Ask anyone, or yourself for that matter, what cartoons make up their childhood and more than ninety-nine percent of the answers will be Disney. The worldwide conglomerate is just too huge and powerful not to have had some level of impact in your life and that’s not going to change anytime soon for the next generation either. Disney films have a certain formula that they always use; this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We’re all taken by certain tropes in films that are guaranteed to work each and every time without fail. That’s just the way the human mind is satisfied and Disney makes full use of this secret.
Over time, Disney has evolved in certain ways that have changed their films and shows. Where once traditionally drawn cartoons were the norm, now we have 3D animated films. Once, there was a dominance of female-led films while in more recent times it has become more even. In this way, Disney has maintained its lead in the entertainment market.
Mickey Mouse is a character that will remain unflinchingly ahead of every other mascot purely because he’s been used at the right times by Disney. Nowadays, his role is mainly to be the poster boy of Disney works while his earlier cartoon shorts and films remain popular.
We are well aware of the flaws in Disney’s design but these flaws are always overlooked because addressing them ruins the esteem with which our memories are held. Still, it doesn’t hurt to dive into these things on occasions.
Here are 25 Things Wrong With Disney Cartoons We All Choose To Ignore.
25 Villains Always Fall Into An Abyss
Ever want to dispose of a Disney villain? Your best bet would be to push them off a cliff, or fight them at the edge of any environment where there might be a chasm or large opening below. That seems to be the favored method of going out for Disney villains and we’ve seen this time and again.
The Little Mermaid, Tarzan, The Lion King, Hercules, and a lot of others have employed this tactic to write off the villain. Of course, you can’t have the villains gruesomely perish, but perhaps think of another way, Disney?
24 Putting The Villain On The Poster
You want to stamp in a character as the unquestionable villain of a movie, what do you do? You have that character looming in the background with either a wicked grin or with a mysterious shadow and intimidating eyes.
This trope survives strongly to this day.
As recently as Incredibles 2, we had this poster template used by Disney. It was remarkably apparent in earlier works like The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Aladdin, among others. Because nothing tells kids who the bad guy is like a sketchy looking person with a different demeanor on the poster.
23 The Direct-To-Video Sequels Stink
After about three to four decades, Disney decided it was ample time to begin doling out sequels to everyone’s favorite films. They started with classics like Lady and the Tramp, Peter Pan, and Bambi. A few years later, more recent films like The Lion King, Tarzan, The Little Mermaid, and Aladdin got direct-to-video sequels too. One thing was common in all these films: They all stunk.
Every film has received mixed-to-negative reviews, and the people who have watched these movies will agree. It reached its limit with Mulan II, which has a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
22 The Pixar Sequels Aren’t As Good As Originals
Pixar shied away from sequels or prequels to its movies (other than for Toy Story) citing a favoritism toward delivering original stories. This all changed when the studio saw all the sweet sweet cash they were raking in from franchise media and began throwing one sequel after another toward us.
For the most part, these have been good, but nowhere near as good as the originals. Monsters University, Incredibles 2, and Finding Dory all lack the punch their originals made due to the characters not being fresh and the story only existing because Disney wanted more movies.
21 Why Did Ariel Fall In Love With Eric?
From what we saw in the prequel series, Ariel was a very headstrong, rational person who wasn’t emotionally motivated to make decisions. Then why did she throw all this out the underwater window when she saw Eric? She fell in love with the Prince upon first sight, but what was so enticing about this young man?
Eric looked pretty much the same as every other man in Ariel’s kingdom (only with a shirt on), and there was nothing distinguishable about him other than that. Maybe the real answer is because the plot called for it.
20 The Cars Series Stinks
The time it became evident that box office grosses weren’t as important as merchandise sales, Pixar films’ quality started waning. Disney cashes in big on sales of Cars merchandise and turns a blind eye toward the humdrum films.
Cars 2 is a blot on Pixar’s legacy.
It will forever remain as the first (and as of yet only) negatively-received movie in the studio’s history. Cars was just a filler-type film while Cars 3 was barely better than Cars 2. The black sheep tag is firmly placed on this series, but it makes the big bucks so who’s complaining?
19 Ariel Feasting On Her Own
Love makes you blind, love makes you crazy – Love also makes you okay with munching down members around your own species. This is what it seemed like with Ariel in The Little Mermaid when she was perfectly fine with dining alongside Prince Eric. What was on the menu that day? Seafood!
Not only that, but Eric’s plate even had a serving of lobster, a kind of species whose member was Ariel’s best friend! Just looking at the serving should have raised red flags for Ariel. But maybe she was too head over heels to be in her senses.
18 House of Villains' False Marketing
Let’s do a recap of House of Mouse. It’s a Dinner Club for all the cartoons that Disney has produced previously, headed by Mickey Mouse. This means even villains were invited and welcome. However, these villains turned on Mickey and friends in House of Villains by throwing them out. Quite an interesting premise, right?
Except there was hardly any of this in the film! Instead, Mickey spent most of the time showing a bunch of cartoon shorts of himself and his friends while the villains sipped in their drinks. The film had barely to any face-off’s as teased in the marketing.
17 Why Isn't Tarzan More Like The Apes?
Tarzan spent his entire life living it up with the apes until Jane and her father showed up. Before he was educated by the humans, Tarzan only knew the way of the apes he was taught. He displayed those kinds of mannerisms and swung around on vines, climbed tress, the whole shebang. Then who taught this guy he needed to cover himself up?
