Disney Urban Legends
Animators have traditionally amused themselves by slipping occasional racy frames or other gags into their work, frames which flash on the screen far too briefly to be detected by theater audiences. With the advent of home video and laserdisc players which allow viewers to examine scenes frame-by-frame, these gags can be spotted by sharp-eyed film watchers. Many of these fleeting images are more the product of the power of suggestion than animators' intentions.

Belle in the Hunchback of Notre Dame
Sex in the pride land!
Phallus in the Little Mermaid
The Rescuers: topless woman
Jessica Rabbit's unclothed nether regions




Belle, of The Beauty and the Beast, in the Hunchback of Notre Dame

The Beauty and the beast can be seen in a scene (hah) in the Hunchback of Notre Dame
When Quasimodo (kwa-see-mo-doh) (I have I no idea why I did a pronounciation thing just there...) sings "Out There" from the roof of the cathedral, you can see all the towns people, and if you look -really- hard, you can see Belle, from one of the first scenes of The Beauty and the Beast. C'mon, you know, the one where she's reading the book?

If you have a shap-eyed veiw, you can also see a rooftop satellite dish, The Lion King's Pumbaa being carried by two men with a pole, and a street merchant shaking out the flying carpet from Aladdin.

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Sex in the pride land!

It is claimed that the letters S-E-X are formed by a swirling cloud of dust in The Lion King.
About halfway to three-fourths of the way through the film, Simba, Pumbaa, and Timon are lying on their backs, looking up at the stars. Simba arises, walks over to the edge of a cliff, and flops to the ground, throwing up a cloud of dust. Bits of dust form and dissipate in the roiling cloud, and at one point the various curves and angles in these eddies appear to form the letters S-E-X.

Whether the image of the word "SEX" was deliberately planted in this scene or is merely a product of the power of suggestion is unknown. The letters seem readily apparent to those who know what they're supposed to be looking for, but persons unfamiliar with the rumor rarely make them out even after being told to look for a word in the still-frame images.

I first heard about this when I read The DaVinchi Code. Right away, I popped the tape in and looked. It was *really* hard to find. But I did the frame by frame option, and it came into veiw. I guess you really have to judge it for yourself.

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Phallus in the Little Mermaid

In the first edition of The Little Mermaid, one of the castle spires is shaped like a penis. It's very noticable, but went undetected by the general public for about a year.
Shortly after Entertainment Weekly ran a story about the offending artwork in mid-1990, the rumor became widespread when Michelle Couch of Mesa, Arizona, complained to Disney and a Phoenix supermarket chain (Bashas') about the phallus on the cover of The Little Mermaid. Bashas' pulled the videos from their shelves (but returned them less than 24 hours later), and the story of the "penis" cover was soon widely disseminated by the media.

Don't bother taking out your edition of TLM. It's unlikely that you have it. About a week ago, I came across a video collector's store (store?) in the flea market. That tape was there, and selling for $50! Well, I didn't buy it, but I got a good look. I don't know why no one noticed during that year.

Here's a close up, that image above is blurry, and Ariel looks possessed.



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The Rescuers: topless woman

Jeez..Disney's getting a bad rep here.
In The Rescuers, there is a scene (shown above) where you see a naked woman.
Unlike the other disney rumors, this one is clearly true, and the images in question were undeniably purposely inserted into the movie. You can only see the picture in two frames, then it dissapears. It was present in the theatrical release in 1977, but it wasn't until January 8, 1999 that it was brought to the public attention.
Disney claims that they were not included in the 1992 home video version because "it was made from a different print." Disney also claimed that the images were not placed in the film by any of their animators, but were inserted during the post-production process. I think that it was just some burnout animator trying to amuse himself.

The company decided to recall 3.4 million copies of the video "to keep our promise to families that we can trust and rely on the Disney brand to provide the finest in family entertainment."

Disney's announcement of this recall might be considered a bit curious. Unlike previous rumors over "hidden" items in Disney's animated films, this one was not widespread until Disney itself made a public statement about it. As well, unlike the salacious images and sounds allegedly to be found in The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and The Lion King, the Rescuers frames in question are not noticeable during a normal viewing of the film -- one has to know they're there and freeze-frame the video to view them.
Disney didn't recall any of those other videos, so why this one? Because they knew how quickly the story would spread via the Internet? Because this occurrence was as undeniable case of tampering rather than misinterpretation? The cynical among us might ponder that one of the best ways to boost sales of a slow-selling video would be to announce its recall due to the presence of some "objectionable images."

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Jessica Rabbit's unclothed nether regions
Well, it's pretty plain and simple. You can see very well in this still frame.
But I have to say, out of all the times I've seen this movie (A LOT by the way, my brother was a bit obsessed and it kind of grew on me, same goes for ghostbusters and the teenage mutant ninja turtles) I never noticed it.

For those of you who've had a deprived childhood (heh, just kidding), Jessica Rabbit is in a car when it spins out of controll and she flys out. This frame lasts a small fraction of a second, I think the only way anyone could have, is when they saw that you can see her leg, they played it back slower to see if they could see anything else.

BUT WAIT! THERES MORE!

c'mon, this movie is filled with adult humor. You can tell just by watching a little of it. Children just don't notice these things.

A scene at the beginning of the film depicts a diaper-clad Baby Herman stomping off the set and underneath the dress of a woman. Watched frame-by-frame, the scene reveals Baby Herman extending his middle finger just before jumping underneath the skirt and re-emerging with a spot of drool on his upper lip. This scene can indeed be seen on the home video release and was clearly intentional. I always hated Baby Herman...a very weird childhood grudge, eh?

In another scene, Bob Hoskins steps into a Toon Town men's room. Graffiti on the wall reads "For a good time, call Allyson Wonderland", with the phrase "The Best Is Yet to Be" appearing underneath it.
Allegedly, Disney chairman Michael Eisner's phone number replaces the latter phrase for one frame. Although the "Allyson Wonderland" graffiti is clearly visible on laserdisc, Eisner's phone number is not. If the phone number was in the film originally (as rumor has it was), it was removed before the home versions of the movie were made available.

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