Strange But True Disney Stories
The Walt Disney Company has been around for more than a century now.
Throughout the years, some things have happened that are hard to explain.
Here are some crazy but true stories about Disney.
A Disney Commercial Prevented a Triple Crown Winner
Photo: NFL
Have you ever wondered the story behind “I’m going to Disney,” the viral commercials for Super Bowl winners?
In 2021, as part of The Most Magical Story on Earth: 50 Years of Walt Disney World, we learned the surprising details.
You can watch this special on Disney+ right now, and it’s definitely worth your time.
Photo: adage.com
You’ll find the Super Bowl discussion about 40 minutes into the video.
Something hinted at but largely left unsaid is the better story, though.
After Disney experienced success with its Super Bowl spot, it tried to branch out to other sports.
NBA
Here’s Magic Johnson after an NBA Finals victory:
While we primarily associate the commercials with the NFL, Disney once aimed higher…until the producers aimed too high.
Someone at Disney got the bright idea to capitalize on the Triple Crown, the rarest achievement in horse racing.
Triple Crown
At this point, a horse named Alysheba had won the first two legs of the Triple Crown and appeared all but certain to pull off the feat.
Then, Disney bungled into the affair, distracting the horse and its jockey with negotiations and attempts to film B-roll footage.
Photo: ESPN
The people in charge of the commercial felt confident they could catch the horse moments after its victory and film a commercial.
I presume the jockey, not the horse, would have uttered those famous lines, “We’re going to Disney!” But it never happened.
Photo:pixabay
Alysheba, unsettled by the strangers with their cameras, lost that race to Bet Twice…by 14 lengths.
You’ll find virtually no mention of Disney, and that’s by design.
After this disastrous outcome, Disney lowered its profile and correctly chose to stick to the Super Bowl.
The Little Mermaid Credits a Long-Dead Animator
Photo courtesy of Disney. © 2023 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Current producers for Walt Disney Animation paid tribute to the company’s legacy as much as possible.
We’ve witnessed a couple of examples of this behavior over the years, most recently with Frozen.
You may not know this, but Walt Disney had contemplated telling this story in 1937!
Photo: DIsney+
That’s not the title we’re referencing for this odd tidbit, though.
Instead, the topic is a different Hans Christian Andersen tale, The Little Mermaid.
For a period of four years, a Danish illustrator named Kay Nielsen worked for Disney.
Photo: Daily Dose of Art
The author didn’t last very long because Walt Disney and other members of the Nine Old Men viewed Nielsen’s work as too dark.
Still, Nielsen created illustrations for The Little Mermaid before he left Hollywood.
The artist would die in 1957, which makes the next part of this story so remarkable.
Photo: The Paris Review
When Disney began in earnest on the period we now know as the Disney Renaissance, Nielsen’s images had stood the test of time.
What was dark for the 1930s felt right at home in the 1980s.
During the production of The Little Mermaid, the modern team used Nielsen’s drawings for inspiration.
Photo: The Paris Review
When the film debuted in theaters in 1989, 32 years after Nielsen’s death, he earned an art department credit for the film.
Notably, Nielsen currently has three listings on his IMDb page.
They are from works in 1940, 1956, and 1989, a sure sign of a timeless artist.
Sleeping Beauty Castle Is a Marketing Ploy
I can hear you gasp in outrage, but it’s true.
When Walt Disney drew up the plans for Disneyland, he made no mention of Sleeping Beauty Castle.
That’s not to say that the castle came later, though. In fact, it’s quite the opposite.
You’ll find drawings of the castle, a courtyard to the south, and arguably even a moat to the east. It’s not, but that’s a topic for another day.
What you won’t find is any mention of Sleeping Beauty because that wasn’t the plan. At all.
Imagineers worked on a project they called the Snow White Castle.
Photo: Disney
In some alternate universe, that’s almost assuredly the name of Disneyland’s signature structure.
Alas, Walt Disney was always a master marketer. The businessperson knew how to sell a product.
In this instant, the product he was selling was a movie, not a castle and/or theme park.
Photo: Disney
Sleeping Beauty had started its development in 1950, several years before Disneyland’s plans took shape.
Due to several production delays, Sleeping Beauty wouldn’t debut in theaters until 1959.
However, Uncle Walt recognized that more people would want to watch the movie if they identified it with the castle.
Photo: Disney
From his perspective, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was more than 15 years old. It’d had its time in the sun.
So, Imagineers looked forward rather than backward in naming this structure as Sleeping Beauty Castle, even though that had never been the plan.
You Could Have Watched Lilo & Stitch in Real-Time
Photo Credit: Michael Eisner via Twitter @Michael_Eisner
Here’s one of those Disney stories that drives me to distraction, as it emphasizes the company’s struggles during Michael Eisner’s final days.
The former Hollywood studio boss ran Disney like a souped-up combination of a movie studio and a theme park company.
In that way, Eisner established the blueprint for the Disney we know today, but he got a shocking amount wrong at the end.
For example, film production on Disney’s West Coast had grown so messy that some animators preferred to work elsewhere.
In the aftermath of the Disney Renaissance, animated movies cost more to make, but their earnings tapered off during the late 1990s.
The pressure of working on a big-budget film with potential box office disaster status chased away some big talents.
Photo: Disney
Others stayed at the company, but they accepted jobs at an unheralded backup facility.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios was once a functional animation house, the tiny East Coast version of the main hub in Burbank, California.
When theme park guests visited the Animation Courtyard, they didn’t realize it, but they were watching Disney films in development.
Photo: Disney+
A couple of these projects were disasters like Brother Bear and Home on the Range, the latter of which ultimately shut down the studio.
Before then, a couple of Disney movies came together while curious fans watched from just outside the animators’ windows.
One of those titles was Mulan, but the one that has garnered the most attention is Lilo & Stitch.
Image Credit: Disney
As chronicled in this excellent Polygon article, animator Chris Sanders felt strongly that Disney needed to make smaller films.
Sanders pitched the idea of Lilo & Stitch at a Walt Disney World hotel, the Swan, and worked on it at Hollywood Studios.
For this reason, I’ve always strongly advocated for a Lilo & Stitch ride at this park.
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Feature Photo: ILLUSTRATION BY MARIA-JULIANA ROJAS. IMAGES IN ILLUSTRATION BY WALT DISNEY/ EVERETT COLLECTION, 6; BUENA VISTA PICTURES/EVERETT COLLECTION, 2; EVERETT COLLECTION, 1; ADOBE STOCK, 2.
