If you listen to the audio commentary on Atlantis, they confirm that they knew the coelacanths were too early, but included them as a joke about how "ahead of the times" Whitmore was.
+JokesInBase13 Yeah I totally got that joke. Cool that the commentary confirmed that. I thought it was such a cool thing when I saw that in the movie. Really fits with the character of Whitmore I think.
+JokesInBase13 I've not seen the film, but doesn't it count that regardless of when they were *rediscovered* they were always swimming around minding their own business? Is the problem that they were given a name which hadn't been coined yet?
Phil Boswell As I see it this point is questionable if it a historical inaccuracy. Yes it is historically inaccurate in the sense that no Coelacanths where swimming around in aquariums at the time (That we know of at least. Who knows. Maybe there was a crazy fish lover had one in a aquarium but it was never documented.) But of course the fish was around at the time even if it was unknown that the species was still alive. (And technically the fossil while looking very smiler to modern day Coelacanths would likely not be the same species.) Also considering the whole thing was intended. A bit like all the pop culture references the Genie in Aladdin puts out. They are intended both for comedic effect and to show off the cosmic power beyond space and time that the genie possess. Intentional Anachronism vs unintended.
for the Frozen gun thing: You wouldn't fire a pistol in a snowy mountain area because of fear of setting off an avalanche. It stands to reason they used crossbows because they did not want to die a snowy death.
+Colin Lebold Icame to the same thing 3 days ago based more on the design of the ships which look like the kind that would carry cannons so they had to have guns stand the question though where did they get the at the time anitquated crossbows? is there like ome strategic crossbow reserve in Arendale? incase they run out of gunpowder?
+Colin Lebold Guns, at least the handheld variety and rifles, cannot set off avalanches. Cannons, yes, because that is sometimes deliberately done today. Mythbusters even had an episode trying to bust or prove some of these theories, and busted almost all of them.
Pocahontas can be found jumping off a tall waterfall in the Virginia coastal plains area. The geography in the area of Jamestown is rather flat and you really wouldn’t see high cliffs and waterfalls.
I just read Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian, a history of native and First Nations peoples in the Americas, and he posits that John smith might never have even met Pocahontas (which was also likely not her accurate name). John smith apparently had a history of making up stories of being saved by "native princesses" on all his travels, including in Africa and around Asia.
Friar Tuck in Robin Hood is an anachronism: The Franciscan Friars weren't established until 1209. That's less on Disney and more on the original writer though.
4:42 -- No, Aladdin definitely takes place post 7th century. The Sultan at one point says "By Allah!" Otherwise he would have exclaimed "By Hubal!" (the chief god of pre-Islamic Arabic religion.)
Some more I can think of:1. Happy Birthday song in Robin Hood2. Snow White takes place in the 1500's but the word "dopey" did not exist until the late 1800's.3. The Aristocats take place in the 1910's but there was '60's Jazz.
To be fair, Genie is implied to have traveled in time with his "GREAT COSMIC POWERS!" In a similar vein to the Sword in the Stone, where Merlin makes anachronistic mentions of places like Bermuda, and it's outright stated that Bermuda is a far away place that hasn't been discovered yet, Merlin knows it through magic and time travel.
+notbobby125 Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm surprised that people don't realize it's only Genie is Aladdin who references modern stuff (no other characters), so of course it's because he is so powerful and he knows about everything.
+notbobby125 *sigh* :O OMG someone knows abt Bermuda! Disney knows abt Bermuds! I'm from Bermuda! :DDDDDDDDDDDD Too bad that I don't really know any history abt it...or anywhere really..lol
+busi magen I took a whole class on Arthurian Literature in college and wrote a 20 page paper comparing the film to the actually novel it was based on, The Once and Future King. It is also my secondary field of study besides art. No, it is not referenced in the film, but that would mean Disney Studios would have had to deal with a much darker version of the tale, as Merlin would know that Arthur (aka Wart in the novel) would die at the Battle of Camlan by the hand of his own son/nephew, Mordred.
Here's a big one you missed: in the movie "the sword in the stone", Excalibur was not the sword in the stone. The sword author pulled from the stone was just a sword. Excalibur was given to king author many years later as a gift, when the sword he pulled from the stone broke in battle.
Raymond Smith Nice assumption that I'm both an asshole and someone who would correct him. Much more of a telling statement about you than it is about me. Edit: Also, he probably did it because his son is in the dinosaur-obsessed phase little kids go through, leading John to do lots of reading about dinosaurs (avian and non-avian).
+TheChocoXCheese when someone said "dinosaurs" they mean the creatures from millions of years ago and you know that, but he has to say non-avian because if he doesn't a bunch of assholes will post "birds are dinosaurs and they live with lemurs" and act like they are smart for knowing something everyone knows.
