It didn't seem right, somehow. Here it was, 25 years since the first customer walked through the gates of Disneyland and Winnie the Pooh was in court being sued by a little girl.
Not the way Walt Disney would have envisioned celebrating the Magic Kingdom's 25th anniversary, were he still around. (Disney died in 1966.)
But here was Winnie the Pooh in court nevertheless, sporting a yellow hat and red sweater over his brown fur and demonstrating how he bumped into 10-year-old Debbie Lopez while wandering through the park back in 1975 along with other storybook characters.
As a result of this encounter, alleged Debbie's suit, the little girl suffered bruises and headaches that persisted for three months.
"What did you do at Disneyland?" asked defense lawyer Mike McCray. With that, Pooh, played by professional actor Robert Hill, two-stepped his way down the aisle in front of the judge s bench.
"Have the record show that he s doing a two-step," Superior Court Judge Jerold Oliver ordered.
LATER, OUT OF costume, Hill testified that the bumping incident was purely accidental and occurred as he turned abruptly to see who was tugging at him from behind.
"We're trained not to retaliate," Hill said.
The jury then took 21 minutes to decide that Winnie the Pooh and his employer, Disneyland, should not bave to fork over anything to Debbie Lopez or her family.
It wasn't the first time that the Magic Kingdom or one of its employes was hauled into court. There was the time, for example, that an actor dressed as a gorilla startled a woman so badly she injured herself trying to get away. And there was the time one of the three little pigs was sued for knocking someone down with its ample girth.
But Disneyland has proven unusually adept at handling adversity and bad publicity.
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