Just a few years ago, I was able to check off one thing from my bucket list. That is to meet a real-life Disney Princess! No, I'm not talking about the performers at Disneyland. I'm talking about those who voice our favorite animated royals on screen. That time, it was Moana!
Thanks to my having won a radio contest, I scored tickets to the Hollywood red carpet premiere for "Moana" a couple of years back. I went along with my girlfriend cause we're both huge Disney geeks and prepared for the trip. Fortunately, I was already living in California at the time so I didn't have to travel out of state to get to Hollywood. And since I knew I'd be meeting celebrities there, I didn't want to pass up the chance to get their autographs!
I had my good buddy, a fellow Disney-obsessed fan, acquire posters of the movie from various movie theaters in our town. For some reason, he seems to be well connected with the cinemas in our area. With them, I planned to get the cast members' autographs and hopefully frame one and sell the others.
When the big night finally arrived, I was in awe. Damn! Disney really went all out with the premiere: dancers were performing on the red carpet, people were handing out leis, and the media was in a frenzy trying to interview the stars. I knew these sorts of events were busy and all but I didn't know they were to that extent. To be honest, it sort of caught me off-guard. I was new to this stuff so I didn't know how to respond, really.
Anyway, I did get back to my senses when the cast members started arriving. The first one we saw was Nicole Sherzinger. This girl was beautiful! Even my girlfriend was starstruck by here so she didn't get mad at me when my jaw dropped as she stood right in front of us. It was a good thing my lady got the confidence to ask her for her autograph. It was the first we got and Sherzinger was nice enough to sign most of our posters!
And then came the 'Moana' herself, Auli'i Cravalho. Hearing her sing in the trailers still gave me goosebumps. But to our utter shock, she sounded the same in person too! Looking so beautiful in her blue dress, she looked every bit the Disney Princess. And boy, was she nice! She was so accommodating with fans and took selfies with them all throughout her time on the red carpet. When she got to us and we asked for her autograph, she didn't even hesitate. "Sure, I'd be happy to!" she gleefully said! That moment melted our hearts even more!
On the opposite side of the spectrum, however, was Dwayne Johnson. Maybe it was his WWE past or something but the guy is intimidating! Don't get it wrong, he was all smiles and happy on the red carpet. But he had a swagger about him that, while girls and gays probably fell head over heels for, us guys cowered in fear. It was a good thing that Johnson, at heart, is a good guy. I found this out by asking for his autograph and he happily obliged. I think he was the only one out of all the cast members to sign all our posters! It was amazing!
We will never forget our night with a Disney Princess and the energy of going to a red carpet premiere as a fan! Truth be told, the adrenaline rush made me love Disney, Hollywood, and movies overall!
Please note: Our inventory is limited as we may have only received a few posters in total. Most of our items are obtained from film premieres, studios, and from autographed hounds such as the one in the story above.
