Rumours of Disney movies holding questionable imagery have been going on for years. From claims of phallic palaces on the animated movie The Little Mermaid’s poster to speculation of strip club signs in the kids movie Cars, people love trying to find strange easter eggs. However, in the sea of unconfirmed question marks, there is one NSFW secret image in a classic Disney movie that is not only real but also confirmed by the studio itself.
In the 1977 movie, The Rescuers – a story about two little mice named Bernard and Bianca who help abduction victims all around the world – there was a scene that, for a brief second, showed two topless women. In a sequence with the two mice flying in the air while strapped to Orville, the face and owner of Albatross Air Charter Service, two windows in the background show photographic (not animated) images of the women without any clothes.
This image led Disney to announce a recall of the home video version of the family movie on 8 January 1999 due to what they referred to as the “objectionable background image.” (via Snopes)
A Disney spokesperson, while commenting on the recall in the ’90s, claimed that the tampering with the film was done 20 years ago – hinting that the topless women have been in the flick since its theatrical release in the ’70s. However, the studio has claimed that images were not included in the 1992 home video release because that version “was made from a different print.”
Disney has also clarified that the inappropriate easter egg wasn’t put in the film by any of its animators and was inserted in the post-production stage. At the end of the day, 3.4 million copies of the video version of The Rescuers were recalled.
The studio made sure to clarify that it didn’t condone the easter egg in any way and that the recall decision was “to keep our promise to families that we can trust and rely on the Disney brand to provide the finest in family entertainment.”
So there you have it. At least one strange Disney easter egg is true and confirmed. And thankfully, it has now been rectified, meaning that The Rescuers is once again a safe family movie for everyone to enjoy.
For more magic, here are our guides to the best Pixar movies of all time, and the best anime movies ever made.