Questions regarding Disney movies

[Hector]

Google it and you'll find a bunch of articles titled 'My (insert a large number) questions
regarding Disney movies'. However, all those are blog articles, where a conversation
isn't really easy. So, i made mine in a forum.
Most of those questions are copied from those blogs. Also, some of them can be
attributed to the original fairytale, but that doesn't mean that itself is a satisfactory
answer (well, maybe it is, but, if we followed that kind of logic, forums would have
died long ago).
I have posted answers/comments to most of the questions. Post your own speculations
too and/or, why not, add your own questions.

SNOW WHITE

What did the dwarves do with the diamonds?
Maybe they were trully rich but selected to live in a simpler lifestyle. However, if we
consider Scarpa's stories as canon, dwarves are implied to be really poor. I mean,
when the eight dwarf shows up, they treat their diamonds as something unimportant.
So maybe they ignore the diamonds' true value and are tricked by merchants into
selling them at a lower price?

Why didn't the queen just strangle/slay Snow White?
She knew Snow White was alone in the house. All she needed to do was get a knife, go
there and easily finish the job herself. Why did she resort to a plan where 1000 things
could go wrong? Ok, maybe there were ways even her evilness would be ashamed of
stooping to, but still, if, for whatever reason, she decided to use poison, why not just
plain poison? Sleep death, where did she come up with that?

CINDERELLA

Was the prince really so stupid that he would have married any random girl the slipper
would have happened to fit to?
I'm of the opinion he really was THAT stupid. He was born rich, destined to be a king,
with all his problems solved, so he never had to use his brain for anything. Just like
muscles can get rusty when you don't workout, the same goes for mental capabilities.
And, of course, his father/king was of the same mental caliber, since he also considered
that a brilliant idea.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Why didn't they invite Maleficent?
Seriously, everything would have been solved that way. Of course, if the royal couple knew
what that witch was about, it makes sense if they didn't want to invite her fearing she would
cause problems in the ceremony. It's still much more logical than the story of the original
fairytale, where they did not invite her because they did not have enough silverware (i mean,
seriously, a king could not find one more plate?)

Why did Maleficent wait 16 years to check out whether her henchmen had done the job?
It seems weird at first thought, considering how obsessed she was with revenge. But, in the
end, we can deduce Aurora was not the only purpose in her life. She probably took up other
hobbies and, 16 years later, she was like 'oh, i almost forgot, let's check out how the Aurora
project is doing'.

THE ARISTOCATS

Did Edgar really think the cats would outlive him?
I can understand if he just did not want to wait for 10-15 years to get the cash. But, if he
seriously thought he would die before the cats, his stupidity surpasses even that of Cinderella's
prince.

BEAUTY AND BEAST

Was he really a prince?
To me, he looked more like a rich kid that inherited his parents' fortune. Maybe he was called
a prince just because he lived like one.
Another (kinda complicated) speculation i can make is that he was a provincial leader, given
that village by his parents. When he turned into a beast, that village fell into anarchy (it
doesn't seem to have any other leader). It would still be kinda difficult though to make a
living after he stopped ruling, but maybe he had already gathered quite a fortune by then,
and he also cut down on extravagances (besides, living items did not need to be fed).

What's the deal with Mrs Teapot's child?
It seems younger than ten and it had been ten years since the curse had been cast. The
simplest explanation was to assume the transformed humans didn't age. But, in that case,
why did the childpot still behave as a child, if he was a teen in mind? Well, if teapots can
get pregnant, let's leave this to the fanfic writers, since this is a K rated forum.

ALLADIN

How did the genie know about modern culture and inventions?
There are two explanations. Either it's a gag (lazy explanation) or Alladin takes place in an
apocalyptic future where modern civilization was ruined (hence the '10.000 years in the
lamp' line).

What happened to Alladin's servants?
Were they just illusions? Can the genie really create life forms?

Why did Jafar waste a wish to become a sultan?
His wish to become the most powerful magician in the world automatically rendered him a
sultan not just in Agraphah but in the whole world.

LION KING

Why was Mufasa cool with Scar trying to kill Zazu?
Had he arrived one second later in the opening scene, Zazu would have been eaten by
Scar. Yet, Mufasa shrugged it off. I guess the birdie didn't mean much to him.

Why didn't the hyenas eat Zazu when they caught him?
That scene where they tried to boil him was just... what the hell did i just watch?

How did the lions survive till the final scene of the movie?
When Simba returned to the pride land, the lions seemed close to starvation. It
obviously required some time for that desert to transform into a green land again.
But, during that time, where did the lions find food and water? I doubt they could
have hold much longer without nutrition and hydration.