The apes didn’t wear any type of clothing and never taught Tarzan to do the same. So was he naturally a modest person? Tarzan also seems much cleaner than the apes, does he use soap to shower?
16 The Hercules Contradiction
Although the prequel TV shows were way better than the Direct-to-Video films, Disney TV shows still made no sense continuity wise. For instance, Hercules showed us the scrawny Herc taking off on Pegasus and enduring years of training to become the man he would be later.
The prequel series showed these adventures but contradicted the film in a big way by having Hercules interact several times directly with Hades. The whole point of the film had been Hades trying to take Hercules out and not knowing he was alive, yet in the TV series, he’s well aware of this fact.
15 The Children Of Original Protagonists Have The Same Problems
It doesn’t matter if you’re a dog or a half-mermaid or a child in World War II England; you’ll always have the same problem of not fitting in. Lady and the Tramp II, Little Mermaid 2, Return to Neverland, The Lion King II, and more, feature the children of earlier main characters and they are all insufferably annoying.
Every kid has the same detachment and are the polar opposites of their parents. Disney’s intention is to offer a different perspective, but this only makes the kid character come across as obnoxious.
14 All Direct-To-Videos Have The Same Concept
Not only are the children the same in personality, their journeys are identical too. Their stories involve them going on the run from home in an attempt to find their true self. It always ends the same way too with kids now having a new appreciation for their parents.
After the first couple films, it becomes obvious Disney isn’t even trying here.
The other concept they use are the prequels where nothing of note ever happens a la Tarzan 2, The Fox and the Hound II, and Bambi II. So if you don’t like the kids, watch their parents as kids.
13 Everyone Falls In Love Quickly
“Hey, we just met but you’re a boy and I’m a girl and we’re moderately to extremely good looking, so let’s fall in love.” This basically sums up the premise of almost all the Disney films. It doesn’t take more than a couple of hours for characters to fall for each other completely and disregard their families.
Ariel stops caring about her loving father; Rapunzel’s mother, while having kept her locked up, still raised her lovingly. These two and more Disney characters don’t take a second thought before diving in headfirst for love.
12 Why Is Donald Embarrassed?
The age-old question pops up once more: why is Donald Duck embarrassed to be seen without clothing below the waist? When Donald leaves the bathroom, he gets very modest about the lower region as he wears a towel there.
Then why doesn’t he go out and buy some shorts if he’s so shy? Donald’s usual clothes only comprise of covering his top portion. By that logic, shouldn’t the towel be covering that area when he exits the bathroom? Then again, this is a guy who doesn’t mind eating birds when he is one himself.
11 All Villains Are Clearly Sinister
Even in real-life, you can never be too sure who you can trust, or if a person are what they seem to be. In the Disney world, characters have the same conundrums, except the bad guys are hilariously obvious for being dastardly.
Seriously, why wouldn’t you think someone called Scar or Cruella De Ville is bad?
Not only do these people sound sinister, everything about them screams it. Jafar has a devious face coupled with a magical staff, Cruella is openly antagonistic, Hades is the devil himself! The list goes on, yet our heroes always seem to trust these characters.
10 Mickey And Minnie Are The Same
The romance of Mickey and Minnie could very well be perceived as two people who are so vain they fall for someone who looks exactly like them. The design for Minnie Mouse definitely must not have taken much time seeing that she is Mickey only with a dress and longer eyebrows (or any eyebrows at that).
They’re both mice, but that doesn’t mean they should look the same.
That’s like humans all having the same face except with a feature or two altered. Let’s hope no one points this out to the couple and ruin their relationship for good.
9 What's With Tarzan's Accent?
After he was taught English by Jane and her father, Tarzan picked it up remarkably fast. It was so fast that he crossed England entirely and settled for an American accent instead! Clayton hardly spoke to Tarzan but even he wasn’t American. Then how did Tarzan come to speak like that?
For that matter, why do all the apes and other animals sound American too?
This is as much a headscratcher as how the Elephants knew about Piranha despite never having any fish of the kind there. Maybe Jane lent Tarzan a DVD of an old American classic?
8 Aren't They Both Dogs?
What exactly is happening in the picture above? That’s right, Goofy’s taking out someone else’s dog for a walk without permission. No? Oh yeah, it’s actually a dog taking another dog out for a stroll! Because of some weird logic, it is socially acceptable in Mickey’s world to be best friends with a dog while owning another dog as your pet.
Pluto and Goofy even look eerily similar. Give Pluto some clothes and stand him up on his hind legs and you would think he was Goofy’s long lost cousin or something.
7 Why Did Mulan's Father Have To Enlist?
Every male in the household had to enlist in the army when the antagonists’ forces were almost on their way to Emperor in Mulan. This meant that Mulan’s frail old father had to do the same and quite possibly lose his life. Mulan instead took his place and assumed his identity.
But then she got kicked out pretty soon, making it all redundant.
If being a terrible soldier was excuse enough not to be in the army then shouldn’t Mulan’s father have been disqualified from the start? The guy could barely even stand up let alone fight in the war.
6 How Did Everyone Know Of Beast’s Castle?
When Belle was taken prisoner by the Beast and locked up, her father raced over to the village in an attempt to convince anyone to return to the castle and free her. The problem was that no one was willing to believe the poor old man and he was considered a liar for even bringing up stories of a beast in a castle.
However, later on, when everyone suddenly began believing in the beast, everyone marched over to the castle to take the Beast out. If it was so easy to find his location, then why didn’t anyone believe Belle’s father in the first place?