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26 Animation Facts You Definitely Didn’t Know

26 Animation Facts You Definitely Didn’t Know
Luke Roberts
News Editor8 years ago
View Luke Roberts's profile
At Zavvi, we love all things animation. From Pixar and Dreamworks blockbusters, to late night fixes of Bob's Burgers - we've always got time for some animated magic. Animation captures the hearts of children and brings out the big kid in all adults. It provides a physical manifestation of the mind, a place where we're able to escape our human lives and enter worlds where boundaries are limitless. Check out our 26 animation facts below; you won't watch your old favourites in the same way again...

#1 Did you know that Disney’s Big Hero 6 takes its inspiration from a Marvel comic created back in the 90s called Sunfire & Big Hero 6 #1?

#2  Trey Parker ad-libs most of Cartman’s lines in South Park.

#3 Bubblegum from The Powerpuff Girls was originally called Bud.

#4 Until Brave, Ariel was the only Disney princess to have siblings - the rest are all only children.

#5 Animators on How To Train Your Dragon had to attend “flight school” during production. It is a legitimate program in which they would study flight physics and movements of different creatures for realism. After graduation, they each even received a diploma.

#6 The scene where Princess Fiona burps in Shrek was written after a recording session where Cameron Diaz burped after drinking Coca-Cola.

#7 Every episode of Family Guy includes at least one character saying “what the hell” to another.

#8  The two "Betty Rubble" voices in The Flinstones, Bea Benaderet (seasons 1, 2, 3 & 4) and her replacement, Gerry Johnston (seasons 5 & 6) were both born on the 4th of April.

#9 The effects department of Shrek actually took mud showers to study how to realistically portray mud in the film.

#10 The real name of Snarf from Thundercats was Osbert.

#11 In Dexter’s Laboratory the Dexter family’s last name is never revealed.

#12 God and Jesus are the only characters in The Simpsons that have five fingers.

#13  Sulley from Monsters Inc has more than 2.3 million individual hairs, which are all carefully animated. This explains why a single frame of the big blue fella took an average of 12 hours to produce.

Monsters Inc
Image Source: Pixar Animation Studios

#14 The chicken that fights Peter Griffin in Family Guy is called Ernie.

#15 There is either a mention of or an appearance by a celebrity in every episode of South Park to date. However celebrities are rarely allowed to play themselves or even a “normal” character. For instance, when George Clooney lent his voice for an episode he played a homosexual dog.

#16 Wreck-It Ralph has more unique, individual characters than any Disney movie in history. Normal Disney films have between 40 and 60 but Wreck-It Ralph has 188.

#17  Scooby's name was inspired by Frank Sinatra's 'scat' in the song, 'Stranger's In The Night.' (Doo-be-doo-be-doo)

#18 Big Hero 6 Co-director Chris Williams is also the voice of Oaken in Frozen. “Yoo-hoo, big summer blow out.”

#19  Gargamel's cat Azrael from The Smurfs is named after the angel of death in Hebrew and Islamic traditions.

#20  The main characters in The Simpsons were apparently given a yellow colouring to attract the attention of channel hoppers.

#21  'Man is in the forest' was a code used by animators to warn colleagues to get back to work when Walt Disney was coming down the hallway.

#22  Animators based Baymax’s walk in Big Hero 6 on a toddler with a full diaper.

#23 Tom and Jerry from the eponymous cartoon were initially known as Jasper and Jinx by the animators.

#24  Whenever Bart prank calls Moe’s Tavern, he dials the number 764-84377 (which is one digit longer than an American phone number need be). When typed out on an old style telephone this spells out “SMITHERS.”

#25 Walt Disney was presented with one normal sized honorary Oscar and seven little Oscars for Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 1938.

#26 The ideas for Wall-E, Monsters Inc, A Bug's Life and Finding Nemo came from a single lunchtime brainstorming session in 1994, before the first Toy Story film was even finished.

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Image Source: Pixar Animation Studios
Luke Roberts
News Editor
View Luke Roberts's profile
Committed to reporting the latest news from the worlds of film, television and game. Constantly glued to social feeds ensuring I never miss a beat. A believer in music sounding best on vinyl, and an enthusiastic unused substitute come Sunday morning. Never ashamed to admit my love for Les Misérables.
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