Theme park character interaction getting more immersive

Somewhat surprised no one has commented on this already. Pure freakin' genius moves, getting the characters more involved in the park experience. Doing it in comfortable, well-themed, immersive surroundings....that's the good stuff.

I think in my conversion to Floridian, the thing that surprises me the most about the theme parks is the character obsession, especially at Disney. Watching people queue for this stuff just leaves me in awe. The kids (and grownups) running around with autograph books and all. The new princess thing is huge at Magic Kingdom.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VVY-xw-zLE

Can anyone fill us in on how the "magic" works in the video linked by CPJ above? I mean, Mickey and Minnie say the child's name, and seem very natural with their conversation, at least in the many other videos I have seen of these particular characters online.

Or is it just really good editing?

can't comment, not editing, and Minnie is not in the video, nor is a child's name mentioned.

Well, I watched a video a few months ago in which Mickey and Minnie both spoke the children's names within the conversation at the same meet and greet setup.

I've spent the last 15 minutes looking for the particular video that I watched a while back, but now that this is more popular, there are a lot of videos in which Mickey does not say the child's name. Also Minnie seems to be missing in the newer videos. I think having Mickey say the names was dropped because it may have caused some problems or something, and now that helps me to imagine how this "magic" might work.

At first, I thought that maybe the actor speaks the words and a computer translates the actor's voice into Mickey's voice. After seeing that the names were dropped, I am thinking now that maybe a sound effects board of some kind is used, and it takes a lot of practice between the actor and the person working the sound effects board to pull it off. Now that there are many more videos online showing this "trick," I am noticing many of the same phrases spoken by the character.

I think I have this figured out, but I am still very curious how this works.

Wen I said the word editing in my last post, I was eluding to what I would call "Criss Angel trickery" in which clever editing in the video makes the trick look much better than it really is. Seeing more videos, I doubt that is the case here.

LostKause said:

Can anyone fill us in on how the "magic" works...

I thought it was all a part of the NextGen stuff and the Magic Bands they're just starting to roll out as part of the MyMagic+ thing.

(how's that for a lot of fancy titles in one sentence?)

Basically, it's the RFID thing, Travis. They're able to read the info on your wristband when you come near.

ETA - Oh, you mean the whole conversation thing, not just the names.

LostKause said:

Well, I watched a video a few months ago in which Mickey and Minnie both spoke the children's names within the conversation at the same meet and greet setup.

Knott's was the greatest at it when I was a kid ... an adult went up to the window and told them the name in person.

Universal, the original in LA, did a GREAT job with the ride ET and scanned each name into the program.... unfortunately, the nickname "Jingle" was NOT a word in the program so my daughter got left out.

I guess it sucks to be born on Christmas.

ET pronounced my wife's name Amy as "ah-ME." We cut him some slack since he's not from around here.

LostKause said:

Can anyone fill us in on how the "magic" works in the video linked by CPJ above?

If you explain how magic works, they kick you out of "the club." If you explain how DISNEY-brand magic works, they kick you out of the Mickey Mouse Club... ;~P