Mickey Mouse talks to guests as Disneyland tests new interactive meet and greets

Disneyland Resort is testing a new type of character meet-and-greet opportunity at Toontown – an innovation captured on video by a Disney guest on May 3, 2010. On some levels, the exchange appears like any other character meet-and-greet, where Disney guests are able to enjoy some face time with Mickey Mouse. The big difference? Mickey now talks with guests, even calling them by name.

Traditionally, Disney fur characters haven’t spoken. Instead, characters use non-verbal communication to interact with guests during their meet-and-greet sessions – posing for pictures, signing autographs, offering hugs, and so on. (Face characters, such as the Disney princesses, do speak.)

The characters’ expressive movements, “the importance of body language” as The Little Mermaid’s Ursula would say, are part of the charm. It’s a little like a game of charades, with the goal being that perfect bit of pixie-dust understanding between character and guest.

Talking Mickey at Disneyland

The two YouTube videos, taken by lrharrisjr with a Flip Video camcorder, now show Mickey as we’ve never seen him before, at least outside the cartoons. In addition to the big gestures familiar to millions of Disney theme park guests, Mickey’s eyes blink and his mouth moves as he talks with guests.

Equally surprising, Mickey calls these guests by name, offering them an incredibly personalized experience.

Inside the Magic’s follow-up with lrharrisjr reveals the family was required to sign some sort of (presumably disclosure) paper before entering the experience, but were allowed to capture the experience on video. There has been no official word from Disney on how many families experienced the talking Mickey, for how long tests may run, or if and when Disney intends to permanantly incorporate talking fur characters into the theme parks.

Mickey's House and the Talking Mouse

To some degree, however, the development of a more interactive and even realistic character meet and greet seems inevitable. Mickey and friends have been talking to the audience in stage shows for a while now, notably as Inside the Magic notes, in “Dream Along with Mickey” (2006) at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. These shows, though, don’t offer guests one-on-one situations.

More direct, personalized interaction between guests and characters have been very popular in “Turtle Talk with Crush” and “Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor,” in which digital characters talk with guests in hybrids scripted and improvisational performances. These types of guest interactions are being used and will be greatly expanded for the Disney Dream, Disney Cruise Line’s newest ship.

But the talking Mickey is another level of interaction altogether, combining the more personal exchanges of the latter with the 3-D cuddliness of the former. It seems a natural enough next step for the company who is not only responsible for the mouse, but for Audio-Animatronics.

Still, one wonders at possible Disney guest reactions to a talking Mickey Mouse. Disney characters can be frightening for small children, which might either be alleviated or intensified by their squeaky voices. And then there’s the question of overall effect – is it more magical to have fur characters engage in brief conversations, scripted or not, with guests? Or does it somehow seem strange and unsettling? Is there something lost in the lack of silence?

Of course, Disney must be concerned with similar issues, which explains the unpublicized tests of the talking character meet-and-greets. But it may be telling that Disney’s quiet tests still allow guests to videotape the sessions and post them online. This perhaps suggests Disney will also  watch online Disney fans’ reactions carefully.

UPDATE (May 6): Disney Parks blog confirmed this "playtesting" as a means to develop new concepts, but has indicated any widespread implementation of talking fur characters is a few years away.

So, what do readers think? Is a talking Mickey Mouse a good idea for the Disney theme parks? Disney magic or Dis-orienting?

Author’s note: Reporting sources for videos going viral are always hard to track. Obviously, lrharrisjr is the original source of information. I was first made aware of the video through Stitch Kingdom, although other online sources are crediting a Photo Magiques user “alka1” with the first posting of the video to a public forum.

Enjoy seeing Disney Cast Members at work (and play)? Try these Media Monday articles, part of the Disney Travel Examiner column:

• Guests are part of the Frontierland Hoedown Happening at the Magic Kingdom
  
• Walt Disney World Streetmosphere – the Citizens of Hollywood and other characters
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ Star Wars Weekends, annual event highlights (videos)
• Walking, talking C3PO appears at Stars Wars Weekends in Disney World
• Disney cast members recommend FASTPASS and single rider lines in Beyoncé parody

Click the link to read more articles on Disney Travel news, deals, and advice. You may also sign up for a free subscription to this column.