Talking Mickey Meet & Greets in Testing again.

[Magenta Panther]

I have never had my picture taken with a single WDW character, but if TDO goes with the ACTUAL Talking Mickey, I'd stand in line for it, no problem. And BTW, why would using the ACTUAL Talking Mickey be so hard? TDO uses an in-person voice actor for Turtle Talk with Crush. Like Sped said, lots of people can do a good Mickey voice. Can't TDO for ONCE (in recent memory) do the RIGHT thing instead of the EXPEDIENT thing?

 

[asianway]

Im sure the voice actor would be an equity role, and as such, cost prohibitive....

 

[beautybutafunnygirl]

Wow, it would be amazing to meet a actual talking Mickey, like in that Halloween video. The other one creeped me out a little.

 

[DrewmanS]

I already addressed this... And it's absolutely ZERO thanks to MM+.

No offense to you. But the reality is one is not reliant on the other. Not even close.

The technologies are not dependent on each other, but they do enhance each other. Mickey could now know that he saw you at a character dinner the night before. If face characters begin to wear earpieces, they could know this is the second time seeing you in different parks.

 

[Bairstow]

The technologies are not dependent on each other, but they do enhance each other. Mickey could now know that he saw you at a character dinner the night before. If face characters begin to wear earpieces, they could know this is the second time seeing you in different parks.

Conceivably they could know other things as well, looking at all the places the bands have been tracked. I can see Mickey with a kid:

"Wow, you really really like riding Ellen's Energy Adventure," don't you?

 

[dreamfinder]

Im sure they would hire another voice actor just for this role.

In a park that got rid of customized napkins to save a few bucks? You really think they would hire equity (or whatever group) talent when a canned audio clip can do?

 

[Bairstow]

In a park that got rid of customized napkins to save a few bucks? You really think they would hire equity (or whatever group) talent when a canned audio clip can do?

Possibly.
It might bug diehard fans like us, but in Disney's mind, no one ever cared about the napkins and paper cups.

While it would certainly be expensive I can see them possibly springing for dedicated actors for this meet and greet attraction IF they know that making an amazing meet-and-greet experience here is more likely to lead to increased Photopass sales and/or boost merch sales at Curtain Call Collectibles.

The fact that they've even tested it means they're considering it.

Does anyone know if the other Living Character Initiative actors, like Crush or the various Monsters Inc. comedians are equity? I wouldn't think they would be.

 

[Magenta Panther]

For God's sake, you'd think, for Disney's SIGNATURE CHARACTER, TDO would be willing to spend a little extra cash and make the thing truly interactive. Jeez...

 

[AswaySuller]

Is the actor in that last video definitely Bret? It sounded a teeny tiny bit different to me... Is it possible they get voice actors that can fill the role at the parks like they do for Optimus at UO

Paying for an equity actor might pay off... Imagine how many more plush mickeys they'd sell or videos and pictures? If they could personalise Mickey merchandise in the way out I can only see it having a good ROI

 

[Tigger19]

There are 2 talking mickeys, the voice actor actually there and reading the guests, and the automated response one. It seems TDO has gone the automated route, thats why he does those games and says generic phrases which you couldn't really tell if they are about you. Its pretty clever, until you actually try to talk to him back and he responds with him continuing his monologue or a generic wow great, want a picture?. This is what needs to be happening.

Wow that's amazing! I was blown away, that would definitly make my holiday if I meet Mickey like that!

 

[Sped2424]

In a park that got rid of customized napkins to save a few bucks? You really think they would hire equity (or whatever group) talent when a canned audio clip can do?

Exactly, they hired someone on the cheap to provide the voice during the obviously voice acted sessions we keep seeing, I doubt they flew out the voice actor they use for mickey to spend a couple days just greeting guests.

 

[Dragonrider1227]

Maybe they save the actual interactive one for special occasions or something. That was filmed on Halloween after all. Maybe they reserve it for Holiday parties.

 

[Dragonrider1227]

I'm sorry for the double posting but I suddenly had a theory as to why they don't use the more interaction version.
When I went to see Turtle Talk with Crush, one of the kids made some "That's what she said" joke to Crush. Crush responded rather confused and unsure how to respond to this, however afterwards said back to the kid "That's what she said." (i forget how he managed to to throw it back to him) my thought is, could Disney afraid that someone will try to do similar inappropriate jokes to Mickey? You can get away with such things with Crush but I think it would be kind of a bigger deal if you get Mickey Mouse to go "That's was she said."

 

[Bairstow]

I'm sorry for the double posting but I suddenly had a theory as to why they don't use the more interaction version.
When I went to see Turtle Talk with Crush, one of the kids made some "That's what she said" joke to Crush. Crush responded rather confused and unsure how to respond to this, however afterwards said back to the kid "That's what she said." (i forget how he managed to to throw it back to him) my thought is, could Disney afraid that someone will try to do similar inappropriate jokes to Mickey? You can get away with such things with Crush but I think it would be kind of a bigger deal if you get Mickey Mouse to go "That's was she said."

I would think it would actually be less of a deal.
With a roomfull of guests at the crush show, you can't just stop everything when a kid/guest goes off-color. It's up to the performer to think on his/her feet and repair the situation.

With a one-on-one interaction like this, I bet the handler would issue a warning (or not) and then just say the show's over and kick miscreants out.

 

[asianway]

Possibly.
It might bug diehard fans like us, but in Disney's mind, no one ever cared about the napkins and paper cups.

While it would certainly be expensive I can see them possibly springing for dedicated actors for this meet and greet attraction IF they know that making an amazing meet-and-greet experience here is more likely to lead to increased Photopass sales and/or boost merch sales at Curtain Call Collectibles.

The fact that they've even tested it means they're considering it.

Does anyone know if the other Living Character Initiative actors, like Crush or the various Monsters Inc. comedians are equity? I wouldn't think they would be.

Yes on both

 

[Magenta Panther]

Yes on both

Then if TDO can shell out cash for Crush and Monsters it can sure as heck do it for Mickey!

 

[Bairstow]

Then if TDO can shell out cash for Crush and Monsters it can sure as heck do it for Mickey!

I don't think it's a question of which character is being performed live; it's a question of for how many people at a time.
You get a lot more bang for your buck to have a single Crush or a couple monsters perform for a hundred people for 10 minutes than in front of 5 for 3.

Plus, I imagine it's a lot easier to find someone you can afford to pay who can "do" the Crush voice.
With the Monsters, their vocal talent is somewhat inconsequential because there's no expectations for the characters.
I've watched the show performed in the morning where a certain character was performed by a man, and later in the afternoon by a woman.

 

[Sped2424]

Lets not forget someone in California does the voice of roz everyday at the end of the monsters inc ride and really only has limited time with each guest. If they are willing to pay for that I don't see why mickey would be out of the realm of reality.

 

[asianway]

Lets not forget someone in California does the voice of roz everyday at the end of the monsters inc ride and really only has limited time with each guest. If they are willing to pay for that I don't see why mickey would be out of the realm of reality.

There's 4 rooms...same reason the character assortment homogenizes

 

[RogueHabit]

I think this is awesome; we're heading to WDW in 10 days and I really hope we get to meet Talking Mickey!