What is he talking about?!

[pittypat]

You all seem like a pretty well-informed bunch here, so maybe you can clear this up for me. A while back we had a friend over, who we hadn't seen in quite awhile. The conversation turned to vacations so we eagerly shared our experiences about the Disney cruise we were on last summer. We were happily babbling on, not quite catching our friend's stony silence. Finally we finished our tales and he launched into this tirade about how awful Disney is, and how it is trying to corrupt people in our society. (Disney?? The Disney in this solar system and not some Disney in a parallel universe??) Then he tells us about how one particular Disney video cover had a clear picture of a male, um, "private part" as a turret on a castle. I burst our laughing, thinking he must be pulling our leg. Nope. Totally serious. He couldn't remember which video, "one of the princess ones" (oh, well that narrows it right down). I told him that I didn't believe him but he kept on, it was on the internet (well, then it must be true), etc. He is a friend and I'd like to keep it that way, so I just changed the subject. My question is, does anyone have ANY IDEA what on earth he was talking about? I'd search for this on another thread, but-honestly-I don't even know what words to type in!

 

[WVMomof3]

That would be The Little Mermaid. The newer versions that have come out have a different picture on the front, but yes the old ones did look like that, if you use a little imagination.

 

[debm]

I'm going to look at our Little Mermaid movie right now!!

I have heard about this before though. Friends of ours that were told by someone at their church about "stuff" with Disney. They even made us watch TV at their house one night as they put movies in and tried to show us certain parts where there were "scenes" or "hard to hear words that a character was saying that were supposed to be seductive." They never did find the exact spots or when they did and they played it over and over we couldn't hear the suspected words. Anyhow....yes it got me thinking. But I have to admit---the overall happiness and magic that Disney provides and the wonderful CMs that we have met that are trully there to provide a wonderful vacation, etc. make it our favorite place to visit. And then there is the issue with Gay Days that people hold against Disney too. So yes, I have heard this before but don't pay much attention to it. Honestly, I think people could find something wrong with anything. Like the Star Wars movie now. My FIL called up DH this weekend and says, "Did you hear that there is supposed to be a religious aspect to the movie?" My husband replied, "Yes, Dad it is called good vs. evil and it happens in many movies." OK---off to look at the video cover!!

 

[WVMomof3]

OK, I am sure all of these have been posted before, but the above movie I believe you are referring to is Aladdin, where you can hear "Good teenagers take off their clothes" in a scene where Aladdin is climbing up the balcony. Also there is the word "SEX" in a smoke cloud in the Lion King. And back to the Little Mermaid, in the wedding scene at the end the priest gets a little excited. I believe someone posted an urban legend link on these and it said the last one was really supposed to be the priest's knee and not you know what.

Maybe you can search on Urban Legends for Disney if you want more info.

 

[barkley]

it's going to be interesting to see how long this thread gets to add fuel-don't forget the dueling piano scene in "who framed roger rabbit" wherein you can use the slow mode on a vcr and hear donald duck make a racial slur against daffy duck (i admit-we checked it out years ago when we first heard about it).

i agree with the previous post-if people can find a reason to dislike something they will. i was very surprised however, when a few years ago my kids were going to attend a christian summer school and their dress code forbade anything disney. when i pushed the administration for a reason (and it took some pushing to get an answer) i learned it was because "many christians feel that by providing benefits to employee's domestic partners, disney is anti-family" needless to say i was stunned at this reasoning.

 

[Stimpy]

http://www.snopes.com/disney/disney.asp is a pretty interesting website for urban legends.

 

[MickeyMacks]

When i pushed the administration for a reason (and it took some pushing to get an answer) i learned it was because "many christians feel that by providing benefits to employee's domestic partners, disney is anti-family" needless to say i was stunned at this reasoning.

I have a cousin who thinks that way too. I too just don't "get" the anti-Disney, anti-Harry Potter, anti-Lord of the Rings reasoning that some church groups argue. Am I not Christian if I don't go looking for subversive elements in movies and popular fiction? I'm sure Disney has strict rules about animators and voice actors slipping inside jokes into their movies, but people do these kind of jokes in just about every industry!

