Following up to an Allah post, it appears someone looking at a potential lawsuit against Disney is more likely to wind up with Tigger doo on their face.
The family’s lawyer says Tigger Michael J. Fedelem was tired and cranky and signaling that he wanted to leave, and that’s when he popped junior in his eye.
The allegation is that Tigger simply struck out at Jerry Monaco. While Allah has some video on the matter, see here, I've used slow motion and screen caps to show a few additional pertinent facts I believe to be even more compelling.
Tigger's (Fedelem's) first move was actually defensive, something made much more clear in slow motion and in screen caps below.
When Fedelem (Tigger) turns you can see the teenager still has a grip on Tigger's tail. In the image above I've circled what appear to be Monaco's fingers still clasping it.
Monaco then pulls on the tail again as he strikes Tigger in the face. The series of screen caps below are in sequence with the video. Note how Tigger's tail collapses toward his body in time with the teenager striking the Disney employee. Monaco must have been holding onto the costume's tail for that to have happened.
In the first image below you see Tigger is standing casually looking off with his arm around Monaco.
The small white arrow at bottom below points to Tigger's right paw. He lowered it in a defensive, locking manner to arrest the movement of Monaco's arm as his hand was most likely pulling at his tail. He has stated that such an occurrence made it hard to breath in the costume. Also note that the Left paw, which eventually swung out at Monaco, hasn't moved. Consequently, his first action was defensive in nature and not offensive.
Below, note the position of Tigger's tail, extended back away from his body while he moves to push Monaco away from him.
Now, see how the tail is compressed up against his body. The only way I can see that happening is if Monaco still has his grasp on the tail and actually pulls Tigger toward him while he strikes out at his face.
Below, you again see that Tigger's tail has extended back away from his body into its normal position after Monaco most likely released it.
The 30 second video below contains the incident in real time, then slow motion, then again in real time and should make the statements above fairly clear.
By the time Fedelem's Disney or union lawyers get done with the raw footage, any law suit should be toast - in my opinion.
Heh!
Even without elaboration and screen shots and all the rest, the video doesn't indicate much of a smack. I think the kid and his dad are pansies for making an issue out of this.
Posted by: D Carter | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 12:03 PM
Have to agree the tourists are the pansies. One look at the video makes it clear something happened to make Tigger do what he did. It just doesn't make sense that Tigger would first do a lock on the guy's arm before he swung. And he may not have even meant to sock the stooge - his big paw just made the contact.
I went to Disney World and stood with Goofy to have a picture taken. My boyfriend stood with the camera saying "Say cheese!" and just as he clicked, Goofy grabbed my butt. The picture is too funny to believe. My mouth is wide open in shock and laughter as my lower front is thrust towards the camera. My boyfriend kept taking pictures and the sequence of follow-up photographs is just hilarious. Goofy is roaring with laughter and I'm hanging onto him as I'm bent over howling.
Dang. To think I could have sued and made a bunch of money. And considering I'm still laughing about the incident now and will continue to laugh when I'm old and look at the pictures, I doubt any money would have been worth that super silly, funny funny moment in my life.
Posted by: Phoenix | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 01:09 PM
Phoenix-
Will you come back so I can grab your butt, too?
Posted by: M. Mouse | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 02:22 PM
It looks like the kids' hand is at tiggers neck-the tail is just flapping free. Most likely the kid wanted to take tiggers head off-that's where the funny be.
Posted by: splashtc | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 03:59 PM
Everyone is missing the obvious in the video. Look closely. The claws are retracted. They would have been out making a point if he really was attacking Chump Jr. Speaking of feline the kids "PAW" was a real p _ _ _ y! He's really teaching Jr. about dishonesty...Jr? Who calls their son Jr? We are really going down the pooper as a society when we allow things like this to make the morning news.
Posted by: Tex | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 04:25 PM
No Tigger bashing, please. It wouldn't be politically correct.
Posted by: Dan Riehl | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 05:34 PM
M. Mouse -
Sure. You can grab my butt, but first you'll have to tell if you are "Mini" or "Mickey". ha ha....
Posted by: Phoenix | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 09:26 PM
It's obvious from the news interview that the kid who got smacked is lying about something. He has this smirk while he's talking.
Posted by: burnitup | Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 11:55 PM
Well, experts warn us that big cats are unpredictable and shouldn't be fooled with, even if they look tame. But even so, didn't we all know all along that it was the teenager's fault? From the very first second you heard or read that Tigger smacked a kid, without any further details, didn't you still know that the kid did something first to cause it?
Posted by: ak | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 01:12 PM
Having spent a good deal of time at Disney, I can tell you that by the looks on that kids face as the camera rolled- he was pulling Tiggers tail. I've seen that smart assed little smirk many many times, and it always accompanied some little punk screwing with the characters. Plus, I have this odd feeling Tigger hitting that kid would have had a bit more of an effect on the idiot.
Posted by: Lilo | Friday, January 12, 2007 at 04:19 PM