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Disney Animated Canon / Tropes Q to Z

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Disney Animated Canon Trope Examples
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    S 
  • Sadly Mythtaken: Disney is not known for accuracy when it comes to adapting myths. Their Hercules adaptation is infamous for this, to the point where it has its own folder in the trope's subpage for works based on the myth.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Most of the male and female partnerships in modern movies, both romantic and platonic.
  • Scenery Porn: Disney's animated films are usually praised by fans and critics for having beautiful environments, and in turn often end up being just as memorable as the stories and characters. Read the list over on the trope's page for Animated Films for the many stand-out examples.
  • Sequel:
    • Sequels are a rare sight in the animated canon. Walt Disney himself was extremely against making full follow-ups to his features (however, he was OK with the odd follow-up short cartoon) and almost all attempts to make feature-length sequels never got beyond the planning stages — the lone exception is debatably The Three Caballeros. It wasn't until the early 1990s that another sequel, The Rescuers Down Under, would come out, but its box office failure put the kibosh on more official sequels for years — Fantasia 2000 was the lone exception, and the 2011 Winnie the Pooh film was more of a Soft Reboot than a true sequel. As of the late 2010s, Disney is showing signs of lightening up on this with the sequels to Wreck-It Ralph and Frozen, with a follow-up to Zootopia also being currently in the planning stages.
    • In the 90s and 2000s, Disneytoon Studios did make numerous Direct to Video and made for TV follow ups to their films, but none of them are considered part of the canon.
  • Shades of Conflict: The films generally rely on Black-and-White Morality, and occasionally dip into grayer morality on occasion.
  • Shadow Archetype: In addition to being Classic Villains, the villains of many Disney movies reflect a potential flaw or weakness of the heroes, meaning that they must overcome themselves as well as the odds against them.
  • Shared Universe: Defied. Disney enforces the stance that each film (and its sequels/spinoffs, if there are any) stands on its own, with any "crossover" works declared non-canon and subject to certain rules to ensure they don't mingle too much. For example, Disney Princess merchandise can show the Princesses together in group shots, but they can't make eye contact, which would imply they know each other (though there are occasionally some slip ups, such as an image of Belle hugging Mulan). In Kingdom Hearts, there's an in-universe rule that each world involved can only interact with Mickey and his friends and Original Generation characters, not with each other.
    • There are occasionally rare exceptions to this. Aladdin and Hercules crossed over in the latter's TV show, and Tangled and Frozen are commonly held to share a universe since Rapunzel and Flynn make a Freeze-Frame Bonus appearance in the latter. Lilo & Stitch teaser marketing involved the latter character messing with the big four Renaissance films, with its original theatrical poster having many of Disney's characters revolted by his appearance, and its franchise's first TV series crossed over with not other Disney films, but rather with other Disney animated shows.
    • With the rise of Massive Multiplayer Crossover games, many (that aren't just No Plot? No Problem!) have some sort of justification explaining that the characters involved aren't the real canon versions. These include Disney Infinity (you're playing with toys of Disney characters), Disney Mirrorverse (set in an Alternate Multiverse), Disney Speedstorm (an AI modded an arcade cabinet with Disney content), and Disney Lorcana (you're summoning replicas of Disney characters made of magical ink). Even one of the canon works, Ralph Breaks the Internet, does this; as it involves several Disney characters, but it uses the excuse that these are Internet fansite versions and not the real deals.
    • Several special Disney featurettes do play the crossover trope perfectly straight however, though many of these make use of the Animated Actors trope to further their discontinuity. The House of Mouse TV series is probably the most iconic case of this, with almost every noteworthy character from the Disney films made at the time shown interacting throughout the show, Played for Laughs of course.
  • Shifted to CGI: All movies made post-2011 are no longer traditionally hand-drawn and are entirely 3D CGI.
  • Shoo Out the Clowns: During most the intense or dramatic climaxes, the comic relief characters aren't usually present. It's so prevalent that the canon has its own page.
  • Sissy Villain:
    • Scar from The Lion King (1994) is easily the most limp-pawed feline ever to grace the big screen. This becomes a Parental Bonus for the Swedish viewers, where Scar is dubbed by the very gay and very out Actor/Singer Richard Wolff. How out is he? He penned a song describing his Coming-Out Story titled "Beautiful Boys, Beautiful Men." Don't worry, Scar is still awesome.