POCAHONTAS

How did they communicate?
Perhaps Grandma Willow had taught Poca foreign languages?

HUNCHBANK OF NOTRE DAME

Did Frollo lose it at the final scene?
His expression indicated total madness. Had he managed to kill Quasi instead of the
other way around and emerge victorious from everything, would he have gone back
to his old stoic self? Would he have remained insane for good?

HERCULES

Isn't the movie's final message too grim?
Everybody that dies, no matter what he has done, will end up in the same hellish
place. So, in the end, Hades will win no matter what. Even Hercules and Meg will
end up there someday.

TARZAN

Where did he find the underpants?
If they did not want to show his genitalia, they could have just censored it.

How long was he trained by Jane?
To learn how to speak, he should logically need at least two years.

TANGLED

Why did the king cut off and boil the plant?
It was a reuseable plant, as we saw in Gothel's case. Why did the king waste its
potential that way?

Why did Gothel teach Rapunzel the birthday concept?
I mean, seriously, she brought her doom to herself.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

I have answers for a lot of these.

SNOW WHITE:

What did the Dwarfs do with their diamonds?

Comics are way ahead of you. The Dwarfs are happy with their simple lifestyle and just like mining as a hobby — once in a while, they take all the gems they've unearthed and bury them back in the mine so they can dig them out again later. 

Why did the Queen not simply kill Snow White by non-magical means?

As a witch, she thought herself too good for physical harm. Her main character flaw is, after all, pride. If she has the untold powers of dark sorcery at her beck and call, she would see it as a humiliation to be reduced to using a simple knife or non-magical poison. So she looks through her spellbooks for a magical poison, sees the "Sleepign Death" potion before anything else, and decides that burying Snow alive is a very good, sadistic way to off her and she doesn't need to look any further.

CINDERELLA:

Would the Prince have married any woman whom that shoe fit?

Of course not. He did remember Cinderella's face, you know. But the shoe could only really fit so many young girls in what is implied to be a rather tiny kingdom. Let's take a very generous estimate and say 50. If fifty different girls whom the shoe fit were brought to the Castle, obviously, the Prince would then look through them and find Cinderella. It's worth noting that in A Twist in Time, making the shoe fit Anastasia is far from enough — Tremaine has to work a complex memory-spell to convince the Prince that it was her whom he danced with.

SLEEPING BEAUTY:

Why didn't they invite Maleficent?

In one version of the original fairy tale, it's not a matter of silverware, but simply that Carabosse (Maleficent's original name) was a very old fairy who had been cooped up in her crumbling tower for so many decades that everybody thought she had died long ago. As for the Disney version, a deleted scene implied that Maleficent is well-known throughout the kingdom as a harbinger of chaos and misery, and they preferred to gamble on her not knowing the party was even happening and not coming, as opposed to inviting her which would surely end in disaster. Alternately, the debatably-canonical book Disney Villains: Top-Secret Files show that an invitaton was, in fact, sent to Maleficent, though the King and Queen weren't personally aware of it, but Maleficent was in her dragon form at the time and the messenger fled before he could deliver the letter.

Why did Maleficent wait 16 years to check out whether her henchmen had done the job?

What makes you think the scene we see was the only time Maleficent checked whether Aurora had been found yet? Presumably, she had the Goons reporting to her castle every few months, asked "Have you found Aurora yet?", the Goons said no, and she sent them back. The scene was merely the first time Maleficent realized the Goons had forgotten to account for Aurora growing up.

THE ARISTOCATS:

Why did Edgar think the cats would outlive him?

He didn't. Watch the movie again. It seems that the will is so worded that the "trust fund" of Duchesse and her kittens would have been passed down to their descendance for many generations still, not immediately reverted to Edgar when the original four cats were dead. 

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST:

Was he really a Prince?

Why wouldn't he? While the inspiration for the setting is obviously France, I take Beauty and the Beast to take place in some small Frenchish kingdom, like the one in Cinderella.

What's the deal with Chip?

Indeed, no one aged while under the Curse. Not the Beast, not Lumière, not Mrs Potts, no one. So yes, technically Chip was mentally way over 8 when he turned back into a human, but only in the sense that he remembered that many years of life — there didn't seem to be any sort of mental growth either.

ALADDIN:

How does the Genie know about the future?

The "far-off future" explanation doesn't really make sense. The simple canon explanation is that among the Genie's "phenomenal cosmic powers" is simply the power of time-travel. Much like Merlin in The Sword in the Stone, the Genie knows about those future events because he's been to his far-off future (our present).

Where did the servants come from?

