Most of us grew up watching all things Disney. Whether it be TV shows, movies or even just listening to the songs in our car. Even as adults today, some of us will still turn on a classic Disney film every once in a while.
As big as Disney has become, being one of the biggest companies in the world of cartoons, it started out fairly small. In fact, in the middle of the 20th century, the studio didn’t have a crazy amount of money, or an army of illustrators to draw unique pictures every time.
Imagine this: illustrators manually draw more than a million images of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), which is 83 minutes long. That means about 570 artists would spend 3 years drawing all those different images. That’s crazy to think about!
So what did they do? Here are 12 images showing a little trick Disney employees would do. They’d use pre-existing scenes from other cartoons. Bet you never noticed that, no matter how big of a Disney fan you are!
1. Robin Hood was created in 1973 and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was created in 1937. That’s a huge gap, but you probably didn’t know that the films have a few similarities in them. Check out this one!
2. Robin Hood also shared a very similar scene with the 1967 Disney classic The Jungle Book. Check out the identical dance moves in both films! I would have never noticed that at all.
3. 101 Dalmatians was released in 1961 and it shared a similar scene with The Jungle Book as well. Guess they figured dogs and wolves are the same things so why not use a similar drawing.
4. The Sword in the Stone wasn’t created that much longer before The Jungle Book. The movie was released in 1963, but the illustrators still figured they’d use the similarities between dogs and wolves to their advantage.
5. 101 Dalmatians also decided to share a similar scene with The Sword in the Stone. Check out this particular scene from 101 Dalmatians…remember it.
Not look at the scene from The Sword in the Stone. Even the size difference between the two characters is exactly the same, but instead of a bat, a sword is being used. How have I never noticed this before!
6. The Truth About Mother Goose was released in 1957. It’s interesting how the illustrators would remember this specific thing in this film and use it again for The Sword in the Stone. That’s the perfect example of mind games!
7. Okay, this may be a coincidence, or they totally did this on purpose. Check out this scene from the classic Disney film Winnie the Pooh. I’m sure we all remember this.
Now rewind back a few years to The Jungle Book. Remember Mowgli walking alone on top of the tree branch thinking everyone left him? It’s basically Christopher Robin WITHOUT Pooh bear.
8. The same can be seen between the two characters in different scenes of the movies. They literally are the same character, just one is wearing no clothes, while the other one is. Sneaky Disney, very sneaky.
9. I’ll admit, people will notice this similarity if they watched The Sword in the Stone PRIOR to watching The Princess and the Frog. Check out this scene from the 2009 Disney film, who does Louis the Alligator look like?
Madam Mim of course! Who can forget that creepy witch from The Sword in the Stone who actually at one point turns into an alligator? The similarities are uncanny. I think Disney meant to do that on purpose.
10. Alice in Wonderland was released in 1951, while Pinocchio was released in 1940. The 11-year gap didn’t stop Disney from using the same shot from the earlier film. This one is definitely more subtle than the movies mentioned above. Only die-hard Disney fans would’ve noticed.
11. If you are a fan of Disney princesses then this one should be the most obvious similarity. In fact, even as a kid, I think I noticed that Sleeping Beauty (1955) and Beauty and the Beast (1991) have the exact same dance moves.
12. Last one. Check out Baloo from The Jungle Book and Little John, the bear from Robin Hood. I guess if they are both bears, why not re-use the illustrations they used in one film for another. Smart Disney, real smart!
