Cartoon Urban Legends

There are two penis related urban legends surrounding The Little Mermaid. Both have been easily disproved, but why let something get in the way of a good story?

The first rumor involves the film's poster artwork, which features the main characters in front of an underwater palace with many pillars and spires. One spire in particular looks almost exactly like a penis, supposedly drawn by an angry Disney worker. Unfortunately, the man who drew it didn't even work directly for Disney and has admitted that the spire's penile resemblance was mere coincidence. Still, the offending spire was later removed.

Within the film itself, however, lay a much juicier urban legend. Supposedly when Ursula and Prince Eric are to be married, the minister marrying them gets an erection plainly seen by all. It turns out that this is a mere trick of the eye. What looks like an erection is just the minister's protruding knees, which is consistent with other shots of the character's lower half.

It's a bit difficult to believe, but in 1946 Disney made an instructional film about menstruation for girls to watch in school. It was called "The Story of Menstruation" and was produced in partnership with Kotex, so it's also kind of a commercial. Thanks to the magic of YouTube, it can now be seen in its entirety, but before the Internet age the film was a difficult to verify urban legend, likely spread among animation buffs more than children. It's also notable for supposedly being the first film to ever say the word "vagina."

There's a much talked about moment in Aladdin where Aladdin supposedly whispers "Good teenagers, take off your clothes," while Jasmine's tiger is trying to eat him. As with many of these urban legends, you can hear or not hear the secret message depending on what you wish to hear or not hear. The film's subtitle track has him saying, "Good kitty, take off," which seems innocent enough. We personally only hear a whispered sort of mumbling, so don't ask us.

This cartoon urban legend has been proven false, but it's a lot of fun anyway. The story goes that politicians in Finland banned Donald Duck in their country because he didn't wear pants. The truth is that Finnish politicians simply replaced his comics with sports magazines for awhile for purely economical reasons. The proof is in the pudding. Soon after this was supposed to have happened, Donald Duck was all over Finnish televisions.

There is also, however, the persistent claim that Donald Duck often swears and even makes racial slurs through his indecipherable quacking lisp. Since it's nearly impossible to tell what Donald is saying half the time, this is another one that could be true only if you really really want it to be true.