Walt Disney once said, “If you can dream it, you can do it.” Too many people choose not to follow their dreams because they feel they are too far out of reach. Although Walt Disney’s dream kept getting pushed away from him throughout his life, mainly due to financial setbacks, he was persistent until he achieved it.

Walt Disney’s company was brilliant idea, but he wanted families to enjoy it for generations. The Walt Disney Company started making movies in 1937.

Disney movies have become a huge part of cultures around the globe, but did you know these facts about the following movies?

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1938)

• Snow White is one of the few characters who has the honor of being on the Hollywood Walk of Fame; other characters include: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, and Winnie the Pooh.
• Disney himself acted out all the roles while telling the animators the story.
• There is a picture of Snow White’s mom in an original Walt Disney Enterprises book!
• Women in the ink and paint department applied real make up to Snow White to give her rosy cheeks.
• Disney kept a menagerie of animals on studio property as a real life reference!

 Pinocchio (1940)

• Pinocchio is the first animated film to feature famous voice actors; Dickie Jones (Pinocchio), Cliff Edwards (Jiminy Cricket), Christian Rub (Geppetto), and Charles Judels (Stromboli, carriage driver).
• The movie won two Academy awards.
• It took 12 artists to create the image of Pinocchio that Walt Disney imagined.
• “Figaro’s appearance and personality traits are based on a spoiled child,” said the lead animator behind Figaro’s creation.
• Figaro was Walt’s favorite character.

 Dumbo (1941)

• A popular band, Cliff Edwards (who voiced the main crow) was famously joined by members of the Hall Johnson Choir for the song, “When I See an Elephant Fly,” at the time was a part of the cast in the movie.
• Dumbo was inspired by a book called Dumbo by Helen Aberson.
• It is a relatively short movie, running at only 64 minutes.
• One of Timothy Q. Mouse’s lines references a famous actor named Clark Gable.
• Casey Jr’s voice was made by Margaret Wright!

Alice in Wonderland (1951)

• The film was based on two books by Lewis Carroll’s: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass.
• Cheshire Cat sings lines from one of Carroll’s famous poems written in 1855.
• This film was close to being filmed in live-action.
• Kathryn Beaumont, who played Alice, also plays Wendy from Peter Pan!
• There were over 30 songs planned for the film that were never used.

Peter Pan (1953)

• Walt Disney once starred as Peter Pan in a theater production.
• The melody for the song “Second Star to the Right” was originally written for Alice in Wonderland.
• The animators had an entire live-action film to use to help with animating characters and scenes.
• Wendy and Peter Pan physically resembled their voice actors.
• Nana, the dog, was originally supposed to travel to Neverland with Wendy and her two brothers.
• Captain Hook and George Darling were voiced by the same actor.

The Lady and the Tramp (1955)

• Disney named Tramp himself.
• It is the Disney movie to be filmed in cinema-scope wide-screen!
• Real animals were brought into Walt Disney Studios for reference purposes.
• Lady was based on a real-life dog named Lady.
• The animators used their own faces for reference to make characters.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)

• This film was re-released four different times: 1970, 1979, 1986, and 1995!
• It was the last animated fairy tale until The Little Mermaid.
• It took eight years to create the film.
• It is the last animated film to use traditional inked cells.
• Several characters also appear in Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

The Aristocats (1970)

• This was the last film approved by Walt Disney before he died.
• Edgar was supposed to have a partner in crime.
• A famous singer of the time, Maurice Chevalier, had left retirement to sing the opening song!
• Scat Cat was originally going to be voiced by Louis Armstrong!
• There were supposed to be four kittens instead of three.

The Little Mermaid (1989)

• In the book by Hans Christian Anderson, the inspiration for the film, Ursula the sea witch had no name!
• In the opening scene, Kermit the Frog, Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Donald Duck can be seen hiding among the crowd.
• In order to animate the shipwreck and Ursula’s submergence from the sea, animators studied the “Monstro” scenes from Pinocchio.
• After being moved to tears by the film, a New Jersey state trooper called his estranged daughter to fix their relationship.
•  After the first screening, Jefferey Katzenberg wanted to cut “Part of Your World” from the film.

Beauty and the Beast (1991)

• “Flowers… chocolates… promises you don’t intend to keep” was ad-libbed.
• The opening number was written as an operetta!
• Belle’s movements are meant to resemble a ballerina!
• The windows are the major motif in the film! The motif is that eyes are the window to the soul.
• Filmmakers wanted something different than the classic storybook opening seen in classic fairy tales by using the stain glass window.

Aladdin (1992)

• Glen Keane, an animator, based Aladdin’s pants off of MC Hammer.
• In an early version, there were two genes, one with a lamp and one with a ring.
• According to Jonathan Freeman, “Jafar’s voice is based on a mix of Vincent Prince and Boris Karloff.”
• Robin Williams has improvised 16 hours of material for the Genie

The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

• Sally has a series of ten replacement heads, and each face has eleven expressions.
• Caroline Thompson, who wrote the film’s screenplay, has said that “…while Jack’s dilemma gives The Nightmare Before Christmas its plot, Sally’s gives it its heart.”Sally gives everyone the best advice.
• Oogie Boogie is supposed to represent a Halloween nightmare, a bag full of bugs.

The Lion King (1994)

• Simba, Sarabi, Rafiki, and Pumbaa are Swahili words! They mean lion, mirage, friend, and foolish.
• The film was going to be called King of the Jungle.
• The beginning of the movie takes place during a two day period!
• Simba and Scar were animated on separate coasts of the United States.
• The song “Be Prepared” was going to be “Thanks to me.”

Pocahontas (1995)

• This is one of only two Disney movies based on a true story!
• The movie was released on the 400th anniversary of Pocahontas’s birth year.
• Pocahontas is the first interracial romance in Disney films.
• The Lion King was being filmed at the same time as Pocahontas!

Mulan (1998)

• The film had 700 animators, artists, and technicians to complete production.
• Mushu was supposed to have a song introducing himself to Mulan.
• Jackie Chan voiced Shang in the Chinese version of the film.
• One of Disney’s oldest animators, Joe Grant, created Cri-Kee.

Tarzan (1999)

• Rosie O’Donnell provided the voice for baby Terk.
• Keane drew inspiration for the tree surfing scenes from his 15-year-old son!
• The baboon chase sequence was one of the first to be storyboarded.

Monsters, Inc. (2001)

• Boo’s room is a Pixar Easter egg trove! You can see Nemo, Jessie, and the Luxo ball.
• 90% of all the monsters have Mike Wazowski’s tongue in the film.

• Sully has 2,320,413 unique hairs on his body.
• Boo’s name is Mary!
• There are about 5.7 million doors in the door valve.

High School Musical (2006)

• They had a yawn jar during production and donated all the money to the Make-A-Wish foundation!
• East High is located in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• The scene when Chad wore several watches was Corbin Bleu’s, idea along with the sayings printed on his t-shirts.
• Lucas Gabriel had knee problems while filming HSM.

Inside Out (2015)

• All of the emotions had names at one time.
• Filmmakers had Lewis Black in mind for the character of Anger for a long time.
• The actor who voiced Bing Bong also voiced a villain in an early Disney x Pixar film.
• Mindy Kaling, who voiced Disgust, felt emotionally connected to Riley’s story.

How many facts did you know?

Information received from https://ohmy.disney.com