What would you do if you were walking through a well-lit shopping mall and your shadow suddenly turned into Donald Duck? It might be enough to strike panic into the heart of any reasonable person. Is it time to go on a diet? When did things get so wildly out of hand? Is this an acid flashback?
But a new reality-style video from Disney—promoting Disney Parks—finds a string of shoppers seeming to have a pretty great time when silhouettes of the company's classic cartoon characters start stalking and mimicking them from behind a backlit set of doors.
It's very charming, especially for the kids in the audience, and the young-at-heart—because who doesn't want to be Buzz Lightyear?
At least some of the reactions are likely staged, but it almost doesn't matter—they're entertaining either way. One very serious businessman balks then smiles at the notion that he's "getting shadowed by a Goofy." One sane woman shakes her head no, backing away, terrified, saying "I'm good," when Snow White's evil queen offers up a poisoned apple.
But the stunt is perhaps most delightful when a grown man tries to catch a shadow football thrown by a shadow dog. (It's least convincingly spontaneous when Minnie Mouse crushes a teenager in a dance-off.)
Regardless, it's a testament to the iconic status of the characters (most of the silhouettes are proper, easy-to-recognize brands in their own right). And it certainly gets across the idea of good, family-friendly fun. As much as you might want to, hating Disney characters (or at least, hating all Disney characters) is like hating puppies and sunshine—you just can't do it.