You'll Never See These Disney Movie Scenes the Same Way Again

Let me warn you at the beginning that, once you see some of these revelations, you'll never see them the same way again. You should not read further if you don't want some cherished childhood memories absolutely shattered.

Walt Disney had a reputation for being extremely straight-laced, but that doesn't mean his staff followed in his footsteps. There is a story told by Disney animators who worked for Walt during the Golden Age that upon the bonanza 1937 success of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Walt rented out a resort hotel near Palm Springs and invited everybody in the operation to join him there for the weekend. Mighty generous, Walt no doubt figured that the men would bring their wives and children and they would all attend prayer service together in the morning, thanking the Good Lord Above for bestowing upon them the Seven Dwarfs. Or something like that.

"Melody Time" (1948).

Now, many folks these days, hearing nothing from the media but negative things about the "bad old days" in the 1930s-1950s before feminism and civil rights, may think that all corporate employees in those days were exclusively old white males, men with families and white picket fences, God-fearing men who prayed every morning from the Holy Scripture and shouted at the world as they drove to work that it would burn in fire and brimstone if the Good Book were not followed to the letter!

Ok, well, only I think that.

"Toy Story" (1995) - One of the toys is a "hooker" with shapely female legs. We are cheating a bit here because this was when Pixar was a stand-alone company and not a Disney subsidiary. This is kind of a cerebral in-joke that went over the heads of any children (and probably most adults) in the audience.

But anyone who did think anything along those lines was sadly, sadly mistaken, at least about the staffers all being males. In fact, the sexual ratio was actually fairly even. The "ink and paint" department at Walt Disney Studios - the ones who took the artwork and added color, an extremely important job - was staffed exclusively by lovely young women. Many of the employees were young and unmarried, especially considering that women tended not to work once they were older and married, so the ones who did work were, shall we say, not taken yet. That's just how it was in those days.

Anyway, long story short, Walt's tame retreat turned into an all-out orgy (so they said) of sex and carousing (yes, they had sex in those days, too). Walt and his wife fled the next morning in horror, never to repeat the experience or even mention it.

They did WHAT?

So, the Disney people were not all innocent and pure. They were normal young ambitious people with ordinary everyday concerns. A goodly fraction of those concerns, of course, revolve around sex. Hey, we're only human!

So, there be sexual shenanigans afoot!

And sometimes they find their way into animated films.

"Frozen" (2013) didn't have any sexual references... right?

Most people know about "easter eggs," which are little hidden visuals in the video which are only supposed to be viewable if you know the secret to finding them. In the early days of the Internet, it usually was some underpaid software guy putting in his name and those of some of his co-workers if you knew just the right combination of keystrokes to hit while putting your mouse somewhere on the screen - something innocuous like that. Perhaps clicking on the cactus would start a credits roll which the designers only intended for their friends and family to see.

But that hasn't been the only use of easter eggs. In fact, sometimes they have been right out in the open for everyone to see, if only you know when and where to look and choose to recognize them.

Baby Herman does some exploring in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit." We'll get to this one more below.

The thing about Disney films is that they get put under a microscope by some of the more, shall we say, detail-obsessed fans (and enemies) of Disney. While it is easy to scoff at these poor souls (like me), the only reason they keep doing it is that, well, they keep finding stuff. Interesting stuff. Stuff that by all rights shouldn't be there.

We get a peek through a Parisian window in "Ratatouille." Wait, what is that artist painting?

I'm not talking about things like the supposedly gay purple Teletubby, that's interpretation, not an easter egg. I'm also not talking about a recent (weird) controversy over "Frozen" that it supposedly advances a gay agenda - that's politics. "Frozen," in fact, has several very plain easter eggs that aren't hidden at all and were completely intentional, and anyone who sees some kind of agenda there is really reaching. The "Frozen" directors have even owned up to them in interviews, saying they went all the way to Disney head honcho John Lasseter to get permission to put them in, so we know they weren't accidental. The thing is, nothing at all gets into a Disney animated feature film by accident.

