1. When creating the character Aladdin, the
animators studied the movements of MC Hammer’s pants
to accurately model the movements of Aladdin’s pants.
2. The song “Part of Your World” was almost
excluded from the final version of The Little Mermaid. During a pre-screening
of the movie to figure out how successful it would be, the kids didn’t seem to
be very interested in the movie. One kid dropped his popcorn and was more
intent on picking it up than watching the movie. Because of this, the director
came to the conclusion that the song would take away from the movie and was
ready to edit it out when Howard Ashman, the lyricist, stepped in. He
wanted to keep the song in when the movie was released, and the director
consented. Fortunately for him (and Disney fans everywhere), the song
became one of the most known and beloved classic songs of it’s time.
3. The “Dumbo the Flying Elephant” ride was
originally intended to have pink elephants, referencing the elephants seen
during the hallucination scene in the movie. Also, when the ride opened, their
were originally 10 elephants and today there are 16.
4. The not-so-secret apartment above the
firehouse in Disneyland is actually Walt’s childhood bedroom, removed from his
house in Missouri and flown to Anaheim.
5. The character Ralph and his game “Fix-it
Felix Jr.” draw inspiration from Donkey Kong. Both games are about a
handy-man character climbing up and around a building structure toward the
villain on top. Both villains, Donkey Kong and Ralph, are large angry
characters with wide hands that toss down objects at the hero.
6.
Paige O’Hara sobbed real tears while recording Belle’s mourning of the
Beast. Her performance was so intense that the director asked her if she was
OK, upon which O’Hara immediately dropped out of character and said “Acting!”
