that's one question ours have never asked. They did ask why the princesses sounded so fake. They actually called them weird. Two of them were terrified of Snow White to the point we would have to avoid her at all cost. The same two ran up up to the Grinch at Universal and refused to leave him. KIDS!!!!!

 

[merfsko]

My nephews never asked BUT... we once did the Disney Jr. dining at Hollywood & Vine. After our first character interaction with Handy Manny the 3.5 year old declared that "Handy Manny is out of batteries."

It took us a moment, but we realized he was making a connection to how when toys run out of batteries they stop making noise

 

[Robber Baron]

Animals don't talk.

 

[DodgerGirl]

When my family went to Disneyland and we were eating at Goofy's Kitchen my mother asked when Goofy came to our table why Goofy never talks and I told my mom that's one of the many secrets that Disney Parks have. And then she thought it was the real Goofy. In my eyes if kids didn't think the characters were "real" the magic would disappear because just like at Christmas when kids must believe in Santa Claus because if kids don't believe in Santa Claus Christmas presents would not exist as well as Christmas itself. But I think Disney should release talking versions of fur characters and other characters because when I would always see Disney Parks commercials they show Mickey with eyes that blink and move as he interacts with guests because seeing how Talking Mickey worked well at Magic Kingdom I think all Disney Parks should have talking fur characters and other characters and it would be a huge hit with families and not only let the face characters such as the Marvel characters and princesses talk