Why do some children find characters scary at Disney Parks?

[DodgerGirl]

I have never understood why some children find Disney Characters scary at Disney Parks and I have never figured it out? Is it because the characters look like giants to children and that's why some children freak out at the masked characters like Mickey and Minnie? I never have freaked out at Disney characters when I have gone to Disneyland and what I think they do is get giant costumes and put the people in them to look big and gigantic. Second I cannot figure out why some kids freak out at face characters? Because in reality face characters are simply much easier for kids to deal with because they simply aren't scary at all but I have never seen a child freak out over meeting Snow White or Ariel before. When meet and greets do in fact return to Disney Parks Disney should improve the meet and greets by having two lines for children and one could be the line for brave kids and the second line would be known as a "chicken line" for kids who are scared and not ready for characters yet. But I think if you bring them on a Disney trip when you meet characters it's best if they are older and not scared

 

[FCDub]

Because children are irrational. They’re children.

 

[westie55]

Many young children are also afraid of talking to people they don't know or don't see often. Children often get timid in unfamiliar situations, and most don't get to see costumed characters regularly, so it is always an unfamiliar situation. They also don't necessarily remember year to year at very young ages. A 3-year-old won't necessarily remember meeting Mickey at 2. It's a new experience all over again. Think about a kindergartener meeting a new teacher and new classmates for the first time. Most are tentative. This is totally normal and understandable. No need to have separate lines. Others in line should be compassionate and understanding. In fact, the scared kids take up less time with the characters than those who say for lots of interaction. Just because they may get timid doesn't mean they didn't want to give it a try.

 

[Rory607]

Sorry, tried to edit and ended up double posting

 

[Rory607]

Imagine if you were a tiny person who had only been around for a few years. Wouldn’t a giant talking mouse/squirrel/duck have the potential to be unnerving? Also, many adults feel nervous when they meet a celebrity they’ve only seen on a screen. Young kids don’t have as much control over their emotions, so it’s not surprising they feel upset.

Also, it isn’t easy to predict how a child will react to characters. One of my kids loved them from a young age, the other didn’t want much to do with characters until kindergarten.

 

[Heather07438]

Characters are unnatural looking. Good instincts if a baby looks at Minnie and starts crying like WTH is that?!

 

[boop0524]

I have no idea, maybe some characters are scarier than others? They’re often big and unfamiliar to kiddos. My nephew was terrified of the Beast at BOG, but when we told him the Beast was just a big dog his attitude totally changed. He loved the Beast when he met him and pretty sure he barked at him! I still laugh about that years later

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

As a toddler my son loved all the characters, except Rafiki. Maybe he was too realistic.
I have a recent photograph of him, aged 23, not looking entirely comfortable with Darth Vader... but I won’t embarrass him.

 

[DodgerGirl]

I'm usually a chatterbox when it comes to talking to people though my mother often says i'm shy when I meet new people but for me meeting characters at the Disney Parks never has scared me and when I would go to Disneyland as a little girl Mickey Mouse was always a sweetheart to me and when I would get his autograph he always was nice to me. But put me with a face character and I can chatter up a storm with them and they weren't scary at all. Like when I went to a character breakfast at Disney World Aladdin was with me and I was in heaven and he gave me nice comments about my clothing and said I was pretty but when Meeko came he was so darling and even brushed my hair and it wasn't scary at all. I think it depends on how well your children will react to the characters and if at any time you're planning to go to Disney Parks and your children are scared of characters the best way to prepare them is buy some plushies of characters and practice with your children and then they won't feel scared at all

 

[A Mickeyfan]

For some reason my then 5 yr old granddaughter did not want to go anywhere near Sophia but yet hugged and kissed all the others she saw. In fact, we had to see Pluto 3 times. She kept wanting to go back to him. I don't think there's a particular reason why one spooks them an another doesn't. At least I can't figure it out. It's just their comfort levels.

