MISTAKES IN DISNEY ANIMATION

[jebsdad]

This topic may have been addressed before, but I could not find any such topic subject in my search of the forum. It is part of animation that has always interested me.

Throughout Disney's history, there have been goofs in their animation. I am talking about actual OOPS!, not the "tributes" that exist (such as Belle in Hunchback).

I wrote an article about 10 years ago called Disney Animation - Not Always Perfect, in which I covered what goofs I knew about at that time. I have noticed a few since then.

Here's my list:

Three Little Pigs (1933) - The large square peephole in the front door of the brick house changes from being open to being closed several times without any reason.

The Big Bad Wolf (1934) The latch lock on Grandma's closet door changes and disappears and reappears in different scenes.

Orphan's Benefit (1934) & (1941) In both cartoons, Donald Duck gets mad at the orphans when they heckle him. Mickey Mouse shouts from the stage wings, "PLUTO, behave!"

The Old Mill (1937) The mill wheel spoke is shown to be missing so that an empty space rolls over the mother bird and her nest of eggs, saving them from being crushed. But moments before, the mill wheel is clearly shown to have a spoke in that spot.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) The lock on the door to the cottage "repairs itself" after being torn out by Dopey.

Fantasia (1940) In the "Pastoral Symphony" section, several young Pegasus "colts" change color after they reappear after jumping into the lake from a cliff.

In the "Rite of Spring" section, the flow of the water in the lake (where the dinosaurs are feeding) suddenly jerks for just a moment.

Sky Trooper (1942) Donald's parachute disappears and reappears during his fight in the plane with Pete.

Bambi (1942) In the forest fire scene where the forest animals swim to an island to escape the fire, a baby raccoon "beams over" (beating "Star Trek" by over 20 years) from one parent to another soon after they reach the island. This was caused by the cel being shifted to the right on the background during the original camera department photography.

Mickey Mouse Club (1955) In the introduction, the large number of Disney characters holding the trampoline on which Mickey is bouncing all turn into bears when the camera pans around the trampoline later.

101 Dalmatians (1961) Pongo grabs Roger's hat and lays it on the bench next to Anita. The hat is still on the bench when Roger grabs Pongo and Pongo pulls Roger away from the bench. But then Roger tips his hat to Anita when Pongo ropes them together with the leash.

At the end of the film, when Nanny is dusting the soot off all the puppies, she dusts the soot off a puppy in the fireplace, but the puppy isn't there prior to her dusting - the puppy appears out of nowhere as she "removes" the soot.

The Sword In The Stone (1963) Sir Kay's arrow quiver disappears and the number of arrows changes in some scenes.

Robin Hood (1973) The rings on Prince John's hands keep moving around, appearing and disappearing in almost every scene. Prince John's hands keep changing from three fingers to four, the thumbs change position on the hands, and the hands themselves change from human-looking hands to lion's paws.

The Little Mermaid (1989) Near the end of the movie, Ariel is barefoot when she climbs onto the ship to stop the wedding. After the camera pans to the Prince and then pans back to Ariel, she is wearing shoes.

Beauty and the Beast (1991) Gaston's arrow quiver disappears and the number of arrows changes in some scenes.

Tarzan (1999) The leopard disappears in the next scene after being shown as dead on the ground.

Those are the goofs I can remember right now. I may think of some more goofs later. I have not paid close attention to more recent animation so I'm sure there are recent examples I have missed.

Anyone out there interested in adding to this list?

[toonaspie]

I remember the Bambi error. It was too hard not to miss

and dont forget the endless array of missing whiskers in the Lion King

[Disneykid]

Is it sad that I thought this thread was about Out of Print Disney movies?

Anyway, being an avid Alice fan, I've noticed these in the film:

At the beginning of the movie, Lewis Carroll's name is spelled incorrectly on the animated title page.

At the start of the film, Alice is sitting on a tree branch as her sister sits at the base of the tree reading aloud, but when Alice wakes up at the end of the film, she is sitting in her sister's spot and her sister is standing up.

