There is another thing in Aladin… Abu the monkey, says “Oh shit” in the lava scene in the Cave of Wonders just before the lava bubble Abu is standing on pops, he says it, high pitched between chatterings.
Welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards, Jis, we’re glad to have you here.
When you start a topic, please be sure to provide a link to the Staff Report or Cecil column that you’re commenting on… helps to keep everyone on the same page, avoid duplicate comments, etc.
In this case, I presume:Do Disney movies contain subliminal erotica?
I find it hard to believe the monkey actually says anything as direct as “Oh, shit.” Seems very unlikely there would be something that overt in a G-movie.
I’d just like to say to Euty, that your column was truly definitive. It’s a pleasure to read something so well-researched.
In the interests of the Fight Against Ignorance, we popped our tape of Aladdin in, during the “top of the hour” commercial break between Zeta and Pokemon, fast-forwarded it to about 35 minutes into the show, and the verdict is, yes, it does sound kind of like the monkey is saying, “Oh, shit”, but only if you’re listening for it, and only if you stretch your definition of what “oh, shit” ought to sound like.
We fast-forwarded it to the scene where they’re in the Cave of Wonders with lava bubbling all around (Aladdin rescued by the swooping flying carpet, etc.), listening carefully for syllables that could be “oh, shit”. When we got to the part where the monkey is standing on a series of round stepping stones through the lava (if that’s the part that the OP is referring to), La Principessa immediately blurted out, “There! That was it!” and we all said, “What? Where?” And she grabbed the remote, rewound it frantically, and said, “There…”
Well, yeah, kind of. There’s a hissing noise and a sort-of terminal consonant on the sound track just before the monkey leaps off the stepping stone onto the flying carpet, but Bonzo maintains that the monkey is saying, “EEE!” with a long “ee” sound, rather than “shit” with a short “ih” sound.
Me, I’m about halfway. There’s so much hissing noise on the sound track anyway (the lava, I guess) that there were several places where I thought you could fill in the words “oh shit” in the monkey’s dialogue, if you wanted to.
[hijack]
On Snopes, is anybody else having trouble accessing the pix of the “Little Mermaid” phallus poster that used to be there, or did they remove them from the site?
Now, DDG, you know that links to sites that have pictures of phalluses are not permitted on the Straight Dope Message Boards…
::: ducking :::
Jis,
a suspicious mind would wonder whether this was a “setup” question. (I’m not sure what an un-suspicious mind would do, in that I don’t have one.)
Disney was renowned for his opposition to using sex to sell anything. He ruled his studio with an iron hand while he was alive, and it didn’t change much from his ideal thereafter. So I’ve heard.
Disney used to watch every movie that was to be released by the studio. If he didn’t like something, it would be changed. One day the boys decided to slip one single frame of “porn” in. As a joke. Now, that would have passed by his eyes in a fraction of a second. He saw it, quite proving his point that he wouldn’t put up with any nonsense.
I can’t imagine a major studio willing to endanger their reputation by slipping a frame of something suspect into a film. Especially now that it’s easy to look at a movie frame-by-frame.
The only hidden messages in Disney movies are likely to be insinuating whispers regarding entrancing mouse ears on a hypertropic rodent.
Partly, you might take a look at the link to the Staff Report for elucidation…Do Disney movies contain subliminal erotica?
Yah, I read the article. Quite some time ago, I think. Who knows…
Anyhoo, it’s not surprising that free-wheeling artist types would try to sneak a few “goodies” into publically distributed films, but…
Walt Disney didn’t approve. His studio thereafter, well, I don’t know.
But I’m realizing we’re straying from the original question (that’s never happened to me before;) ), which was “is there subliminal erotica”?
“Subliminal” to me carries the connotation that somebody intended to place an image in someone’s mind without them being aware of it. For example “Go to the lobby and get the free popcorn.” Putting a chainsaw that says “Rigid Tools” into Roger Rabbit is sneaky, but not subliminal. Particularly since a person would have to consciously read the words to understand what was intended.
Painting the sky in The Lion King with “S-E-X” would qualify for subliminal, but only if the artists did it on purpose.
Finally, if the point of sexy clouds is to pull a little joke on the audience, it’s more of a joke, than a message meant to undermine the defenses of the Noble American.
Whatever.
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