Since time immemorial, the internet has been awash with suggestive rumours about the supposedly murky underbelly of the world’s most famous animation house. These rumours would have it that Uncle Walt was running a debauched house of lurid and lewd behaviour, populated with clandestine perverts with the subliminal objective of hiding inappropriate, sexual images in Disney films. And if you take the time to look at his works, there is some evidence that those rumours might well be true.
There was almost certainly a tradition of Disney creatives sneaking things into productions, perhaps as a contemptuous response to Disney’s insistence on sole creative credit, but none of that actually made it into films and cartoons, and no-one really seemed to care until Disney bought Miramax and Christian groups started to object to their alignment with more adult materials.
Since it’s a firm favourite internet activity, we’ve been looking hard enough and we’re celebrating the ten greatest examples of supposedly raunchy imagery hidden in Disney animations.
1. Baby Herman’s Rogue Finger
Given the consciously adult material of Roger Rabbit, and the very much intended jarring effect of the juxtaposition of that material and the traditionally “childish” medium, it’s not altogether that shocking to discover that the Bob Hoskins starring noir-pastiche had a bit of a grubby collar.
Rumour has it the Best of Roger Rabbit laserdisc was hastily pulled off shelves when Disney realised the fleeting in-jokes and adult references that Spielberg apparently encouraged and that wouldn’t have been visible on VHS could be discovered with far greater ease thanks to the advances of technology.
Those references – as well as Donald Duck’s alleged use of the N word towards Daffy Duck – are nothing compared with this Baby Herman rumour, which suggests that the foul-mouthed little wretch indulges in a little adult activity when he invades the skirt of his “nanny.” Walking under the skirt, Herman can be seen extending a single finger, before emerging looking excited, as in the image below. Dirty boy.
The Explanation
There’s never been an official explanation, though the images seem to speak for themselves, especially in the general context of the rest of the film’s history.
The finger was edited out of the DVD release of the film, somewhat unsurprisingly, as you can see below – the first image is the new cut, and the second is the original…
We are currently seeking Film contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Film contributor, click here.
6 Comments
I was just talking to some people at work about these things the other day.
It all started when I was listening to the Disney Radio station on Pandora, and “Reflection” from Mulan came on and I realized that she was totally transgender. When I looked it up online to see if anyone else had come to that conclusion (of course they had), I stumbled across another hypothesis that Shang from the same film is gay.
Kinky Disney
Haha! Didn’t realise there were so many subliminal messages in Disney’s classics… I don’t think I can look at my childhood favourites in the same way again…
I’ve always heard what Donald said as either “Says who?” or “Says you!”.
The fact that the spring retorts with “Says I” pretty much cinches it.
What’s with you and “filthy perverts” ? You act as if people who enjoy some raunchy humor or mistakenly see dirty things where they aren’t are the scum of the Earth. Did they kill your parents or something ? Have you become a dark knight, avenging their deaths by beating down the pervs of Gotham ? Maybe you’ll take it down a notch with your incessant dehumanization of perfectly normal adults ?
I remember some friends and I getting the Disney VHS tapes out to see if we could find the hidden dirty stuff back when we were young. Good times.