I had an interesting experience with a 3.5yo boy in my day care this morning this morning, a bit lengthy with the backstory but I think relevent to this discussion.
My preschoolers were playing with some sight word cards -- I have them for the older kids but the little guys found them and were putting together "sentences." They held up a card for me, with the word 'ride,' and asked me what it said. I told them, and just from that, the 3.5yo declared, "Snoopy, ride on!" I asked him to repeat it, and he did, and then asked him what he was talking about. He didn't really answer me, so I asked if he meant from Cedar Point, and he said yes and talked about 'the snoopy ride.' (Not sure which one he meant.)
Then he spent the next bit of time walking around the house singing 'Snoopy Ride On' to the tune of 'Sloopy Hang On.' I'm not that familiar with the kids section of the park, but I don't recall that there, LOL.
Anyways, I found it really interesting. He took three amusement trips this summer; one was to the local fair so it doesn't count in quite the same way. In maybe June or so, he took an impromptu trip up to CP with mom and his brothers (5yo and infant,) only because Dad got some free tickets the day beforehand. Although they had a nice day, there was no beforehand prep or buildup of any sort. In August, I took him (along with the rest of the daycare kids) to KI, which we started talking about six months prior and really working up to three or four weeks beforehand, familiarizing them with the rides, how to ride safely, etc. I'm also almost positive the family had SPs to KI the previous summer ('06,) and went a handful of times.
This is a Nick kid; they don't watch a ton of TV at my house but what they do watch is Nick, Disney, or Noggin (which carries Nick shows.) Spongebob, Dora, Diego, etc are big deals. AFAIK, he's seen very little (if any) Snoopy/Peanuts. But, clearly Snoopy (and the 'ride on' slogan) stuck with this kid.
So... I'm trying to figure out what I draw from this. LOL. I think the licensed characters are an important draw, and may affect a 'vs' argument -- they made the decision between CP and KI for our trip this summer for me. But, I think you can get people in the gates without them. More importantly is the point made above, by several people I think, that it's the integration of the experience and the return draw that's more important. And for that, I don't think it does have to be a licensed character -- 'Snoopy' is nothing to this kid, but clearly he made an impact enough for him to talk about it several months later. I think a 'Holidog' or other park-created character would have done the same thing.
In a way, I almost think that's better. Anytime I see Holidog, I'll think of HW. But I see the Sponge, Dora, Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Batman, etc, a million different times in a million different ways; they're not synonmous with amusement park fun.
I guess in the end, for me, there's plusses and minuses on both sides. I think a character of some sort is important, but I don't think it necessarily has to be a *licensed* character. They have the plus of the draw, but in every discussion I've had with every kid I "park"ed with this summer, the characters haven't been mentioned once (aside from as a 'label' of the ride,) until this Snoopy encounter. As long as the day is fun, it doesn't matter "who" we see along the way.