10+ Little Disney Details That Are Just So Clever

Fans of Disney likely already know that the studio is rather thoughtful about including small, clever details for fans to find.

Pixar is especially known for putting Easter eggs in their films, but other Disney movies do so, too.

Even devoted Disney fans might not ever find every single detail left by the creators, so we’ve put together a list of 10+ little Disney details.

This small change to Maui’s tattoos.

In Moana , there is a sequence where Maui is shown to shapeshift to have a shark’s head.

One fan noticed that when he makes this transformation that his tattoos change slightly, too. He normally has a tattoo of himself, but it changes from his normal form into that of a shark.

There are many other nods to other films in Moana.

Moana also features many Easter eggs connecting it to other popular Disney films.

There are actually a lot of these scenes. First, fans can see Flounder from The Little Mermaid swim by with a school of fish as Maui sings “You’re Welcome.”

Then, there’s the scene of Tamatoa’s treasure hoard where you can see Aladdin’s lamp if you look closely.

An Easter egg in Brave that points to Monsters, Inc.

The witch who turns Merida’s mom into a bear has a very witch-like cottage filled with baskets and wood carvings.

One of these carvings is of Sully from Monsters, Inc. whose likeness has been engraved on a log. If you really look, you’ll find it.

The magic carpet shows up in The Princess and the Frog.

The Princess and the Frog has many beautiful shots of animation highlighting New Orleans, but there’s one moment that’s out of place but a total Easter egg.

Just before the title appears on the screen, there’s a view of a street, and you can see the magic carpet from Aladdin .

Hercules only shows six planets.

During the scene in Hercules when the Fates sing about the planets aligning, only six planets are visible in the shot instead of eight.

This is actually a clever thing to include as the ancient Greeks were only aware of five other planets besides Earth.

Nemo makes a brief appearance in Brother Bear.

While some Easter eggs are easier to notice, others are difficult because they only appear for a brief moment. That’s the case with Nemo’s appearance in Brother Bear .

There’s a montage where Denahi and Sitka are fishing, and you can see a clownfish in the net amongst all the other fish.

Elsa and Anna make an appearance in Zootopia.

As soon as Frozen was released, children everywhere wanted to dress up like these princesses.

As a nod to the film and to this phenomenon, Zootopia includes two elephant children dressed up as Anna and Elsa. You can spot them during the scene where Judy Hope is riding the train past Tundratown.

And, Flynn Rider and Rapunzel are at Elsa’s coronation.

Fans have often tried to connect Disney films together to create a sort of extended Disney universe.

One piece of evidence for this theory is the fact that Rapunzel and Flynn Rider can briefly be seen walking in Arendelle before Elsa’s coronation.

Hiro’s cat in Big Hero 6 wore a Stitch costume.

As Big Hero 6 and Lilo & Stitch are two great but underrated Disney films, it seems fitting they would have a small connection.

There’s a photograph on the wall by the stairs that shows Hiro’s cat, Mochi, wearing an adorable Stitch costume.

These lyrics from Mulan are a reference to The Art of War.

There definitely are a lot of Easter eggs in Disney films, but it’s just as exciting to find the ways that the creators incorporated history and culture into the films.

Many of the lyrics from “I’ll Make a Man Out of You” are references to quotes from The Art of War by Sun Tzu.

This Mulan restaurant from Lilo & Stitch.

Lilo & Stitch is a rather underrated Disney film that’s actually delightful and endearing, so many fans might not have noticed this small nod to Mulan in the film.

In a shot of the town where Lilo lives, there’s a restaurant that is named “Mulan Wok.”

This historical nod to folklore in Aladdin.

When Genie sings in Aladdin he says that “Scheherazade had a thousand tales.”

In Arabian folklore, Scheherazade was actually known for having 1,0001 tales. But, since Aladdin was one of those stories, they left that final one out. This shows the detail Disney puts into their films!

The high score in Wreck-It Ralph honors Walt Disney.

If you’re looking closely, you can see that the high score on the Wreck-It Ralph arcade game is 120501.

This is actually a very subtle but cute reference to Walt Disney’s birthday as he was born on December 5th, 1901. Fans really are sleuths!

The spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty is in Tangled.

Another small scene that can be seen as evidence that the Disney princesses are all a part of the same world is that the spinning wheel Aurora pricks her finger on is in Tangled.