Character rumors – Merida, Swampy and Leapers

Update:  Merida WILL be Pixar’s first face character.  Cast Members have already be test fitted for the role.

Princess Merida
Princess Merida from the new Pixar movie “Brave” is supposed to begin making appearances in May.  It is believed that she will meet in Hollywood Studios where Winnie the Pooh currently meets, but she might be moved into Fairytale Garden in Magic Kingdom.  If she is located in Magic Kingdom, Rapunzel would move to Town Square Theater with Belle being removed.  It is unclear if she will appear was Pixar’s first face character.

Eventually all the Princesses will be given a new meet space after Snow White’s Scary Adventures is gutted and transformed into Princess meet and costume shoppe.

Swampy the Alligator
I’ve read that Swampy the Alligator from the “Where’s my water?” mobile video game may “eventually” make appearances.  I had never heard of Swampy before this popped up on a web forum.  (source Drew wdwmagic)

Leap Day aka “One more Disney day.”
Disney has announced that the Magic Kingdom will be open from 6 am Feb 29th until 6 am Mar 1.  I’m not really sure why they didn’t just open from midnight to midnight to allow people to say that they spent Leap Day in the Magic Kingdom or Disneyland, but I suspect it’s so they can show the park opening on Eastern television stations.

I’ve heard that the Magic Kingdom will offer “special entertainment” and that characters would be out during the night hours.  I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to this information.  I was sooooooo disappointed by Disney’s lack of 40th celebration.  I sure hope they bring out some rare characters, run ALL the main street vehicles and provide some extra entertainment!

Russell & Dug
I’ve heard that Russell and Dug are set to go back into wilderness exploration in a couple of days.  If that happens, they will no longer be available for meet and greets at WDW.

Retired characters
On my recent vacation to WDW, I asked an entertainment manager why Jiminy, Lilo, Stitch and Terk are retired from Animal Kingdom and why all the small entertainment is dissappearing.  The unnamed manager told me:  “The characters are retired to allow us to introduce the Tusker House character lunch experience.”  I responded, “That makes no sense, the people eating lunch pay for the characters.”  He stated, “It still has to come from entertainment’s budget for the next quarter, so we had to make some cuts.”  Sounds less like cost cutting and more like profit increases to me!