During the mad tea party, the March Hare bonks the Mad Hatter on the head with a hammer, but the hammer's shade of brown changes between shots.

At the mad tea party Alice is sitting between the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, but when the error above occurs, Alice is sitting next to the Hare who in turn is sitting next to the Hatter.

While Alice sings her line in "In the Golden Afternoon," the pansies behind her can be seen singing along, yet only Alice's voice is heard.

The number of oysters underwater during "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is different from the number of oysters above land.

The number of lobsters Alice sees swimming in the ocean is different from the number of lobsters running in the caucus race.

During "Very Good Advice," the momeraths on the bottom of the screen are constantly swapping colors.

Yes, I'm far too obssessed with this film, aren't I?

[Mr. Toad]

Lol me too I thought it was about out of prints too.

[Disney Guru]

If we counted all of the oops we would be her forever!

[AwallaceUNC]

These are interesting, I'll keep an open eye next time I watch these. I don't think I've ever noticed them before. I'm not extremely observant and rarely spot things like this... I do sometimes, though.

-Aaron

[MickeyMousePal]

I seen most of those errors before and just wonder if it was just a blooper.

who knows

[jebsdad]

Is it sad that I thought this thread was about Out of Print Disney movies? :lol:

Anyway, being an avid Alice fan, I've noticed these in the film:

At the beginning of the movie, Lewis Carroll's name is spelled incorrectly on the animated title page.

At the start of the film, Alice is sitting on a tree branch as her sister sits at the base of the tree reading aloud, but when Alice wakes up at the end of the film, she is sitting in her sister's spot and her sister is standing up.

During the mad tea party, the March Hare bonks the Mad Hatter on the head with a hammer, but the hammer's shade of brown changes between shots.

At the mad tea party Alice is sitting between the Mad Hatter and the March Hare, but when the error above occurs, Alice is sitting next to the Hare who in turn is sitting next to the Hatter.

While Alice sings her line in "In the Golden Afternoon," the pansies behind her can be seen singing along, yet only Alice's voice is heard.

The number of oysters underwater during "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is different from the number of oysters above land.

The number of lobsters Alice sees swimming in the ocean is different from the number of lobsters running in the caucus race.

During "Very Good Advice," the momeraths on the bottom of the screen are constantly swapping colors.

Yes, I'm far too obssessed with this film, aren't I? :oops: :wink:

GREAT LIST!!! I've never watched the Alice In Wonderland film closely enough to catch such errors. I enjoy the film but do not rewatch it as often as many of the other Disney animated films.

[jebsdad]

If we counted all of the oops we would be her forever!

Well...that's what I find fascinating about it. The Disney animation, especially in the REAL CLASSICS, is so wonderful that it is fun to notice the oops, bloopers, goofs, etc.

[jebsdad]

I seen most of those errors before and just wonder if it was just a blooper.

who knows :D

You can call them "just a blooper", or a goof, or an "oops", but I find such "mistakes" of interest - mainly because the high level of animation quality - especially of the REAL CLASSICS - is so outstanding, that it is a bit of a surprise when you do come across an "oops".

[jebsdad]

These are interesting, I'll keep an open eye next time I watch these. I don't think I've ever noticed them before. I'm not extremely observant and rarely spot things like this... I do sometimes, though. :)

-Aaron

I'm not very observant either. I didn't notice most of these "oops" until I had seen the cartoon or film many times. But even a relatively non-observant person like me is going to see such "oops" after watching something a hundred times or so...and I know I have watched Snow White at least that many times over the years.

[jebsdad]

I remember the Bambi error. It was too hard not to miss :)

and dont forget the endless array of missing whiskers in the Lion King

That is one thing that adds to my interest - the variety of reasons for the "oops". Such items as missing whiskers in The Lion King are what I consider "intentional" mistakes, basically "cost cutting" mistakes.

In many of the early works, it was not expected that a cartoon or film would be watched numerous times, since they were released for theaters. There was no thought at that time that anyone would be able to watch films so often they would catch the mistakes. Or later be able to use VCRs and DVD players to freeze frames to catch such errors.

