In animated film terms, the 1990s are often referred to as the "Disney Renaissance"—and for good reason. During this decade, Disney produced and released some of its most popular movies of all time, either alone or in collaboration with Pixar. Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Pocahontas, Mulan... All movies that we 90s kids grew up with! Their continued popularity is made clear not only by the fact that people still watch the originals but by the fact that Disney is currently making live-action versions of all of these movies. Anyone else excited for the live-action Aladdin coming out next year?
Of course, even the most popular of 90s Disney movies aren't immune to criticism. You could write multiple books about all of the inaccuracies and offensive moments in Pocahontas, and Beauty and the Beast's Stockholm Syndrome vibes have been well-documented too. These are just the major qualms about these films, of course: if you can look past the allegedly unhealthy relationships and racism, you'll find lots of small errors that are more to do with the films' production than with their subject matter. Animators aren't perfect people by any means—they make mistakes just like the rest of us. However, you'd think that a company as huge as Disney would take the time to do some quality control on their products!
Clearly, though, lots of issues with 90s Disney films managed to slip through the cracks during the editing process. From plot holes to lazy animating, we've highlighted just some of the ridiculous mistakes in your favourite Disney flicks.
25 The Beast's Portrait
The gaffe surrounding the Beast's human portrait in the animated Beauty and the Beast is infamous amongst Disney fans and critics alike. In the prologue of the movie, we're told that the Beast is aged 21 and has been cursed for around a decade. That would mean that the young prince was around 11 years old when he was transformed into a Beast. However, while exploring the Beast's castle, Belle finds a portrait of the Prince in his human form—and he definitely looks like an adult. That portrait shouldn't exist yet!
24 The Time-Travelling Flag
Now, this is by no means the worst thing wrong with Pocahontas historically... But we're going to include it anyway! When Governor Ratcliffe arrives in America, he plants a Union Flag in the land he now claims is his. The flag was adopted in 1606, and the movie is set in 1607.
So far, so accurate.
However, the flag that Ratcliffe uses includes an extra red cross representing Ireland, which wasn't actually added to the design until 1801. You were so close, Disney... So close.
23 Simba And Nala's Eyes
Consistency is key when it comes to character designs in movies—and it's also something that Disney totally failed at in The Lion King. Both Simba and Nala apparently have magical eyes that change colour throughout the movie. Sometimes Nala's eyes are green; sometimes they're blue. The whites of Simba's eyes are sometimes, well, white. Sometimes they're yellow. You could argue that these colour changes occur due to different lighting in different scenes... Or, you could say that the animators forgot to keep track of eye colour. Probably the latter.
22 Mulan's Firefighting
All of the clumsy Disney fans out there can relate to the matchmaker scene in Mulan. The titular character wreaks havoc thanks to her bumbling ways.
Mulan even manages to set the hapless matchmaker's rear end on fire.
She does at least put the flames out by throwing some tea all over the older woman. However, the fact that the fire goes out doesn't make much sense. The tea only hits the matchmaker's face, not her rear, yet the flames are still extinguished. That's not how fire-fighting works!
21 Jasmine's Misheard Dialogue
This isn't exactly a mistake on Disney's part. Instead, it's the fans of Disney's Aladdin who made an error while watching one of the movie's most famous sequences! While he's trying to woo Princess Jasmine, Aladdin takes a Magic Carpet Ride up to her room. The Princess' faithful tiger, Rajah, is keeping her company at the time. When Jasmine decides that she wants to join Aladdin on the carpet, she turns to Rajah and says "good kitty, take off and go." However, some viewers were convinced she said something else to teenagers...
20 Words In The Sky
In general, The Lion King is a very family-friendly movie. However, one scene in the original cut of the film caused a bit of a stir amongst eagle-eyed parents. While Simba is wondering whether to go back to Pride Rock, he flumps down on the ground, causing dust to fly into the air. The movie's sound effects team decided to leave their mark in this scene and asked the animators to write "SFX" in the dust. However, lots of viewers thought that this message spelt out a different word. You can guess which one.
19 Pocahontas' Magical Hair
Pocahontas' hair is well-known for being absolute hair goals. The way it whips around in the wind is totally majestic. However, have you ever noticed that it continues to whip around even when there's seemingly no wind? Pocahontas' locks can be flying all over the place while everyone else's hair remains completely still. There's no sign of wind in the trees, and Meeko the racoon is unaffected by these impressive gusts. Pocahontas' hair seems to occupy its own weather system. Seems legit.
18 The Baby Monitor Mix-Up
The beginning of Toy Story is pretty iconic. We're introduced to a whole bunch of living toys, who are carrying out a reconnaissance mission to find out what their owner has got for his birthday. They use a baby monitor to communicate with each other throughout the mission.
However, there's a major flaw in their plan.
The end of the baby monitor that the toy soldiers are carrying is only a speaker. It has no microphone! In reality, the soldiers shouldn't have been able to pass messages back to the other toys. Oops.
17 Flik's Confusing Plan
Speaking of plans that don't quite work: Flik's plan to defeat the grasshoppers in A Bug's Life! The ants decide to build a model bird to scare Hopper, the leader of the grasshoppers. They make a template out of leaves which they then hold up against the sun to create a bird-shaped shadow. As the ants move the template closer to the sun, the shadow gets much bigger. However, this isn't how shadows work, especially when you only move an object a few inches towards its light source. The shadow shouldn't really have changed sizes at all.
