# Lies Walt Disney Told Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 28, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356 "2007-10-28T18:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/1 "2007-10-28T18:30:54Z")
In barroom conversations, it came up that certain cultural “facts” are flat-out inventions of Walt Disney scriptwriters, including: –Pirates talk in an “Arr, matey!” patois. –Lemmings race headlong off cliffs to their watery deaths –Does reject their fawns if they have the smell of humans on them Are these actually whooshes from Unca Walt? What horrible motive could he have for foisting them on us? Or am I being whooshed by barflies? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/2 "2007-10-28T19:23:46Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] –Pirates talk in an “Arr, matey!” patois. [/QUOTE] According to [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/071012.html) recent column, it was the actor who portrayed Long John Silver in a Disney film version of Treasure Island who introduced the arr. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/3 "2007-10-28T19:29:44Z")
I was curious about these questions myself, so I did a little Wiki-ing. [QUOTE=Krokodil] Pirates talk in an “Arr, matey!” patois. [/QUOTE] This goes back at least to the book Treasure Island. But it was apparently popularized by the Treasure Island movie, a Disney creation. [QUOTE=Krokodil] Lemmings race headlong off cliffs to their watery deaths [/quote] While lemmings do dive off cliffs during their migration, they’re apparently powerful swimmers and don’t always die. But the suicide idea was popularized by a Disney nature documentary. [QUOTE=Krokodil] Does reject their fawns if they have the smell of humans on them [/quote] Still working on this one, but I’d say score at least two for the barflies. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/4 "2007-10-28T19:36:19Z")
And the deer thing… [http://www.deer-library.com/artman/publish/article\_27.shtml](http://www.deer-library.com/artman/publish/article_27.shtml) Deers might reject a fawn that has the scent of man on them, but it’s no certainty. The rejection is much likely to happen if the fawn is touched directly after birth. I’d throw this one in the true pile, Disney may have stretched the truth, but he didn’t make it up. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/5 "2007-10-29T00:03:24Z")
The “Arr, Matey” accent is from Cornwall, UK. It’s a popular way to portray the rural folk of that area, even now. “Ooarr, they be me cows” and suchlike. The _Pirates of Penzance_, from Gilbert and Sullivan, are from Cornwall, because that’s where Penzance is. I can’t help thinking there’s a connection. ---
**Author:** ![Random](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/57b2e6/32.png) [@Random](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Random)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/6 "2007-10-29T00:47:16Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] The “Arr, Matey” accent is from Cornwall, UK. It’s a popular way to portray the rural folk of that area, even now. “Ooarr, they be me cows” and suchlike. The _Pirates of Penzance_, from Gilbert and Sullivan, are from Cornwall, because that’s where Penzance is. I can’t help thinking there’s a connection. [/QUOTE] Yeah, that&s the explanation I have heard. More generally, a lot of mariners came from the Devon/Cornwall region. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/7 "2007-10-29T03:02:59Z")
During WWII, Walt told the country that all Japanese had buck teeth. I don’t think that was true. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/8 "2007-10-29T05:00:22Z")
The Little Mermaid has a happy ending ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/9 "2007-10-29T06:42:23Z")
_The Hunchback of Notre Dame_ has a happy ending. Hercules’s mother was Hera. Chicken Little was not eaten by Foxy Loxy. ---
**Author:** ![Scissorjack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Scissorjack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scissorjack)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/10 "2007-10-29T09:14:22Z")
It’s a small world after all. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/11 "2007-10-29T09:23:43Z")
Interestingly enough, Long John Silver never says “Arr!” or “matey” in _Treasure Island_, although another old salt does use “matey” early in the novel. ---
