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Everybody knows that Disney<\/a> likes to include Easter Eggs in their movies, referencing their previous films, notable characters, and even the people who helped the company thrive. You could spend hours searching for all of the hidden Mickeys, and you probably still wouldn’t find them. Some are just thrown in for fun, but others require a lot of knowledge, focus, and skill to understand.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Here are ten of the most clever Disney references and homages throughout their many films. While some seem relatively minor, most have a larger thematic or historical meaning behind them. This adds depth to a practice (that many people disregard as meaningless fan service) and shows how much Disney employees love their company’s history.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Throughout Disney\u2019s history, the technology of filmmaking and theatrical presentation has changed, which the centennial film Wish<\/em> honored in a way that only true film nerds can appreciate. Back in the 1950s, Walt Disney wanted to make Sleeping Beauty<\/em> seem larger<\/a> than life, producing the film with a 2.55:1 aspect ratio. This was much wider than normal, with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences establishing 1.375:1 as the industry standard. While there were only a handful of other Disney films that used anything close to this aspect ratio again, they used it in Wish<\/em> as a quiet homage to the film that cemented the Disney princess concept. While responses to the film itself were tepid, the return to the 2.55:1 aspect ratio proved the dedication the filmmakers had to Disney\u2019s artistic history, subliminally urging fans to see the film as a modern-day Disney classic.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While Pixar is known for putting recurring images like the Pizza Planet truck and the code A113 in all of their films, one of their most intriguing trends is including Easter Eggs that only make sense years later. One of the earliest examples of this is Monsters, Inc<\/em>, which includes three clownfish references in honor of Finding Nemo<\/em>, which debuted a year and a half later. Finding Nemo<\/em> would then go on to reference both The Incredibles<\/em> and Cars<\/em>. These future references have continued into the present day, showing how good Pixar is at planning and communicating between film productions.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Similar to how the Cars<\/em> universe has car-themed parodies of real-world events, Zootopia<\/em> includes two distinct examples of animal-themed Disney movies existing within the film itself. The first comes while Judy clicks through music on the bus. While the artists are animal-themed versions of popular music artists, the songs under \u201cGazelle\u201d are almost all based on previous Disney songs<\/a>, including \u201cLet It Goat,\u201d \u201cPart of Your Wool,\u201d “Can You Feel the Fur Tonight,\u201d and \u201cAra-bunny Nights.\u201d Near the end of the film, we also see a selection of Duke’s Officially Licensed Movies, which include Wrangled<\/em>, Wreck-It Rhino<\/em>, Pig Hero 6<\/em>, Meowana<\/em>, Floatzen 2<\/em>, and Giraffic<\/em>\u2014a pun on the cancelled film Gigantic<\/em>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tangled<\/em> was only the second princess movie to come out of Disney in over ten years, and the creators wanted there to be no doubt that Rapunzel was a Disney Princess<\/a>. To prove it, her tower is filled with references to the Classic and Renaissance-era princesses. The easiest to spot is the spinning wheel from Sleeping Beauty<\/em>, although you may also notice an apple, a slipper, a rose, and a seashell painted on the staircase. Directors Nathan Greno and Byron Howard<\/a> also recommend looking at the bookstore scene, where you can see the opening storybook from Sleeping Beauty<\/em> and a book cover based on The Little Mermaid.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While many of the Easter Eggs in The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> seem arbitrary, one of the most intriguing is the presence of Belle during the song \u201cOut There.\u201d While both stories are set in France, the timelines definitely don\u2019t line up. The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em> takes place in 1482, while Beauty and the Beast<\/em> is set nearly 300 years later, around the French Revolution. So why is she there? Perhaps because her introductory song is all about escaping her \u201cpoor, provincial town,\u201d while Quasimodo urges ordinary people to \u201ctreasure every minute.\u201d The contrast between these two characters is powerful, showing Belle escaping her world into a book while Quasimodo would do anything to join it.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While human characters typically need a reason to cameo in another film, that rule does not seem to apply when it comes to dogs. 101 Dalmatians<\/em> shows Lady and Tramp wandering around London, with Peg, Bull, and Jock in the background. Jock, Peg, and Trusty also made their way to New York City to show up in Oliver & Company<\/em>, along with 101 Dalmatians’<\/em> Pongo. It may not make much sense geographically, but it\u2019s definitely fun to see how many familiar faces you can find in any dog-centered Disney movie.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the movie Wish<\/em> is packed full of obvious Easter Eggs, the scenes depicted in wishes are more subtle references to Disney’s biggest hits. For example, two citizens of Rosas want to be able to fly like Peter Pan<\/em>, while others dream of making Aurora\u2019s dress from Sleeping Beauty <\/em>or finding the perfect nanny like in Mary Poppins<\/em>. Elsewhere in the film, the audience hears about a wish to have \u201chair down to your feet\u201d like Rapunzel, and Valentino wishes for \u201ca metropolis where all mammals are equal and wear clothes,\u201d referencing Zootopia<\/em>. The film is ultimately set up as a prequel to all Disney lore, so it’s fun to wonder if the set of fliers truly became Peter and Wendy, and if the other wishes come true in their own right.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n While the fairytale aspects of Enchanted<\/em> are easy to spot, there are multiple Disney princess references that appear during the real-world plotlines as well. For example, a reporter is named Mary Ilene Caselotti<\/a>, drawing from the names of Mary Costa (Aurora), Ilene Woods (Cinderella), and Adriana Caselotti (Snow White). Costa and Woods both appear later in the film, adding to cameos from the voices behind Ariel, Belle, and Pocahontas. The most obvious of these is The Little Mermaid<\/em>\u2019s Jodi Benson, who portrays Robert\u2019s secretary, Sam. Sam, of course, works for Churchill, Harline, & Smith, LLP<\/a>, a law firm named after Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs<\/em>\u2019 composers Frank Churchill, Leigh Harline, and Paul Smith.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n
Wish<\/em> references Sleeping Beauty<\/em> with an extreme aspect ratio<\/h2>\n
Pixar teases its upcoming films with Easter Eggs first-time viewers won’t even notice<\/h2>\n
A version of Disney exists inside of Zootopia<\/em><\/h2>\n
Rapunzel’s tower includes references to the princesses that came before her<\/h2>\n
Belle visits Paris in The Hunchback of Notre Dame<\/em><\/h2>\n
Dogs crossover between Disney movies with no regard for distance<\/h2>\n
The villagers\u2019 wishes are based on other Disney films<\/h2>\n
Enchanted<\/em> references Disney princesses in more ways than you\u2019d expect.<\/h2>\n
Beauty and the Beast<\/em> transports Maurice from France to California<\/h2>\n