A lot of work goes into making a movie, especially an animated one. From concept, to writing,
to the years of animation and eventual movie release, a lot can happen.
Hello everybody, I’m Abbey and I’m coming at you with this top 10 video to share with
you 10 scary truths behind some of your favourite Disney movies.
Number 10 – The Rescuers and the number 13
So, to ease into all of the scary truths, we are exploring a true fear one of the main
characters from The Rescuers has. Main mouse Bernard has a fear of the number 13.
The number thirteen is commonly associated with bad luck in western culture. When you
go to a hotel, many don’t have a thirteenth floor because they don’t want to associate
with bad luck. Bernard’s fear is next level though, making it enough to be a phobia. Tris·kai·dek·a·pho·bi·a
to be exact. Written account of the fear of the number
thirteen dates back only to the late 1800s, but became common enough by 1911 that it got
the name tris·kai·dek·a·pho·bi·a by combining the Greek word for thirteen with
phobia which means “fear of”. All in all, our boy Bernard from the Rescuers
has some strong feelings about the number 13. Do you have strong feelings about any
numbers too?
I have another truth about the Rescuers and this next one was a bit of a scandal, so grab
some tea sis.
Number 9 – The Rescuers hidden photo Although the film came out in 1977 and was
out on laserdisc and VHS since 1992, no issue was found until 1999. The issue was with an
“objectionable background image” about 38 minutes into the movie. This image was
of a topless woman that was in two frames of the movie, when Bianca and Bernanrd fly
in a sardine box on the back of Orville through the city. An important thing to note is that
the framerate for Disney movies is between 24 and 60 frames PER SECOND. So, only being
visible for two frames means that the image was only visible for a twelfth of a second.
That’s 0.083 seconds. So, who broke the news about this if you could
only find it by freeze framing at the right moment? Disney did. That’s right. They made
a public statement about it, saying it must have been inserted in post-production, and
that they were recalling 3.4 million copies of the movie.
That’s a lot of VHS tapes.
Number 8 – Disney and Recycling animations This truth has been going around for a bit
but I wanted to include it because there’s a bit of misinformation buzzing around it
as well. If you look at a lot of the hand-drawn animated
Disney movies, there can be some overlap in how some sequences turn out. There’s a movement
in Robin Hood that looks an awful lot like some in AristoCats, and the dance scene in
Beauty and the Beast looks the same as the one in Sleeping Beauty. This led to a lot
of outlets saying that the animators were recycling animation for either time or money
reasons, but that wasn’t always the case. In 2015 on his website “Geek Dad”, Jim
MacQuarrie asked former animators on those movies what had happened in these situations.
Animator Floyd Norman said it was because of director Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman.
According to Norman, Reitherman liked to “play it safe and only use stuff he knew would work”
which led to similar animation over many of the movies he directed.
Also, Gary Tousdale, co-director of Beauty and the Beast, said time was the reason for
the dance scene making you see double. As the cut for time, Reitherman had already made
it so that using previous sequences was alright, so Tousdale said they resized and repositioned
the Sleeping Beauty animation and then cleaned up the characters.
This information was shocking to me, so I had to share it. And, okay, I know it’s
not the spookiest, but the next few make up for that.
Number 7 – Finding Nemo and other Lost Fish In the movie, Nemo escapes the dentist down
the toilet, believing that all drains lead to the ocean. This idea had influence. Children
began flushing their fish down the toilet, believing this was true. The LA Times wrote
about this and also what really happens to the fish when flushed.
Because, no, they don’t go to the ocean. First of all, most flushed fish die from trauma
or shock from hitting fresh water. If a fish survives the swirling journey, they still
won’t make it to open waters. They would end up in a sewage system where the bacteria,
chemicals, and gases would poison or drown the fish. But if your fish was super strong
somehow, they still wouldn’t make it because the only thing that makes it to open water
is water. The fish would be taken out as a solid at a water treatment plant.
So don’t flush your fish.
Number 6 – Princess and the Frog Two months after its release in 2010, an article
came out in Metro that said that young Disney fans had fallen ill after kissing frogs like
in the movie. This article was citing a salmonella outbreak in the states, but it wasn’t known
for certain that it was because of kissing frogs, so it’s likely that this story was
spun. That being said there’s truth in one part
of it: kissing frogs can give you salmonella. Amphibians are well known to carry salmonella
and can give humans the infection salmonellosis from contact with them. It’s advised young
children don’t mirror the princess in having a frog of their own because of their weakened
immune systems.
