Disney plots and characters have been invading popular culture since the 1930s. Most of us like Disney movies to a greater or a lesser extent. It seems to be next to impossible to erase all those amazing scenes that we remember from a young age. Sometimes a sense of nostalgia forces us to find some Disney cartoons and have a movie marathon taking us back to our childhood memories.
Although we all watched movies when we were kids, scarcely anyone noticed they had many recycled moments. I doubt that anyone could notice that Princess Aurora and Prince Philip dance in the same way as Belle and the Beast. And they do dance in the same way! And it’s not a coincidence.
Recently a two-part video hit the Internet. It was not a bombshell, of course. Similar videos appeared in 2009. However, the fact is that Disney copies and reuses its own footage.
The fragments taken from these 14 cartoons were compared: Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and the Beast, Robin Hood, Snow White, The Jungle Book, The AristoCats, Bambi, Alice in Wonderland, The Fox and the Hound, The Sword in the Stone, 101 Dalmatians, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Winnie the Pooh. Coincidences were quite obvious. And it’s possible that the list isn’t complete.
Different characters dance, clap hands and gesticulate in the same manner. Characters just mimic each other. This recycling of content was made with the purpose of saving resources. But is it a good excuse? Or maybe we are dealing with self-plagiarism?
Self-plagiarism is usually a subconscious thing. In the Disney case, repetition is surely not accidental. To better understand the point, just view these two videos and learn all the details firsthand.
Walt Disney Recycled Animation Scenes #1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pbjVjZrrE3w
Walt Disney Recycled Animation Scenes #2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmOo_pYMG1U
