Characters!

About a month after I moved to Orlando, I began taking notes each day of anything interesting that happened in case I wanted to write about it later. I have not been doing this lately, and I feel like I should return to it. I sit down and try to write a new entry and I suddenly forget everything that has happened recently.

Michael and I have been able to go to the parks quite a bit recently. Tuesday night we went to Magic Kingdom. The park is open late all this week, so we were able to do a lot of different things. We met Ariel, Donald Duck, and Goofy, and rode the Little Mermaid ride, Pirates of the Caribbean, It's A Small World, Mickey's Philharmagic, Haunted Mansion, and Peter Pan! It is always so much fun being able to go to the parks with Michael. He had never been on the Peter Pan ride because the line is always forever long, so he was excited to ride it. When we met Ariel, she asked me if I wanted to join her in the Redhead Club. I love meeting face characters. They always make me laugh.

Speaking of face characters, I went to the face audition last Friday. Earlier in the week, I received an email from Disney saying that current Disney Performers were not invited to attend this audition. I was really disappointed when I saw this, but some friends and fellow cast members told me not to be discouraged and to go to the audition anyway. It was such a strange experience. The audition was scheduled to begin at 9AM, with sign in starting at 8. I arrived at around 8:30 at the Animal Kingdom costuming building and rehearsal facility. When I arrived, the line was wrapped around the outside of the building. After standing in line for 2 hours, I learned that the line wrapped around the building and then inside the building it wrapped around costuming, down a long hallway, turned the corner toward the rehearsal studio, wrapped around the studio, and finally led you to a table where you signed in, received a number, and were measured for height. While waiting in line, I spoke with the people in line around me. They all said I was definitely going to be friends with Tinkerbell, but I tried not to get my hopes up. I didn't comment on whether or not other girls would get picked. I don't think it is fair to put ideas into people's heads. We saw large groups of girls leaving at a time and quickly learned that after you were signed in, you were taken in groups of 50 to the audition room where a Casting Director turned on some music and did nothing but look at everyone in the room. From there, less than 5 girls from each group made it to the next round. In several of the groups before me, no girls were selected to continue. In my group, 3 girls were chosen. I was lucky enough to be one of them. I could tell she was going to call my number, only because she kept looking at me and then looked directly from my face to the paper in her hand and circled her number. It was very exciting. The other two girls and I were asked to stay in the room while everyone else left. While the other girls were leaving, several told us "Good luck," and "Congratulations." From there, we were taken into a smaller room where we joined about 6 other girls who had already been pulled. Apparently people had been discussing throughout the morning who they thought would make it through. When I walked into this room, I learned that I was one of the girls people had been talking about. I didn't realize I stood out in such a big crowd. One of the other Casting Directors came in and asked if anyone was already working in Entertainment. I raised my hand, along with one other girl. We were told we would be skipping the next portion of the audition. The next part was dancing and animation. Since we had both already done this part, there was no need for them to see it again. After the last group had been looked at, we all went back into the larger room together and joined 3 other girls. In total we had 11 or 12 girls. One of the girls from this last group of 3 was also in Entertainment already. The Casting Director came to us one by one and asked us a few questions while looking us over and making small talk. She seemed pleased that I have been here longer than everyone else. I forgot to mention, this audition was strictly for girls in the College Program. Most of the people just got here sometime in the last month. There were girls who hadn't even begun working yet! After talking with each of us, the Casting Director told me and the other two girls that we could wait in the hall until Cosmetology was ready for us. I didn't realize we were going to go straight into a fitting. All three of us got pretty excited. One of the girls was going to be fit for Alice, the other Mary Poppins, and me Tinkerbell! I imagine my face looked pretty stunned when they told me this. Tinkerbell is one of my favorite characters. It was so cool. I can't go into too much detail about the rest of this, but basically we all got our hair and makeup done, put on our dresses, had some pictures taken, and read some lines in front of a camera. That was it! It was super easy, but kind of chaotic. I never saw myself in front of a mirror, so I have no idea what I looked like. The other girls with me kept telling me I made a wonderful friend for Tinkerbell though. It was all so exciting. When I was done, the Casting Directors told me that I should hear back by Wednesday. I would like to point out that it is now Friday and I have still heard nothing. But apparently when they say Wednesday, they mean Monday. So I guess I just have to be patient. Even if I don't get approved, it was still so wonderful to be able to do it once! All together, 730 girls showed up for the audition and less than 30 remained at the end of the day, so either way, it is insane that I made it that far!

This is random, but all of the princesses are getting makeovers in the parks and in merchandise. I don't really understand why, but a lot of people are really unhappy about this, and for the silliest reasons. The princesses are receiving new hairstyles and new dresses. They still have the same look, it's just being made more modern and more flattering. Cinderella was the first to receive her makeover, back in October or September. Her dress is lovely and her hair is still in a bun, but she now has side swept bangs instead of the straight across ones she had before. Belle was next. Her look just recently debuted. Her dress is a softer yellow and her hair is more curled. It looks beautiful, in my opinion. So many people are throwing fits though. People are saying, "It isn't right to change how they look. This is what we grew up with." or "They look like strippers now with their new makeup," or "They look to skinny now. The girls before looked healthier," or my personal favorite, "What would Walt have wanted?" I find this all very funny considering the fact that A) Their makeup didn't change, B) Walt changed the look of Mickey Mouse several times, C) the princesses are thin in their movies, and D) Walt didn't even have anything to do with most of the princesses. He was really only involved in the early princesses, Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora because all of the other movies came to be after he had passed away. I don't understand why people get so worked up about something so minor. These new looks are more flattering for the princesses and easier for young girls to recognize because they are more modern. And not only that, but Belle's hair used to shadow her face in pictures and now it doesn't. I wish people would think before they say such harsh things about people they've never met.

People are also upset about the changes to some characters personalities. For example, in the Disney Junior show, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Donald Duck has mellowed out quite a bit from his earlier days. He is still irritable, but he doesn't throw a huge fit like he would have before. Same with Tinkerbell. She is much nicer now that she is in the Disney Fairies movies. I'm so happy about this. If Donald Duck still threw fits like he used to, think of how many kids would walk up and punch him or kick him or try to make him mad. Not only would it endanger the Disney Characters, but it would also be teaching the young children that watch these shows to not be level headed and to freak out over every little thing. With Tinkerbell, she still gets upset, but she isn't a diva like she was in Peter Pan, and she hasn't tried to shoot down any Wendy Birds. When she gets upset, she recognizes it and apologizes later. In my opinion, this sends out a much better message to children. Even if they don't realize it, it does make a difference. Children imitate what they see their older siblings do, what they see from kids at school, and what they see on TV.

All that being said, Donald Duck had some of the sweetest little girls meet him at the Beach Club Resort the other day. When he walked up to their table, he knelt down because they were small. They both hugged him immediately and then when they backed away, they said, "Donald, do you want to go home with us, too?" I couldn't help but smile when I heard this. Donald told them yes, he did want to go with them and he stayed with them as long as he could. The younger girl knew that he had other people to see though, so she just started telling him, "Bye, Donald! Goodbye!" while waving both of her hands. Too cute.

Also, Tinkerbell has a star on Hollywood Boulevard and I think that's just about the coolest thing ever. I have to go see it. And with that, everyone have a lovely day and a lovely weekend! And cross your fingers that I hear back about the audition soon!