Subliminal things in Disney movies

**Ami~chan** · 02-02-2005 09:38 PM

Some of you remember back in the 90's the well-known contraversy about Disney putting subliminal things in their animation. Some well known subliminal things are:
In The Little Mermaid, the tower on the original cover (which is now banned). Also, the priest at the wedding who got a little exited.
In The Lion King, the letters S-E-X are spelled out in the dust, or in flowers. Viewers seem to disagree where the letter were actually seen. Also, the characters in The Lion King can be related almost exactly to the characters in Hamlet.
In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the dwarfs names are the seven stages of being high.
In Aladdin, some low voice sayes "Good teenagers, take off all your clothes."
And in Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is sporting a tattoo.

What do you guys think? Are these people who tried to boycott Disney movies overreacting or what? Are there any subliminal messages at all? I hope the mods don't see anything wrong with this thread; some of these subliminal "things" I found quite hilarious.

**Taikyo** · 02-02-2005 09:40 PM

hmm...when i was young i didn't see any of this in the disney movies. Maybe the people who said that are overreacting...@.@

**Seductress** · 02-02-2005 09:43 PM

Honestly, I think that parents are taking to much time to see the bad. The kids will never notice until some one points it out of an older age. No child would reaslly get the wrong idea, only what the parents tell them will give them that message.

**Ami~chan** · 02-02-2005 09:55 PM

I found out that in the Little Mermaid, what some people thought was the priest getting alittle exited was actually his kneecap. It's funny what you can see though when your mind looks for it. I think I'm gonna go rent a bunch of Disney movies this weekend and watch for those "things" everyone was so hyped up about.

**Himura Enishi** · 02-02-2005 10:03 PM

hm, not sure about disney, but in the old school Wizard of Oz in one point of the movie you could see the shadow of what looked like a small child hanging from a noose, quite disturbing

**Fabala** · 02-03-2005 08:32 AM

Originally Posted by Ami the 2nd

In Aladdin, some low voice sayes "Good teenagers, take off all your clothes."

It's in the second movie, actually. My friend told me about it years ago, and I couldn't rest until I'd heard it myself. There's a scene where Aladdin is meeting Jasmine on her balcony, and yes, you can definitely hear a voice saying, "Take off all your clothes." (I didn't hear the teenagers part o.O)

So yes, while it's easy to see what you want to see in almost anything...sometimes those things really exist.

You know, I thought the story behind the Oz one was a depressed "munchkin" o.O Well whatever it is, there's a part where you DO see something odd in the background, but it's probably impossible to prove what it is or isn't.

**Hotsuma** · 02-03-2005 08:45 AM

Originally Posted by Seductress

Honestly, I think that parents are taking to much time to see the bad. The kids will never notice until some one points it out of an older age. No child would reaslly get the wrong idea, only what the parents tell them will give them that message.

'

I totally agree!

**Fabala** · 02-03-2005 08:59 AM

You know though, it's not parents putting these things in the movies. And some of them really -are- there. I mean, why put that "Take off all your clothes" line in a children's movie?

**MistaCloudStrife** · 02-03-2005 09:19 AM

I think those were prolly the actions of individuals... I remember the little mermaid one... when disney found out he got fired and the guy was sued...

**macus alexander bogart** · 02-03-2005 09:29 AM

all this hype is just like people sueing 80s rock stars because ther songs said fire is good if you played the record in reverse i mean its not like im gonna one day say i know im gonna go out and buy some death metal and play it backwords for a cuple of hours.

**Isunamaru** · 02-03-2005 09:59 AM

However this is an interesting.
Perverted [removed] in Disney.

**MistaCloudStrife** · 02-03-2005 01:06 PM

Well... theres always somebody thats gonna be liekt hat in this world...

**Queen-of-Mars** · 02-03-2005 01:23 PM

I've looked, and seen nothing.

The Beast has a tattoo? O.o

**Princess Mononoke** · 02-03-2005 02:12 PM

yeah i've actually seen the thing in the little mermaid... it think its all good cuz its not like little kids notice that stuff anyway, and its gives something for us adults to laugh about.

**red storm** · 02-03-2005 02:22 PM

Simple easter eggs, you see them in games, why not on tv? The kids won't know what's it about, so it's prefectly harmless.

**Tsuna Kadiri** · 02-03-2005 02:35 PM

Haha! That's pretty funny. Next time I watch a Disney movie I'll be sure to keep an eye out for that stuff.

It's probably just the producers playing a little practical joke. You can't keep it clean all the time, there always will be something misenterpreted in any kind of movie you make. Besides, children don't really notice those types of things, unless there mind is already in the gutter.....but yeah! Just some humor on the producers part.

**MistaCloudStrife** · 02-03-2005 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Queen-of-Mars

I've looked, and seen nothing.

The Beast has a tattoo? O.o

Yeah, i actually didnt get that... I never saw a tattoo before... and i've watched this movie countless times when i was little... o.O

**Ami~chan** · 02-03-2005 09:54 PM

i am not too sure about the tattoo on the Beast one. I've seen the Little Mermaid countless of times, and now that I know what funny, perverted things to look for, I see them. All of these movies though, were hand-drawn I believe so it was easier to sneak things in.
I think those little pervy things are just there for adults to laugh at. I like'em.

