I’ve been ::ahem:: handled by Eeyore and, IIRC, the Sheriff of Nottingham (the big wolf from Robin Hood). One of my male friends was accosted twice by Tweety Bird (led to tons of inappropriate Tweety jokes and Tweety-related gifts). I think they’re capable of the range of motion necessary to cop a feel, but can’t really feel anything… if you watch most of the characters signing autographs, they hold the pen like a little kid would, and most of the signatures are a somewhat-legible scrawl. That said, I also think that it’s easy for the person inside the suit to be unaware of where their extremities are… I’ve seen a lot of the big-footed characters accidentally step on or kick people.
I don’t know about this… I’d like to see more information before I make a decision either way.
A friend of mine, Steve Farr, worked for Disney as a charachter when he was in high school. He said some of the costumes were made so that you could have full use of your hands, but that the full body costumes, such as Tigger, had hand mits like a boxing glove. For him, ‘signing’ an autograph involved putting a pen in said mit, and waving it around.
They don’t have a whole lotta choice. No matter what they think of the allegation, can you imagine the outcry if they let him keep working - even if it wasn’t i the same role? Disney has a squeaky-clean image (well, until Eisner) and they aren’t about to risk that over this guy.
Alright, I guess I need to wade in on this since I have experience in being a theme park character.
Now, I haven’t followed this closely since I am in Atlanta right now, but from what I’ve read there is plausible deniability.
You have to keep in mind that when in costume we’re wearing blinders so we usually have very limited, if any at all, peripheral vision. So when I, in my Shrek outfit, have to pose with a family I usually pick a pose, stick my arms out and let the family move around me and then I slowly lower my arms to make contact with them.
Now in Shrek I’m wearing big, immobile, plastic hands so I have no sense of feel other than pressure. I know I’ve accidentally thwapped people upside the head and probably accidently groped someone, but I’m fairly safe in that costume because of the immobility of hands.
Tigger is wearing gloves, he has a sense of feel, but he has no peripheral vision. So it is possible that he didn’t realize what he was doing, but very unlikely sense he did it to both people.
Please know that this is very unusual, there is no cover up by the theme parks on this stuff. And regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit he’s probably blacklisted by both major parks in Orlando.