13 Movie Hoaxes That Completely Fooled Everyone

12. The Word "Sex" Is Spelled Out In The Lion King

The Lion King Sex
Disney

Shortly after Disney's iconic The Lion King hit VHS in 1995, many viewers began to notice a visual peculiarity in the sequence where adult Simba (Matthew Broderick) collapses on a rock while some dust shoots into the sky.

Concerned parents complained that the dust spelled out the word "sex", causing family values do-gooders to blame Disney for inserting an inappropriate message into a movie aimed at children.

As it turned out, one of the film’s animators, Tom Sito, eventually confirmed that though the dust does indeed spell out a word, the word is in fact "SFX", serving as a tribute to the movie's special effects team.

On one hand it's easy to see how the letter F could be mistaken for an E - hence why the claim continues to be so widely believed - but even then, did these "activists" really not have anything better to do?

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.