In the case of the Bambi scene, I consider a "production mistake". It was not done on purpose, but it was too expensive (due to a very tight budget) to go back and fix the mistake. Since the mistake occurred in the "master film", all the various video releases since have kept the mistake. In fact, if computer technology would allow the mistake to be fixed on DVD, I would be a bit sad to no longer see that original mistake in the film.

[AwallaceUNC]

DisneyGuru - Yes, we'd be here all day, but that's half the fun. Besides, then you'd just have more things to reply to.

MMP - By "blooper" do you mean an intentional mistake? If not, then I think you and Jebsdad are referring to the same things.

Jebsdad - I've noticed that when you quote people, the quote box doesn't appear. This might be due to a setting in your profile. You might want to click on Profile and click "Yes" beside "Always Allow BBCode" and "Always Allow HTML". That might/should solve the problem.

-Aaron

[jebsdad]

Jebsdad - I've noticed that when you quote people, the quote box doesn't appear. This might be due to a setting in your profile. You might want to click on Profile and click "Yes" beside "Always Allow BBCode" and "Always Allow HTML". That might/should solve the problem. :)

-Aaron

Thanks for the tip on the HTML/BBCode info. Obviously, I didn't realize what not having that info in my post meant. As you can see, I've corrected the problem on the posts on this subject.

[jebsdad]

MMP - By "blooper" do you mean an intentional mistake? If not, then I think you and Jebsdad are referring to the same things. :)

-Aaron

To clarify matter, my "OOPS" covers all types of animation mistakes.

That would cover "bloopers" - accidental mistakes that occurred either in the production or editing process, such as the Bambi raccoon and the Fantasia pegasus "colts".

That would cover "production shortcuts" - such as the decisions to not worry too much about the consistencies in the animation, which covers a large number of the "oops" - disappearing / reappearing "equipment" such as rings, arrows & quivers, and parachutes.

That would cover "story needs" - such as the mill wheel spoke being shown earlier in the cartoon The Old Mill and the missing spoke appearing when needed for dramatic impact.

That would cover "intentional" mistakes - as I believe the Tarzan "disappearing leopard" scene is ... the animator/director saying "Let's give the picky Disney fanatics something to find."

[AwallaceUNC]

Thanks for clarifying for everyone, and I'm glad I helped you sort it out. It can take a while to figure everything out.

-Aaron

[Disneykid]

Silly me, I forgot one of my favorites. When the caterpillar says the line, "Keep your temper," his colors are switched. His belly's dark blue and the rest light blue when it should be vice versa.

[Just Myself]

I know of one.

Lilo and Stitch: Throughout the scene when the song playing is "Stuck on You", Jumba and Pleakley keep watching Lilo and Stitch from a distance in disguise. Pleakley's wig is red(I think, can't remember the colors. Haven't watched LaS in a LONG time) during the whole scene. In the next scene, during the luau, Pleakley's wig is blue(or black. Once again, can't remember).

[iamthejo]

Here are a few of my favorites:
-During "One Jump Ahead" in "Aladdin", the loaf of bread mysteriously disappears and reappears throughout the whole chase scene.
-In "Beauty and the Beast" when Gaston is first shoots the duck, you hear a gunshot but the bird gets hit with an arrow. And it's hard to explain, but his henchman shoves the duck into a plain brown bag, then picks up a fancier bag and the first bag just vanishes into thin air.
- Also in BatB, in the song "Gaston" he shoots off three bullets into a beer keg, but the type of gun he had would have to reload after each shot. Oops.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head, but they always make me laugh. And now back to Calculus homework I go. I wish spring break was longer.

[Chernabog]

In the cartoon Dumb Bell of the Yukon, the stone that Donald Duck had placed on the Mother Bear´s belly (to replace the weight of her bear cub) falls to one of her feet, but when she holds her foot in pain and jumping around, it´s the wrong foot she grabs (the one not hit by the stone!).