Shocking footage of Minnie Mouse spinning a toddler around when she tried to hug her at Disneyland has outraged viewers accusing the character of being ‘aggressive’ and ‘manhandling’ the little girl.
TikTok user @anisrios1 shared the now-viral video of her young niece running up to Minnie during a meet-and-greet at the park’s famous Main Street, U.S.A. themed-land in Anaheim, California.
The excited child had her arms open to give the character an embrace but was quickly spun around for a picture. The little girl wiggled out of Minnie’s arms to try to give her a hug again — only to be turned for a second time.
‘Yesterday my niece was trying to hug Minnie and she was rude,’ the toddler’s aunt captioned the video, which sparked a fierce debate in the comments.
TikTok user @anisrios1 shared a now-viral video of her young niece being rebuffed by Minnie Mouse after she tried to give her a hug at Disneyland
The excited toddle had her arms open as she ran toward the beloved character
Minnie Mouse avoided the little girl’s hug and quickly spun her around for a picture
The clip has received 15.5 million views and more than 20,000 comments since it was posted last fall.
A number of viewers insisted that the theme park actor had been too rough with the little girl when all she wanted was a hug.
‘No way @DisneyParks. Not okay. That’s a child and they were aggressively turning her away from a hug,’ one person wrote.
‘The way Minnie manhandles her,’ someone else commented, while another added, ‘That baby got whiplash from those spins!’
‘All this baby wanted was a hug. I am so mad,’ one critic shared.
Others couldn’t resist cracking jokes about the character’s surprising behavior, with an amused viewer proclaiming, ‘Minnie’s in her dark era.’
There were also plenty of people who sided with Minnie in this situation, claiming the actor was busy posing for pictures.
The child wiggled out of Minnie’s arms to try to give her a hug again – only to be turned for a second time
‘Yesterday my niece was trying to hug Minnie and she was rude,’ the toddler’s aunt captioned the video, which has been viewed more than 15.5 million times
Outraged commenters accused the character of being ‘aggressive’ and ‘manhandling’ the little girl, but others claimed the cast member was just keeping the line moving
‘Minnie’s got work to do. She is on a time crunch and needs the line to keep moving,’ one person argued.
The toddler’s mom, Aiko Mora, chimed in to respond to the commenters who thought her family was overreacting.
‘It was her first time at Disney,’ she said of her daughter. ‘And the first in line for the picture… Minnie was coming from a break…’
Mora, who uses the handle @aikotov1, also posted the footage of her daughter being rebuffed by Minnie Mouse on her own TikTok page.
‘This is not the way anyone should be treated at Disneyland,’ the mom said using the app’s text-to-voice feature.
She added in the caption, ‘This is how Minnie decided to treat my kid after making 1 hour in line…Not a magical time…’
TikTok user @sthooch, a former Disney cast member, responded to the footage, saying it appeared that Minnie Mouse was doing what is known as the ‘love and shove.’
The toddler’s mom, Aiko Mora, posted the footage on her own TikTok page, saying they waited an hour in line during the disappointing meet-and-greet
TikTok user @chanellealyssa responded with a video of herself hugging the beloved character at the theme park, writing, ‘How an interaction SHOULD go with Minnie Mouse’
TikTok user @sthooch, a former Disney cast member, shared his own take on the video, saying the employee was likely doing the ‘love and shove’ – a technique to keep the line moving
‘Is Minnie Mouse being rude to the child? I’m going to say no, and this is why. When characters have meet-and-greets, you might say they have a Mode A and a Mode B, he explained.
‘Mode A is when the characters take extra time to talk to the child or the family or the adult, whoever, and really interact, creating this great experience between the guest and the character. Now on busy days, really busy days, they may go into Mode B, which is known as “love and shove.”‘
According to the content creator, the technique is when a cast member has a quick interaction with a fan and ‘gracefully shoves them off to the side as the next person coming.’
‘You are cattle during “love and shove” because they are trying to get as many people through as possible,’ he noted. ‘Otherwise. people would complain, “That took too long.”‘
TikTok user @chanellealyssa had a different take and shared a video of herself hugging the beloved character at the theme park, writing, ‘How an interaction SHOULD go with Minnie Mouse.’
‘All these videos of Minnie being rude make me so sad… character interactions can be so fun and personal and we don’t need to take a lot of time,’ she added in the caption. ‘All we need is a moment. And this one was so magical! How all of them should go.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to Disney Parks for comment.
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