**LadyPSerenity** · 02-03-2005 10:19 PM

If we are going to go at Disney for it let's go at other children-like movies for it too.
I mean Shrek was aimed at more than children but a lot of children loved it... and hell there is enough subliminal messages in that movie to choke a horse... but it's fun because it does as someone said give something for the adults to snicker at.
When a movie can be made so a child can enjoy it and miss the hidden jokes but the adult can catch them and thus enjoy the movie as well... it's good.

heh. I think it's funny that disney did some of it and that parents are freaking out about it... don't like it don't watch it, what's the problem?

**sword_master** · 02-04-2005 06:59 AM

most likely they are just jealous that disney has the capabilities to run a huge compant they just want to have fame and publicity oooo and what is wrong with the original tower on the little mermaid

**Sword** · 02-09-2005 12:40 PM

why doesn't Disney just make an adult animated film. All the anime companies do it. I also have yet to see these pervy clips.

**~Karl*Sethers~** · 02-09-2005 03:53 PM

Well, I have personally seen the SEX written out in the dust cloud in The Lion King. A friend told me about it, I didn't believe him so we went through it on slow motion, and yes, it was there.
As for the Hamlet thing, yes. The Lion King was based on Hamlet- but what's wrong with that? Lion King II was based on Romeo and Juliet. The only difference is they both had happy endings, unlike their Shakespearian counterparts.
Now as for the other stuff... how hard is it, -really- to accidently make a tower look like something else? Or at least, for people with thier minds in the gutter to percieve it as such?
The point is, when it comes down to it- <i>Who cares?</i> Watch the movie, laugh at any intentional or unintentional innuendu, and enjoy the movie <_< People who try and boycott Disney need to calm down and get off their high-horse.

**Ami~chan** · 02-09-2005 09:35 PM

I agree with Karl (who I can see through an evil demon mirror thing XD). I enjoy the adult stuff. I used to have a copy of the original cover for the little mermaid. Personally, I find it hard to believe that someone can just put a tower like in there on accident. Funny, but it would be hard to believe it was a mistake.
I laugh at Disney!! Bwahahah!!

**Lon** · 02-10-2005 12:18 AM

Allright. Disney Expert online here.

Let me debunk a few of these.

1) The spirals on the cover of "The Little Mermaid" was NOT origonally suppost to be a fallic symble. When you have that many coral spires rising up in a castle like thing, something will sooner or later look like a fallic symble. Disney however, DID recall and ban that particular cover after the attention was drawn to it. It was just a freak cowincadence(sp?)

2) The Priest in "The Little Mermaid" Was not sexually excited during the scene in question. The fold in his robes was rather his knee.

3) "The Lion King" DID have a hidden message in the dirt clouds. It is a well known fact that Disney loves to hide little images all over their works. Usually in the form of the famed mouse ears, These easter eggs are called "Hidden Mickeys". A little known fact: Every ride at Disney Land has a hidden mickey in it. As for the "Lion King", the letters spelled out SFX. SFX of course was for the Special Effects department that made the scene. The letters did Not spell SEX.

4) The movie "The Lion King" is indeed a nod to Hamlet and also a little bit of a nod to King Leer as well. The sequal "Simba's Pride", was a resemblance of Romeo and Juliet, just only pleasent.

5) As to Snow White's dwarven friends names being related to drug stages. To be honest. That has to be the creation of a stoners more than wild and vibrent imagenation. To my knowledge there is no medicaly clarified "Stages" of being high. This is clearly an urban myth. And while we are on the subject of drugs... Alice and Wonderland or "Through the Looking Glass" by Louis Carol is NOT a drug induced movie, story, cartoon. While Louis may have drawn some inspiration from experementations with Opium, as it was the thing to do back in the victorian erra, the story in origins was intended to be a fantastic childrens tale to keep his nieces (Who requested a total nonsensical story) entertained.

6) As for "Aladin", you can download the script and read it for yourself. Feel free to pay close attention to the DVD even and listen hard. The so called low voices you mentioned was actually Aladen (Scott Weinger), who was trying to back off the tiger when he first entered the palace to speak to Jasmen. He actually told Raja (The tiger). "Good tiger, take off and go."

7) As to the tatoo in question in Beauty and the Beast, Yes in the origonal line art there was a tatoo on his arm. However it was covered up and not noticeable in the finished work. It may be visable still though in the DVD, deleated scenes, and extra material sections.

Now there WAS one movie that actually DID have a scene of sexual premescuity in it. That was "The Rescuers." The scene in question was when they mice were flying over the city. There was one window that did display for a single frame of animation a woman in the window taking off her bra. The scene was added into the film in post production and was the prank of a rather imature worker. When Disney found out about this frame, they made quick haste to pull the film from the shelves, edit the frame out, re-release it, and fire the idiot that pulled the prank. It was THIS infamous prank that started the entire subliminal hidden messages in Disney films to begin with.

-Lon