A family attending an expensive dinner at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge at Walt Disney World Resort had a character experience they were not expecting. According to the father, they complained after the Evil Queen was not what they anticipated.
The Evil Queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Walt Disney Productions
In 2023, The Walt Disney Company faced criticism from conservatives and some moderates when photos and videos surfaced of a biological male cast member wearing a dress while working as a “Fairy-Godmother-in-training” at the Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boutique princess boutique for little girls at the Magic Kingdom. This biological male had facial hair and makeup but there was never any clarification as to presented gender identity. For many families, the cast member’s stated gender identity would not have mattered much. Video of the mustached biological male in a dress leading small girls into a salon has resurfaced often by families critical of Disney’s reimagining of traditional values. Of course, for others of a different mindset, there was nothing wrong with this at all and the internet reaction was either intolerant or inappropriate.
Disney has a man in a dress working in the dress store for little girls at Disneyland. This is who Disney wants girls to see when they first walk in to pick out a dress. pic.twitter.com/Ta2dwyAaSa
— Jason Jones (@jonesville) May 30, 2023
That Park Place has received an account of a character meal at Story Book Dining at Artist Point with corroborating video that indicates Walt Disney World Resort may have gone a bit farther in the march towards progress. At the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique, the cast member wearing a dress and sporting a mustache at the Fantasyland entrance of an experience that transforms little girls into princesses was just a regular cast member. According to newly acquired video and witnesses, it would appear that Orlando’s Walt Disney World has a biological male playing the part of an iconic, female character in full facial appearance and makeup.
While the gender of some of Disney’s iconic character mascot performers is irrelevant to guests who cannot see behind cumbersome character masks, this appears to be the first time a biological male has been seen interacting directly with guests while performing as a Disney female face character, with their face, stature, and voice revealed to guests. For one family that experienced the awkward “meet and greet,” this was not what they bargained for.
According to the father who reached out to That Park Place reporters, the Evil Queen, antagonist of the first Walt Disney animated feature, appeared to be played by a biological male at Artist Point in Disney’s Wilderness Lodge Resort. Story Book Dining at Artist Point is listed by the Walt Disney World website as a premium character dining experience with adults expecting to pay $60 per meal.
According to the father:
While we were waiting for the desserts to come out we received our invitation to meet the Evil Queen which we were really looking forward to. Keep in mind we’ve had other meet and greets with other Villains and they are truly the best character experiences that we’ve ever had so we had high hopes for the Evil Queen leading up. So we all walked over towards the Evil Queen area and while my kids and wife were interacting with the character I was doing some video and took a few pictures from about 10 feet away then handed my iPhone over to the cast member to take some pics for me so I could get in the picture. It was kind of loud inside so I couldn’t really hear what the character was saying until I got face to face (typical conversation distance of a few feet) and then it hit me that the Evil Queen without a doubt had a man’s voice.
The Evil Queen poses with a family at Wilderness Lodge Resort in Walt Disney World Resort
According to the father, he stands at a very average height but was towered over by the person playing the Evil Queen, as can be seen in the photo. He confirmed that the Evil Queen character was not standing on any sort of elevated platform. When the person playing the character spoke with a male-presenting voice, the father was displeased at the strange representation of a traditionally female character and asked to speak to a manager.
The father detailed:
I told my waiter that I had a problem with something. He then asked what was the issue and I simply stated I have a problem with Evil Queen being a man dressed in drag. The waiter immediately said he was going to get a manager and he looked panicked…
At first I said I wanted to formally complain about the Evil Queen being a man and that I felt very disrespected by Disney because this is not the sort of thing my family values and they didn’t give us any type of notice that this sort of thing was even a possibility. After that my wife then signaled for me to stand up and take a step from the table so that our kids didn’t have to overhear the conversation. So I stood up and continued my chat with the manager which lasted about one to two mins maybe (felt like an hour). I stated we are a conservative Christian family, I’m spending $8,000 on this current trip in addition to the tens of thousands I’ve spent together in the past at Walt Disney World and Disney Cruises, and that this is not right.
For the most part the manager just listened and never once apologized for anything. At one point the manager stated “I can assure you that she is a woman.” She went even further, trying to shame me, informing me that “she” was so excited to get the part as the Evil Queen. For a brief moment I thought “oh… maybe I’m wrong” but then I realized that I was just being gaslighted. I politely told the manager that “I know what you are doing and that I do not appreciate the fact that you are trying to be funny and disingenuous.” So since the manager doubled down I also doubled down and asked “is the Evil Queen a biological male?” The manager’s reply was, “I’m sorry sir, I cannot answer that.”