 

[ForceofWill]

Our 8yr old is on the spectrum and is definitely more scared of characters he considers villains. We actually only rode ROTR twice last time even though we had 3 different boarding groups because it was too scary for him. He definitely feels like very immersive things like that are real life. Our 3yr old however is crazy and a daredevil and would jump headfirst off a roof if you let him.

 

[Rory607]

As a toddler my son loved all the characters, except Rafiki. Maybe he was too realistic.
I have a recent photograph of him, aged 23, not looking entirely comfortable with Darth Vader... but I won’t embarrass him.

My son loves Star Wars and was so excited to meet some of the characters on our last trip. He ran right up to Chewy and gave him a huge hug. I have an adorable picture of both kids hugging Chewy. But in the picture with Darth Vader...they’re smiling, but standing a good few feet away from him He is definitely intimidating!

 

[pjacobi]

A child being afraid of the unfamiliar is probably a latent survival instinct. We are all descendants of a child that was afraid of lions. The child that had no fear of lions didn't survive to pass along his/her genes.


-Paul

 

[paisleys]

My daughters were not only afraid of the characters, they were also afraid of the princesses! We were in the back part of France one night enjoying some wine (before Ratatouille ride there was a very quiet area by Guerlain). Sleeping Beauty came out of nowher, came over and bent down to talk to them in their stroller. What an opportunity! They had her all to themselves yet shunned her like she was Jack the Ripper.
I have to admit it was kind of nice not having to stand in line to meet characters, so there was that...

 

[NotUrsula]

Shunning is an easy reaction. Diving for cover and screaming is the really fun option! Our eldest HATED characters, and threw a fit any time they got into his field of vision. DH foolishly booked a character meal on one trip (not knowing it was a character meal) -- DS spent the entire meal on the floor beneath the table, sobbing. If they approached him it was all over.

We finally had to tell him they were just people in costumes, at which time the screaming stopped, but he still would not go near them, and was actively hostile. He even tried to fork Mickey Mouse once when a walking character came up to him while he was eating a treat; he was not about to let that giant rodent steal his treat!

My feeling about what triggered it is that DS is extremely visual, and it really bothered him that beings that were only 2-dimensional on TV suddenly became 3-D and REALLY large.

 

[shafke]

When DD was 2 we did Cinderella castle for breakfast. When the princesses came around she would not look at them and turned her head away. She had no problem running up to the characters.

 

[herdtoDisney]

My dd is on the autism spectrum and is scared of characters. It's like, a thing with her. In fact, when I told her we were going on our upcoming trip, her response was 'I don't like those people in costumes with big heads!' I was so happy to tell her that, because of covid, no characters will get near her LOL.

And no scary fireworks either! This is a perfect month for our trip!

 

[ChanaC]

I was scared of them when I was a kid. Thinking back, I think it was the giant heads. They looked like monsters or aliens or something. I remember being especially afraid of Woody. Even as an adult I think the costume just looks really "off." Luckily my parents realized I was afraid of the characters and never pushed for us to meet them, which was fine with me because I rather wait on a 30 minute line for a ride than a 30 minute line to meet Mickey.

And I'm not sure if it was a joke or not, but the two line things would never happen.

 

[DodgerGirl]

My mother was afraid of Mushu when I went to DCA and we were walking toward a shop and Mushu was signing autographs and I was gonna get Mushu's autograph when suddenly Mushu was walking away and then my mother had to grab Mushu's tail and give him my autograph book for him to sign. So I did get Mushu's autograph but he hugged my mom and she freaked out and we headed to go shopping but my dad was laughing his head off when I told him the story

 

[tinkerjo]

When DS22 was little they had Star Wars weekends, some of those costumes were super scary!! He was 8 or so when he fought Darth Vader at the trading academy and the pictures were priceless. Of course he had a light saber so he felt safer. But he went after Darth pretty aggressively lol. When he was younger than that he was terrified of everything Halloween but was ok with Disney characters