15 Amazing Disney Secrets!
15 Amazing Disney Secrets! 15. The Actually Haunted MansionWith Disneyland being such an integral part of the lives and childhoods of millions ofpeople around the world, inevitably some people have requested that their ashes be scatteredat the Happiest Place On Earth. This happens so frequently at the HauntedMansion attraction, in fact, that Disneyland workers actually have to vacuum up the asheseach and every night. Though the ashes get vacuumed up, it’s certainlypossible that at least one or two spirits have remained there! .
14. Abandoned Theme ParksMany a childhood nightmare has been fueled by the animatronics at Disney’s theme parkscoming to life, or by being left alone in an abandoned theme park. Well, we can’t say that the first scenariois too likely to happen, but the second one definitely could. This is because Disney has actually completelyabandoned two entire theme parks. The parks, Discovery Island and River Country,both in Florida, were abandoned in 1999 and 2001, respectively. .
The parks were struggling financially andalso a new Florida state law required theme parks to chlorinate any standing water withintheir facilities. The law also required that only municipalwater supplies could be used. Disney determined that the process neededto meet the law’s requirements would be too expensive, and, since these parks wereunderperforming anyway, that it would be more cost-effective to shut them down. Rather than destroy them, Disney chose tojust let them sit. The result is a couple of places which definitelyfit the post-apocalyptic theme. 13. .
Bone To PickPirates of the Caribbean is one of Disney’s major global franchises which virtually everyoneknows about. It’s so big, in fact, that it has becomeone of Disneyland’s biggest attractions since the films based on the ride were released. What most people don’t know about this attraction,though, is that they contained real human remains for a while there, and it’s rumoredthat they still do. Real human skeletons were placed throughoutthe ride because the Imagineers of the time were upset about the extremely phony lookingfake skeletons available at the time. This led them to procuring real human remainsto use. .
Although the real skeletons were said to havebeen removed in more modern updates to the ride, sources inside of Disney say that afew of the “props” are in fact real, and even include the remains of previous Disneyemployees. 12. The Disney UnderworldMost people who have been there know that Disneyland is huge, but few people know thatit extends underground as well. If you’ve ever wondered how cast and crewcan seemingly teleport across the park at a moment’s notice, it’ll interest youto know that Disney theme parks also encompass a vast subterranean network of tunnels forthe staff. .
These allow cast and crew to move quicklythrough the park without dealing with the huge crowds. 11. When Mickey’s Away, Cats PlayDisneyland quickly grew so popular that it fell victim to a common problem. Wherever humans go, rats go as well. This problem became such an ordeal for thepark that they sought a somewhat clever solution: they released a pack of cats within the parkto control the rat population. Over the years, the cats bred and intermingledand spread throughout the park. .
Now, generations of feline familiars later,the cats still roam free throughout the park. It’s not uncommon at all to see one hangingnear the edges of Disneyland’s avenues, looking for any scraps dropped by the unsuspectingvisitors. 10. Mourning MotherLots of early Disney films are conspicuously absent of a motherly figure. While this may be seen as nothing more thanan easy plot device to progress the character along the Hero’s Journey, some suspect amore sinister situation. After the huge success which was Disney’sSnow White in the ‘30s, Walt Disney purchased .
A home for his parents. Tragically, a fault in the home’s heatingsystem led to Flora Disney, Walt’s mother, passing away due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Disney historians suspect that this is whyWalt chose to make the mother absent from so many of his film’s protagonists. 9. Color Us SurprisedIt’s been a long time since color film was first introduced. No, really – a long time. .
100 years this year, to be exact. What you might not know about the innovation,though, is that Disney actually owned the Technicolor patent for a few years. Because of the Great Depression causing virtuallyevery other company with a color film production process to go bankrupt around that time, thisled to Disney being the only film company in the world which had the ability to routinelychurn out color films for a little bit there. 8. Standing TallDuring one of the darkest moments in the history of the United States, on September 11th, 2001,Disney World was evacuated in an astounding .