Raymond Smith Not necessarily. Someone could say dinosaurs and be referring both to the creatures from millions of years ago and some modern birds. It's like specifying that you're talking about squares, and not all rectangles. Yes, you could say rectangles and people would know you're talking about four-sided figures, but it's better to specify squares to make sure everyone knows you're talking about the kind with four equal sides.
Thanks for preparing the list, but I kind of thought that the singing gargoyles, talking trees, ice skating snowmen, and flying carpets hint that the movies may not be 100% historically accurate.
I love John Green! My history teacher used to show us his crash course videos in our world history class. He can be so funny, and he definitely knows his history really well. I love the points he makes, and it's really entertaining to think about these inaccuracies for sure.
Favorite Disney Fact: According to our tour guide, Walt Disney's first ride on the Disneyland monorail was a mistake. It was the day the monorail was supposed to open, but the team of Imagineers working on it had not been able to get the thing to start. Then-Vice President Richard Nixon was also on board when the Imagineer (who was apparently not on the project, but was doing a favor for his coworkers) dressed as the conductor managed to get it running accidentally. Neither Disney nor Nixon knew that the conductor used the length of the ride to figure out how to stop it.
Is anyone else puzzled how every Beauty and the Beast townsperson forgot about about a castle a few miles out of town that had been occupied just 5 years earlier?
same here. I haven't seen that many Disney movies as a child and watched Hercules a few years ago for the first time, already being interested in Greek Mythology. I was kind of annoyed at the beginning of the movie. Hercules was not Hera's son. He is the most well known hero, aka half god. Somethings like Hercules being evil were Weird, but I guess bot quite as bad. still not sure what I should think of the titans in that movie, considering gods look just like humans and a lot of gods are actually the children of titans.
+SmilyLily1996 well at least they had the scene during the zero to hero song where they paid tribute to the myth's(9 or 12?) trials that he had to preform in the actual story, also he mentions Oedipus which is a funny joke for the adults, there's a few other things that at least in my opinion make up for the far stretched parts of the movie
+Cycling in Edmonton from the Eyes of a Teen I think you're right, and also probably over the years people just equated him with evil because of the fear of death and especially with the bible and the origins of the concept of a hell
+ZarZDodge Bad-mitten is a really fun game: everyone brings a pair of mittens and you cut the fingers and thumb off one, then stuff that one and one of each pair inside it's corresponding mitten. Then everyone takes turns blindly drawing them from a bucket, puts on the pair they selected, and goes out and plays in the snow. The person who drew the "bad mitten" loses their digits to frostbite and everyone laughs and has a good time.
To be fair, the Pocahontas thing isn't just Disney's fault. The legend of Pocahontas has been around for awhile and is mostly the fault of John Smith. During the time that he came back to England it was common for explorers to write fictional tales of adventures and people during the time knew these stories weren't real. His books weren't very popular (bad grammar and spelling, also poor storytelling ability) and faded until about a century later when it was dug up and the historians at the time thought it was a journal telling true events. The book was republished and was much more popular as a 'true story' and it wasn't until just a few decades ago that someone was like, wait, this didn't happen.
Fav Disney anachronism? Given that I actually grew up in Hampton, VA (roughly the same place that the film Pocahontas takes place in) mine would probably be the geographical inaccuracies. Coastal Virginia at that time was a tidal flood plane that was dominated by wetlands and forests, and crisscrossed with many naturally occurring waterways. There were no 400 foot cliffs as seem in the earlier part of the movie. Also, the weeping willow that was Grandmother Willow would not have existed as weeping willow trees are native to China, and would not have been found anywhere in Virginia at that time; making the use a Grandmother Willow's bark as a pain killer (to the best of my knowledge) a likely product of traditional Chinese medicine, and not what was actually used by any tribe within the Powhatan Confederacy.
Robin Hood was actually supposed to be an italian story which you can see a lot of the elements in about an actual fox, "Reynard the Fox". They worried american viewers wouldn't like it, and Reynard was a bad role model so they merged it with the Robin hood mythology.
I really enjoy Mental Floss and all the iterations of the program. But I found this maybe my favorite episode to date. can I make a suggestion for a show? here's 3, 1 video controversies, 2 restaurants that have been shutdown, 3 authors who have had their books denied publishing in their home countries. really enjoy the shows thanks for your consistent posting. DON'T FORGET TO BE AWESOME
Fact of the day: Pocohantes actually was married to a man named John Rolfe who had a booming industry of tobacco in Jamestown. Pocohantes married John Rolfe at 19 so yes she did have a lover just not until three years before her death
I think we can all forgive these kinds of trespasses. After all, it's perfectly acceptable that the characters speak English, have magical powers, talk to animals, etc.