No, we're talking about obvious, in-your-face sexual imagery in Disney films that couldn't possibly have gotten there just by accident, but usually is so subtle that it isn't noticed. And there's the studio's problem: when you find something that doesn't quite fit the agenda, put there for any number of reasons, it can become a real embarrassment. Some of the imagery discussed below has cost the studio millions of dollars to fix. So, it is a very real phenomenon that the studio fears being discovered while it counts its money.

In "Toy Story 2" (1999), Buzz has an involuntary reaction when he meets cowgirl Jessie.

Before you proceed, look at the "The Lion King" poster at the top of this page again. See anything off-message for a Disney movie there? No? Just a lion on an orange background, right? Well, if all you see there now is a lion, you will see something quite different after going through this list. But you'll have to go all the way to, um, the bottom.

Alice has a nice, frothy drink in "Alice in Wonderland."

Some of these images and references are very subtle. In fact, like the picture of Alice from "Alice In Wonderland" above, they may be so subtle that you may not even agree that they show anything sexual at all. So be it, that definitely is the official story.

However, some of these images are not subtle at all. This is not for those who are easily offended, so, if you are, kindly mosey on over to one of our other great pages. There are scandalous images below. SCANDALOUS. You have been warned, and we're not out to offend anyone. Thanks for visiting!

We've purposely put a lot of text above to give you a chance to back out now. Tender eyes should not be sullied with the sexual connotations of... Disney movies!

Ok, on with the show.

"Cinderella" (1950) - the mice, Jaq and Gus, get into an uncomfortable situation while taking some beads.

Sex!

The most notorious rumor about Disney films is that they contain subliminal words put there for, well, unclear purposes. Perhaps they are there because an animator or illustrator was bored, or (gasp!) they are there intentionally to bind viewers to Disney products through some nefarious psychological mind control. Egads!

Subliminal advertising has been around at least since the 1950s when some films apparently put quick flashes in films showing viewers delicious treats at the refreshment stand. People caught on to that in a hurry and it soon stopped.

Tinkerbell in "Peter Pan" combined pure innocence and a touch of covert sexiness.

Whether it stopped in Disney films is open to interpretation. This is one of the more controversial controversies. The evidence is shaky, but it's like the "Paul is Dead" Beatles rumors: they refuse to die, and if you look at the source material, yup, you can see ... something.

Judge for yourself. I don't really see them, personally, but subtle things are seen better on a big movie screen in a darkened theater, not at home on a tv screen. Even when you know exactly where to look, it's unclear if what is supposed to be there is actually there. Now, that's subtle! I think it's more a case of all those random images occasionally, accidentally, creating forms that are close to letters that spell out ... "sex."

But you decide.

The Lion King dreams tonight.

"The Hunchback of Notre Dame" flames  - and she's got quite a nice rack on her

"Tangled"

This is a little clearer.

"The Jungle Book." Really, this one is kind of weak in a picture like this, but it's clearer on a big screen.

Ariel's Bare Butt?

Ariel's bare bum in "The Little Mermaid"

Now that is a very obscure one, brought to my attention only by a reader's comment below. Thanks!

"The Rescuers" Naked Lady?

"The Rescuers" is one of Disney's rare big hits from the '70s, and it starred Bob Newhart and Phyllis Diller, for goodness sakes. It's hardly a controversial film.

However, this is one instance where the detail-obsessed people scored a real blow for purity or whatever they are after. It's difficult to see except in high definition, but there apparently was a scene with a naked lady in the background. Once you know where to look, it's inescapable. Only after home video allowed viewers to scroll through frame-by-frame did anyone find it. They told Disney, Disney reviewed it - and the company would up recalling 3.4 million VHS copies and replacing them. Apparently, the picture got into the film somehow intentionally, Disney confirmed that it was put there, removed it from all copies it could fix, and that was that. Obviously, something like that doesn't get there by accident - twice.

Of course, some un-altered copies survived and became collector's items. Of course! That's how these things go, people aren't stupid.

It appears the animators inserted an unidentified Playboy Playmate or something like that as an in-joke, not knowing (or perhaps not caring, or even happy) that people would be examining this at home frame-by-frame only a few years later and discover their little tease. You can only see her if you freeze-frame the film, which only became common a few years after the film's 1977 release when VCR's became something ordinary people could buy. In other words, it was there all along in the theaters - but not a single person complained after watching this very successful film. Millions of people! And you bet someone would have complained if it was at all visible.

