Just For Fun / Disney's Anne Frank

Disney's Anne Frank is an^note (imaginary) animated film released by Disney in Spring 1989. It is very, very loosely based on The Diary of a Young Girl (or most commonly known as "The Diary of Anne Frank") but takes a lot of liberties with the source material, adding three talking animal sidekicks, a Nazi necromancer Femme Fatale, and a Happily Ever After ending.

Despite Disney's assurances that they understood the sensitivity of the source material, it was critically panned for its handling of the Holocaust, particularly the ending, where Anne liberates Auschwitz. It was a Box Office Bomb and was largely buried by Disney outside of two home video releases (in 1990 and 2003), a limited theatrical re-release in 1995 to promote Pocahontas (since it is the other Disney animated film that is loosely based on a historical figure), and once-in-a-blue-moon TV airings (and both home video releases have no reviews on the box at all, a la Gigli), and is the company's second-most infamous film after Song of the South.

This film has a rather fascinating behind-the-scenes history, though.^note (Basically, this movie was never actually made or conceived by Disney. The premise and poster were a joke used by Lindsay Ellis in her 5 Least Awful Disney Animated Sequels video to parody the Disneyfication of real events {such as Pocahontas}, and serious-toned stories {such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame}. All the names of real people associated with this movie are only used as satire. In short, there is no actual Disney's Anne Frank movie, and this page is Just for Fun.) Please keep the sensitive nature of this topic in mind.^note (Feel free to add whatever you'd like, but the tone should be that of a sincere, but extremely misguided, effort by a studio that didn't think too hard about the Unfortunate Implications. And the number of characters, songs, etc, should be within the limits of an animated film. Otherwise, anything goes. Remember, this whole thing's just for fun - the film itself doesn't even exist. It was meant as a joke on the part of The Nostalgia Chick. We just took it and ran with it.)

Compare other such unfortunate films as Titanic: The Legend Goes On, and The Legend of the Titanic.^note (These movies are real, though. So yeah, this page is a joke, but this sort of thing does happen.) Also see Der Fuehrer's Face, another WWII-themed Disney short that actually played before this movie during its brief theatrical run.

In late 2013, Israeli director Ari Folman, best known for his animated film Waltz with Bashir about the 1982 Lebanon War, announced his next project would be a more faithful adaptation of Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl, though it would still be a family-driven animated one.

Compare to Aladdin IV: Jafar May Need Glasses, which is a similarly-infamous animated movie that Disney has gone out of their way to bury, and Anne Frank: Vampire, another^note (fictional) supernaturally-inflected version of Anne's story with a much darker tone and more graphic violence. Compare also with Where Is Anne Frank a ^note real fantasy animated movie that explores her legacy with the maturity and delicacy this thing could not.

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Disney's Anne Frank provides examples of:

• A God Am I: Josef Mengele plans to become the "Great Archangel of Humanity", essentially becoming this as he would be worshiped by everyone.
• Absurdly Spacious Sewer: During the escape scene. It even has a mall, complete with German Valley Girls out front. And a multiplex, showing... Disney's Anne Frank.
• Adaptation Dye-Job: Some of the promotional materials show that in the film's early stages, Anne was blonde. An animator, whose name still has not been revealed, said this should've been the moment when they realized this wasn't going to work.
• Adaptational Heroism: Josef Mengele was, in real life, nothing more than a pseudoscientific butcher. Here, he's portrayed as trying to unlock the next stage of human evolution with his "experiments" (and partially succeeds, becoming an angel in the climax).
• Adaptational Nice Guy:
  • Mrs. Van Pels was portrayed in Anne's entries as an nagging shrew, while in the film she is instead a Cool Old Lady.
  • Edith Frank is also portrayed as a mother who wishes to connect with her teenage daughter, but often struggles to, rather than the sarcastic, often aloof person Anne wrote about.
• Adolf Hitlarious: Averted; while the Nazis are portrayed as buffoonish mooks, Hitler himself is depicted completely seriously in his only (and faceless) appearance.
• Alan Smithee: The movie went through several directors during development and filming with all of them ultimately deciding to abandon the project, which explains the film's uneven pacing and tone at points. Among the directors that worked on this project were Tim Burton (who left to work on Batman), Jerry Lewis, and Mel Brooks. Indeed, the only director that's credited in the finished cut is "Alan Smithee".
• All Germans Are Nazis: Played straight, especially during the musical number "Life is Heil-arious!", which shows uniformed SS soldiers serving as policemen, train operators, even bakers. It even has callbacks to Disney's propaganda cartoons Der Fuehrer's Face and Education for Death.
• All-Loving Hero: Anne.
• All-Star Cast: And boy those it have one, almost rivalrying The Lion King; the most notable are:
  • Molly Ringwald as Anne Frank.
  • Johnny Depp as Peter Van Pels
  • Madonna as Sgt. Olga
  • Alan Rickman as Josef Mengele
  • Meg Ryan as Margot Frank
  • Tom Cruise as Fritz Pfeffer
  • Richard Harris as Otto Frank
  • Julie Andrews as Edith Frank
  • Jerry Lewis as Mr. Van Pels
  • Rita Moreno as Mrs. Van Pels
  • Dan Aykroyd as Private Ludvig
  • Jason Alexander as Miep
  • And let's not get started with the cameos
• Almost Kiss: Anne and Peter, right before they are captured by Sgt. Olga. And again at the end before Miep interrupts the two.
• Aloof Big Sister: Margot, in the beginning of the film.
• Aluminum Christmas Trees: Sgt. Olga mentions that she's a member of the Thule Society, a real Nazi organization that investigated the occult. Of course, in real life, they didn't have actual magic powers.
• America Won World War II:
  • Averted within the film itself; in this version of the story, the Jews just save themselves. The army that parades through Amsterdam in the final scene is American, though.
  • After Anne and Peter get married, it is revealed in a newsreel-style montage that America won the war against Germany and Japan in the next month (Italy got cut from the Axis powers for some reason), and with next to no bloodshed.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • Lorenz and Marie-Rose Blanche are a very 1980s couple, modeled after real-life Eighties couple Jeff Goldblum and Geena Davis, so they particularly fall into this trap. The two sing Mickey and Silvia's "Love Is Strange", a song that wouldn't be released until 15 years after the events of the film take place. Which in turn is referencing a movie about the Sixties that wouldn't be released until 45 years later.
  • Josef Mengele in his angel form begins spouting pop-cultural references about Star Wars, The Fly (1986), and The Thing (1982).
• Animalistic Abomination: Mengele's true form looks remarkably like a swan.
• Animated Musical: With songs by Mel Brooks, Howard Ashman and Alan Menken, and Phil Collins. Yes, that Phil Collins.
• Animation Bump: Given the animation department's Troubled Production, the frame rates are wildly inconsistent, sometimes changing even within shots.
  • One scene has Anne inexplicably replaced by a rotoscoped model for a brief second, as she crouches down to pick up her diary on the floor.
  • After Anne is captured and sent to Auschwitz, Sgt. Olga's animation becomes surprisingly smooth as she threatens Anne to run a film reel of Triumph of the Will.
• Anthropomorphic Personification: Anne's diary, Kitty, is personified as a small girl with cat ears and fangs. An odd case, as she goes back and forth between being a person and being a book, oftentimes with no regard for context. For example, when Sgt. Olga takes her away, she's a book - but just a few frames prior, she'd been a human. Even more damning, we later see her locked up in a cage... as a human.
• Arc Words: "Deep down, I believe everyone is good at heart." -Anne