**Author:** ![RikWriter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/49beb7/32.png) [@RikWriter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RikWriter)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 11:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/12 "2007-10-29T11:19:24Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] The Little Mermaid has a happy ending [/QUOTE] Unlike the Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Little Mermaid SHOULD have a happy ending. Disney did right by that story IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/13 "2007-10-29T12:45:41Z")
> [@](#): > > Quote: > Originally Posted by Krokodil > Lemmings race headlong off cliffs to their watery deaths > > While lemmings do dive off cliffs during their migration, they’re apparently powerful swimmers and don’t always die. But the suicide idea was popularized by a Disney nature documentary. This doesn’t do justice to the injustice that the Disney film, **White Wilderness** , perpetrated. It claimed that Lemmings periodically and spontaneously set out on mass migrations that often ended in lemmings hurling themselves into lakes and rivers to drown. I don’t think Disney weas responsible for the myth, which had been around for some time, but their documentarty purported to show such a migration, with what appeared to be large numbers of rodents relentlessly marching along, diving into the water, and drowning. In reality, the lemmings were obtained from Inuit kids and placed on a large turntable to show the “migration”, and dropped into a studio tank to show the “suicides”. It;'s one of the most absurdly fabricated “natural” documentary sequences filmed, and has been rightly criticized: > **[Did Disney Fake Lemming Deaths for the Nature Documentary 'White Wilderness'?](https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/white-wilderness-lemming-suicide/)** > > Lemmings don't commit mass suicide, so filmmakers had to use various camera tricks to capture scenes of them supposedly plunging to their deaths. In other things, I’ve argued several times on this Board in favor of the “happy” ending to **The Little Mermaid** , and aklso to **The Steadfast Tin Soldier** from **Fantasia 2000**. Both are based on stories by Hans Christian Anderson, which were original with him (not traditional _Marchen_), and which have his signature and pointless “tragedy snatched from the jaws of happiness” endings. Andersen really did seem to go out of his way to plaster a needlessly maudlin ending onto his stories. Sadist. As for **The Hunchback of Notre Dame** , why single Disney out? I can’t think of a singl;e film versioon that faithfully follows the ending of Victor Hugo’s novel. Even when Quasimodo dies (as in the silent Lon Chaney version), it’s not the same as in Hugo. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/14 "2007-10-29T12:54:57Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Interestingly enough, Long John Silver never says “Arr!” or “matey” in _Treasure Island_, although another old salt does use “matey” early in the novel. [/QUOTE] He does say "Arrrr-men’ though. ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/15 "2007-10-29T12:56:50Z")
[QUOTE=CalMeacham] In other things, I’ve argued several times on this Board in favor of the “happy” ending to **The Little Mermaid** , and aklso to **The Steadfast Tin Soldier** from **Fantasia 2000**. Both are based on stories by Hans Christian Anderson, which were original with him (not traditional _Marchen_), and which have his signature and pointless “tragedy snatched from the jaws of happiness” endings. Andersen really did seem to go out of his way to plaster a needlessly maudlin ending onto his stories. Sadist. [/QUOTE] Agreed on both counts, and I’m glad to see that **RikWriter** concurs. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/16 "2007-10-29T13:06:49Z")
> [@](#): > > Agreed on both counts, and I’m glad to see that RikWriter concurs. Indeed, and I didn’t mean to slight him – i was amplifying what he said, and ought to have explicitly acknowledged it. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/17 "2007-10-29T14:04:08Z")
Scorpions can square dance. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/18 "2007-10-29T14:32:45Z")
[QUOTE=Krokodil] –Pirates talk in an “Arr, matey!” patois. [/QUOTE] True dat. Everyone knows that pirates [flitted about and spoke in a lyrical falsetto voice](http://www.pvponline.com/article/3534/wed-sep-19?y=2007). ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/19 "2007-10-29T15:00:48Z")
[QUOTE=Johnny L.A.] He does say "Arrrr-men’ though. [/QUOTE] I’m talking about Stevenson’s novel. Where does he say that? ---
**Author:** ![Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cab0a1/32.png) [@Man\_With\_a\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Man_With_a_Cat)\ **Post date:** [October 29, 2007, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356/20 "2007-10-29T15:05:49Z")
Mice can talk. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lies-walt-disney-told-me/424356.md?page=2)