And on the anti-family issue in connection with Gay Days, I never got that reasoning either. So people who choose not to get married or choose not to have children are anti-family too? (For those Christians who believe being gay is a choice.) What about people who can't have kids, or have diseases or mental or physical limitations so that they can't be parents - are they anti-family too? The "anti-family" logic doesn't hold up - it's just old-fashioned prejudice, very un-American.

Wow, what a tirade! I'm not anti-Christian - in fact I'm born-again Christian, but I'm just anti-ignorance and anti-manipulation of people's sense of family/security. I've seen this type of manipulation used on the American people by their government in recent war situations and it worries me (and many others) how leaders push these family and security buttons to further their own agendas.

Why can't people enjoy and let their children enjoy Disney and other forms of good triumphs over evil entertainment? If you can watch Lion King and not be moved because you're looking for "sex" you're a sad, suspicious person who's missing the point of the movie and probably missing the point of a lot of other beautiful things in life. If we must have propaganda, I'll take Disney's over fundamentalists' any day!

Whew, better get off my soapbox now and put on my flamesuit!

 

[debm]

"If you can watch Lion King and not be moved because you're looking for "sex" you're a sad, suspicious person who's missing the point of the movie and probably missing the point of a lot of other beautiful things in life."


Well said MickeyMacks!!!!
I agree!

 

[klj27]

I used to manage a Disney Store many moons ago. I had an employee quit with obvious angst because he said he couldn't continue to watch people worship a mouse. He was going to a Bible College at the time and felt like he was sinning at work. Huh? I worked there during the time of The Little Mermaid cover fiasco and it was so irritating to have people bring this up all the time. You can find something questionable in almost anything if you want to. I just wanted to say, "Get a Life"!

 

[tlbwriter]

Someone already linked to the urban legends page for Disney, but the movie page in particular has many of these (including movie stills and sound clips):
http://snopes.com/disney/films/films.asp

 

[pittypat]

Thanks for all the answers to this "mystery". The urban legends site is hilarious. I agree with the posters who've said that if you're looking for something hateful/dirty/etc., with a little imagination, you can always find it!

 

[crisi]

Keep in mind that Disney is not one large groupmind. As is pointed out on Snopes, individual animators have amused themselves for years "slipping in" things that you'd never notice at full speed. And, sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

 

[dtsaos]

I don't know about the other ones, but the little mermaid is definetly true. The original picture of a part of the castle on the clamshell VHS case did look like a you know what. It's well hidden though and certainly nothing that a young child would ever notice IMO. But the story is that it certainly wasn't done by the company but by a disgruntled disney employee. I personally find it very amusing!

 

[kakiegirl]

I will admit DH and I pulled out little mermaid when the story came out and tried to see if that story about the minister was true and we just couldn't see it. I guess if you look hard enough you can find something in anything that looks or appears suggestive. I do know as Baptist that several years ago there were some who wanted to boycot Disney (I did not participate) I am not sure if it was a Baptist thing or an across the board deal I did not pay that much attention to it. I think Disney antimation is very clean and safe to watch compared to alot that is on today. I would prefer my dd watch Disney any day compared to some of the things that are on cartoon network and Nick.

 

[zdesiree]

when i pushed the administration for a reason (and it took some pushing to get an answer) i learned it was because "many christians feel that by providing benefits to employee's domestic partners, disney is anti-family" needless to say i was stunned at this reasoning.

The anti-family reason doesn't surprise me. The way they think is that if you see Lion King, Mufasa was killed by his brother and Simba fights with his uncle. Snow White is poisoned by her stepmother. Bambi's parents are killed in a fire. But at the end only the grownups can see these things, and the same with The Little Mermaid, The Lion King s_x word and how Simba looks when he lay down and the word comes out.

 

[kakiegirl]

I have a cousin who thinks that way too. I too just don't "get" the anti-Disney, anti-Harry Potter, anti-Lord of the Rings reasoning that some church groups argue. Am I not Christian if I don't go looking for subversive elements in movies and popular fiction? I'm sure Disney has strict rules about animators and voice actors slipping inside jokes into their movies, but people do these kind of jokes in just about every industry!