A few good quotes from the TV show Castle that apply to this...and most movies and tv shows. "Stop messing up my story with your logic!" and "We wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of a good story"
I've got a lot of favorite Disney facts, but this one is one of my favorites- In the Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland, there is a basketball court hidden within the mountain
the original bambi book was far more accurate as far as deer behavior goes and has one of the most interesting takes on personified deer responding to their own behavior I may have ever read. There are other interesting dialogs as well, like when the fox asked the dog why he betrayed a brother just to obey a human. The romance aspect was changed for the movie, which I like, I'm always soft for romance, the book is far more realistic in it's portrayal of deer behavior. The guy who wrote it spent a lot of time just watching deer and animals, I find him relateable in that regard.
The book has bambi madly lusting after faline, a gal he knew since they were fawns, and romancing her only to, when asked why he stopped loving her after (mating season) he just says, I don't know. He was now indifferent but amicable with her. Which is a vvery interesting perspective
+wlfbck20 There is history in every form of fiction, even in fantasy and science fiction. Your cultural background and time period will affect a lot of decisions you make when writing a story. So for every Disney film, there's the cultural and temporal context of the people making the film, plus the cultural and temporal context of the people who wrote or compiled the original story or folk tale the movie is based on. Of course, it's not as simple as a textbook that gives you a fairly accurate historical account of what happened at a certain point in time, but it can still give you some insight into what people knew and thought about when a film was made, or a book was written.
You could do an entire list show on the problems in Hercules. When I was in high school my Latin class took two days to watch the movie and write up a list of them. Although, in the movie, Phil does have what is possibly the best linguistic joke in Disney history.
+Brian Shea Also, _random girl who lives in a tower in 18th century Germany has a chameleon_. WHAT!? The guy playing the piano bothered me way more, but that's mostly because I though the story took place in the Middle Ages when I first watched it. Either way, I bet it's still a much too modern piano.
The Notre Dame one is really interesting, because the book was written for the sole purpose of telling people how dumb these additions to Gothic cathedrals were. There's like a 50 page long digression on it.
Fun Fact: Walt Disney had a secret apartment above the fire station in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. It was decorated with Victorian-style furnishings and you can see it for youself if you sign up for the Behind-the-Scenes tour at the Park. To this day they still leave a light on in the window of the apartment at night to symbolize Walt continuing to watch over the park.
ok so fun fact about the fish in Atlantis. According to the commentary it was intentional because they figured this guy was bankrolling all these crazy expeditions and had tech that was ahead of its time...so yeah they knew about the fish or something its been awhile
Have yet to check a cursive chinese dictionary to see if they're real cursive, but the chinese characters on mulan's arm looks like grass/cursive script, on which some simplified characters were based. Grass script would have existed at the time
Actually, regarding Frozen; since Rapunzel and Flynn show up for Elsas coronation it proves Frozen is set sometime right after Tangled which as you said was in the 1780's.
Also in Robinhood, King Richard did have a brother John who tried to usurp the throne while Richard was off fighting in the third crusade. In the movie they sing "Too late to be known as John the First, he's sure to be known as John the Worst". When Richard died John legitimately inherited the throne and isn't just King John the First, but King John the Only.
Yeah John Smith never claimed to be in love with Pocahontas, just that they befriended each other and she saved his life, which makes the whole "they were in love" deal terrifying in retrospect.
In defense of the waltz in Sleeping Beauty, and to add my favorite Disney fact: the movie is actually based on the Tchaikovsky ballet by the same name. They had classical ballet dancers come to the animation studio so that the animators could capture their movements. The waltz alludes to (and directly samples from) the famous waltz from the original ballet score. So I'm willing to forgive them on that one.
I could honestly never get over Elsa's snow dress. Where exactly did she learn about that neckline and that leg slit and just the design in general? Was she a fashion pioneer? (disregarding the fact that it was of snow and should have melted)
#11 gets a pass for one reason: In the original, Hercules is an affront to Hera in two ways: 1. He was born out of wedlock, and 2. He was born from an affair. Both things go against Hera's status as Goddess of marriage. Wedlock and infidelity, two things I don't think anyone wants their protagonist to be known for.
So...did you write your books in the future and send them to the past? or, is mental floss taking place post all John Green books including future releases?
Honestly, he could have done an entire list show about the inaccuracies in Hercules. Like the fact that Hercules is the only one who is referred to by the Roman pronunciation of his name (in Greek it's Hera-clees). Or the fact that Hera hated him and wanted him dead. Or, my personal favorite, Hermes' stupid joke about Narcissus loving himself. Narcissus was mortal and therefore would never have been allowed on Olympus. And the list goes on...
Pirates of the Caribbean (attraction not the films) is supposed to take place during the late 1600's to mid 1700's. One scene shows three pirates singing the theme song, with one of them playing a concertina. This instrument was not invented until 1829.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is based on Notre-Dame de Paris. But when the french version of the movie came out, Disney called it Le Bossu de Notre Dame.
