What’s the heirarchy like when it comes to playing the characters? Are there certain characters that have more prestige than others, and only people with a certain of level of talent or seniority get to play them? And if so, what character has the most status?
On the flip side of the coin, are any characters considered “low-status” and assigned mainly to beginners?
I would think the biggest names like Donald, Mickey, Minnie, etc. have the most prestige and those jobs are probably hardest to get.
In 2002 the characters also came to the Disney hotels, they would be in the lobby. I remember seeing a raccoon who I didn’t recognize and my wife said he was from Pocahontas, that is probably a character for a beginner.
#2 on my list of holy-crap dream jobs is playing Goofy at Disneyland.
Now that I think of it, it’s been years since I’ve met any characters there, despite visiting almost every year. It’s always fun, but I don’t like to wait in either the scheduled queues or the impromptu ones. I’ll have to make a day of it.
I am rather enjoying the user name / comment combination
cthulhu saves … in case he gets hungry later
Disney is even more evil than a Great Old One. The contract negotiations totally screwed us food personnel in 2005
Well, that’s just Min Wage for CA, and I know they pay more than that.
I worked there briefly as Security and it was pretty cool job. Pay was just Ok, but it was really fun.
Here’s a link:
Wait…what? Disneyland has Pixie Hollow which is a meet-and-greet for TB and the fairies. I’ve pretty much ignored it because a childless grown man waiting in a line to meet the fairies might seem kind of weird and creepy. But now I’m reconsidering. 
My friend’s sister is at Disney World in FL, not Disneyland in CA. The current Florida minimum wage is $7.25/hr, and that’s only been since a week or two ago. It was $7.21 at the beginning of the year, up from $6.79/hr in 2008. I don’t know for sure what the hourly wages are at Disney World, but $8/hr would be above minimum wage for Florida.
I know that my friend’s sister works full-time, is usually playing one of four or five face characters, and makes about $25k per year. She made significantly less when she only had one face role and was often playing masked characters. Disney does provide health benefits to full-time performers though, while most jobs with comparable pay do not.
Did you have to get a rabies shot afterwards?
This story reminded me of this thread:
I suspect Mickey can’t be bothered because he’s the one character that’s probably obliged to show up at various park events throughout the day, so he’s on a tighter schedule than the others.
And of course, one of the behind-the-scenes Disney books claimed that it wasn’t uncommon to have the female fully costumed characters (Minnie, Daisy, etc.) played by gay men, who can have fun flirting with all those dads out there with no one the wiser…
Improv Geek has said that most characters are played by the opposite sex. This prevents people from just standing around and focuses them on acting.
How does that make them less likely to stand around?
A man playing, say, Popeye may think he is being acceptably manly just through his usual mannerisms. But those mannerisms don’t come through the big head and padded suit. This leaves him effectively just standing around not doing much. But a woman dressed as Popeye will constantly be focused on being exaggeratedly manly.
I’ve heard that many of the big-headed mask characters are often played by women, regardless of the character’s gender, because the performer has to be fairly short to fit the costume.
I believe the tall characters are still generally men, like Goofy, Brer Bear, probably the Queen of Hearts. Captain Hook and Tigger might be borderline.
This is what I’ve heard as well. I don’t think it has anything to do with focus. I think I’ve read that they have two different sets of height requirements, one for the short characters & one for the tall characters. The short ones tend to be girls, the tall ones tend to be boys.
Heh, thought I’d plug one I found out about a few months back—Jack and Sally at Disneyland.
Exquisite mask/makeup work on Jack, not to mention the acting job.
Back on the subject at hand, there was a book that came out awhile back, Mouse Tales, that has a ton of great behind-the-scenes stuff on Disneyland. In the section on costumed cast members, IIRC, it says they specifically tried to use the most mannish women and flamboyantly gay men to play Robin Hood.
It also has a chapter on the 60s Hippie/Yippie riot in the park. :eek:
Ghhaaa! Jack has the be the creepiest in-person character I’ve ever seen. I think it’s those huge vacant eyeholes in the skull…
Wait, I thought the ones wearing masks weren’t supposed to talk? Despite that Jack is wearing a mask and Sally isn’t, he seems to be doing all the talking.