• Artistic License – History: Which, in itself, is a symptom of Disneyfication (see below).
  • Sgt Olga drives a car that closely resembles a Jaguar XK 120, which in addition to being a British car, was not produced until 1948.
  • Even though a young Will Smith's voice cameo provided a small Moment of Awesome, not only did Jackie Robinson not become a Brooklyn Dodger until 1947, why would he even be in Amsterdam?
  • Putting aside the Willing Suspension of Disbelief required for a small egret to wear heels, a pearl necklace, and an evening gown, said evening gown reflects the Christian Dior "New Look" of long, full skirts, which wasn't introduced until 1948.
  • One of the Nazis is referred to as Ernst Röhm, whom Hitler had actually murdered in 1934 during the Night of the Long Knives.
  • There's one cut of the film where Sgt Olga and Josef Mengele marry. He already had a wife called Irene Schöbein, who doesn't appear in any version of the movie.
  • In Real Life, Fritz Pfeffer was in his fifties when he hid out with the Franks and van Pels. Here, he's made into a teenager, apparently for no other reason than to Pair the Spares with Margot. Oy.
• Ascended Extra: Kaiser Willy in the Latin American cut.
• Award-Bait Song:
  • "Living Free (Until the Nazis Find Us Again)" even though, as pointed out in the Nostalgia Chick/Todd in the Shadows crossover "Top Ten Award Bait Disney Songs", it sounds suspiciously similar to Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth"...
  • Marie-Rose Blanche's Chariots of Fire-style song "Endurance", which she sings as motivation during Anne's seize on Auschwitz.
  • The ending pop song was actually a Top 40 hit, although it has no official connection to this movie. The singer allegedly punched a reporter for even asking about it.
  • Some fans would argue for "The World I See (from My Secret Window)" as the preferred award-grabbing ballad.
• Babies Ever After: While she lays dying, Marie-Rose Blanche tells Lorenz that she "left you something to remember me by". At the end of the film, before Anne and Peter leave for London, Anne and Peter bid Lorenz and Marie-Rose's mixed-species clutch of nestlings farewell. We also see Anne and Peter, along with what appears to be a human version of Lorenz and Marie-Rose, as beatnik-type married couples with children, during the '80s-music video-esque Disney Acid Sequence for "Leibchen".
• Back-to-Back Badasses: When Sgt. Olga is forced to give Anne a gun to fight off the Zombies that eat her squad.
• Badass Bookworm: Anne Frank. Lorenz the Stork qualifies, especially after the (apparent) fall of Marie-Rose Blanche.
• Balloon Belly:
  • During her Villain Song in a beer hall, Sgt. Olga enthusiastically guzzles down bigger and bigger mugs throughout, resulting in a huge one of these by the end.
  • Anne gets one from gorging herself after the initial escape from Auschwitz. To be fair, she had been starved.
• The Baroness: Sgt. Olga, of course.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: Anne yells at her mother that she wishes that she would never see her again. Then she and Peter get captured...
• Beam Me Up, Scotty!: Several lines which were supposed to be taken directly from Anne Frank's diary were misquoted.
• Berserk Button: Being called a "goose" is one for Menegle.
• Beta Couple: Lorenz and Marie-Rose Blanche. One of the rare Disney cases in which one of them dies (even though she does get better).
• Big Bad: Josef Mengele is the true mastermind behind everything.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:invoked
  • When Miep tries to cheer up Anne when her birthday turned out to be very disappointing, she leads into a big band musical number with a Disney Acid Sequence going on in the background. The whole thing is loud and bombastic to make Anne happy and flies directly into the face of the fact that at the start of the movie, Anne's father clearly stated that they had to try to be as quiet as possible.
• Big "NO!": Anne gets one when Auschwitz is overrun with zombies, complete with Skyward Scream.
• Bilingual Bonus:
  • Sgt. Hündin's surname means "bitch" in German.
  • On the good guys' side, Rose Blanche means "White Rose" in French, although whether this intentionally references the 1940s pacifist youth resistance movement in Munich is unclear.
  • Given Lorenz's penchant for quotes and aphorisms in foreign languages, every other word he says falls into this category.
  • Olga's mooks say things like "I wanted to be a violinist..." and "Did you used to kiss your mommy with that mouth?!"
• Black Magic: The villains tap into this, creating an army of Nazi zombie soldiers.
• Bloodless Carnage:
  • When Anne and Marie-Rose are shot by Sgt. Olga.
  • The Auschwitz uprising. It helps that 9 out of 10 guards are zombies.
• Bond One-Liner: Anne has quite a few, given her actress.
  "Tomorrow belongs to us now."
• Bumbling Sidekick: Private Ludvig is the clumsy, bumbling henchman of Sgt. Olga. Being a zombie that can fall apart certainly helps.
