The final ballroom dance scene in Beauty and the Beast reuses the animation from the final dance scene in Sleeping Beauty.
Animators were running out of time during the production of Beauty and the Beast, so they reused the animated dance between Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip from Sleeping Beauty.
Mickey Mouse was originally named Mortimer Mouse
Mickey Mouse was originally named Mortimer Mouse, but Disney’s wife said the name Mortimer sounded too pompous, convincing Disney to change the adorable rodent’s name to Mickey. The name Mortimer was instead given to Mickey’s rival mouse in later episodes.
The sorcerer in Fantasia is called ‘Yen Sid’.
The name makes more sense if read backwards.
Disney built a miniature railroad in his backyard called the Carolwood Pacific Railroad.
The Carolwood Pacific Railroad had 2,615 feet of track, including trestles, loops, overpasses, and even a tunnel (after his wife vetoed his suggestion that he put a train through her flower beds).
Sulley has more than 2.3 million individual hairs
Sulley from Monsters Inc has more than 2.3 million individual hairs, which are all carefully animated. This explains why a single frame of the big blue fella took an average of 12 hours to produce.
Mickey Mouse wasn’t Disney’s first iconic character
Mickey Mouse wasn’t Disney’s first iconic character–Mickey’s predecessor, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, was created while Disney was under contract with Universal Pictures.
Oswald’s oversized ears, big eyes and shorts bear a striking similarity to Disney’s next creation, Mickey Mouse, who was inspired by a mouse who would visit his drawing board.
In 2006, Disney chief executive Bob Iger and NBC Universal struck a deal to see ownership of Oswald return to Disney.
Actual human skeletal remains were once used in the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride at Disneyland
In 1967, Disneyland Imagineers used real human skeletal remains from the UCLA Medical Centre while working on the “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride. However, they’ve long since been removed and replaced with fabricated replicas.
It’s Mary!
Did you know Boo from Monsters, Inc. has a real name? It’s Mary! You can see it written in crayon on the top of her drawings.
The Sleeping Beauty Castle is the only Disney theme park castle with an operable drawbridge.
The Sleeping Beauty Castle is the only Disney theme park castle with an operable drawbridge. However, staff has only lifted the drawbridge for two occasions throughout the years: the castle’s opening day and after the remodeling of Fantasyland.
The Liberty Oak
Over 500 trees around Disney World started as acorns from the “Liberty Oak,” the featured centerpiece of the Magic Kingdom’s Liberty Square.