Disney is more guilty of inaccuracy than most, and a bit less repentant, but I can forgive lightweight stuff, especially like Robin Williams dropping unscripted gags in the Aladin movies. When clangers drop out in stuff that is meant to be firmly set in a time and a place, it is harder to forgive, but when clangers fall out in stuff that's meant to be non-fiction, that gets your attention. Best of all is when it passes as 'news' and is set on the day before the one you are reading it, and you were present, and know it is an inaccurate description at best. That really gets your attention.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 89 | คู่เอก "ยอดไอคิว vs คิริลล์"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Z3vYkHJ_5Ig/mqdefault.jpg)
If you listen to the audio commentary on Atlantis, they confirm that they knew the coelacanths were too early, but included them as a joke about how "ahead of the times" Whitmore was.
+JokesInBase13 Yeah I totally got that joke. Cool that the commentary confirmed that.
I thought it was such a cool thing when I saw that in the movie. Really fits with the character of Whitmore I think.
+JokesInBase13 I've not seen the film, but doesn't it count that regardless of when they were *rediscovered* they were always swimming around minding their own business? Is the problem that they were given a name which hadn't been coined yet?
Phil Boswell
As I see it this point is questionable if it a historical inaccuracy. Yes it is historically inaccurate in the sense that no Coelacanths where swimming around in aquariums at the time (That we know of at least. Who knows. Maybe there was a crazy fish lover had one in a aquarium but it was never documented.)
But of course the fish was around at the time even if it was unknown that the species was still alive. (And technically the fossil while looking very smiler to modern day Coelacanths would likely not be the same species.)
Also considering the whole thing was intended. A bit like all the pop culture references the Genie in Aladdin puts out. They are intended both for comedic effect and to show off the cosmic power beyond space and time that the genie possess. Intentional Anachronism vs unintended.
Geographic inaccuracy: my daughters and I always laugh at the cliffs of Virginia in "Pocahontas."
Actually, did you know that Robin Hood wasn't an anthropomorphic, talking fox? A lot of people glare over that small detail.
I was joking.
Wait, what? Why didn't anyone tell me? Boy, do I feel silly now
+Jeffrey Green Robin Hood wasn't an anthropomorphic talking fox, nor was he a human. He was a work of fiction.
It was also the BEST Disney film ever made (Sword in the Stone is a very close tie for first).
for the Frozen gun thing: You wouldn't fire a pistol in a snowy mountain area because of fear of setting off an avalanche. It stands to reason they used crossbows because they did not want to die a snowy death.
+Colin Lebold Icame to the same thing 3 days ago based more on the design of the ships which look like the kind that would carry cannons so they had to have guns stand the question though where did they get the at the time anitquated crossbows? is there like ome strategic crossbow reserve in Arendale? incase they run out of gunpowder?
+Colin Lebold Guns, at least the handheld variety and rifles, cannot set off avalanches. Cannons, yes, because that is sometimes deliberately done today. Mythbusters even had an episode trying to bust or prove some of these theories, and busted almost all of them.
+Colin Lebold The more likely reason is "This is a KID'S movie! We can't have guns in a KID'S MOVIE!! THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!"
+Dennis Fluttershy More like Disney law...
Did myhtbusters completely disprove this myth
@2:32 the only place where Jane could have introduced Tarzan to both Charles Darwin and Rudyard Kipling would be in a library.
+James Mcenanly oooh thats good, very good!
Well he said Kipling wasn't famous till 1889, maybe he was just a friend of Jane's that Tarzan could meet
in the book of " Tarzan of the Apes," Jane and the professor never mentioned Darwin or Kipling. Another cool fact is that Tarzan mother Kala dies
+Osvaldo Raya
Step-mother. Rather an important distinction in Tarzan's case.
+qhsperson Foster mother would be more acurate
Pocahontas can be found jumping off a tall waterfall in the Virginia coastal plains area. The geography in the area of Jamestown is rather flat and you really wouldn’t see high cliffs and waterfalls.
Yep. I live there and can confirm. Super flat.
I just read Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian, a history of native and First Nations peoples in the Americas, and he posits that John smith might never have even met Pocahontas (which was also likely not her accurate name). John smith apparently had a history of making up stories of being saved by "native princesses" on all his travels, including in Africa and around Asia.
+lyadmilo Are we in the same anthropology class? I just read it too.
+Ainsley Jey You both need to get back to class! lol
+Ainsley Jey YOU GUYS HAVE MR. SIMMONS TOO?!
Pocahontas's actual name was Matoaka. And she did exist.
Noooo McNasser, nvm :p
Friar Tuck in Robin Hood is an anachronism: The Franciscan Friars weren't established until 1209. That's less on Disney and more on the original writer though.
Throwing tomatoes in Hunchback of Notre Dame-hmmph, these are New World crops, so they wouldn't have been discovered yet
Good one!
