15 Fun Facts About Disney!

Interested in knowing more about the wonderful world of Disney? We have all seen the movies and shows, but there might be some details that you missed. Here are some Disney fun facts to help you reminisce about your favorite movies as a kid.

1. Everybody thought Snow White and the seven dwarfs would not succeed. Nowadays, we know the movie was a massive hit, however, nobody saw it coming back then. Disney had to take multiple loans and mortgage his own house to finance the movie, making people believe it would ruin him financially.

2. On the other hand, Sleeping Beauty was a box office flop. Since the profit was tiny compared to the cost of production, Disney decided that princess movies would not be successful in the future. Only 30 years later did they make another princess movie, when The Little Mermaid was released.

3. Another fun fact about Snow White is that it was the first film to release a soundtrack. It became the first movie to commercially issue a soundtrack in 1938.

4. However, Snow White was not the first time Disney released music from its films to the public. In 1933, the recording from “The Three Little Pigs” of “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?” was sold. Still, it cannot be considered a soundtrack since it was only one song.

5. The company conquered lots of other firsts during its beginnings. Disney’s “Flowers and Trees” was the first cartoon released in color and the first cartoon to win an Academy Award.

6. Animating hair is a tremendous deal in Disney films. Engineers worked for over three years to perfect Merida’s curls. On a similar note, 30 animators and engineers were needed for creating Rapunzel’s extremely long hair.

7. The Lady and the Tramp was inspired by a real dog called Lady. When writer Joe Grant showed Walt Disney some sketches he had done of his dog, Walt was impressed and encouraged him to create a storyboard. Once it was finished, Walt disliked the storyline and scrapped the plan. However, years later, he combined the idea with another story titled “Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog” to create a stronger plot.

8. Cinderella was entirely shot in live-action first and then used for reference to animate the movie. Although the company had already recorded scenes in live-action for reference, this was the first time an entire movie was shot. This is because it wanted the characters to move more humanly and because it would decrease the costs of production.

9. The Lion King was the first Disney cartoon to feature a completely original storyline. Before this movie, all their other animated films were adaptations of preexisting stories.

10. After first going into production in 1951, Sleeping Beauty took a long time to make and was not released until 1959. The reason for the delay is supposed to be that Walt Disney was distracted by the construction of Disneyland, which occurred at the same time the movie was being made.

11. The final dance scene in Sleeping Beauty was reused for the ballroom scene in Beauty and the Beast. Although it is often thought it was done to save money, it was to save time. Since the movie needed to be quickly delivered to the studio, the animators resized and repositioned the old scene.

12. The Walt Disney Picture logo has now become a classic for the company’s movies. However, it was not introduced until 1988. The iconic castle with a blue background appeared firstly in The Black Cauldron.

13. Disney wanted to get The Beatles to cameo as the vultures in The Jungle Book, but they turned them down. Reportedly, this was because John Lennon refused to be a part of it. In 2016, the director for the live-action adaptation wanted Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to appear as the vultures to pay homage to the original idea. Unfortunately, he stated he could not get in contact with them.

14. Every scene in Pocahontas was rewritten at least 35 times. The three writers worked off a story outline repeatedly to get it just right. One of them, Susannah Grant, later earned an Oscar nomination for another one of her works.

15. Frozen’s Olaf was not originally meant to be so lovable. Instead of being the charming snowman we know today, he was initially supposed to be Elsa’s annoying sidekick.

Bibliography

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