Disney is almost always family-friendly…almost.
Which classic Disney film secretly included a topless photo of a woman?
Keep watching to find out!
Fans love to try and spot hidden messages in Disney films.
Usually these are little more than urban legends, but once in a while there's actually something
there — like the photo of a topless woman that was inserted into "The Rescuers."
The two frames in question can't be spotted at normal speed, and thus wasn't noticeable
in the film's 1977 theatrical release.
When it came to a 1999 home video release, however, viewers were able to slow it down
and catch the image during the scene in which Miss Bianca and Bernard are taking flight,
about to embark on their adventure.
This led to Disney requesting a recall of over 3.4 million copies of the offending tapes.
Previous accusations of adult content in Disney films had been shrugged off by the company,
but the fact that Disney recalled "The Rescuers" proved that this one was very much real.
When you think of the 1955 Disney classic "Lady and the Tramp," the first image that
would usually spring to mind would be the iconic scene of the two love-struck dogs sharing
a romantic bowl of spaghetti together.
The memorable moment is frequently cited as one of the most romantic scenes in cinema.
However, this scene almost didn't make the cut, and it was Walt Disney himself that was
skeptical about it.
While keen for the animals to display human emotions, he did wonder whether showing them
enjoying a meal together was a step too far.
In real life, two dogs sharing a plate of food would probably be a bit of a messy experience,
and the concern was that this scene would lack the finesse and grace to give it that
romantic feel.
Directing animator Frank Thomas was able to save the day, however, working on a rough
version of the scene to convince Walt that it could be included in the film with just
a sprinkle of Disney magic.
Fortunately, Walt was convinced and the scene made it into the film, and was of course recreated
once again in the 2019 live action version of the film.
In a film that features talking animals and song and dance numbers, the suspension of
disbelief is essential.
When it came to "The Lion King," however, it was the portrayal of the villainous sidekicks
that landed Disney in some trouble with a hyena expert.
The hyenas in "The Lion King" are the loyal henchmen of the villainous Scar, known for
their haunting cackle, general ineptitude, and being very much at the bottom of the pecking
order when it comes to hunting.
Some biologists were so incensed by the way the hyenas were portrayed as villains that
they published articles seeking to clear the good name of hyenas everywhere.
A piece by Laurence Frank of the University of California, Berkeley, even went as far
as calling for a boycott of "The Lion King."
While a boycott might seem quite extreme, the experts may well have been onto something,
as subsequent research has debunked many of the myths about these creatures.
While she may seem like she was born to play the part of Belle, Emma Watson's Disney journey
almost ended very differently when she was offered — and turned down — the role of
Cinderella.
In recent years, the former "Harry Potter" star has become as well-known for her advocacy
work as U.N. ambassador for women.
The depiction of the characters she's playing on screen is something that she considers
before accepting a role.
Concerned that Cinderella wouldn't provide a strong enough feminist role model for young
girls, Watson rejected the part, which, subsequently, went to Lily James.
The role of Belle piqued her interest, however, as it felt much more closely aligned to her
feminist ideals.
She even had influence over the writing of the character in the 2017 live-action version
of "Beauty and the Beast," requesting more of a backstory that added further depth to
the character.
It was perhaps a smart decision on the part of Watson, as Disney's 2015 live-action retelling
of "Cinderella" garnered some controversy, particularly regarding the strict diet that
was required of Lily James in order to fit into the costumes.
"The corset pulls it in and then the skirt makes it bigger, so I think the perspective
makes it look even smaller."
In the Golden Age of Disney, Walt had complete power and influence over the creative output
of his studio, and with "Bambi" in particular, he was adamant that every aspect of this film
would be perfect.
He went to extraordinary lengths to ensure accuracy when making a film, including shipping
real deer to the Burbank studio and hiring an animal anatomist to ensure his artists'
drawings were as close to the real thing as possible.
While these painstaking lengths paid off in the end, it undoubtedly created quite a stressful
environment for the animators and staff working on the film.
As they worked, preparing for the nitpicking that would come with Walt's daily visits to
the studio, they adopted a phrase among themselves to signal his arrival to each other.
One of the most iconic lines in "Bambi" takes place after humans show up in the film for
the first time, and all the deer have to run and hide.
"Why did we all run?"
"Man was in the forest."
Well, according to a profile from The New England Historical Society, when Walt was
spotted coming down the corridor, the artists would say "Man is in the forest!"
to warn their peers that the boss was on his way.
Over the decades, Disney has dealt with some pretty tumultuous events and box-office flops
and somehow continued to thrive.
Notable examples include World War II, when the studio lost much of its workforce and
its revenue to the war effort and had to make cobbled-together anthologies like "Melody
Time" instead of feature films.
Similarly, in the era following Walt's death in 1966, the studio was left without clear
direction and purpose, and with small budgets had to work a lot harder in order to keep
producing films.
Animation in particular is costly in both money and time, so occasionally some cost-cutting
methods were used to keep things moving.
One of the methods employed was the use of rotoscoping, an animation technique that animators
use to trace over existing footage.
