It is actually meant in the interest of public safety. There's FAR more security in Disney parks than people realize... these guys, as usual, know what they're doin'. There isn't really an Orwellian angle to it (although in the Eisner days, I wouldn't have been so certain).
And I'm sure they appreciate the protection from liability it offers them. I notice there haven't been so many "Goofy kicked my kid" lawsuits lately.
True story: I visited the park for the first time back when I was in high school. Yes, it existed back that long ago. I was there with an adult supervised group of high school kids. Needless to say, the oversight pretty much only extended to "outside of the park."
Being the smart a** that I am, I decided that it'd be HILARIOUS to get pictures doing stupid things with the guys in the costumes. Now, I'm not a mean person. The type of things I'm talking about were stupid poses, etc. And I convinced two good friends to go along with it.
We were there for about three days total, and it POURED the first two days. The costumed folks weren't out. It rained the morning of our last day in the park, and then the skys parted around lunch, and suddenly...COSTUMES!
The first one we spotted was the big bad wolf. "He" had his back to us and was talking to two teenage girls. (stereotype much?)
I shoved the camera into friend #1's hand, and friend #2 and I bolted towards him. "Dude! Dude! Wait up!" we were yelling... or something along those lines. The wolf didn't really register that we were shouting at him until we got right near him. And he turned.... right as I entered the turning radius of his nose.
And the snout on the costume clocked me right on the head. Snouts hurt more than you think.
The guy in the costume was all over himself apologizing, etc. We thought it was funny and didn't give it a second thought. The only thing hurt, really, was my pride, and as a teen boy, I didn't have much of that to begin with. We got the stupid pictures and went on our way.
It never occured to me until later that things could've been bad for the guy in the suit...