    • Robin Hood (1973)'s anthropomorphic depiction of Prince John out-swishes Scar to such a degree, the Lion King villain looks positively Leatherman by comparison.
    • Ratigan of The Great Mouse Detective. Until he drops the veneer and goes feral during the climactic Clock Tower scene, anyway. (He was still rather imposing even before then, due to his enormous size and strength compared to the other characters. Well, as imposing as a big mouse can get, at least.)
    • "Honest" John Worthington Foulfellow in Pinocchio has his moments, though it may be more of a Large Ham persona thing. See the bit where he prances around and mimes throwing flowers while describing Pleasure Island "where every day is a holiday!"
    • Disney's human villains aren't immune either. Take Pocahontas 's mincing, flouncing, bow-wearing villain Governor Ratcliffe, for one. Most of that facade was forced on him by his assistant, Wiggins, who was extremely effeminate. Ratcliffe had his boisterous and rowdy side on occasion, though it was often just an act as well; when his men stood up to him, he folded.
    "Nothing says sinister like little pink bows on your pigtails!" — The Nostalgia Chick
    • Also to mention is Captain Hook of Peter Pan.
    • King Candy from Wreck-It Ralph, up until the moment it's revealed that it was an act to conceal his real identity, Turbo. Lives in a salmon-coloured castle, has a lisp, hops around with various effeminate mannerisms. The castle's actually a plot-point: it's girly because he stole it from a 10-year-old princess.
  • Sliding Scale of Adaptation Modification: The films in the canon that adapt pre-existing stories are all over the place with this. Some, such as Snow White and 101 Dalmatians, fall into Near Identical Adaptation. The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad is a special case, as the Wind in the Willows segment is a Recognizable Adaptation, while the Sleepy Hollow section is close to being a Near-Identical Adaptation with some Pragmatic Adaptation elements sandwiched in. Alice in Wonderland falls onto the Pragmatic Adaptation end. Some films like Pinocchio, The Sword in the Stone, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin fall into the Recognizable Adaptation category. Several film adaptations, such as The Jungle Book, The Fox and the Hound, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Frozen and Big Hero 6 fall squarely on the In Name Only end of it.
  • Sliding Scale of Animal Cast: It varies.
    • A big chunk of the canon falls on the Level 7 end of the scale, with many of the films having human protagonists with an animal Non-Human Sidekick or two.
      • Cinderella has Gus and Jacques the mice and Lucifer the cat and in its supporting cast.
      • Sleeping Beauty has Diablo the raven as the sidekick of Maleficent, the humanoid wicked fairy.
      • The Little Mermaid stars humans and humanoid merfolk, but also has Flounder the fish, Sebastian the crab, Scuttle the gull and Max the dog, as well as Flotsam and Jetsam the eels.
      • Aladdin has Abu the monkey, Raja the tiger and Iago the parrot.
      • Pocahontas has Percy the pug, Meeko the raccoon and Flit the hummingbird.
      • The Hunchback of Notre Dame has Djali, Esmeralda's pet goat.
      • Mulan has Cri-Kee the cricket and Khan the horse as Mulan's sidekicks, and Hayabusa the falcon as Shan Yu's sidekick.
      • Tangled has Maximus the horse and Pascal the chameleon.
      • Frozen has Sven the reindeer.
    • Films like Dinosaur and The Lion King have an entire cast of animals with no humans at all.
    • Films like Bambi and The Great Mouse Detective have a human cast implied but never or rarely physically present.
    • Films like Winnie the Pooh and Oliver and Company where the cast is predominately animal but also have a human (or humans) as major supporting characters.
    • Films like The Jungle Book where the protagonist is human but the bulk of the cast is animal.
    • Pinocchio, The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad, The Rescuers and The Rescuers Down Under feature an equally human and animal cast.
    • The first act of Tarzan zigzags between 4 and 7 on the scale—the first act is Tarzan living among the gorillas, but In the second act, the humans arrive, including Jane and Clayton, pushing the animal characters to the background and the film to Level 7.
    • The Emperors New Groove is a Level 6; it stars Kuzco the llama, although he's actually a human who fell victim of Forced Transformation. The rest of the cast are humans, except for Bucky the squirrel.
