# disneys recalled little mermaid vhs **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 5, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885 "2005-04-05T19:14:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rcrmnamkjjkrwr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rcrmnamkjjkrwr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rcrmnamkjjkrwr)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/1 "2005-04-05T19:14:37Z")
I was wondering if anyone could tell me if disneys banned and recalled version of the little mermaid cover and video has any value and where it could be sold. Thanks ---
**Author:** ![odaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e0b2c6/32.png) [@odaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odaran)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/2 "2005-04-05T19:18:56Z")
> [@rcrmnamkjjkrwr](#): > > I was wondering if anyone could tell me if disneys banned and recalled version of the little mermaid cover and video has any value and where it could be sold. > Thanks Ok, I am not a Disney Authority, but from what I remember(and my sister had a copy of the recalled cover), one of the towers on the casle looked like a phallic symbol. I thought that it did look like what they said it was. I am sure if you google, you can find pics of the recalled cover. As to value, I would say check out e-bay. Remember something is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/3 "2005-04-05T19:24:41Z")
[Snopes](http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/mermaid.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Morbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morbo/32/389_2.png) [@Morbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morbo)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/4 "2005-04-05T19:25:17Z")
The only different cover is on later released Laserdisc versions - all other VHS copies retain it, as do all promotional posters and artwork prior to it - the VHS version was not the first version to have the alleged “phallus.” Disney never “banned” anything - it was one store that removed the videos after a customer complaint, then returned them all 24 hours later: > [@Snopes](#): > > The alleged “phallic symbol” in The Little Mermaid’s artwork went undetected by the general public for about a year while the film was in the theatrical release. Shortly after Entertainment Weekly ran a story about the offending artwork in mid-1990, the rumor became widespread when Michelle Couch of Mesa, Arizona, complained to Disney and a Phoenix supermarket chain (Bashas’) about the phallus on the cover of The Little Mermaid. Bashas’ pulled the videos from their shelves (but returned them less than 24 hours later), and the story of the “penis” cover was soon widely disseminated by the media. Read all about it and see the pictures [here](http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/mermaid.htm). If someone is selling the “phallus video cover” on eBay it’s worthless, as they all have it. The only thing that _might_ be valuable would be the altered Laserdisc version. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/5 "2005-04-05T20:38:25Z")
“The pellet from the palace with the phallus is blue so you’ll screw” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![odaran](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e0b2c6/32.png) [@odaran](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/odaran)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/6 "2005-04-05T20:47:28Z")
Also from Snopes: “The plain truth is that the **resemblance between the castle spire and a penis was purely accidental,** and it was drawn by an artist who was neither disgruntled nor about to be dismissed.” “Rushed to complete the video artwork (featuring towers that were rather phallic to begin with), the artist hurried through the background detail (at “about four in the morning”) and\*\* inadvertently drew one spire that bore a rather close resemblance to a penis. \*\* The artist himself didn’t notice the resemblance until a member of his youth church group heard about the controversy on talk radio and called him at his studio with the news.” Bolding mine. So the rumor about the disgruntled artist is false but the resemblence appears to be true. Like I said, the copy my sister had sure looked like what was claimed. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/7 "2005-04-05T22:21:42Z")
> [@odaran](#): > > The artist himself didn’t notice the resemblance until a member of his youth church group heard about the controversy Huh huh huh…you said “member.” Huh huh huh. ---
**Author:** ![Eutychus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Eutychus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eutychus)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2005, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/8 "2005-04-05T23:48:05Z")
> [@odaran](#): > > “Rushed to complete the video artwork (featuring towers that were rather phallic to begin with), the artist hurried through the background detail (at “about four in the morning”) and\*\* inadvertently drew one spire that bore a rather close resemblance to a penis. \*\* The artist himself didn’t notice the resemblance until a member of his youth church group heard about the controversy on talk radio and called him at his studio with the news.” Actually Snopes is wrong. I spoke to someone who knows the artist in question and he gave me the um … what’s the word? "Yhe artist was one of Disney’s top layout artists who has worked on and off for Disney since the fifties and still does. To quote my source, “He did intend for the tower to look like a penis, but when he finished it, he realized it was bit too obvious. (Artists often put hidden images in their work . . . there are a lot of classical paintings with subliminal skulls and sexual imagery in them. It isn’t a recent thing at all.) The painter was on a deadline to turn it in, so he didn’t have time to fix it. He pointed it out to the production person at Disney and offered to paint it out if they wanted him to. The painting was sent up to a committee of marketing execs for approval. The artist never got a call to change it, so he assumed they liked it with the semi-subliminal penis in it.” [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdisneyperv.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdisneyperv.html) ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/disneys-recalled-little-mermaid-vhs/297885/9 "2005-04-06T03:36:29Z")
> [@Eutychus](#): > > Actually Snopes is wrong. I spoke to someone who knows the artist in question and he gave me the um … what’s the word? > > "Yhe artist was one of Disney’s top layout artists who has worked on and off for Disney since the fifties and still does. To quote my source, “He did intend for the tower to look like a penis, but when he finished it, he realized it was bit too obvious. (Artists often put hidden images in their work . . . there are a lot of classical paintings with subliminal skulls and sexual imagery in them. It isn’t a recent thing at all.) The painter was on a deadline to turn it in, so he didn’t have time to fix it. He pointed it out to the production person at Disney and offered to paint it out if they wanted him to. The painting was sent up to a committee of marketing execs for approval. The artist never got a call to change it, so he assumed they liked it with the semi-subliminal penis in it.” > > [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdisneyperv.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdisneyperv.html) snopes still maintains, in an email tonight, that they are right. They talked to the artist and he denied it(per their report). So, it boils down to “he said/she said.”