A deleted scene shows that it was the same spell as what the Fairy Godmother used in Cinderella — the Genie not only made the elephant from Abu, but every living thing in the parade was created from small animals. The people were originally rats, the camels were gnats, etc. It's unknown if they were turned back like Abu, though they probably were. 

Why did Jafar wish to be sultan? He was already the greatest sorcerer in the world!

You're taking the wishes in the wrong order. Jafar wished to be a sultan first, and then realized that people wouldn't acknowledge him as ruler even if he was ofificially the Sultan, prompting him to wish to be the greatest sorcerer so everybody would have to obey him.

THE LION KING:

Why isn't Mufasa mad about Scar almost killing Zazu?

Seeing how Mufasa keeps him around, it seems he is in denial about just how evil his brother really is. Presumably, Mufasa thoguht, or rather wanted to think, that Scar was just being a bully and scaring Zazu for giggles, but wouldn't have actually gone through with it. 

Why didn't the hyenas eat Zazu when they caught him?

Presumably, they wanted a more refined dish than raw meat for a change.

How did the lions survive till the final scene of the movie?

Who knows? Something happened. Maybe that big herd of wilderbeest passed through the Pridelands again (not having been affected by the drought since they don't usually live there) and a lot of them got eaten. That'd serve them right for killing Mufasa, too.  

POCAHONTAS:

How did they communicate?

That's clearly explained in the movie. Wind magic. (Seriously.) When they join hands at first and the wind-magic swirls around them, it's giving each other knowledge of the other's language.

HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE-DAME:

Did Frollo go mad in the final scene?

Yup, he definitely wasn't thinking straight at that point. Whether he'd have calmed down had he won, or stayed a nutjob for the rest of his life… who knows.

HERCULES:

Is the ending not so happy after all?

Hades did get washed down the supernatural whirlpool thing, and it's implied he'll never get out (though House of Mouse suggests otherwise). I presume a new God fo teh Underworld will be appointed by Zeus to replace him, he won't be evil, and he'll redecorate the place a bit.

TARZAN:

Where did Tarzan get those underpants?

Like Mowgli's, Tarzan's loincloth seems to be made from the sheet he was found wrapped in as a baby. 

How long was he trained by Jane? He would have needed 2 years to learn English!

The "training montage" no doubt lasted many months. Probably not as long as 2 years, but Tarzan in the original Burrough books was a genius, so I think we can let it slide.

TANGLED:

Why did the King have to uproot and destroy the plant, when it was clearly reusable?

No one knew it was reusable, let alone the magical song required to use it that way. All the King had to work with were the rumors of "a plant that can heal anything". If that's all you heard, would you naturally assume you had to sing a song at the flower so it would heal you, or would you conclude the flower is a magical ingredient for a potion? 

Why did Gothel teach Rapunzel the birthday concept?

Gothel doesn't exactly have a lot of experience with raising children in secrecy, does she? I could easily see her planning not to tell her at first, but coming back from town at some point when Rapunzel was 9 or something with an expensive new dress or whatever. "Wow, Mother, this looks expensive!" "I know, pet, but as it is my birthday I decided I could indulge myself… It does only happen once a year!" "What's a birthday?" "(Dammit dammit dammit) Well, sweetie, it's…"

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jan 20, 2018 16:16:05 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Comics are way ahead of you. The Dwarfs are happy with their simple lifestyle and just like mining as a hobby — once in a while, they take all the gems they've unearthed and bury them back in the mine so they can dig them out again later.

What? They really need a business manager. Was that Pepito guy down with all that?

Of course not. He did remember Cinderella's face, you know. But the shoe could only really fit so many young girls in what is implied to be a rather tiny kingdom. Let's take a very generous estimate and say 50. If fifty different girls whom the shoe fit were brought to the Castle, obviously, the Prince would then look through them and find Cinderella.

Yes, it was a screening test, obviously.

He didn't. Watch the movie again. It seems that the will is so worded that the "trust fund" of Duchesse and her kittens would have been passed down to their descendance for many generations still, not immediately reverted to Edgar when the original four cats were dead.

Well, they say you should always spay and neuter your pets ...

Maybe that big herd of wilderbeest passed through the Pridelands again (not having been affected by the drought since they don't usually live there) and a lot of them got eaten. That'd serve them right for killing Mufasa, too.

One unspoken dark truth about The Lion King is that a lot of the animals celebrating Simba's birth and dancing around to his, "I Just Can't Wait to be King" number could very well have ended up eaten by the pride.

