Pluto Character incident?

[mkt]

Alrighty. As a parent, if your child punches a random stranger on the street in the *whistles*, would you let them know that it wasn't OK then?

What makes it any different if the stranger was wearing 10 lbs of Yellow fur?

 

[Lucky]

1. I couldn't tell for sure if this encounter was hostile or not.

2. I agree with Mr. Kline on his comments on parenting and on a CM's right to react with force against adult provocateurs but not against children.

3. My main reaction to the video was surprise that no handler was in sight. Characters are always accompanied by another CM, who should have stepped in immediately if this was a hostile situation.

 

[sbkline]

Alrighty. As a parent, if your child punches a random stranger on the street in the *whistles*, would you let them know that it wasn't OK then?

What makes it any different if the stranger was wearing 10 lbs of Yellow fur?

There's no difference at all. If my child hit Pluto, Goofy, Mickey or any other character at WDW I would let him know that it isn't okay.

If he randomly hit an old man on the street, I would let him know it isn't okay.

If he randomly hit another kid on the playground, I would let him know it isn't okay.

If he randomly hit a young lady at the grocery store, I would let him know it isn't okay.

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I said or even implied that it is okay for a child to hit a character at WDW. In no uncertain terms, I said that such behavior warrants a good butt whippin. I just said that it isn't okay for the person to go chasing my kid down...it's my job as his father to tan his little hide.

 

[PKD]

notice the embedded link.. see below VVV

There were a couple of threads.. I [B]think[/B] [URL="http://forums.wdwmagic.com/showthread.php?t=225400"][B]this[/B][/URL] one was the first. :shrug:


and yes, the Benny Hill remix one on [I]YouTube[/I] was quite amusing.

I didn't mean THIS thread! :lol:


I guess nobody pays attention to embedded links anymore....:shrug:

DOH, sorry. My work computer doesn't always show embedded links. Security at its best.

 

[mkt]

I'm not sure where you got the idea that I said or even implied that it is okay for a child to hit a character at WDW.

There was no implication. That's why I didn't quote you

That was meant as a general question to the posting public.

 

[sbkline]

There was no implication. That's why I didn't quote you

That was meant as a general question to the posting public.

Oh, okay, my bad. Carry on then, carry on...

 

[Kriszee1]

Geez, that was like 2 weeks ago...the news just caught it now? Wow.

 

[ChipmunkStar]

3. My main reaction to the video was surprise that no handler was in sight. Characters are always accompanied by another CM, who should have stepped in immediately if this was a hostile situation.

Not true. You're thinking of Florida, where characters aren't allowed to go out without a greeter. In California, characters are trusted enough to go out on their own without always having a host. Now, obviously, in this situation, that may not have been the best thing for all involved.

But not all hosts or greeters would have even done anything in the first place. Which is truly the saddest part of the whole thing.

 

[Main Street USA]

Simple: her child hit Pluto for no reason at all, and she did it out of self defense...if indeed that's even what happened.

Hitting someone without provocation is unacceptable. Hitting someone in self defense or in defense of someone else is totally acceptable.

Besides, hypothetically, it very well could be that the mother didn't even see what initially happened. WDW is a busy place. It could be that she stood there while her child went up to see Pluto. In the meantime, someone comes by and accidentally bumps into her and says "excuse me" and she looks over, smiles and says "no problem". At that moment, her child could have kicked Pluto and she missed the whole thing. Or someone could have walked in between them, blocking her line of view. Any number of reasons could exist why she didn't see what happened, and only saw Pluto chasing her kid around.

And no, that doesn't mean she's a bad parent just because she missed it. Parents are all human, too, and while it would be nice if we could have Godlike qualities of seeing everything all the time and being omnipresent, God has not chosen to endow parents with such supernatural abilities. Things can happen to distract our attention and as we all know, children can do things so fast that we can miss it just by having out heads turned for a split second.

Nothing I've typed is based on "well, maybe this happened, or maybe this happened." It was based solely on the situation as it appears to have happened. If she didn't see her kid hit Pluto, or if the kid didn't hit Pluto, then obviously nothing I've said applies.

However, I stand firm by everything I've said if indeed it happened as suspected. If the mom saw it, then she made some really poor decisions there...and still the self-defense argument is weak to me. People are way too quick to get physical in this country. Her best move would've still been to pick up the kid and walk away.

 

[Main Street USA]

Zac. Off topic, but why the !#$^!$^!$^@$*@$%^!@$#% are you wearing a Yankees cap?!?!?!?!

It was given to me by the producer for a movie I was an extra in here in STL called "The Return." It was filmed here in the STL Airport, and we were all supposed to be stranded in JFK, so, there ya go. Of course, I'd never wear a yankee hat as a Yankee fan.

 

[mermaid1]

There is a thread about this on another forum for cast members that is pretty funny and a cast member explains the whole thing. It was a game between the two, the kid and Pluto and got a little out of hand. Check out the forum for cast members who talk about Stupid Guest Tricks and you see the answer. This was also some time ago. You can see the gold on the posts for the 50th celebration and it was definitely Summer!
Check it out for the real story!
mermaid1

 

[KingStefan]

Is this the post you mean? (from StupidGuestTricks.com, dated 9/23/2007)

Quote from a co-CM friend of mine who's a character host and apparently knows what happened:

'This event happened last year - that Pluto is no longer working with us. The kid being chased was rough-housing with Pluto before the camera rolled, and he did not kick Pluto at all. Pluto gave chase, and the kid started to wildly run. Pluto ran as well, which is not allowed, so that's strike one. The kid being chased started to REALLY get scared, and was screaming in earnest trying to get away. Pluto did not fully understand this. The woman who ran up and grabbed Pluto's arm was the child's mother. She demanded that he stop chasing her son, as it was no longer a game.

Pluto was angry that the woman had yanked his arm, and pulled back from her. That was strike two - he did not stop when a guest became in contact. He stepped off the curb and fell down. The woman did not push him, as he was already on the edge. However, he thought she HAD pushed him, and stood up with his paws in front of his face to show he was done. The guests in front of the camera were concerned, asking what happened, and Pluto pointed to the woman, "saying" she'd pushed him. The host then came over at this time to talk to the woman and find out the whole story. This Pluto was a very self-sufficent Pluto, who neither wanted nor needed a Host with him when he did his sets.

The falling down was strike three. However, the day in question was an exception. That Pluto decided to quit, citing that he was tired of the crowds and guests and stress it caused. The host in question was not at fault, as the host was told not to worry about Pluto and tended to the other characters. Pluto, however, took things too far on a hot day, with huge crowds, and a rowdy kid with a protective mom. The end.'

The story in this post is quite plausible. If we believe TheMightyGerbil is being truthful, this could be the real story. It's still hearsay, which is less reliable than if we had a post from the CM being quoted. However, I see no motive for either to lie or for the truth to be distorted intentionally.