WDW to Shut Down Character Dubsmashes

ItlngrlBella

ItlngrlBella

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Dustin Hayes is a WDW fan who left his small Midwestern town to become a WDW employee. In his offtime he takes funny pics with the characters adding hilarious bylines, and is best known for his dubsmashes. His nickname is "The Character Queen."

He's hilarious. Recently he had some dubsmash videos with characters that went viral - internationally. Just a small sampling of where it was covered: USA Today, HuffPO, Daily Mail (UK) to Australia.

On his fb wall you see stories from fans - from little old ladies and parents of kids undergoing chemo - his vids make them smile.

2 weeks ago I was in the ER with my 5 year old who was having an allergic reaction to an insect bite. They were trying to give her an IV, and she was hysterical. I pulled out my phone to show her one of his dubsmashes and she forgot about them inserting the IV - she went from crying to laughing, IV got in and we sat there for an hour running a couple of his videos over and over to keep her happy/calm.

Besides bringing joy to countless strangers around the world with his creative videos, he's yet another example of a WDW employee who brought TONS of positive PR for the company, then this happened...

image.jpg


The only thing I can think of is that after Dustin's success, they are seeing the "oh-so-original" copy-cats who may not be as respectful of character integrity with songs and things that may be disrespectful.

I hope they make an exception for him. If not, it's just another bad decision by the park.

Way to go WDW, something is cool and creative and you find a way to put an end to it.

First viral Gaston is let go and now this guy can't continue to make people happy - and you can tell both of these guys LOVE WDW... WD Parks, you are missing some amazing free PR.

SMH.
 
M

Mike C

Well-Known Member
Disney is known for being very anti-creative among cast members, the point where there are incentives to "report" such things which has an very serious chilling effects on attitudes toward guests more than you know. To the point of absurdity.

Anything even remotely related to magic bands, collectibles, characters, even small things have been targets for people to be fired over. (Even very innocent things in some cases) I know there are some class action things brewing against that, but in cases like this I think these folks would get together and go back at this and put an end to it..
 
Matt_Black

Matt_Black

Well-Known Member
Don't blame Disney. Various uninspired copycats will absolutely try to recreate this, and it will make problems. It's one thing to take a .jpg and do another variation on a meme that's been done a million times already, it's another thing to do it in one of the busiest vacation spots in the world, impeding on other guests' time just so you can say, "Me too!"
 
ItlngrlBella

ItlngrlBella

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
@BaconPancakes : if you go to my original posting, I have a link within the text so you can see his dubsmash. It's a 10-15 second video where you lip sync. This guy did his own spin on it and it went viral.

Click here:

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/20/heres-ultimate-disney-characters-dubsmash

@Matt_Black - Yes, I'm thinking they don't want copy-cats but I'm hoping that somehow they make an exception for this guy because he's kept character integrity and everything was appropriate and respectful.

It's just sad to see yet again another CM's using his talents to attempt some fun, creative magic and get shut down.

This guy is pretty creative so I'm sure he'll come up with something else.
 
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networkpro

networkpro

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
Yes
Disney is rightfully protecting their intellectual property. They choose how and in what circumstances they are portrayed as well as which music or sound effects are present.

Its a catch-22 situation, if a company does not actively protect their copyrighted material it will pass into the public domain.
 
Tom P.

Tom P.

Well-Known Member
danyoung56 said:
How do you go about making an exception for one person? They just can't. If they allow one guy to continue, then they legally have no way to shut down those that they deem inappropriate.
Click to expand...
I'm sorry, I don't mean this as jumping on you, but that's simply untrue. Walt Disney World is a private, ticketed venue that can set their own rules for what is and is not permitted in their parks, and that includes the ability to make exceptions.

Aside from issues of discrimination against legally protected groups, there is nothing in the law that requires Disney to have or not have any particular rule or policy, nor is there anything that prohibits them from waiving a particular rule for a particular person or group of people. This is not banning people from protesting on the courthouse steps. This is a private -- albeit huge -- business making decisions about what will and will not be allowed on their property. Except in certain limited cases, such as the discrimination aspect I mentioned, they can pretty well do what they please.
 
danyoung56

danyoung56

Well-Known Member
Tom P. said:
I'm sorry, I don't mean this as jumping on you, but that's simply untrue. Walt Disney World is a private, ticketed venue that can set their own rules for what is and is not permitted in their parks, and that includes the ability to make exceptions.
Click to expand...

I'm not a lawyer, so you may indeed be correct. My take is that if they let one person do this then they have to let everyone do it. And if they state that this one guy is OK to do it, but no one else can, well, that's grounds for a lawsuit.
 
ItlngrlBella

ItlngrlBella

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Cmdr_Crimson said:
I can understand this could cause conflicts...But really we do this our phones now?

I want to go back in time find the creator of the Smartphone, tie them up and do this in front of them...
samsung-phone-catches-fire-under-pillow.gif
Click to expand...

Yes, but if it brings a smile to someone, why not? This is creative and fun.

Now if it's a 13 year old doing a dubsmash of Miley Cyrus for no reason???

Get me that sledgehammer.
 
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