As you walk around Disney’s theme parks, you’re bound to encounter a character at some point or another. Whether it’s on a stage show, at a meet-and-greet, or just randomly wandering around, characters are everywhere. While some classic characters like Cinderella and Mickey Mouse will never vanish from the parks, others come and go with movie and television trends.

Today I thought I’d take a look at some of the more difficult to find…

Disney Theme Park Characters

You can click each character’s photo below to take you to one of several excellent web sites devoted to characters autographs and/or pictures.

Scrooge McDuck shows up around Christmas-time at Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party in the Magic Kingdom, both during the parade and swapping out with Donald Duck at a meet-and-greet. Unfortunately, he’s nowhere to be found for the rest of the year. Scrooge is one of my favorite Disney characters and I’d really like to see more of him in the parks.

LaunchPad McQuack still makes some appearances in the parks, but definitely not as many as when DuckTales and Darkwing Duck were still on the Disney Afternoon block of television programming.

Darkwing Duck is another victim of the Disney Afternoon’s demise. Another of my favorites but, unlike Scrooge, I have never seen Darkwing in the parks. When is the last time you saw him inside a theme park?

Rebecca Cunningham was one of the stars of Tale Spin, though not a terribly popular one. I’m surprised that she even made appearances in the parks. Tale Spin is definitely the least-discussed show from the Disney Afternoon.

Ms. Piggy and Kermit the Frog used to make appearances at the then Disney-MGM Studios (now Hollywood Studios) theme park near MuppetVision 3D. While MuppetVision still exists, these two never make in-person appearances anymore.

Donatello and the other Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles also used to show up regularly at the Disney-MGM Studios. They even had their own stage show and Turtle Van that would drive around the park. Later the Turtle Van was transformed into the Green Army Men van, which is now for sale.

April O’Neil, the Ninja Turtles’ human friend, appeared at the Disney-MGM Studios as well. I’m a huge TMNT fan and am extremely disappointed that I never had a chance to see these characters in person. This year is the franchise’s 25th anniversary, but I doubt that we’ll see a comeback for these characters in the parks.

Roger Rabbit hasn’t been spotted in a Disney theme park for years. That is, he hasn’t been seen outside of his Disneyland dark ride, Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. You’d think that having a ride at Disneyland would be justification enough for being allowed to wander the park. I guess not.

Sora is the main character from the popular Kingdom Hearts series of games. I’m very surprised to find out that he did make a few in-park appearances when the first game came out. Given the somewhat-frightening look on his face, I’m not surprised he hasn’t shown up since.

Flounder from The Little Mermaid very rarely shows up in the parks, likely due to his bizarre walking-on-fins style of getting around. He has been spotted occasionally at the recent Pirate and Princess Parties at the Magic Kingdom, but it’s often only the more-mobile Sebastian hosting the dance party at Ariel’s Grotto.

Thumper from Bambi is a surprisingly-rare character to find in the parks. Given the amount of Disney merchandise that features this cute rabbit, you would think he’d make a few more appearances to sign some autographs.

And many more…

That is certainly not all of the rare characters that have been seen in the parks over the decades they have been open. I invite you to check out these great web sites for more character photos and information on where/when to find them:

• Disney World Common to Rare Characters
• Meeko’s Character Journal
• Walt Disney World Live Entertainment

Do you have a picture of a rare character in the parks? Do you have a character you’d like to see more often (or ever)? Post in the comments about your rare character experiences.

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