I love a good Disney movie. In fact, I’m a firm believer that the studio has never made a bad film. Rather, they’re just different degrees of good.
As a way of paying homage and celebrating all the incredible years Disney has given us, I’ve managed to compile these 10+ completely random Disney facts that fans didn’t know.
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Those aren’t real lion roars that you hear in *The Lion King*.
Lion roars were deemed to be insufficient, and production opted to use tiger roars instead.
A lot of the sound effects also came from a man named Frank Welker and a trash can.
*Finding Nemo* has a connection to *Jaws* that you probably missed.
In Finding Nemo the giant Great White shark is named, Bruce .
This was the name that Steven Spielberg and crew used to refer to the mechanical shark on the set of Jaws .
Steve Martin used to work in the giftshop at Disney Land.
Steve began working (according to his records) at age ten until he was seventeen years old.
Steve has said that it was like going to work in a fantasy world.
Boo does have a name in *Monsters Inc.*.
You have to be paying very close attention to be able to spot this.
But if you watch carefully when Sully and Boo are inside her room, you can see that she’s signed her name, Mary, to the bottom of one of her drawings.
Daveigh Chase is one seriously talented voice actress.
Daveigh plays Lilo in the beloved classic Lilo and Stitch . Daveigh is probably more well-known for playing Samara in the chilling 2000s horror film, The Ring .
She still gives me nightmares.
Prince Charming in *Cinderella* doesn’t actually have a name.
I’m not saying that he’s a key character in the story, but at least give the guy a name ! William, Charles…Keanu, perhaps?
Calling him Prince Charming is just flat out lazy if you ask me.
The name *Wall-E* is an ode to Walt Disney.
Fans of the film are likely already aware that Wall-E is an acronym. It stands for waste allocation load-lifter: earth class.
It’s also a shorthand for creator Walter Elias Disney !
Billy Crystal turned down a monster role before starring in *Monsters Inc*.
The studio offered Billy the part of Buzz Lightyear in Toy Story . To this day, he says that it’s the only regret he has working in Hollywood.
Therefore, when the time came to play Mike Wazowski — he leaped at the opportunity.
There’s a secret basketball court hidden inside one of the oldest rides at Disneyland.
The Matterhorn rollercoaster has been around since the late ’50s.
In the backstage facade, the staff set up their own half-court basketball hoop to play during breaks,
There’s a hidden members-only club at a Disneyland theme park.
It’s called the 33 Club and good luck getting in. The average wait for consideration is more than 10 years!
Supposedly the club is located above the Pirates of the Caribbean ride — adjacent to Walt’s apartment.
A lot of the Disney characters’ names are factually accurate.
For example, Simba means “Lion” in Swahili . Baloo is the word for “Bear” in Hindi. Pumba, sadly, is the butt of a pretty mean joke.
His name, roughly translated in Swahili, means “Dim-witted” or just plain “Stupid.”
Sully is one seriously hairy monster in *Monsters Inc.*.
On James Sullivan’s body, there are more than 2.3 million individual strands of hair. Not only that but each one needed to be animated individually.
Keep in mind that this was 2001; a single frame would take upwards of twelve hours.
Ariel was the first Disney Princess to have siblings.
I know what you’re going to say and Cinderella doesn’t count! They were her evil step-sisters; no blood relation.
Ariel is the first to have any blood-related brothers or sisters.
Disney used real skeletons in the *Pirates of the Caribbean* ride when it first opened.
Disney wasn’t happy with the look of the fake skeletons available at the time. So he reached out to his contacts at UCLA and bought real ones!
Supposedly, all the human remains have been removed from the ride. Or at least, that’s what they want us to believe.
You can invite Mickey and Minnie Mouse to your wedding!
They’ll always decline but in return, the lovable mascot and his beau will forward you an autographed photo and a wedding badge!
You can also invite Cinderella and Prince Charming and receive an autographed marriage certificate. I’m recently engaged, so best be sure I’ll be putting this to the test.