4:42 -- No, Aladdin definitely takes place post 7th century. The Sultan at one point says "By Allah!" Otherwise he would have exclaimed "By Hubal!" (the chief god of pre-Islamic Arabic religion.)
Some more I can think of:1. Happy Birthday song in Robin Hood2. Snow White takes place in the 1500's but the word "dopey" did not exist until the late 1800's.3. The Aristocats take place in the 1910's but there was '60's Jazz.
Yes, in a movie universe where people can turn into dragons and change pumpkins into carriages, John Green takes issue with the waltz.
+KrustyFrank27 Magic has been around forever...the waltz has not...
+Brandon Buchner that's an excellent and hilarious point
Your thinking of Cinderella and he was talking about Sleeping Beauty
+holeygeorge Someone still turns into a dragon in Sleeping Beauty.
You're*
To be fair, Genie is implied to have traveled in time with his "GREAT COSMIC POWERS!"
In a similar vein to the Sword in the Stone, where Merlin makes anachronistic mentions of places like Bermuda, and it's outright stated that Bermuda is a far away place that hasn't been discovered yet, Merlin knows it through magic and time travel.
+notbobby125
" _phenomenal_ cosmic powers"
Wow. I'm surprised I even remember that.
+notbobby125 Yeah, that's what I thought. I'm surprised that people don't realize it's only Genie is Aladdin who references modern stuff (no other characters), so of course it's because he is so powerful and he knows about everything.
+notbobby125 *sigh* :O OMG someone knows abt Bermuda! Disney knows abt Bermuds! I'm from Bermuda! :DDDDDDDDDDDD Too bad that I don't really know any history abt it...or anywhere really..lol
+busi magen I took a whole class on Arthurian Literature in college and wrote a 20 page paper comparing the film to the actually novel it was based on, The Once and Future King. It is also my secondary field of study besides art. No, it is not referenced in the film, but that would mean Disney Studios would have had to deal with a much darker version of the tale, as Merlin would know that Arthur (aka Wart in the novel) would die at the Battle of Camlan by the hand of his own son/nephew, Mordred.
+busi magen Sorry to preach, though; this is my favorite field of study and I could go on about it all day long. :)
when you start trying to apply accuracies to fairytales, you aren't dealing with fairytales anymore
So true! This really needs more likes
Robin Hood is based in the 1190’s, and the rooster is playing a guitar, and guitars weren’t invented until the 1500’s
That's a mandolin, not a guitar, but yes, it's still the wrong time frame for it.
In Aladdin, forget about Jasmine's inaccurate wardrobe. The original story wasn't even set in the middle east. It happened in China.
Here's a big one you missed: in the movie "the sword in the stone", Excalibur was not the sword in the stone. The sword author pulled from the stone was just a sword. Excalibur was given to king author many years later as a gift, when the sword he pulled from the stone broke in battle.
THANK YOU FOR BRINGING JOHN BACK SO OFTEN
WHO LET JOHN SAY NOTRE DAME LIKE THAT????
+Missus Attila Meredith.
Mispronouncing stuff is his thing
+Missus Attila Well he lives not too far from the college that is pronounced like that.
Raymond Smith you are totally right and I completely forgot
+Missus Attila That's how 'Muricans pronounce it, unfortunately. One of the many things they pronounce wrong.
The bike is an anachronism in Frozen, and it drives me crazy!
This is my favorite Mental Floss video ever. These are all the things I yell at people about when we watch the movies. I also sing along very loudly.
Big props to John and the team for "non-avian dinosaurs!"
l
Raymond Smith Nice assumption that I'm both an asshole and someone who would correct him. Much more of a telling statement about you than it is about me.
Edit: Also, he probably did it because his son is in the dinosaur-obsessed phase little kids go through, leading John to do lots of reading about dinosaurs (avian and non-avian).
+TheChocoXCheese when someone said "dinosaurs" they mean the creatures from millions of years ago and you know that, but he has to say non-avian because if he doesn't a bunch of assholes will post "birds are dinosaurs and they live with lemurs" and act like they are smart for knowing something everyone knows.
Raymond Smith Not necessarily. Someone could say dinosaurs and be referring both to the creatures from millions of years ago and some modern birds. It's like specifying that you're talking about squares, and not all rectangles. Yes, you could say rectangles and people would know you're talking about four-sided figures, but it's better to specify squares to make sure everyone knows you're talking about the kind with four equal sides.
+Zelmel Pretty pointless, do you also refer to "non-dog wolves"?
To everybody who gets iffed by the historical inaccuracies: IT'S DISNEY!
Historically Accurate Disney Princesses by BuzzFeed is a good video.
Historically Accurate Disney Princesses by BuzzFeed is a good video.
+Cookie Num Num Oh! I watched that one! It was hilarious.