That little joke cost the company millions of dollars. So, these easter eggs are serious business. The offending area is clearly visible below.

These are the two frames where the image appears in "The Rescuers." You can tell from the second placement that the animator was probably laughing like crazy at this. There is absolutely no possibility that this got there "by accident."

Jessica Rabbit Up-Skirt

Note that the edited frame on the left has a red part of Jessica's dress covering her

Phallic Images?

Now, I know I won't be offending anyone here because you pretty much have to be of age to even know what "phallic" means.

If you look hard enough, you can see phallic imagery in a lot of things: skyscrapers, jet airplanes, the Washington Memorial, what have you. You just don't expect to see it in Disney products. However, some claim the imagery is there and staring you in the face.

Now, phallic imagery may be completely unintentional and innocent. However, once you see these images, they are impossible to "un-see."

The first one, Minnie Mouse's body supposedly closely resembles something else in a foreign release poster. This requires no explanation whatsoever. You either see it, or you don't.

This is hiding in plain sight, and almost certainly unintentional. At least, we hope so.

The second one is a bit more tricky. In "The Little Mermaid," King Triton is certainly quite impressive, with all of his peculiar mannerisms, the trident, the beard, all that. His undersea palace also is stunning and may contain something a little peculiar as well.

The artist who did the castle later claimed he was working under a tight deadline and simply had no idea what he was doing, which doesn't really address the issue at all - who knows what power lurks in the subconscious Id. In fact, to me, almost all of the palace spires have "that look." Some lady in Arizona, though, spotted this particular one right off and called Disney, and the video was pulled from stores temporarily. The controversy soon, um, blew over, and sales resumed. Nobody to our knowledge has complained since.

It's there, right in front of you. Ponder this as you understand how camouflaged these images can be.

There you go. It's right on the poster, can't miss it - or can you?

The Case of the Naughty Bishop

"The Little Mermaid" had another problem arise when someone looked a little too closely at the priest who married Prince Eric and Ursula (in disguise). Something is there, but it likely was completely accidental, a matter of the old man's knees bending in an odd way.

This, too, was later edited out. Better safe than sorry!

Notice that they edited it out in the frame on the right.

This shows the good padre's knees are the cause of the provocative bulge.

Donald Duck Says Something Naughty?

Back in 1937, before Walt Disney had even released his seminal animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," Donald Duck was the star of shorts. In one of them, "The Clock Cleaners," Donald winds up fighting a clock's spring while trying to clean it, gets frustrated, and, well, lets loose as any of us would do. In fact, he gets so upset that he says... well, listen for yourself.

This one has the added merit of being perfectly in keeping with the character and is, in fact, exactly what Donald should have said. Does he drop the F-bomb? Sounds pretty close to it. Only Clarence Nash, who did Donald's voice, would have known for sure, but he passed away in 1985 before anyone thought to ask him. It would have been a much better story if Mickey Mouse, the other star of the short, had said it - because he was voiced by Walt Disney himself.



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"The Three Caballeros" Gets Hot in the Sun

Since we're on the subject of Donald Duck, let's observe that he was Disney's top star during the 1940s, even eclipsing Mickey Mouse, whose heyday was the 1930s. Donald featured in several of Disney's films of the "Package Era," a time during the 1940s when Disney stitched together different segments to make a whole film. Sometimes the segments were related by some theme, sometimes not. They were usually combinations of live-action and animation.

In "Saludos Amigos," Donald makes some friends in Latin America. This was a government-sponsored film at the height of World War II, and it was considered good for inter-American relations. It was an inoffensive film in which Walt Disney himself briefly appears. A follow-up film, though, was perhaps not quite as innocent. "The Three Caballeros" expands upon Donald's new familiarity with Latin America, and there are several shots that show the animators were having a bit of adult fun with their sketches while ostensibly keeping everything on the up-and-up.

A climactic scene in the "Donald's Surreal Reverie" segment of "The Three Caballeros."