Rotoscoping was particularly evident in 1973's "Robin Hood."
This animated tale of the legendary outlaw reused animation from the Disney archives,
including scenes from "Snow White," "The Aristocats," and "The Jungle Book."
The Disney artists have never denied using this technique, and while it's especially
apparent in "Robin Hood," they also later used it in "Beauty and the Beast," which borrows
some of its ballroom dancing animation from "Sleeping Beauty."
This cost-cutting paid off, and ensured that "Robin Hood" could be made for around $5 million
– far less than what some later films would cost.
As the scale and scope of their films have grown over the years, Disney's movies have
also seen a huge increase in budget.
Their first animated film, "Snow White," had a budget of around $1.49 million — which
equates to over $29 million when adjusted for inflation.
2019's "Frozen II," meanwhile, cost around $150 million to make.
However, there's one film which stands above them all in terms of cost — not just in
the realm of Disney's own history, but holding firm as the most expensive animated film ever
made.
The film in question is 2010's "Tangled," which cost an astronomical $260 million.
It's not hard to see where the budget went on this film, with the animation being among
the most striking Disney has ever produced — and as you'd imagine, animating over 140,000
individual strands of hair is a costly process.
Additionally, the project went through a slightly troubled production, with plenty of rewrites
and a complete change of focus, before it became the film it is today.
Initially intended as a more sarcastic reimagining of the fairy tale — think "Shrek" — supervising
animator Glen Keane reworked the story to make it much more sincere.
The film represented a huge breakthrough for the Disney of the 21st century, ushering in
a new era for Disney's princess movies and paving the way for films like "Frozen" and
"Raya and the Last Dragon."
Long before he brought his unique visionary style to the reimagining of "Alice in Wonderland"
in 2010, Tim Burton had a connection with Disney that went as far back as 1980, when
he was offered an apprentice position at the studio after graduating from the California
Institute of Arts.
Burton joined Disney and worked as an apprentice animator on "The Fox and the Hound" under
the watchful eye of veteran animators.
In addition to this, Burton has uncredited roles working on "Tron" and "The Black Cauldron."
Despite the studio giving him his big break, he felt it was stunting him creatively, so
after only a year he parted ways in order to explore more of his own unique style and
vision.
The split was clearly amicable, however, as Burton went on to be involved with many other
Disney projects, including "The Nightmare Before Christmas," "Alice in Wonderland,"
and the live-action version of "Dumbo."
Ursula the sea witch from "The Little Mermaid" is arguably one of the most memorable Disney
villains of them all, but the real-life inspiration for her design came from the unlikeliest of
places: the drag queen known as Divine.
Divine was the muse of director John Waters, starring in a number of his films including
"Pink Flamingos."
If you're not familiar with Waters' work, his films are about as far away from Disney
as you can get.
"Could you give us some of your political beliefs?"
"Kill everyone now!
Condone first degree murder!
Advocate cannibalism!
Eat s–t!"
Animator Rob Minkoff toyed with many ideas for the design of Ursula, starting off with
a very thin, almost, as he put it, "Joan Collins-esque character."
Ursula eventually evolved into the buxom sorceress we know and love today, after songwriter Howard
Ashman spotted a sketch that bore a close resemblance to Divine and decided this would
be the perfect look for the character.
Sadly, Divine never got to see the completed film, dying shortly before "The Little Mermaid"
was released, in 1988.
But documentarian Jeffrey Schwarz, director of the 2013 film "I Am Divine," feels that
the icon would've not only loved the character, but would've wanted to play the role if given
the chance.
Disney certainly isn't afraid of "going there" when it comes to distressing, dark, or downright
disturbing content.
However, way back in 1937, audiences perhaps weren't prepared for how frightening their
first feature-length offering would be.
According to Brad Bird, director of Pixar classics Ratatouille and the Incredibles,
Disney has never been afraid to scare children.
He claims that a month after the film's initial theatrical release, upholstered theater seats
reportedly had to be replaced because children would frequently wet themselves in fright
“when the witch came on.”
We've all been there — that heart-in-mouth moment where you think you might have closed
down a document without saving it, or you think you've lost something valuable to you.
For one over-enthusiastic member of staff at Pixar, their momentary lapse in judgment
almost erased an entire film!
Yes, while Pixar was working on the much-anticipated "Toy Story 2," someone accidentally ran a
command on their computer system that erased almost all the work they had done on the movie.
One might reasonably have questions about why such a button would even exist.
"Pull the level, Kronk."
"Wrong lever!"
"Why do we even have that lever?"
It was then discovered that the automatic backup system hadn't been working, so there
was no backup for the movie.
"Toy Story 2" was just gone.
Fortunately, supervising technical director Galyn Susman had been working on the film
from home on maternity leave, and suggested that the film could be restored from her personal
computer.
Against all odds, the team managed to piece the film back together using the files on
her computer and save the day.
In perhaps a rather cruel twist of fate, much of the restored work ended up being scrapped
anyway, as the film went through a pretty extensive series of re-writes that saw much
of what had been animated getting altered in some way.
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