  • Sliding Scale of Animation Elaborateness: The films uniformly land at the top of the scale.
  • Sliding Scale of Endings: The films generally end with happy endings, and occasionally feature the odd Bittersweet Ending.
  • Sliding Scale of Realistic vs. Fantastic: Most of the Disney Animated Canon falls into the Fantastic part of the scale. Beauty and the Beast is a (if not the) prime example of internal consistency in a fantastic story where the background and the basic rules concerning the magic spell which transformed the prince to a beast (and his servants to house objects), and how it can be undone are disclosed in the opening narration. Some films like The Three Caballeros throw out the notion of realism altogether and land on the Surreal end of the scale.
  • Sliding Scale of Silliness vs. Seriousness: It depends on the film, but the films generally tend to roller coaster back and forth between having comedic and serious elements.
  • Sliding Scale of Visuals Versus Dialogue: The older films tend to put more emphasis on visual storytelling than dialogue (Bambi is particularly notable for having less than 900 words of spoken dialogue) while the newer films tend to strike a balance of visuals and dialogue.
  • Small Parent, Huge Child: A common trend in Disney animated films is for tall beautiful heroines to have short elderly fathers that can be half their daughters' height. Examples include Belle and Maurice in Beauty and the Beast, Jasmine and the Sultan in Western Animation/Aladdin, and Jane and Professor Porter in Western Animation/Tarzan.
  • The Sociopath: A recurring characteristic of the villains. Notable examples include Lady Tremaine, Percival C. McLeach, Gaston, Scar, Mother Gothel, King Candy/Turbo and Prince Hans.
  • Stock Footage: Since Disney often ran into financial trouble from trying so much to show off with their animation, this became a vital cost saver. See this video for examples, with Robin Hood (1973) being the most extreme.
  • Storybook Opening: Many of their animated films and shorts opened this way, from Snow White to Beauty and the Beast.
  • Strictly Formula: During the Disney Rennaissance in the 1990s, Disney had a very successful run from 1989 to 1994, but after that they were often accused of enforcing this trope. Rebellious princesses who want to marry for love, heroines looking for something beyond what they know, bumbling or fantasy-forbidding fathers, bad guys falling off great heights. Pocahontas was especially accused of adhering to Disney formula, which does have some merit as a complaint. Ironically though, the problem seems to have been that all these movies came out in succession, as every single movie of the Disney Renaissance has been Vindicated by History and is now well-loved (some more than others: Pocahontas is still not thought of as a great movie, and The Rescuers Down Under has gained a cult following but isn't anywhere near mainstream).

    T 
  • Talking Animal: From the mice in Cinderella to the swamp creatures in The Princess and the Frog.
  • That Reminds Me of a Song:
    • Surprisingly, avoided for the most part. Though some have argued that "Trashing the Camp" from Tarzan qualifies. There's also "Everybody Wants To Be A Cat" from The Aristocats and "Whistle While You Work" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
    • "Human Again" from Beauty and the Beast and "Morning Report" from The Lion King (1994) were un-needed additions to their respective films, since the movies didn't have them originally. ("Human Again" was a Big-Lipped Alligator Moment that rendered the story's timeline confusing, a realization that convinced Editor-In-Chief and studio chief Jeffrey Katzenberg to send it to the scrapboard, while Alan Menken and Howard Ashman relocated some of the parts about Belle's and the Beast's love blossoming to the replacement song "Something There". "Morning Report" didn't even exist until the time came for The Lion King to hit Broadway.) They aren't terrible songs, nor completely irrelevant (they're both in the stage versions of the respective movies, too). Neither of them exactly advanced the plot or provided much if any character development, but both are in the Special Editions released during the Turn of the Millennium. The 2011 3D conversions of both movies removed "Human Again" and "Morning Report" once again.
  • The Theme Park Version: While many of the movies in the Disney Animated Canon are Pragmatic Adaptations, they are often seen as Theme Park Versions of their sources due to Public Medium Ignorance. It doesn't help that most people are generally familiar with the actual Theme Park Versions, from the literal theme parks, spin-offs/sequels, crossovers, or merchandise. Considering the popularity of those Theme Park Versions however, the company obviously has no intention of correcting this mindset towards the original films, much to the vexation of fans.