Getting stuff past the censors is an art form. Words have multiple meanings, for instance, one completely innocent, another not so much. Used in a certain context, they could mean one... or the other. Images are the same way. You know it, I know it... the Disney animators knew it. Above, for instance, we have a pretty señorita dancing gaily between rows of gyrating, pulsing, thrusting, pumping cacti. It's all completely innocent: she's obviously from the land of the cactus, right? No child would have any inkling that there is anything other than innocent plants dancing around.

And perhaps neither do you. It all depends upon how you look at it.

All right, some things are only questionable in the proper context. Here's another shot from the same film. While riding with his friends on a magic carpet (serape), Donald gets out a spyglass and looks down. What does he see? Well, it turns out to be a beach full of young lovelies!

Donald sees... a beach full of beach bunnies!

Now, that's all well and good, nothing hidden or subliminal about that. Donald spots some healthy young ladies relaxing in daring (for the day) bikinis. Fine, that's what people do at the beach. Here's Donald's reaction.

Donald gets excited when he sees the beach bunnies.

Donald gets so overcome with emotion that he drops his spyglass and it falls, quivering and vibrating before him. Again, nothing at all naughty about this, unless you see this innocent scene as something else.

It wasn't just the animators appreciating the sights, either.

This fine fellow looks as though he got the memo on what was really going on.

"Make Mine Music" ... and Sexy

Skipping on to another Package Era film, "Make Mine Music" was a sequel to "Fantasia," though it wasn't marketed as such because at that point "Fantasia" was still considered a huge flop. Again, "Make Mine Music" was composed of segments oriented around musical themes, though this time the music was contemporary/traditional, not classical.

There was nothing particularly sexy about any of the segments - in fact, it all was rather high-brow, with renditions of "Casey at the Bat" and so forth. While the animation was in the form of cartoons that inherently appeal to children (the common notion at the time), the segments featured ballet and songs about love which actually appealed more to adults. In those days, kids could not decide what to see or go to the theater by themselves and there was no home video, an adult had to decide to pay and take them (still largely the case, of course, with adults deciding what videos to buy). Disney animators knew a lot of adults would be sitting there, bored out of their minds, dreading their next Disney kids cartoon film like a trip to the dentist. Why not give the adults some little incentive to attend and watch, too? And there is where the animators just couldn't help themselves from having a little fun.

"Casey at the Bat" - looks mighty interesting for the "Police Gazette"!

All right, that's just the animators having a little up-front fun. Here's something a bit further along those lines from the "All the Cats Join In" segment.

"All the Cats Join In" from "Make Mine Music"- or maybe they just want to. Note that if you aren't really paying much attention and only see it out of the corner of your eye, that word "SPLASH" can look a lot like "SEX," especially if that is where the lady rubbing herself has already taken your mind. Relax your eyes, focus on the lady, and see if you agree.

Well, hootchie coochie! You can see that a still image of that scene just doesn't do it justice.

All right, one final scene from "Make Mine Music" and then we'll let it go. This segment depicts the famous "Peter and the Wolf" by Prokofiev. It is one of the most beloved musical pieces for children and adults alike, performed during every holiday season with celebrity narrators. Nothing sexy about this tale of a Russian boy heading into the woods to hunt down a wolf at all - right?

"Peter and the Wolf" - well, smack my butt and call me Judy! That wolf is loving it! And notice how the hunter is holding that gun and pulsing it in the foreground.

The hunter has a dream, a fantasy... Once again, as in all clever animation, it all depends upon what you want to see. This is interpretation, and the interpretation is only naughty if your mind already is in the gutter - which I can pretty much assume was the case with the animators themselves, too. That kind of imagery pushes it about as far as you could go in the 1940s. And not a single kid would have any problem with it whatsoever, nor any pure and innocent parents. Maybe you don't see anything subliminal about that scene, either. True genius.

The shame of it all is that Disney soon after veered way off this interesting path in 1950 with the classic and innocent fairytale "Cinderella," where they couldn't possibly fit in anything remotely sexual or they'd get called a child molester, and never looked back.

Aladdin Gives Kids Some Naughty Advice

"Aladdin" was the peak of the Disney Renaissance, along with "The Lion King." So, there can't be anything unseemly about it - right?

Well, maybe.

Aladdin disguises himself as the prince and sneaks into the palace. He is after Princess Jasmine, and you know that in these types of films, boys are always after the girls.