THANK YOU
Oh, how I love this kind of nerdyness! This reasoning is so like me! :D
Thanks for preparing the list, but I kind of thought that the singing gargoyles, talking trees, ice skating snowmen, and flying carpets hint that the movies may not be 100% historically accurate.
I love John Green! My history teacher used to show us his crash course videos in our world history class. He can be so funny, and he definitely knows his history really well. I love the points he makes, and it's really entertaining to think about these inaccuracies for sure.
Favorite Disney Fact: According to our tour guide, Walt Disney's first ride on the Disneyland monorail was a mistake. It was the day the monorail was supposed to open, but the team of Imagineers working on it had not been able to get the thing to start. Then-Vice President Richard Nixon was also on board when the Imagineer (who was apparently not on the project, but was doing a favor for his coworkers) dressed as the conductor managed to get it running accidentally. Neither Disney nor Nixon knew that the conductor used the length of the ride to figure out how to stop it.
I've always had this impression that the "Princess" movies are all in an alternate Earth timeline thingy anyhow
Is anyone else puzzled how every Beauty and the Beast townsperson forgot about about a castle a few miles out of town that had been occupied just 5 years earlier?
This is my biggest pet peeve ever. Disney historical inaccuracies. Especially the Hercules ones. Do go on.
same here.
I haven't seen that many Disney movies as a child and watched Hercules a few years ago for the first time, already being interested in Greek Mythology.
I was kind of annoyed at the beginning of the movie.
Hercules was not Hera's son. He is the most well known hero, aka half god.
Somethings like Hercules being evil were Weird, but I guess bot quite as bad.
still not sure what I should think of the titans in that movie, considering gods look just like humans and a lot of gods are actually the children of titans.
+SmilyLily1996 well at least they had the scene during the zero to hero song where they paid tribute to the myth's(9 or 12?) trials that he had to preform in the actual story, also he mentions Oedipus which is a funny joke for the adults, there's a few other things that at least in my opinion make up for the far stretched parts of the movie
+Katelovescbj it is by far my favorite Disney movie regardless of its inacuracies, they still agitate me though.
+Katelovescbj it is by far my favorite Disney movie regardless of its inacuracies, they still agitate me though.
+Cycling in Edmonton from the Eyes of a Teen I think you're right, and also probably over the years people just equated him with evil because of the fear of death and especially with the bible and the origins of the concept of a hell
Bad-mitten? Never heard about that sport before
+ZarZDodge Really? It's pretty fun! And the "ball" is called a shuttle-cock. Which is an awesome word.
***** Yeah, I know about Badminton, but not Bat-bitten. Maybe the shuttle-cock is a bat and the racket is a mitten
l
+ZarZDodge +coredumperror and hurts like hell if it hits you
+ZarZDodge Bad-mitten is a really fun game: everyone brings a pair of mittens and you cut the fingers and thumb off one, then stuff that one and one of each pair inside it's corresponding mitten. Then everyone takes turns blindly drawing them from a bucket, puts on the pair they selected, and goes out and plays in the snow. The person who drew the "bad mitten" loses their digits to frostbite and everyone laughs and has a good time.
To be fair, the Pocahontas thing isn't just Disney's fault. The legend of Pocahontas has been around for awhile and is mostly the fault of John Smith. During the time that he came back to England it was common for explorers to write fictional tales of adventures and people during the time knew these stories weren't real. His books weren't very popular (bad grammar and spelling, also poor storytelling ability) and faded until about a century later when it was dug up and the historians at the time thought it was a journal telling true events. The book was republished and was much more popular as a 'true story' and it wasn't until just a few decades ago that someone was like, wait, this didn't happen.
Fav Disney anachronism? Given that I actually grew up in Hampton, VA (roughly the same place that the film Pocahontas takes place in) mine would probably be the geographical inaccuracies. Coastal Virginia at that time was a tidal flood plane that was dominated by wetlands and forests, and crisscrossed with many naturally occurring waterways. There were no 400 foot cliffs as seem in the earlier part of the movie. Also, the weeping willow that was Grandmother Willow would not have existed as weeping willow trees are native to China, and would not have been found anywhere in Virginia at that time; making the use a Grandmother Willow's bark as a pain killer (to the best of my knowledge) a likely product of traditional Chinese medicine, and not what was actually used by any tribe within the Powhatan Confederacy.
#1 Historical Disney Inaccuracy: Han shot first.
(gets popcorn ready)
+BioniclesaurKing4t2 That scene (and indeed the series) was pre-acquisition so Disney had nothing to do with it.
+Scott Ferrell The "Han shot first" controversy isn't about Boba Fett, it's about Greedo.
How can you date Tarzan based on a typewriter used in the movie, knowing that Disney uses items that didn't exist in certain times?
