Disney Animator Says the Dirty Easter Eggs in Disney Animated Classics Are "False"

In a recent episode of Corridor Crew‘s Animators React, the gang brought in animator Tom Bancroft to talk about some of the films he’s worked on over the years including The Lion King, Mulan, and VeggieTales.

During the show, he was asked about the Disney’s tendency to put Easter eggs in the background of shots that might otherwise be less visually interesting. It’s at this point he says that all of the “dirty” Easter eggs that people talk about are “false.” He said:

"Sometimes we do add some things. All of them are innocent. The ones that everyone kind of hangs onto are the ones where they're 'dirty,' right? Almost all of those are false, and we can talk about that another time and dig deep into that."

I definitely remember some of these, and I’m sure you do as well! I remember watching the VHS tapes with friends rewatching and pausing the scenes. Some of the more famous Easter eggs that spread around involved The Lion King with the word “Sex” being spelled out in dust; the priest getting an erection in The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin whispering to “take off your clothes” in Aladdin. These are things I remember as being facts, and you can look them up online and be reminded that, yeah… they’re there.

Maybe some of them are unfortunate coincidences, but I don’t know. I wish he would have gone into more detail explaining those things! Hopefully, in another episode, the Corridor Crew team does that! In the meantime, watch this one!