California Characters

Fenya is of an age where the appeal of the Disney characters is largely lost on her, much like it was when I went to Disneyland at age 12.  Glory, on the other hand, eagerly sought out familiar animated icons for their autographs as well as the obligatory photo-op.

I was skeptical about the autographs, but most of the characters were only too happy to oblige her.

And for the photos as well.

Pluto does an especially good job considering he a) is forced to sign the autograph on top of his nose and b) he has no discernible thumbs.

On the California Adventure side, the characters were dressed in clothes from the 1920s and '30s, like Mickey's trolley car conductor finery.

 At Universal Studios, we saw somewhat lesser known characters, like 'Bruce' from Jaws.

A couple of Mummy-inspired characters, their make-up and costumes made even more impressive by the built-in stilts.  The Anubis-looking fellow made my day when he crouched behind a stack of t-shirts at the entrance of the gift shop and softly snarled at three girls as they exited, eliciting significant squeals from them and a number of chuckles from bystanders like myself.

(Audrey is a bit damp having just exited the Jurassic Park River Ride, the wettest ride ever.)

Check out the eyes on Nefertiti here as well...

This gentleman starts out his day disguised as part of the statue near the entrance of Universal Studios, then makes his way around the park in a robotic fashion.  It was 35 degrees out, and he is in black from head to toe, so you have to respect his commitment...

In the gift shop of the T2-3D show, they have a full-size, prop quality Iron Man suit, which makes for a great picture if you like that sort of thing.  And I obviously do.

Even I, a man whose photographic reluctance is second only to Bigfoot, could not resist getting a picture taken with 'the ghost with the most'.

The highlight though, was when Glory waited in line for an hour to meet Merida, the Scottish princess who is the main character from Disney's Brave.

One of the things I like most about Disney is that they do nothing by half-measures.  Merida had a miniature courtyard set up, with appropriate set dressing, accessories and even other characters like the three bears behind her, as well as a tiny archery range where others could shoot Nerf-style arrows at a nearby bullseye.

The main reason for the long wait though, was the amount of time Merida spent with each little girl she met with.  When she asked Glory where she was from, Glory told her Canada, to which Merida replied, "Oh, Canada!  My brothers like to put maple syrup on everything!"