Talking Mickey is, of course, possible, but if you have Mickey talk, then ALL the characters have to talk. Disney has a stable of nearly 100 costumed characters that are utilized, either for shows or meet & greets, every year. Even if they only did the characters who are most often in meet & greets, that's still a LOT of characters to give voices to.
And regardless of the voicebox technology you use, having the characters talk drastically limits who you can have portray a character. People with strong accents, speech impediments, etc. would now not be able to play those characters that talk, since the technology would change the tone and style of their voices, but not the accent or lisp or whatever. So, you'd have a batch of character performers would not be able to continue. Plus ... you'd have to train those character performers on what Mickey (or any other character) would or would not say. Think about the conversations your kids have with the princesses, or Mary Poppins, or Peter Pan -- all of those characters have to think on their feet and remain in character no matter what they're asked. They pass a very stringent audition to be a talking "face character." Your audition process would change drastically if all the non-face characters spoke also, and a lot of people who are GREAT characters now would likely not make it. (Just because you can relate to kids and animate well doesn't mean you're an actor who can improvise in character.)
You're also increasing your training time, which costs money. So you've got more audition time, more training time, plus the technology and any retrofitting of the costumes (which are heavy enough without any new technology being added!). That's a big expense.
Additionally ... if the meet & greet characters were able to talk, every kid would want to talk to them, right? So now your meet & greets take up a whole lot more time. Instead of a hug and an autograph and some playtime, you've got a conversation too. Think about the difference in timing when your child meets a princess vs. when they meet Pooh, for example. And the last thing the character handlers want to do is have to pull a kid away from a conversation because they need to get the next person in to meet the character.
And then you've got language and clarity. The princesses and other face characters are "human" and can chat with a child person-to-person. A costumed character has a much harder time with that. They can't look someone in the eye and make eye contact when they talk; not all the eyes are where you think the eyes are, if you get my drift. And, since the voices are not "human" voices, but rather "character" voices, you have a problem with someone not being able to understand what a character is saying. Donald Duck's speech isn't exactly clear, y'know?
But for me, the bottom line is that the characters don't NEED to talk. I love the non-verbal communication that can be understood by anyone, regardless of what language they speak or if they are hearing impaired, or whatever. It seems so much more inclusive than giving them voices.
Anyone have answers to that one? My 8yo daughter told him he does blink but its so fast that we just don't see it happening, and my son decided he really has those magicial powers we have told him about all these years!