16 Buzz's Utility Belt
In Toy Story 2, we were all introduced to an alternate Buzz Lightyear. Unlike the Buzz we know and love, this toy still believes that he's an actual spaceman. Visually, the two toys are almost identical, aside from one thing: the utility belt that the new Buzz wears. You'd think that the animators would make sure to keep New Buzz's belt on him at all times to make sure we can tell the two characters apart... But apparently, that slipped their mind during the air vents scene! The belt disappears and then reappears a frame later. Not great!
15 Tarzan's Name-Dropping
When Jane and her father first come across Tarzan in the movie of the same name, they're both shocked and excited. Finding a random man in the middle of an otherwise human-free jungle is quite a remarkable discovery! The Porters discuss the people that they need to tell about what they've found, specifically naming Rudyard Kipling and Charles Darwin. However, Kipling was still a teenager when Darwin was alive and hadn't yet found fame with The Jungle Book. So, why would the Porters want to tell some random kid about Tarzan? They wouldn't—this is clearly a mistake.
14 The Toys' Missing Reflections
Either Rex and Hamm are vampire toys with no reflection, or the animators of Toy Story 2 made a bit of a goof. In one scene in this classic movie, these two toys spend time watching some TV. However, when the TV is switched off, neither Rex or Hamm have a reflection. Neither does the TV remote, actually!
Clearly, the animators forgot how reflective materials worked.
Well, either that, or Andy's toys actually are all supernatural creatures as well as secretly alive. That would be a plot twist and a half!
13 Pocahontas' Shadow
Apparently, Disney doesn't just have an issue with animating reflections. It struggles a bit with shadows, too! Check out this bizarre moment from Pocahontas. The title character and her friend Nakoma are strolling along hand-in-hand. However, if you take a look at their shadows, their hands are at their sides. Spooky! Either these shadows have a mind of their own, or the animators made a goof. Yeah... it's the latter. So many mistakes that really shouldn't have got past the editing stage!
12 Mulan's Self-Sheathing Sword
As 90s Disney movies go, Mulan is fairly mistake-free. However, there are a couple of moments that clearly shouldn't have made it past quality control.
Take Mulan's self-sheathing sword, for example.
When Mulan is fighting the Huns in the mountains, there's a great shot of her riding through the battlefield brandishing her sword. Her scabbard is safely strapped to her side. A split second later, though, her she's still clutching her sword but it has its scabbard on. There's no reason for Mulan to have deliberately done this, so it must be an animation mistake!
11 Rafiki's Color-Changing Paint
Rafiki may be one awesome mandrill, but even he doesn't have the power to make paint change colour. Or does he? A mistake from the beginning of The Lion King calls this into question! When Rafiki is painting a picture of baby Simba, his paint totally changes colour between the time it's in the pot and on the tree. It's so noticeable that the movie's producers actually mentioned the mistake in the commentary for the film. The animators had one job!
10 Jasmine's Moving Bracelet
Sometimes, even Disney animators get confused between "left" and "right". A clear example of this is a scene in Aladdin featuring an inexplicably moving piece of jewellery. While Jasmine is under the control of Jafar, she wears a bracelet on her right arm.
Or is it her left arm?
Actually, it switches from one arm to the other mid-scene, before promptly switching back again. This could have been Jafar's magic making the bracelet move, or it could just be another mistake. In fact, it's definitely just a mistake.
9 Timon's Missing Lei
In a slightly bizarre but also totally hilarious scene from The Lion King, Timon the meerkat performs a luau to distract a pack of hyenas. While he sings about just how tasty his pal Pumbaa would be to eat, Simba and Nala manage to sneak into Pride Rock. Since this sequence is incredibly entertaining, it's easy to miss the huge mistake right at its beginning. Timon's lei momentarily disappears and then reappears a second later. It's like the makers of the movie forgot to animate the lei for just one frame. How strange!
8 The Muses' Clothing
The sassy Muses are one of the best things about Disney's Hercules. These musical narrators pop up frequently throughout the film, singing famous songs like "Zero to Hero" and "The Gospel Truth". They all wear light-pink dresses in a range of different styles. One of these outfits was the source of some controversy when the movie was released. One Muse's dress has a slit that's so big, it exposes her underwear. At least, it would... If she had any on. Yep. A lot of angry parents complained about the Muse that went like this. We're assuming this was an animation mistake...
7 The Lion King's Poster
The original poster for The Lion King is pretty iconic—although perhaps not for the reasons Disney intended. A lot of weird-minded people out there pointed out that Disney made a terrible mistake when it came to the poster's design. The top half of the poster shows the shadow of a lion's face.
At least, that's what it should show.
Lots of people have claimed that it actually looks like something else from the back. Honestly, they've got a point. How did this actually get published? Unless it was deliberate on Disney's part... Conspiracy theory time!
6 John Smith's Magical Rope
In one of the early scenes of Pocahontas, Captain John Smith saves the life of a sailor who's gone overboard. During this heroic event, Smith uses a rope that seems to magically change length. I mean, it's a good thing in a way—the rope becomes long enough to save young Thomas. However, when the two men are back on board their boat, the rope is pretty short. Like, it could barely hold John Smith, let alone Thomas too. Consistency is key, Disney!