Unknown Facts about Disney movies

[stellablue]

If my memory serves me correctly, there was a short movie with Walter Conkite (sp?) and Robin Williams at the "Art of Animation" tour at MGM Studios. In this short film, Walter is doing a "man on the street" report in WDW, and Robin is a guest in the park taking pictures. Robin is then changed into a animated Lost Boy from Peter pan. I think that Robin is wearing the same outfit that Genie changes into when he becomes free, at the end of Aliddin.
Anyone else remember this film??

Sorry to get OT, but when did they do away with this film?
We were just at WDW, after an over 12 year hiatus and we were disappointed to see that this had been replaced.

 

[Joanna71985]

Sorry to get OT, but when did they do away with this film?
We were just at WDW, after an over 12 year hiatus and we were disappointed to see that this had been replaced.

2003.

Just listening to it reminds me of how much I miss it.

 

[mrmagicmph]

Her name is Ming Na', I believe. But I didn't think she was the singing voice, just the speaking voice. The pp has the actress who did the singing correct, I believe.

Ming-Na (or as she was known back then, Ming-Na Wen) was the speaking voice for Mulan. For the singing voice of Mulan, Lea Salonga provided the voice. So, you're both right.

Enjoy the Magic!

 

[gk90]

I actually have a copy of this. It's not as strange as it sounds, just more or less a typical health film that Disney produced back in the day. In fact, the strangest thing about it might be its opening title cards:

It's available on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kWR-rIKRe4
Some of the animation reminded me of Fantasia, not sure why--maybe some of the same animators worked on it? No animation credits, though.

 

[splashmtrider]

The tire company in Cars is called Lightyear

Im pretty sure that in Jungle Book when king Luew (sorry i dont know how to spell it) is laughing it is the same laugh used in Song of the South

 

[Disney Brat]

I don't have any to add, but these are great! Thanks for sharing them!

 

[splashmtrider]

I know Song of the South is extinc and everything but if you ever see it (i dought that) compare how Uncle Remus laughs, and then Brer Fox, dont they sound the same, I think there both voice by James Baskett (I could be wrong)

 

[stopher1]

Yep. Eleanor Audley. She also voiced Lady Tremaine in Cinderella.

Eleanor Audley also was auditioned as a possible Ghost Host, but ultimately that role went to Paul Fries, who's also featured in POTC and is the voice of Ludwig von Drake.

The Pipe Organ in the Mansion's ballroom in Disneyland was used in the 1955 classic Disney film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea". The organ at WDW's mansion is an exact replica created by MAPO (Disney's Manufacturing And Production Offices).

"Blackbeard's Ghost" was the film in production when Walt Disney died. The spellbook in Madame Leota's Seance Room displays a spell used in that film ("A spell to bring to your eyes and ears one who is bound in Limbo," followed by Kree Kruh Vergo Gebba Kalto Kree).

A little more about the inspiration for the HM film....When the interior sets for original DL HM were being constructed for an Aug. '69 opening, the powers that be at that time decided to include the HM in the opening attraction line-up for WDW (Oct '71 opening), so the imagineering team made a duplicate set of everything and put it in storage until it was time to ship to FL for installation on-site. As a result, the HM was the first fully installed and ready to operate attraction at WDW.

The stretching gallery is the same in concept at both DL and WDW, but opposite in execution. At DL the ceiling remains stationary and the floor descends to a basement level corridor to move guests underneath the railroad berm and outside the park into the show building where the doom buggy part of the attraction resides - at WDW the floor remains stationary and the ceiling rises. Operationally there was no need to get guests underneath the train since the mansion resides nowhere near the train. The show building in FL simply is behind the mansion and a bunch of trees. The stretching gallery was considered but left out of the film.

The HM is the only attraction to reside in a different land in each park it's been built - at DL in New Orleans Square; at WDW in Liberty Square; at Tokyo DL in Fantasyland, and at DL Paris in Frontierland. If it ever lands at Hong Kong, it'll be interesting to see where it ends up.


Mrs. Potts was played by Angela Lansbury, who also starred in Bedknobs and Broomsticks about 15 years earlier.

The bird that Julie Andrews holds in the nursery scene in Mary Poppins is an audio-animatronic one, just like those that live in The Enchanted Tiki Room.

 

[Buzz Litebeer]

Mrs. Potts was played by Angela Lansbury, who also starred in Bedknobs and Broomsticks about 15 years earlier.

The bird that Julie Andrews holds in the nursery scene in Mary Poppins is an audio-animatronic one, just like those that live in The Enchanted Tiki Room.

Ben Wright was the actor who voiced Grimsby, Prince Eric's valet, in "The Little Mermaid". While he was recording his lines, he casually mentioned that he also voiced Roger Ratcliff in "101 Dalmatians" -- something nobody involved in the production had been aware of until that moment!

It also bears mentioning that Mary Poppins was said to be Walt's favorite film because it combined so many things he was fond of -- live-action, musicals, animation, and audio-animatronics.

Some more Poppins-fresh trivia:

The song "The Beautiful Briny" was written for the film but never used. The Shermans later recycled it for "Bedknobs and Broomsticks".

