“I’m part of something”: Veteran Disney Character Voice Shares Fulfilling Moment

Veteran Disney voice actor April Winchell shared a moment of pride she experienced at Disneyland, recently. The story was shared on Sunday’s episode of the Toon’d In with Jim Cummings podcast.

Winchell shared that she “had an interesting experience at Disneyland recently. I went there not too long ago. And I met the person in the Clarabelle costume. Because I don’t know if you’ve seen this, but she’s being referred to as a rising queer icon.”

“Clarabelle?,” Cummings replies in surprise.

“Yes, because in the suits, they’ve hired actual drag queens who can do the death drop and the dance and know all the moves and everything. And the line to meet her is longer than anybody. She’s just super popular, right?”

“And all these people are so excited to see her. And I thought, for the first time in my life, I was like, oh my god, I’m part of something. Because you’re behind the glass and you don’t really think about people listening to you. I really felt great about that.”

The story continued with a strange turn, though.

“So I’m walking with Clarabelle. They’re all lining up to meet her, right? And this old woman says to me, Oh, look, she’s walking with Clarabelle. And her daughter’s like, Mom, that is Clarabelle. And she’s not getting it. And I said, No, I am. I am Clarabelle. She just looks at me. And I said, Yeah.”

In the character voice, Winchell then croons “Well, how are you doing? It is a beautiful day to be in California Adventure.”

“And she goes, she looks at me, she goes, Well, now, how long have you been practicing that? And I said, About 30 years.”

Winchell first voiced Clarabelle for The Story of Clarabelle Cow, a 1996 audio book recording of a 1936 book.

April Winchell on the podcast:

Lead image sourced from this video:

April Winchell’s debut as Clarabelle: