Give him all the puzzled looks you want. Tanner Dam, a 38-year-old court clerk, will respond with a laugh and say that he’s “comfortable in his manhood.” So what if he wants to parade around Disneyland with a plushie affixed to his shoulder?
“No shame,” he said with a shrug, which made his stuffed toy — Zazu, the “Lion King” major-domo — bob up and down. “Besides, all the cool kids have them.”
Not … exactly.
The magnet-stabilized souvenir, which Disney calls a Shoulder Plush, is a hit at the company’s theme parks around the world. But children are not driving sales. The merchandise, introduced in 2018 with a single item, Baby Groot, has mostly spoken to a theme park subspecies: the Disney adult.
Sweet and sincere in some people’s eyes, and prime targets for mockery and memes in others, Disney adults are supercharged superfans. Many visit Disney theme parks without children. Some shed tears of joy when they spot Cinderella Castle. Almost all find ever-more-creative ways to telegraph their fandom through clothes, accessories and body art.
T-shirts. Mouse ears. Pins. Backpacks. Charms. Lanyards. Clogs. Stickers. Tattoos.
And, increasingly, with shoulder sitters.
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The post Move Over, Mouse Ears: For Disney Adults, There’s a New Obsession appeared first on New York Times.
