Get ready to splosh a fiddling gremlin dust on your day as we dive into some magical Disney facts that even Tinker Bell would find surprising .
1.In 1930, a Mickey Mouse writing tablet became the first Disney character merchandise. Walt Disney agreed tolicensethe character to a company in New York (for $300) because he needed the money at the time.
Mickey Mouse save TabletFirst Licensed Piece of Disney Character Merchandise1930#DisneyArchives50pic.twitter.com / Ijy2w3eOGB
2.The first cartoonDisneymade incolorwas the Silly Symphony shortFlowers and Trees. The cartoon was also the first to be made in Technicolor (making it the first full-color cartoon). It was so innovative for the time, too, that it would earnWalt Disneyhis firstOscar— an Academy Award for Animated Short Subjects.
3.The term “Disney Vault” is actually a lotolderthan you might think. It was used to refer to movies that were taken out of “the vault” and re-released into theaters after their original run (this was way before home videos existed).
4.The first movie itre-releasedwasSnow White and the Seven Dwarfsin 1944, during WWII. The studio was sort of forced to do so as they were cash-strapped at the time and wereproducing propaganda filmsfor the government that weren’t really made for profit.
5.During World War II,90%of what Walt Disney Studios produced was for the Allies' war effort (i.e. propaganda films, training films, print campaigns, etc.).
6.While Walt Disney always talked about how the carousel at Griffith Park inspired him to build Disneyland, it was actually several things that inspired him. One of them wasBeverly Park Kiddieland, which he often visited with his daughters.
7.Walt actually told David about his plans to build Disneyland in 1950. He then hired David as aconsultant.
8.In 1954, as a way to help pay for the construction of Disneyland, Walt developed aDisneylandTV show (that would end up airing on ABC).
9.Also, in 1954,Alice in Wonderlandbecame the first animatedDisney movietoair on TV.
10.Walt Disney hated howAlice in Wonderlandturned out and refused to re-release the movie during his lifetime. However, in 1971, five years after Walt’s death, the movie became ahead film, and it had a hugecult following among college students, who would rent the 16-mm film and set up viewing parties. The movie’s renewed popularity convinced Disney to re-release the film in 1974, where they really leaned into the psychedelic side of it (as you can see in the re-release poster below) and even used Jefferson Airplane’s “White Rabbit” in the radio ads for it.
11.According to Jeffery Sherman, son of Robert Sherman (of the famous Sherman Brothers), he inspired theMary Poppinssong “A Spoonful of Sugar” after he told his dad that he had gotten his polio vaccine on a sugar cube.
When I was a kid we got the polio vaccine . My pop , work on Mary Poppins , asked how my day was . I told him about the vaccine . “ Did n’t it ache ? I aver they put it on a sugar square block and you ate it . He called my uncle Dick and the next Clarence Shepard Day Jr. they wrote “ A Spoonful of Sugar . ” ( 1 of 2 )
12.Disney wanted to getthe Beatlesto cameo as the vultures inThe Jungle Book, but they turned them down. Reportedly, John Lennon was the one who did not like the idea and refused to be a part of it.
13.AfterSleeping Beautybombed at the box office, Disney decided not to make another fairy-tale princess movie for 30 years. Yup, there was a 30-year gap — 1989’sThe Little Mermaidwould be the next fairy-tale movie.
14.The huge success of101 Dalmatians, which was released two years afterSleeping Beauty’sbox office bust,savedDisney’s animation department.
15.Howard Ashman, who, along with Alan Menken, is credited with saving Disney Animation and starting the Disney Renaissance, first worked with Disney on lyrics for a song inOliver & Company.While working on the song, Ashman was offered several Disney projects to create music for. Of all the projects, he choseThe Little Mermaid.He then brought onboard his longtime collaborator, Menken, to help him with the music, and the rest is cinematic history.
16.Early in the development ofThe Little Mermaid, both Joan Collins and Bea Arthur were approached to voiceUrsula.
17.In 1988, during the production ofThe Little Mermaid, Howard Ashman and Alan Menkenwrote a treatment forAladdin.Disney turned it down, and the two would go on to work onBeauty and the Beast. However, after the success ofThe Little Mermaid, Disney decided to revive the idea of anAladdinanimated movie.
18.Howard Ashman died from complications from AIDS in 1991, nine months before the release ofBeauty and the Beast. Because of his illness, he only worked onAladdinbriefly before his death. Disney brought in lyricist Tim Rice (best known for his collaborations with Andrew Lloyd Weber) to work with Alan Menken to complete the film. Rice was then asked to work onThe Lion King.However, Menken was unavailable to work on it with him, so Ricesuggested Elton John, and the rest is cinematic history.
19.Timon and Pumbaawere originally the ones who were supposed to sing “Can You Feel The Love Tonight” inThe Lion King. Ernie Sabella and Nathan Lane (the voices of the characters) even recorded the whole song. However, when Elton John found out about it he killed the idea, saying, “I don’t want a big, stinky warthog singing my love song!”
20.WhileA Goofy Movieis considered a classic today, in 1995 the film was onlymoderately successfulin theaters and didn’t become a hit until it was released on video.
A GOOFY MOVIE really took off when it was released on VHS tape on September 6 , 1995 and the audience for the film has grown and grow , coevals after propagation over the years.#D23GoofyMoviepic.twitter.com / OpHfSvwuFU
21.As part of her contract,Glenn Closegot to keep all her Cruella de Vil costumes from101 Dalmatiansand102 Dalmatians. However, according to Close, when Disney “found out how expensive they were, they were unhappy that it was in my contract.” Disney then offered to create replica outfits for her to take instead of the originals, but she said no.
22.I think everyone agrees that Emma Thompson as the Baroness inCruellawas perfecting casting. However, Disney’s first choice for the role wasNicole Kidman.
23.Tangledis themost expensive animated movieever made — costing $260 million to make. The high budget had to do with many factors: One was that the movie had been in development since 1996 and had gone through many, many rewrites, then there was the cost of new animation software Disney had to develop for it, and then, of course, it was a labor-intensive movie that took a really long time to animate.
24.According toLin-Manuel Miranda, he pitched “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” as a song to “hold all the characters in the movie.” Before working onEncanto, Miranda had worked onMoana, where he saw firsthand in the development process that characters are cut if they aren’t important to the main character (saying Moana originally had eight brothers when he started to work on it). By having a “song as a way to check in with the family members who weren’t going to get a solo” he knew they would be able to keep all the characters, which was important since the “magic of the story” was that it revolved around a large family.
25.And lastly, the Disney Vaultstoppedbeing a marketing tool after Disney launched Disney+ and essentially made its entire library available for streaming.