Now let’s jump from frogs back to fish. Or, half-fish that is.
Number 5 – The Little Mermaid song that was almost cut
We all know, regardless of how much you liked it, that The Little Mermaid is a classic.
The thing is, it could have been released without its iconic song “Part of Your World”.
THAT’S TERRIFYING. In a Polygon interview with Jodi Benson, the
voice of Ariel, she said that in early test screenings the song didn’t perform well.
The four minute song wasn’t doing well with its target audience: kids. The Disney chairman
at the time Jeffery Katzenberg noticed kids were getting restless and distracted during
the song, even throwing popcorn around, and wanted to axe the song.
What saved this beautiful song was the song’s lyricist, Howard Ashman, who apparently said,
“If this song goes I go.” And to that I’ve got to say – thank you, Howard Ashman,
for an Anthem.
Number 4 – Sleeping Beauty truth Now, the little mermaid came out in 1989,
30 years after the last princess movie: Sleeping beauty. Why? Well sleeping beauty wasn’t
the only sleeping thing with this movie. The movie originally bombed.
Called a sleeper movie because of it’s delayed profits, and possibly because it put theatregoers
to sleep, the movie originally only made 5.3 million dollars.
If you are looking at me like – Abbey, what about inflation? Just stop there kiddo. It
cost six million dollars to make the movie, so it originally came out as a loss. Now though,
it’s nearly ten times the original five million with a lifetime gross of 51.6 million
dollars. So, if you ever showcase something and it’s
not getting stellar reviews, don’t sweat it. People barely remember the truth that
it bombed, so don’t get too worked up about your personal failures.
Number 3 – Tangled’s pricey truth Adjusted for inflation, Sleeping Beauty we
just talked about cost a little over $53 million with today’s valuation. That pales in comparison
with Tangled. Tangled is the most expensive animated movie
Disney has ever made. It’s also the most expensive animated movie of all time. It’s
my favourite Disney movie though, so it’s worth it. The studio spent an estimated $260
million dollars back in 2010 to made Tangled. Ranker adjusted this against 2019 inflation
to and say it would be equivalent to $320 million today. That’s more than the Titanic!
Why was it so expensive? Some people think it’s because there was storyboarding and
writing dating back to 2000, ten years before the movie’s release, but there are no sure
answers out there right now. The good news is Disney more than doubled their profit with
a gross of over 590 million dollars.
And talking about profitable…
Number 2 – Frozen Names are References Frozens original title was going to be The
Snow Queen, which is also the name of the work that the movie was based on. Snedronningen,
AKA The Snow Queen, was written by Hans Christian Andersen. When you think of that name, countless
childhood stories may come into you head, but listen to it again. Hans Christian Andersen.
Now listen to four main characters in Frozen. Hans. Kristoff. Anna. Sven.
Hans-Kristoff-Anna-Sven. Hans Christian Andersen!
The four names were confirmed on the Frozen IMDB to be a reference to the author.
On another note, what’s another thing characters Kristoff, Anna, and Sven have in common? No
mothers, which brings us to:
Number 1 – No mother characters You may have noticed how a lot of Disney characters
don’t have mothers. This could be because many Disney tales are based on old fairytales
where they too, there, didn’t have mothers - or either parent. But this also could have
been for other reasons and Disney producer Don Hahn gave two more in an interview with
Glamour. The first reason Hahn said there wouldn’t
be any parents is because of plot. Most Disney movies are about growing up and accepting
responsibility and a quick way of doing that is losing your parents, or one parent. An
example he used was of Belle. She only had her father, and then her father was taken
away, and she had to step up. The second explanation for no mother was because
of Walt Disney’s past. Walt’s mother died tragically in a house that Walt bought for
his parent’s. A Carbon monoxide leak from the furnace hospitalized his father and led
to his mother’s death. Walt Disney was traumatized and felt personally responsible. From there,
Hahn says that’s why Walt steered away from mother characters in future films.
OUTRO
Now, I know that last one was sad, but it’s important to know that it wasn’t Walt’s
fault, and regardless of the tragedy that happened, he has and continues to impact many
lives with his stories of growth. Now that you’ve heard some of the truths
behind those stories, what do you think? Did you have a favourite or one that stuck
out to you? Which ones caught you off guard?
If you know of other scary truths let me know in the comments below and while you’re down
there toss me a like and hit subscribe for more MostAmazingTop10 videos
Once again, I’m Abbey, and thanks for watching. Stick around and watch a playlist too!