30 minutes. Disney feared that the park was a likely terroristtarget, because of its symbolic importance to western culture as well as the huge crowdsit draws. Luckily the evil men behind the attack didn’thave anything of that nature in mind, but it’s remarkable how quickly Disney was ableto ensure that no one was in harm’s way. The crew members then worked through the nightto erect the park’s Fourth of July decorations so that the park could reopen the followingday with a clear message of solidarity to a nation in mourning. 7. .
The Disney LookWorking for a Disney theme park is no joke, and it’s not the job for your average deadbeatdropout who might have otherwise worked at a gas station. Disney expects you to maintain what they callthe “Disney Look”, and this extends to everything from dress code while at work topiercings, tattoos, hair color, and facial hair. In fact, it was only in 2012 that Disney allowedcast members to grow shortly cropped and well-groomed beards. They still can’t grow full-on seven dwarvesor wizards style face warmers. .
6. Hairy SituationSully, the beloved blue and purple beast from Monsters, Inc. marks a turning point in thehistory of film animation. His character model contains more than 2 millionindividual hairs, each of which was individually animated. This is the main reason why rendering a singleframe of his animated sequences took more than 12 hours, even on the supercomputersused by Disney’s animation teams at the time. 5. .
Storm of the CenturyDue to the difficulty of the hand-painted cel method of animation used by Disney atthe time, more modern films released by the company were something of a huge undertakingto achieve. This is exemplified by the final film whichused this method, The Little Mermaid. It’s estimated that over a million bubbleswere drawn in the movie. In order to keep pushing the envelope andproduce more and more astounding content, the two-minute long storm sequence from theclassic children’s movie actually took the animators assigned to the project more thana year to produce. Luckily modern methods allow for quicker production,but the scene’s classic feel speaks for .
Itself. 4. Stop and DropToy Story characters at Disney’s theme parks used to drop to the ground and freeze, motionless,when a guest would yell “Andy’s coming!”, in reference to the toy’s behavior in theToy Story films. However, they had to stop this practice whenthe gag became well-known as a result of the internet. Now when a guest yells the phrase, the toyswill simply respond with “Andy went to college.” It’s too bad, as that would definitely besomething to see. .
Thanks, internet! 3. Shining ExampleStephen King and Disney don’t have much in common. In fact, the two may be as far apart as thingscan get in terms of common ground. This doesn’t change the fact, however, thatmany people think Pixar’s Toy Story is something of an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s interpretationof The Shining by Stephen King. It’s hard to deny when confronted with theevidence; the exact same carpet pattern was used in Sid’s house and a hallway in theOverlook Hotel. .
An intercom modeled after one which appearsin the hotel manager’s office in the Shining is seen in Toy Story 3. A security camera’s model number is seento read “Overlook H237” which is a hotel room number from the Shining . The number237 also appears as a username for someone Woody chats with online (“Velocistar237”),and also on a garbage truck’s licence plate (“RM237”). Creepy! Interestingly, the book actually used room217 but The Timberline Lodge, the hotel used in the Shining movie, asked that the roomnumber be changed to a non-existent room so .
Guests wouldn’t avoid the room. Ironically room 217 is now the most requestedroom at the hotel. 2. Labor of Love or Pain? Although Disneyland is often referred to asthe Happiest Place on Earth, it’s apparently not always been so for the people who workthere. It’s easy to forget that the cast and crewat Disneyland are real people who have real problems, but in 2008 these issues came toa head when Disney workers protested outside of the park over unfair wages and workingconditions. .
The resulting protests even got physical whenpolice clashed with the workers. This led to cast members dressed as MickeyMouse, Snow White, Cinderella, and Tinkerbell (amongst 28 other workers) photographed whilebeing dragged away in cuffs. 1. Freezing A MythMost kids have heard the legendary tale of Walt Disney being cryogenically frozen beforehe could succumb to the lung cancer which ailed him in his later life. Most people probably even believe this tobe true; after all, the man had achieved a level of wealth and fame of which most ofus can only dream. .
Why would death stop him? Unfortunately though, it’s simply not true. Diane Disney Miller, Walt’s daughter, feltcompelled to finally dispel the notion by opening the Walt Disney Family Museum in SanFrancisco in 2009. While the man may not physically live on atsome unspecified point in the future, his works will surely endure for centuries tocome.
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Shocking facts about Disney! Some of the most shocking and disturbing Disney secrets that you didn’t know