Getting sort of off topic but I 100% agree with you. As a Christian I have seen some people I am aquainted with jump on the don't watch this don't celebrate this holiday with their children. If that is what they believe then fine go with your convictions and what your heart tells you, but all this stuff with Disney I just don't see. With the group I know first it was Boycott Disney (I have found Disney cartoons to be some of the most wholesome around); don't watch pokemon (I myself love the little pokemon, me and dd have a great time watching it together); don't trick-or-treat,I can understand why some people don't like this holiday, but I just think it is a fun time, when I was growing up everyone trick-or-treated and we grew up okay, at least sort of I guess. ; I have people who think I am horrible because I take dd trick or treating; now they are getting into don't have a Christmas Tree or Santa; and now they are even wanting to take my beloved Easter Bunny away , and telling me I can't call it Easter Sunday because that is Pagan it needs to be called Celebration Sunday. I am thinking man their children are going to rebel when they get older because they can't have any fun. Sorry to get off topic, but this post just reminded me of all of this. I was treated like a horrible parent by that small group of people at a church, who have thanfully moved on because the church refused to take down it's Christmas tree because they singled me out because I did this stuff. We were new to the Church and it really made me feel like an outcast. Anyway these were the same people who told me all the info about the Disney movies and how awful they were.

 

[luvmy2sams]

I think the boycotting Disney is a Baptist thing. We attend a Southern Baptist church, and it's quite comical to see the split. There are people who couldn't care less and people who travel regularly to the World, but then there are those who claim to oppose anything Disney. Our Education Minister is one of the chief boycotters, though he thankfully doesn't force feed anyone his beliefs. He also doesn't believe it's necessary to boycott the entire Disney empire. Heaven forbid you take away his ABC or ESPN. Just keep away the Mouse and his associates. However, his children are constantly coming over to borrow our Disney movies. "We boycott Disney. Mom and Dad say we can watch the stuff though. We just can't buy it ourselves." For the first few years I was afraid of the Disney church police outing us, but now I regularly sport my mouse gear at church and am the source for any members contemplating a trip to Florida.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I think the boycotting Disney is a Baptist thing. We attend a Southern Baptist church, and it's quite comical to see the split. There are people who couldn't care less and people who travel regularly to the World, but then there are those who claim to oppose anything Disney. Our Education Minister is one of the chief boycotters, though he thankfully doesn't force feed anyone his beliefs. He also doesn't believe it's necessary to boycott the entire Disney empire. Heaven forbid you take away his ABC or ESPN. Just keep away the Mouse and his associates. However, his children are constantly coming over to borrow our Disney movies. "We boycott Disney. Mom and Dad say we can watch the stuff though. We just can't buy it ourselves." For the first few years I was afraid of the Disney church police outing us, but now I regularly sport my mouse gear at church and am the source for any members contemplating a trip to Florida.

The Southern Baptist Convention voted on this boycott many years ago, but since Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, they can choose whether or not to participate, as can their members (or I should say their members SHOULD be able to choose whether or not to participate). I was Southern Baptist at the time of the intial boycott and our church chose not to participate.

 

[klj27]

The Southern Baptist Convention voted on this boycott many years ago, but since Southern Baptist churches are autonomous, they can choose whether or not to participate, as can their members (or I should say their members SHOULD be able to choose whether or not to participate). I was Southern Baptist at the time of the intial boycott and our church chose not to participate.

I read in the paper last month that The Southern Baptist Convention decided to end the Disney boycott. That was the only part of the article that stood out to me because I worked for Disney when the boycott began and I remember the company directives we would get about the boycott. The article eluded to the fact that the boycott wasn't really making a difference and they were going to put their efforts elsewhere.

 

[mrsgus06]

I have most of the "Classic" disney VHS as I started collecting when my son was born 19 years ago. I do have the first release of The Little Mermaid and yes, it is there on the front cover in the castle. I put that one up for safe keeping (you never really know) and won't let the kids touch that one. It may be worth a lot of money one day!