Everybody loves Disney. After all, those warm fuzzy feelings one gets when the hero finds love and saves the world, almost makes it worth paying 20 dollars for a DVD. However, the best Disney moments aren’t the picture perfect ones that occur onscreen, but the scandals which occur behind the scenes.

The Top 7 Disney Moments:

1. In the Little Mermaid, a young mermaid princess wants to trade her fins and her life in a sea castle for legs and a castle above water. Perhaps the real reason she wanted to become human and marry Prince Eric, isn’t because she fell in love, but because she wanted to live in a castle that did not have a tower shaped like a penis. Disney has been accused of making one of the towers in the Little Mermaid look like a phallic object. According to rumor, the castle drawing was done by a disgruntled employee. However, Disney claimed that it occurred on accident because the animators were in a rush. Perhaps the penis is a symbol of the activity that goes on in the castle. After all, the king does have 7 daughters.

2. In a different scene of the Little Mermaid, the clergy man allegedly has an erection. Disney claimed that the bulge is actually the short man’s knee, and the misconception is completely accidental. Perhaps Disney should hire different animators, ones that can draw better, or at least ones that can handle working for a movie that features a half-naked mermaid. Whether the misconception was on accident or not, one must wonder who was the person who paid such close attention to the priest’s knees.

3. Aladdin is also not immune to sexual scandals. In the scene where Aladdin is attacked by the tiger, he tells him, “Good kitty, take off and go.” However, Disney has been accused that Aladdin actually said, “Good teenagers take off their clothes.” Supposedly this was said to convince teenagers to act promiscuous. Although Disney denied these allegations, they did change the lines to say “Down kitty.” Guilty or not, one wonders why Disney would even have subliminal messages of promiscuity. Perhaps Disney hopes that teenage promiscuity would lead to more children, and that would lead to more customers. Now that would be a unique marketing plan.

4. Disney is not only involved in sexual scandals; they are also involved in racial ones. In the opening scene of Aladdin, the song lyrics are, “Where they cut off your ear if they don’t like your face, its barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” The American Arab Anti Discrimination Society felt that this song sent a message that the Middle East is violent. To prove that they love all races equally, Disney changed the lyrics to, “Where it’s flat and immense and the heat is intense, it’s barbaric, but hey, it’s home.” The moral of the story: Only nature is allowed to be barbaric!

5. Like all media giants, Disney has been accused of plagiarism. Allegedly, The Lion King plagiarized its story not from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but from an anime called Kimba the White Lion. The animation of these two cartoons is so similar, that one of the people who worked on the Lion King, thought he was working on a remake of Kimba. The creators of Kimba decided not to sue, not because they felt they weren’t plagiarized, but because Disney could afford better lawyers, and the people with the best lawyers always win. Just ask O.J. Simpson.

6. Perhaps the weirdest Disney scandal, was the fact that hyena biologists had an issue with the way the hyenas were portrayed in The Lion King. One started a boycott against lion king (as a way to help preserve the hyenas in the wild), and another sued Disney for the defamation of character of the hyena. Just because it’s not human, does not mean Disney can ridicule it! Personally, after watching hyenas on National Geographic, I think Disney was too kind in their portrayal of this animal.

7. It wouldn’t truly be a list of best Disney moments, if it didn’t end in yet another sex scandal. In The Lion King, when Simba flops down and dust flies into the sky, supposedly the word SEX is spelled out. Disney is once again accused of sending subliminal promiscuity messages. Disney defended itself by saying that the letters were actually SFX, an abbreviation for special effects, which the animators intended to be a signature. Either Disney really is using sex as a secret marketing plan, or the world is filled with people who see sex in everything. I wonder what Freud would say about this?

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One might wonder why the best Disney moments are the embarrassing scandals and not the family friendly story lines. Although the family friendly story lines are fun to watch, they are too perfect for a person to relate too. However, when a company that thrives to be perfect is accused of ugly deeds, that is symbolic of life. What are your favorite Disney moments, either on-screen or off?