  • Time Skip: Several movies in the canon started adopting this measure beginning in the Disney Renaissance period (though it had been used since the earliest movies), and continuing to this day. It got really egregious during the height of the Disney Renaissance period, when films like Hercules and Tarzan would have two or more timeskips within the expanse of a 3-minute song.
  • Toilet Humor: Averted. Gross-out gags are a rare sight in the canon, and are virtually nonexistent in the older films (the only notable example is Pumbaa farting in The Lion King). The newer films occasionally have them (i.e. Zootopia, Moana) but only in very small doses and strictly as throwaway gags.
  • Tomboy Princess:
    • The Black Cauldron: Princess Eilowny. Although heavily watered down from her original characterization, which fits this more.
    • Ariel from The Little Mermaid. Very feisty, active and adventurous, and can hold her own against a shark—the start of a Renaissance-era tradition involving the Disney Princesses. Her daughter Melody in the sequel fits as well.
    • The Lion King (1994): Nala (although she's never called a princess), as seen when she play-wrestles with Simba on her way to an elephant graveyard with him. That far into the movie, they're just friends (and they don't take seriously the idea that they'd grow up to be more than friends) and you could almost forget they're opposite genders if not for the voices. The Lion King has its protagonist and princess more similar to each other than most Disney movies do. Her rebellious, boisterous young daughter Kiara is another example, especially as Nala matures and becomes more regal.
    • Pocahontas has the titular character, who is athletic, scales mountains, climbs trees, jumps off cliffs, and steers her canoe into turbulent waters. After Merida, she's probably one of the most tomboyish Princesses.
    • The eponymous character of Mulan is not a princess, but she is part of the official Disney Princess lineup, and she's tomboyish to the extent of pretending to be a man to join the army.
    • Atlantis: The Lost Empire: Princess Kida, which seems to be part and parcel of her being The Chief's Daughter, right up to the point where they actually show her climbing up a large rock structure while wearing a long, flowing dress at the end of the film!
    • Princess Merida from the Pixar film Brave. This is the root of the conflict with her mother; she hates the courtly education Elinor gives her and doesn't want to marry. She just wants to ride horses and practice archery.
    • Vanellope von Schweetz from Wreck-It Ralph, a spunky and tomboyish little kart racer, is revealed to be a princess at the end of the movie, although she gives up that title to become a President instead.
  • Training Montage: Featured in Mulan, Big Hero 6 and Zootopia.
  • The End: Prior to 1985's The Black Cauldron, every Disney animated film (excluding Fantasia) ended with a screen saying "The End", and below that, "A Walt Disney Production" (during Walt's lifetime) or "Walt Disney Productions" (after his death). The Great Mouse Detective (1986), Aladdin (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), and The Emperor's New Groove (2000) also had "The End" screens, without the Walt Disney credit.

    V 
  • The 'Verse: Possibly with all the cameos and Easter eggs and what not. If Kingdom Hearts is considered, each movie takes place in its own world that exists separate from the others due to the events of the Great Keyblade War.
    • Tangled and Frozen are all but explicitly confirmed to exist in the same universe, with Fanon generally accepting Rapunzel, Anna, and Elsa to be cousins by way of their respective mothers being sisters, though Frozen II later gave Anna and Elsa's mother a backstory that would make such a relationship impossible. A common theory also places The Little Mermaid in this same universe with the sunken ship Ariel explores at the beginning being the same one that carried the king and queen of Arendellenote.
  • Vanity Plate: With Lasseter's arrival at Disney, newer films (starting with Meet the Robinsons) now have a vanity plate paying homage to the studio's roots in traditional animation and Mickey Mouse's first hit short Steamboat Willie. Like the RKO Radio Pictures/Buena Vista/Walt Disney Pictures logos, it too got an alteration for a film (in this case, Wreck-It Ralph).
  • Very Special Episode: Zootopia deeply explores the nature of social bias between two groups (predator and prey) that have a historical tension between them in a way unexpected of most animated films, let alone Disney movies. It's especially notable given the increasing racial tensity of The New '10s. It is also an incredibly thorough deconstruction of how a World of Funny Animals would actually work.
  • Victorious Chorus: Commonly used at the end of some films.
  • Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: However, the "Saccharine Show" part becomes less notable with the canon's more mature films.

    W 

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