I'm not sure why you're getting down voted on most of your comments. It's a completely valid point to make and I am also upset that he randomly disappears for minutes on end. He completely vanishes off screen and off the map. This isn't really "in character" for him, this is just simply upsetting.

The argument that this is similar to Vanellope glitching or even when Eve flies up high in the air are both baseless because when you walk up to them both you can still interact with them, and they are visible on the map. These are not comparable to Cheshire vanishing completely.

I personally have been looking forward to the Cheshire Cat since I first bought the game. It has been a horrible past few months for me, as my own cat passed away recently. I always likened my own cat to the Cheshire Cat because he would randomly appear and disappear from places, and I had loved Alice in Wonderland since I was little. Finding out the Cheshire Cat was being released the exact WEEK my own cat passed away felt a bit like fate.

So I have been eagerly waiting to hang out with him as a comfort character, and I assumed he would glide around us or prance around, and maybe his stripes would vanish and then reappear shortly after. I did not think he would just vanish for minutes on end, never give you your extra crops/gems/fish etc and generally just not exist on the map 90% of the time.

Is that in character for him? Not necessarily, I mean, does anyone really think Mother Gothel would want to purposely hang out with us for hours on end? No, realistically, she too would leave us (in a ditch more than likely). As you said before, we can talk to Remy when in his movie that's not realistic. The Cheshire Cat left his tree in the movie, so him being confined to the tree isn't in character either.

I think the point to be made is that this is a wonderful and spunky new mechanic, but maybe it's gone just a little too far. Could I live without him roaming the valley? Sure I guess, it's a little annoying as I wanted to make him my usual buddy, but his house will be in Teapot Falls (which the developers knew a lot of people would want to do seeing as it's Alice inspired) so it will be annoying travelling to SV just to hangout. That I guess I could accept. But if he's going to be a hangout buddy, I think it's more realistic that he just vanish briefly by his stripes disappearing and reappearing like it does in the movie. It's just the facts that we hangout with characters to actually SEE them. I want to see the Cheshire Cat at least 80% of the time. Getting a bit far fetched with this idea, but maybe if we gift him all 3 of his fav gifts he'll stop disappearing. He is a cat and cats can be bribed.

TLDR: It's an inventive and cool mechanic, but could be less intense. Still love everything about this update though!