To this day, Mary Poppins has never been "returned to the Disney Vault" since it was released on home video 1981, making it the longest continuosly released film in the Disney Home Video library (it was also the first Disney film to be released on DVD).

PL Travers, the author of Mary Poppins, was supposedly very difficult to work with and hated the final cut of the film (she was supposedly furious at the film's ending where Mrs Banks gives up protesting as a suffragette in order to become a stay-at-home mother, claiming it was anti-feminist).

 

[Figment's Friend]

Don't have any to add, but I love this tread!

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

What a fun thread!

In the fight song of Pocahontas the villagers sang, "Lets go kill a few, men", when it came out on video they changed it to, "Lets go get a few, men".

In the original parent trap you can see half of Haley's arm disappear a few times during the song Lets get together.

In Bambi, after the fire, there is a mother racoon (I think) licking her baby and then suddenly she is still licking but the baby is gone.

In the Lindsay Lohan version of the parent trap the woman who played Vicky in the first version plays the mother of the girl's father's fiance. She says, "You may call me Aunt Vicky".

You can see Heimlich in Toy Story- I think it's Toy Story 2 but I can't remember for sure.

 

[MaleficentRules]

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted on here yet but....

In "The Little Mermaid", in the scene where Prince Eric and Ursula (disguised) are getting married, the priest or bishop who is officiating the ceremony is, umm......how to put this delicately? He's "pitching a tent". Seriously. If you look for it, it's VERY OBVIOUS.

Also very funny.

 

[Buzz Litebeer]

You can see Heimlich in Toy Story- I think it's Toy Story 2 but I can't remember for sure.

Toy Story 2.. A Bug's Life was still in the concept phase when Toy Story was being worked on.

In the beginning of Toy Story 2, the alien canyon Video-Game-Buzz is flying through is Ant Island from A Bug's Life.

The beaten-up yellow "YO" Pizza Planet delivery pickup truck from Toy Story has appeared in every Pixar film since.

In the classic Disney film "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", the Nautilus' skiff was made of wood, painted to look like metal, and had to be weighted with sandbags to look heavy in the water. When towing it to the cannibals' island, the crew took the sandbags out to make their job easier, and they forgot to put them back in. When filming the scene where Ned and Conseil get in the boat to row away from the cannibals, Kirk Douglas expected the boat to be low in the water. He didn't lower the oars far enough to catch the water, and when he started to row, he fell on his back. Director Richard Fleischer thought the shot was so funny he left it in the film. When Ned starts to row, he clearly tips back, and his legs shoot up in the air.

 

[pixiefairy]

Love all of these! There are a few that I didn't see.

-In the VHS version of Aladdin, during the balcony scene where Aladdin appears on the balcony to speak to Jasmine, they are not focusing on Aladdin but you can hear him in the background talking to Raja. He clearly says "nice teenagers, take off your clothes". In the DVD version, that is not there.

-Also in Aladdin on the VHS version. The song "Arabian Nights" the line "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" was changed for "it's flat and imense and the heat is intense" on the re-release.

 

[Buzz Litebeer]

-In the VHS version of Aladdin, during the balcony scene where Aladdin appears on the balcony to speak to Jasmine, they are not focusing on Aladdin but you can hear him in the background talking to Raja. He clearly says "nice teenagers, take off your clothes". In the DVD version, that is not there.

Nonsense.

Aladdin clearly says "C'mon, good kitty... take off and go."

(At least, that's what I hear during the film)

 

[pixiefairy]

Like I said, it was the VHS version. Someone else told me and I listened to it carefully, then I showed my dh. Unless I just have a very dirty mind...lol.

 

[klj27]

Like I said, it was the VHS version. Someone else told me and I listened to it carefully, then I showed my dh. Unless I just have a very dirty mind...lol.

When I was in college and working at TDS people would come in telling us all kinds of jibberish that they knew were in specific movies. I used to get so annoyed. It just shows the power of the mind. I don't believe any of that stuff.

 

[pixiefairy]

I guess it depends on how you interpret what you are hearing. What other things did people come up with?

 

[#1 Pocahontas]

-Also in Aladdin on the VHS version. The song "Arabian Nights" the line "where they cut off your ear if they don't like your face" was changed for "it's flat and immense and the heat is intense" on the re-release.

I forgot about that one! I remember that in the movie theater and I think it's on my original soundtrack. The VHS I bought when it first was released has the change on it.

Another Aladdin tid bit... If you watch the Aladdin King of Thieves previews Aladdin has blood on his clothes when he is in the home of the 40 thieves yet in the actual film there isn't any blood. Not important at all, I just remembered it. LOL

 

[1st_WDW_1977]

I'm surprised this hasn't been posted on here yet but....

In "The Little Mermaid", in the scene where Prince Eric and Ursula (disguised) are getting married, the priest or bishop who is officiating the ceremony is, umm......how to put this delicately? He's "pitching a tent". Seriously. If you look for it, it's VERY OBVIOUS.

Also very funny.

That website that debunks rumors, has proved this rumor to be false. what many people believed was a sign of excitement, was actually the priests boney knees. This is clearly visable in the scene where Ursula looks over her right shoulder at Scuttle and his "airforce" come swooping down on her.