Disney just finished celebrating their first ever Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite and reviews are raving!
The event was offered to Guests for two nights in June, both of which sold out completely, and offered special events, meet and greets, and character interactions. Videos of the event have been shared around Twitter and TikTok, sharing the experience with fans that were unable to attend.
Many of these videos share the various rare characters that were available during the event, including the Muses from Hercules (1997), Mulan as Ping, Oaken from Frozen (2013), and the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (1951). While the Queen of Hearts has been at other events before, she appeared at Pride Nite as a face character for the first time.
At her previous appearances, the Queen has always been a “fur” or “masked” character, wearing a big head piece to serve as the character’s head. Other characters that typically meet this way are Jafar, Hades, TweedleDee and TweedleDum, and Buzz Lightyear. Maleficent, Cruella, and the Evil Queen have been meeting as face-to-face characters for years.
When masked characters meet, they don’t talk, limited to interacting with Guests via gestures and a character attendant interpreting for them. A TikTok video shared an interaction with the Queen as a face character and it proves why the humans should all meet as face characters rather than wearing the larger-than-life masks.
@mandalodien O B S E S S E D #disneyland #pridenite #disneyparks #disneylandafterdark #aliceinwonderland
The video, shared by @mandalodien, has viewers “obsessed” in the comments. The Queen stares at her reflection in the phone, calling herself “stunning,” laughing maniacally, and able to actually interact with the Guest. The comments are full of support, praising Disney’s decision to make her a face character, saying her laugh was “perfect.”
Another video shows the same Queen playing croquet with the Guests, demanding her hedgehog, while yet another shows her joyously celebrating her unbirthday, while each video shows her just being overall sassy and entertaining.
With the overwhelmingly positive reception of meeting the Queen of Hearts as a face character instead of her usual masked character, it proves that there’s demand for the other characters to also meet face-to-face. It would allow those characters to provide more of an interaction with Guests while showcasing their storytelling abilities, creating even more magical moments for Disney Guests.
Would you like to see more face characters in the Parks? Share your thoughts in the comments below!