Robin Hood was actually supposed to be an italian story which you can see a lot of the elements in about an actual fox, "Reynard the Fox". They worried american viewers wouldn't like it, and Reynard was a bad role model so they merged it with the Robin hood mythology.
kickass! John is back!
I really enjoy Mental Floss and all the iterations of the program. But I found this maybe my favorite episode to date. can I make a suggestion for a show? here's 3, 1 video controversies, 2 restaurants that have been shutdown, 3 authors who have had their books denied publishing in their home countries.
really enjoy the shows thanks for your consistent posting.
DON'T FORGET TO BE AWESOME
When my family went to Notre Dame, the first thing my sisters and I noticed was that there were no steps to Notre Dame. We were somewhat scandalized
apparently I am now watching this in a post apocalyptic universe. Quarantining myself. Who would have thunk it?
Love The List Show!
Fact of the day: Pocohantes actually was married to a man named John Rolfe who had a booming industry of tobacco in Jamestown. Pocohantes married John Rolfe at 19 so yes she did have a lover just not until three years before her death
I think we can all forgive these kinds of trespasses. After all, it's perfectly acceptable that the characters speak English, have magical powers, talk to animals, etc.
I love this man.
A few good quotes from the TV show Castle that apply to this...and most movies and tv shows. "Stop messing up my story with your logic!" and "We wouldn't want the facts to get in the way of a good story"
Think this one of my fave so far!
We watch your show in school all the time
Abosolute love the way John says Badmington - "Bad Mitten" awesome
Only ignorant word snobs say bad-minton .
Mulan lived in 420 huh explains why everyone looks and acts like theyre high
My favourite Disney historical boo boo- Every detail in Pirates of the Caribbean. Those films are literally filled with historical inaccuracies
I've got a lot of favorite Disney facts, but this one is one of my favorites-
In the Matterhorn Bobsleds in Disneyland, there is a basketball court hidden within the mountain
The genie is allowed to make anachronisms because he's 100% made of magic. He can do anything, so he probably knows the future.
the original bambi book was far more accurate as far as deer behavior goes and has one of the most interesting takes on personified deer responding to their own behavior I may have ever read. There are other interesting dialogs as well, like when the fox asked the dog why he betrayed a brother just to obey a human. The romance aspect was changed for the movie, which I like, I'm always soft for romance, the book is far more realistic in it's portrayal of deer behavior. The guy who wrote it spent a lot of time just watching deer and animals, I find him relateable in that regard.
The book has bambi madly lusting after faline, a gal he knew since they were fawns, and romancing her only to, when asked why he stopped loving her after (mating season) he just says, I don't know. He was now indifferent but amicable with her. Which is a vvery interesting perspective
There is *any* history in disney movies? I must've not heard of some of them.
Yeah it was pretty low hanging fruit
+wlfbck20 There is history in every form of fiction, even in fantasy and science fiction. Your cultural background and time period will affect a lot of decisions you make when writing a story. So for every Disney film, there's the cultural and temporal context of the people making the film, plus the cultural and temporal context of the people who wrote or compiled the original story or folk tale the movie is based on. Of course, it's not as simple as a textbook that gives you a fairly accurate historical account of what happened at a certain point in time, but it can still give you some insight into what people knew and thought about when a film was made, or a book was written.
You could do an entire list show on the problems in Hercules. When I was in high school my Latin class took two days to watch the movie and write up a list of them. Although, in the movie, Phil does have what is possibly the best linguistic joke in Disney history.
The Chameleon in Tangled is either a Mutation, or just incorrect. Tails on Prehensile Tailed Chameleons curl downwards, not upwards as seen on Pascal.
+Brian Shea
Also, _random girl who lives in a tower in 18th century Germany has a chameleon_. WHAT!?
The guy playing the piano bothered me way more, but that's mostly because I though the story took place in the Middle Ages when I first watched it. Either way, I bet it's still a much too modern piano.
+Brian Shea But all chameleons have human eyes, right?
The Notre Dame one is really interesting, because the book was written for the sole purpose of telling people how dumb these additions to Gothic cathedrals were. There's like a 50 page long digression on it.
Fun Fact: Walt Disney had a secret apartment above the fire station in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. It was decorated with Victorian-style furnishings and you can see it for youself if you sign up for the Behind-the-Scenes tour at the Park. To this day they still leave a light on in the window of the apartment at night to symbolize Walt continuing to watch over the park.
DUDE I LOVE YOUR BOOKS
i luv u nao
throws up at pronunciation of Notre Dame
+Katelovescbj Mispronouncing stuff is John's thing
+Katelovescbj It's the American pronunciation.
***** still gross
+Matt Smith It's the American mispronunciation.
starlinguk No, it's the American pronunciation.
