As if Disney films weren't already filled with enough fun, surprise and magic, these behind-the-scenes tidbits about the animators, the cast and the crew are just as surprising and interesting! Even if you're the biggest Disney fan, who knows all of the words to every song and can name their favourite Disney princess without even needing to think about it (we're partial to Ariel ourselves), you still may not have heard some of these sensational facts about Walt Disney and his films! Check out our list of incredible truths about our favourite animations…
READ: Gorgeous Disney-inspired baby names
Facts you didn't know about Disney…
- Princess Aurora is Disney's most silent princess, with just 18 lines in Sleeping Beauty.
- Frozen's director Chris Buck has confirmed that Tarzan is actually the younger brother of Queen Elsa and Princess Anna. After their parents' ship sinks in the ocean, they end up marooned on an island.
- The Muses in Hercules were originally intended to the voiced by the Spice Girls!
- Snow White's Evil Queen actually had a name: Grimhilde
- Ariel, Merida and Anna and Elsa are the only Disney princesses to have siblings
READ: 50 films every child should see – how many have you watched? Take the quiz!
- Each line of Beauty and the Beast's title song has only five syllables – go ahead, try to sing it!
- Walt Disney has won the most Academy Awards of all time with a whopping 22 statuettes.
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon worked on the first Toy Story, and created Rex the Dinosaur!
- Robin Hood used recycled animation from films including The Aristocats, Snow White and The Jungle Book, which is why all the dancing looks so similar!
- Around 50 children were diagnosed with salmonella after kissing frogs following the release of The Princess and the Frog
- Princess Anna was the first Disney princess to duet with a villain (Prince Hans)!
- The voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch also was the terrifying little girl, Samara, to come out of television sets in The Ring.
- The voice actors of Minnie and Mickey Mouse were actually married in real life!
- Christian Bale voiced Thomas in Pocahontas
- The Lion King wasn't expected to be a hit, with many animators opting to work on Pocahontas instead
- The characters in Frozen – Hans, Kristoff, Anna and Sven - are named after the famous storyteller and author of the Ice Queen, Hans Christian Anderson
- The 1961 animation 101 Dalmatians featured an incredible 6,469,952 spots! Whenever they were on screen, Pongo had 72, Perdita had 68 and each of the 99 puppies had 32 each.
- Pocahontas is the only Disney princess to have a tattoo
- Tangled and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End are Disney's most expensive films ever made
- Lilo & Stitch has more Elvis Presley songs than the singer ever did in his own films
WATCH: Four-year-old girl steals the show with dramatic 'Moana' performance
So which fact surprised you the most? Was it how the two films Tarzan and Frozen were linked, despite being made several years apart from each other? Was it just how many spots are on view in 101 Dalmations? Or was it the girls who wanted to find their Prince Charming by kissing a few frogs and instead had to go to hospital? Leave your comments below!