"Aladdin" begins with our hero in the company of some, well, very affectionate ladies.

Rajah the Tiger, however, notices Aladdin and comes over to protect the princess. Aladdin says something, and the is appeased.

The way some people hear it, Aladdin inexplicably says "Good teenagers take off their clothes." Disney, reviewing it, has claimed he says something completely different. The original subtitles, however, back up the people hearing the "teenager" line - though the subtitle stops before the "take off your clothes" part.

Again, this is a "decide for yourself" one. It doesn't sound very clear in any event, whatever it is. But some people think it is scandalous.


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Esmeralda a Bit Too Provocative?

We already mentioned the "sex" thing above. However, let's take this a step further. Esmeralda was Middle-Ages (and maybe middle ages as in mid-life crisis) jail-bait, and the animators didn't try to hide that at all.

You have to feel for Esmeralda in "The Hunchback of Notre Dame." She is the main female character, she comes as close to being portrayed in a mature, perfectly normal sexual fashion as anyone in a Disney animated feature film - but she isn't a princess, doesn't get to join the other girls in the official Princess lineup, and doesn't wear those elegant gowns that the royals prance about in.

And that last point, about the gowns, is wherein our controversy lies.

Esmeralda is a fiery presence.

Frollo, the bad guy who runs the church of Notre Dame, is a frustrated old man who secretly lusts after sexy Esmeralda. Well, what frustrated man wouldn't? He fantasizes about her and watches her a bit too closely.

First, he admires her as a flame. The flame is unabashedly sexual. There's no question at all about this. Surprisingly, nobody ever got too upset about this, because it is exactly what we know the character should be thinking, and this is based on a classic French novel - you know that going in. However, just look at the flame, and you can see the head swept back, the hair flowing up, the huge breasts sticking out... wait, what? Breasts in a Disney film? Naked breasts? Well, sort of. Her hips are rather well defined as well. And everything else for that matter. Kind of a weird thing to put in so blatantly, but Disney was taking chances during the Disney Renaissance, and they got away with this one.

Esmeralda dancing, head back, hair flowing, arms held high and back toward her head... You just need a little imagination to see it. If you can't, relax your eyes a bit.

However, they went one step further. When Esmeralda for real - not a fantasized flame - is dancing in her clothes, they change in Frollo's mind from long, long, flowing garments to practically see-through. You can really see the complete outline of Esmeralda's form. It's not that clear in pictures, but when you run through the video, you'll notice it.

Once again, Disney got away with this, but it is an oddly blatant sexualized image to put in one of their animated films. The moral of the story may be that if you don't try to hide it - nobody really cares.

It's kind of difficult to see outside a theater, but Esmeralda's form is quite visible through her skirt.

Baby Herman in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

As mentioned above, at the time of "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" Disney was at a low point. They decided to sex things up a bit, obviously, and it worked - the film was a great success. However, foul-mouthed baby Herman went a little too far.

The little tyke invades his nanny's skirt and emerges with a finger upraised, smiling broadly. That's a bit out-there, and Disney edited out the finger. So, it wasn't just anyone's imagination that implying that a baby, no matter how foul-mouthed, um, did something with his finger was crossing a line.

Baby Herman is getting a little too friendly there!

The Lion King Bikini

Hermann Rorschach in 1921 came up with a test designed to reveal insight into a person's mental state by showing them an inkblot. What the person saw in the inkblot could be one of many different images related to the real world. For instance, an image could be a wild animal or a naked lady - it all depended on the viewer's mindset and interpretation.

Well, Disney has its own inkblot that is so in-your-face that it, in fact, is extremely subtle. It's one of those "hide in plain sight" deals that are so contrary to what you "should" see that, well, you never see it - unless someone points it out. Then, unfortunately, you never can "un-see" it, because it is patently obvious.

"The Lion King" was the height of heights for Disney Animation. Even today, it has earned more money than any other Disney animated feature film - that's right, even more than "Frozen" (so far). Everybody is familiar with the "The Lion King" logo of the big lion staring out at you.

Well, the curves of a lion's face - that of Simba - actually resemble something else. That you never saw this one on your own probably speaks well of you under the teachings of Hermann Rorschach.


See what I mean? You'll never see it the same way again now.

2020