Wow this was so interesting!!
ok so fun fact about the fish in Atlantis. According to the commentary it was intentional because they figured this guy was bankrolling all these crazy expeditions and had tech that was ahead of its time...so yeah they knew about the fish or something its been awhile
Thank you so much for saying "non-avian dinosaurs"!
Its a fairly well known fact that Disney changed most of the stories that were made into Disney movies
Have yet to check a cursive chinese dictionary to see if they're real cursive, but the chinese characters on mulan's arm looks like grass/cursive script, on which some simplified characters were based. Grass script would have existed at the time
Unbelievable that's a lot of information for one video man right keep it up
The genie can time travel, he's magic!
I love playing "bad mitten" lol
It would b nice of you the host too give a bit of thanks to your team that helped make this video possible.
People often nail Aladdin for the genie's anachronisms, but then forget to mention The Sword in the Stone for Merlin's anachronisms. :)
Also snowmen could not legally speak or dance until 1981 C.E.
anyone else hear the cinemasins DING for each of these?
Actually, regarding Frozen; since Rapunzel and Flynn show up for Elsas coronation it proves Frozen is set sometime right after Tangled which as you said was in the 1780's.
Fun fact. Pocahontas is buried in my home town of Gravesend, Kent. UK.
notre dame Used to have stairs in front. They've been leveled out since the 1400s.
You managed to control yourselves and only list 24 anachronisms? Not sure if i would have had that much restraint...
I was waiting the whole video for the last one
5:25 late in time or early in time? Late in the past?
my favorite anachronism has to be the presence of three-tined forks in the Little Mermaid.
I am watching this video in 2020. Could it be considered a pre-apocalyptic world?
Also in Robinhood, King Richard did have a brother John who tried to usurp the throne while Richard was off fighting in the third crusade. In the movie they sing "Too late to be known as John the First, he's sure to be known as John the Worst". When Richard died John legitimately inherited the throne and isn't just King John the First, but King John the Only.
Yeah John Smith never claimed to be in love with Pocahontas, just that they befriended each other and she saved his life, which makes the whole "they were in love" deal terrifying in retrospect.
*going to memorise these to piss off all my friends*
so interesting, I knew about the ones pertaining to milan and pocahontas, but not the others
In defense of the waltz in Sleeping Beauty, and to add my favorite Disney fact: the movie is actually based on the Tchaikovsky ballet by the same name. They had classical ballet dancers come to the animation studio so that the animators could capture their movements. The waltz alludes to (and directly samples from) the famous waltz from the original ballet score. So I'm willing to forgive them on that one.
I could honestly never get over Elsa's snow dress. Where exactly did she learn about that neckline and that leg slit and just the design in general? Was she a fashion pioneer? (disregarding the fact that it was of snow and should have melted)
Hi John!
#11 gets a pass for one reason: In the original, Hercules is an affront to Hera in two ways: 1. He was born out of wedlock, and 2. He was born from an affair. Both things go against Hera's status as Goddess of marriage. Wedlock and infidelity, two things I don't think anyone wants their protagonist to be known for.
my favorite Disney fact is : Darkwing duck was really awesome.
So...did you write your books in the future and send them to the past? or, is mental floss taking place post all John Green books including future releases?
in the live action beauty and the beast they replaced the Eiffle Tower with the guillotine wich unfourtantely was also used after the time period
Honestly, he could have done an entire list show about the inaccuracies in Hercules. Like the fact that Hercules is the only one who is referred to by the Roman pronunciation of his name (in Greek it's Hera-clees). Or the fact that Hera hated him and wanted him dead. Or, my personal favorite, Hermes' stupid joke about Narcissus loving himself. Narcissus was mortal and therefore would never have been allowed on Olympus. And the list goes on...
Pirates of the Caribbean (attraction not the films) is supposed to take place during the late 1600's to mid 1700's. One scene shows three pirates singing the theme song, with one of them playing a concertina. This instrument was not invented until 1829.
The mental floss saloon will be the best nuclear fallout shelter!
The Hunchback of Notre Dame is based on Notre-Dame de Paris. But when the french version of the movie came out, Disney called it Le Bossu de Notre Dame.
Winnie the Pooh. No stuffed bears have been known to talk.
Great video
taking the event that wiped out the dinosaurs into account, YOU ARE LIVING A WORLD AFTER THE APOCALYPSE.....
In frozen, the tandem bicycle in the "do you want to build a snowman" scene wouldn't have been around until after 1850, I believe.
Disney is more guilty of inaccuracy than most, and a bit less repentant, but I can forgive lightweight stuff, especially like Robin Williams dropping unscripted gags in the Aladin movies. When clangers drop out in stuff that is meant to be firmly set in a time and a place, it is harder to forgive, but when clangers fall out in stuff that's meant to be non-fiction, that gets your attention. Best of all is when it passes as 'news' and is set on the day before the one you are reading it, and you were present, and know it is an inaccurate description at best. That really gets your attention.