Disney Facts That You Might Not Know And Are Surprising

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Elsa was almost the villain! In the original concept for Frozen, Elsa was written as a classic villain with an icy heart and a thirst for revenge. But everything changed when the team heard "Let It Go." The song captured a sense of vulnerability and empowerment that didn't fit a traditional villain, inspiring the filmmakers to rewrite Elsa as a layered and misunderstood heroine.
Cruella de Vil was inspired by a real-life Hollywood actor. Legendary Disney animator Marc Davis, who did the key animation for Cruella, based parts of her design, movements, and personality on actor Tallulah Bankhead, who was known for her dramatic flair, raspy voice, and larger-than-life presence.
And, Cruella sounding like Tallulah was actually unintentional. Betty Lou Gerson, who voiced the character, told the LA Times in 1991, "Well, I didn't intentionally imitate her. I was raised in Birmingham, Alabama, and Tallulah was from Jasper, Alabama. We both had phony English accents on top of our Southern accents and a great deal of flair. So our voices came out that way."
Cruella pays homage to Tallulah Bankhead being the inspiration for the character in a scene early in the film where Cruella robs the hotel room. In the scene, the movie playing on the TV in the room is Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, which starred Tallulah.
According to Lin-Manuel Miranda, he pitched "We Don't Talk About Bruno" as a song to "hold all the characters in the movie." Before working on Encanto, Miranda had worked on Moana, 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.
Walt Disney almost made a sequel to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs called Snow White Returns. It would have been a featurette instead of a full-length movie, and the plot would have revolved around the Seven Dwarfs getting the cottage ready for a visit from Snow White.
Not much is known about the movie, but it did get storyboarded. It's speculated that, aside from wanting to make a follow-up because of the tremendous success and popularity of Snow White, the sequel was being made because it used two almost completed animation sequences that were cut from Snow White.
In 2005, a direct-to-video, computer-animated prequel film to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was put into production. The prequel was titled The Seven Dwarfs and was led by director Mike Disa and screenwriter Evan Spiliotopoulos — who both knew the reputation of Disney animated sequel films being unoriginal and not great — and wanted to make something very different. According to Disa, he said it would be "Disney's answer to The Lord of the Rings." However, in 2006, when John Lasseter became the Chief Creative Officer of Walt Disney Animation Studios, he canceled the movie, along with all other direct-to-video movies still in development.
The plot of the movie was actually interesting. It followed Grumpy and Dopey on a quest into the Old Forest to the city of Dwarfenholme; along the way, they would meet the other Dwarfs and befriend a young girl named Narcissa. Also, during the journey, the Dwarfs are being hunted by an evil wizard who wants to use them to get the Olden Dwarf's ancient magical power. But Narcissa is actually the wizard's daughter and works with him to trick the Dwarfs. The film would have ended with Narcissa double-crossing her father by stealing the Olden Dwarf's magic and placing him in the mirror before turning on the Dwarfs.
Lyricist Tim Rice first suggested ABBA to Disney for The Lion King. He had previously collaborated with the band's Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus on the musical Chess. Unfortunately (depending on how you look at it), Andersson and Ulvaeus were developing the Swedish musical Kristina från Duvemåla at the time, opening the door for Elton John to step in and ultimately compose the iconic soundtrack.
Elton John and Tim Rice wrote a song called "To Be King" for The Lion King. It was originally intended for Mufasa and Zazu to sing to teach Simba about leadership. Reportedly, it was cut during production because its upbeat style didn't suit Mufasa's character, and James Earl Jones's deep voice wasn't a good fit for the song.
Originally, Lilo & Stitch featured a climactic scene where Stitch, Jumba, Pleakley, and Nani hijacked a commercial 747 and flew it through Honolulu, narrowly missing buildings. After 9/11, Disney (understandably) reanimated the sequence, replacing the plane with Jumba's spaceship and moving the scene to mountains and canyons.
The Black Cauldron is Disney's most infamous production and a low point that nearly killed the animation department. However, the film — which was in development since 1973 — was doomed nearly from the start. In 1979, legendary animator Don Bluth, whose team had been working on The Black Cauldron, left Disney, taking 14 key animators with him to start his own animation production company. This left Disney's already small animation department short-staffed and impacted the film's production, causing issues with the story's direction and animation quality, ultimately resulting in a disjointed film.
Though it was originally scheduled to be released in 1980, Disney was forced to delay it by several years (at first saying it would be released in Christmas 1984, before ultimately releasing it in the Summer of 1985) as they reworked the story and trained new animators.
When it came out in 1985, The Black Cauldron was the first Disney film to use the now classic Walt Disney Pictures logo with the castle, blue background, and falling star.
Michael Eisenberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg turned down The Little Mermaid when it was first pitched. At the time, they were making a sequel to Splash (another Disney production) and were concerned about making two mermaid movies.
The two changed their minds when they read the two-page treatment for it and realized they had the makings of a classic Disney fairy tale. And if you're wondering, the sequel to Splash — Splash, Too — was a pretty forgettable made-for-TV movie that didn't even star Tom Hanks or Daryl Hannah.
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 in Oliver & Company. While working on the song, Ashman was offered several Disney projects to create music for. Of all the projects, he chose The Little Mermaid. He then brought on board his longtime collaborator, Menken, to help him with the music, and the rest is cinematic history.
In 1988, during the production of The Little Mermaid, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken wrote a treatment for Aladdin. Disney turned it down, and the two would go on to work on Beauty and the Beast. However, after the success of The Little Mermaid, Disney decided to revive the idea of an Aladdin animated movie.
There were many story changes from the original treatment that Ashman and Menken wrote, but three songs ("Friend Like Me," "Prince Ali," and "Arabian Nights") that were written for it did make it into the movie.
Beauty and the Beast was originally meant to be a much darker film. Before the version we know and love, Disney envisioned Beauty and the Beast as a somber, non-musical adaptation set in 18th-century France. Inspired by French Gothic films and classic literature, the early drafts leaned heavily into drama and realism, with a more brooding tone and less emphasis on enchantment
After watching a 20-minute reel of sketches set with temporary vocals that outlined the story, then-chairman of Walt Disney Studios, Jeffrey Katzenberg, decided to kill that version and start over.
The song "Human Again" was cut from the original 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast. The song was replaced during production by "Something There," which better fit the pacing and emotional arc of the story. When the film was adapted into a Broadway musical, "Human Again" was revived for it. The song was also added to the 2002 special edition of Beauty and the Beast.
According to Alan Menken, he loved the song, but it was too long. In 2017, he told the Hollywood Reporter, "I love that song, but it was a nine-minute number and problematic because of the logic of the story. So instead, we used 'Something There,' since both deal with Belle and the Beast falling in love and everyone anticipating becoming human again."
If you watched the brilliant Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie, then you know the villain of it was a grown-up Peter Pan. However, according to the film's director, Akiva Schaffer, they also had a version that they "played with" where the villain was a grown-up Charlie Brown.
According to Akiva, while they toyed with the idea, they never attempted to get the rights.
And lastly, Ugly Sonic's appearance in the Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers movie was arguably the best cameo. However, Ugly Sonic was not supposed to be in the movie; originally, the character at the expo that Dale talks with was supposed to be Jar Jar Binks.