We at That Park Place are fully aware that actors of any sex often play roles of characters that do not directly correlate at Walt Disney parks and resorts. The stage performance of Maleficent in the Fantasmic pyrotechnical effects show has often been played by men, presumably due to physical constraints. In the same way, the gender of characters in masks generally unknown to guests. For height reasons Mickey Mouse is often played by a woman. What is different about this experience is that a rather tall person appearing to be biologically male and sounding biologically male is playing a female queen in a way that might not be authentic to the character’s traditional depiction. This represents a break in traditional Disney Parks protocols for who can be cast in various roles at their theme parks and experiences. For example, there is no publicly known instance of a biological male to playing Alice from Alice in Wonderland or Mary Poppins while interacting with guests.
While researching this article, it was discovered that this actor has appeared to play this role often for at least the last several months.
A family has reached out to That Park Place claiming they spent over $300 on a character meet and greet dinner at Walt Disney World… only to discover the Evil Queen character was almost certainly a biological male. This represents the first time we've heard of Disney using a… pic.twitter.com/jHRt64wl4O
— wdwpro (@wdwpro1) April 23, 2024
The clip above in the embedded 𝕏 post is a shorter, newsworthy fair use clip from a much longer video by a YouTube user called LocalFloridaGal:
Another YouTube Channel called Allison & Sam seems to feature the same actor in the role:
According to the family that reached out to That Park Place, they spent over three-hundred dollars on their meal and felt they were not treated appropriately. While we cannot verify that the individual playing the role is, in fact, a biological male (in the same way we can’t verify the biological sex of the Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique cast member from last year), in our research it appears that this actor has been in the rotation of cast member’s playing the role of Snow’s White’s Evil Queen for several months.
This raises the question if Disney will clarify the current rules for cast members wishing to play roles that would have traditionally been unavailable due to the immutable characteristics of the cast member. For example, would Disney approve of this same cast member using makeup techniques to play Tiana from the Princess and the Frog? Some guests might find this equally if not more offensive, but it would appear consistent with the practices of the current Walt Disney Company. While some families might not care one bit about a “white man” playing Tiana, other families might be so offended that they wouldn’t want to visit Disney Parks ever again.
Since the launch of Disney+, many families have note an increase in advocacy by the Walt Disney Company for drag queens in content targeted at minors.
The difference in a show on Disney+ is that families can choose not to watch it. A growing number of families have chosen not to subscribe to Disney+ over the last few years. The content is fully available for parental review before it is determined if it is appropriate for children. While each family can make their own decisions about streaming, parents who formerly viewed Disney+ as “babysitter content” may have been surprised by the Disney+ branding attached to a Drag Queen Pride Event called “This Is Me”. At Disney Parks families might be caught unaware while interacting with their child’s favorite Disney characters only to discover that Gaston might actually be a biological woman.
While That Park Place recognize’s the strong difference in opinions that exist on this issue, this website wants families to have the best information they can obtain beforehand so that they can be aware of the content of character interactions they could have. It may not be a question of intolerance, “wokeness” or anything else… just an issue that can be resolved through transparency by Disney. As Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Iger has stated to investors, he would like to “quiet the noise” on the culture war. While some viewed this as Disney pulling away from controversial issues, it appears that Bob Iger was only referring to literally turning the volume down so that parents couldn’t hear what their children were watching.
Gonzo in a dress from a frame capture of Disney’s Muppet Babies; Copyright The Walt Disney Company
Due to the controversial nature of this subject, That Park Place would like to reiterate its firm stance that all people are deserving of kindness and respect.
But what do you think? Let us know in the comments below. And, as always, keep reading That Park Place for all the news that should be fun!
Stealing jobs from women, I see
If I had paid $300 dollars on a meal to have with my impressionable kids to enjoy character interactions, I would be fucking furious this disease is deliberately being pushed onto kids so they conform them to the extreme lefts ideology. like its not bad enough with this shit being peddled in schools and movies and tv shows for children. Predatory & Evil.
As a former WDW Disney entertainment character performer leader, I can verify that, especially for characters with heads, you never know if you are visiting with a male or female. Our best Minnie at Epcot was in fact a guy and he was wonderful. Face roles are a bit more complicated, The ugly step sisters have long been played by men in parades. The queen is so tall that it may require a man to fill that role, I don’t think there is any attempt here to push an agenda. (Full disclosure-I am decidedly against Disney’s plunge into divisive DEI issues.) Also, the manager the guest was talking to was likely a hotel manager who had no control over the character performers so would not have been the one to make any decisions. The complaint was likely wasted on him. He could do nothing about it. Finally, I remember one instance at Studios where a black parent complained that Jafar had ignored her child because the child.was black. The Jafar performer himself was a black man. To defuse the situation, the performer came back out, out of costume and spent time talking to the guest. When seen from the inside of the daily operation, these situations are not as simple as they look to a guest. For what its worth, that’s a former insiders take.
IF the “Hotel Manager” was NOT the right person to act on this, what he/she COULD have done is take it TO the right person. Sorry, but you’re cutting them more slack than they even slightly deserve. The complaint was “wasted” because of how it was handled, not to whom it was made.