[Scrooge MacDuck]

Jan 20, 2018 17:46:50 GMT Baar Baar Jinx said:

He didn't. Watch the movie again. It seems that the will is so worded that the "trust fund" of Duchesse and her kittens would have been passed down to their descendance for many generations still, not immediately reverted to Edgar when the original four cats were dead.

Well, they say you should always spay and neuter your pets ...

Maybe that big herd of wilderbeest passed through the Pridelands again (not having been affected by the drought since they don't usually live there) and a lot of them got eaten. That'd serve them right for killing Mufasa, too.

One unspoken dark truth about The Lion King is that a lot of the animals celebrating Simba's birth and dancing around to his, "I Just Can't Wait to be King" number could very well have ended up eaten by the pride.

• In 1900 Paris? I don't think so.

• Yes… but at least, they did give most of the "edible" animals (wilderbeests, zebras, etc.) a less anthropomorphic look and we never see them talk, so one can easily choose to believe that the lions, warthogs et alt. are "more" sentient than their prey, who would just be on Pluto-level. …Then The Lion Guard rolled around and made everything worse. 

[Baar Baar Jinx]

Jan 20, 2018 21:26:00 GMT Scrooge MacDuck said:

Yes… but at least, they did give most of the "edible" animals (wilderbeests, zebras, etc.) a less anthropomorphic look and we never see them talk, so one can easily choose to believe that the lions, warthogs et alt. are "more" sentient than their prey, who would just be on Pluto-level. …Then The Lion Guard rolled around and made everything worse. 

Ah, so MEAS-2 predators and MEAS-1 prey to assuage the horror ...
(And yes, the zebras, antelope and wildebeest are MEAS-1 rather than MEAS-0 [non-anthropomorphized] since they actually bow to baby Simba, i.e., show an understanding of their surroundings and situations beyond that which is expected of a real animal and behave accordingly, despite being drawn in a more realistic than cartoony style. Pluto is on the same level, although he is also capable of more versatile facial expressions and body poses to add to the effect.)

[Hector]

Time for more questions...

SNOW WHITE

Why did Happy introduce Dopey to Snow White?
She had clearly asked them to let her guess who is who.
A theory i heard from someone is that, if Snow White had
been let to say something like 'you must be Dopey', it'd be
like calling him a WAK and that would make her character
seem less nice. (note: And why is there not a problem if
Happy is the one who sounds like a jerk? Huh? Stupid Disney
creators that marysuize their princesses).

CINDERELLA

Did they wash the shoe after every time a girl tried it?
If they didn't, Cinderella's first duty as a princess is to take
a bath.

SLEEPING BEAUTY

Did Maleficent really expect the prince to be alive after 100
years?
In case you have forgotten, her initial plan was to keep Philip
imprisoned for 100 years, then let him go to release Aurora as
an old man (man, i'd love to see her reaction if that had
happened!). But what made her believe Philip would live that
long? Did she plan to extend his lifespan by sorcery? Nah, i think
that, most likely, the '100 years' line was a figure of speech.
She'd have just kept him for 70 years or so, till he turned into
an appalling old man, just so that she could get a good sadistic
laugh at the scene of Aurora seeing him like that.

LADY AND TRUMP

What kind of language did the pets speak?
They clearly understood what humans said. Does that mean they
could only understand human language but themselves spoke one
of their kind? Or maybe they spoke in a sound frequency that
human ears cannot catch.

WINNIE THE POOH

Where are their parents?
I have a feeling those animals do not even know of the family
concept. They were magically created somehow and have lived
in that forest without ever wondering how they came to existence.
Maybe the result of some invisible fairy's mage? Or God created
them the same way he did with Adam and Eve?

BEAUTY AND BEAST

If all objects are living things, what did they eat/wash etc with
before the curse?
Does that mean those objects existed already and the servants'
souls were just transferred into them?

ALLADIN

Is it just me or do Jafar's plans stink?
If he could just hypnotise the sultan into doing whatever he wanted
to, why hadn't he done it all those years? He could have hypnotised
him into signing a contract where he gives him the throne.
Also, why didn't he use his first wish to become a super powerul
magician? That would have essentially turned him into a sultan as well,
so he would have had one more wish left.

MULAN
Why didn't Great Stone Dragon wake up?
I have heard two answers. A)The spirit united with Mulan when she
prayed under the statue. B)There was never a Great Stone Dragon.
That was a device of the ancestors to indirectly give Mushu a
second chance. I mean, when he pretended to be Great Stone Dragon,
do you think the ancestors fell for that?

TOY STORY

Why did Buzz freeze in humans' presence if he did not believe he
was a toy?
Who knows. Perhaps he thought humans were giant aliens and he
was waiting for the best moment to attack them.