• Busby Berkeley Number: The shower scene. Many have thought the number invokes Lyrical Dissonance, but listen carefully and you'll find that the backing vocals are actually a jazzed-up nursery rhyme about personal hygiene. Apparently the vocalists were never told they were singing as prisoners of war!
• Butt-Monkey: Ludvig continues the long Disney trend of bumbling henchmen abused by their villainous masters.
• But Wait, There's More!: Disney, prior to the film's release, developed a plan for a sequel that would focus on Anne's fictional daughter Anya as she searches for her lost younger brother Claus in Cold War-era Berlin, while Stalin's right-hand man Colonel Polov Vlagavich tries to catch her. However, due to the severely disappointing reaction to the film by critics and audiences, production was quickly ended and the animated sequences that were completed were retrofitted into other Disney works.
• The Cameo:
  • Tim Curry has a brief yet memorable performance as Winston Churchill in the breakdancing scene with Franklin Roosevelt, who is himself confusingly voiced by Arnold Schwarzenegger.
  • Prince as Kaiser Billy's singing dog in "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy".
  • Will Smith as Jackie Robinson.
  • Christopher Lee as (an unnamed and faceless) Adolf Hitler.
  • Stephen Fry as Olga's pet gibbon.
  • John Inman as a clothing merchant.
  • Don LaFontaine as a rabbi.
  • Paul McCartney has a very brief and uncredited one as Oskar Schindler. It's also rumored that he helped write and compose many of the movie's musical numbers, going uncredited to avoid potential backlash.
  • In traditional Disney fashion, there is a scene during the opening credits sweep of Anne Frank's home town where an orange tabby cat is visible that looks almost identical to Oliver. There's even an allusion to a (then-)future Disney film, Beauty and the Beast, where a clock in the background of Olga's office looks a lot like Cogsworth.
    • The old gypsy in the beginning also looks a lot like an older, gray-haired Clopin from Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, although he's more pointy and sinister-looking here.
  • One of the rabbis in the scene where the zombies break into the synagogue looks an awful lot like Ichabod Crane with a mustache.
  • Michael Eisner in a split-second cameo at the end as an unnamed character in the background saying "somebody ought to make a movie about this".
  • Leni Riefenstahl (producer of Nazi propaganda movies) shows up in one comedic scene, voiced by herself.
  • The Weather Girls, performing the musical number "Israeli Men", a reworking of their 1983 hit "It's Raining Men".
• Canon Discontinuity: Usually not listed in the official films by Disney. Reportedly, they even asked that this site not list it on our own Disney Animated Canon page. Further, when Disney included the original trailer of The Little Mermaid among that movie's laserdisc bonus features, they had Mark Elliot redub part of it so that it would refer to The Little Mermaid as movie #28 instead of #29. Nowadays, it seems that's the only version of the trailer they'll let the public see.
• Cartoon Bomb: Thrown by Sgt. Olga to take out Anne and Peter during their second encounter; Miep jumps in front of Anne at the last second and throws it back to Olga, giving her and Ludvig Ash Faces, and allowing Anne and Peter to escape into a nearby building for more hijinx (see Paper-Thin Disguise).
• Catchphrase: "Alright, men, this is it... TIME TO CLEAN OUT THE ATTIC!"
• Cats Are Mean: Peter's cat, Mouschi, tries to eat Miep, until Anne convinces them they should learn to get along.
• Chef of Iron: Mrs. Van Pels becomes one in The Climax, when she raids the Aushwitz kitchen and fends off Nazi soldiers with various foods and kitchenware, including stuffing a soldier's mouth with endive.
• Chekhov's Gag: In the scene where Sgt. Olga first threatens Anne, Miep can be seen burrowing into her sandwich.
• Chekhov's Gun: An Auschiwtz guard literally named Chekhov is shown to often forget his gun at the guard common room. In the climax, Chekhov forgets his gun once again, allowing him and his commanding officer to get eaten as well as letting Anne obtain a weapon to fight off the zombies.
• Chekhov's Skill:
  • Early in the film, Anne is seen playing ping-pong with Margot and winning. Her skills come in handy later when the zombies start throwing grenades at her.
  • Peter, in his Early-Bird Cameo, is seen shooting down wooden ducks at the carnival shooting gallery. He uses his Improbable Aiming Skills to take down Menegle in The Climax.
• Conspicuously Light Patch: A lot of these, due to the low animation budget. Disney was pouring most of its resources into The Little Mermaid.
• Cool Big Sis: Margot, later in the film. Killing two guards with a length of iron pipe and some good luck helped.
• Creative Closing Credits: Throughout the closing credits are short throwaway gags of Sgt. Olga attempting to capture Anne, usually resulting in Olga being injured.
• Creator Cameo: Mel Brooks voices a funny rabbi that is held in Auschwitz.
• Cute Kitten: Anne has one, modeled after Dinah, which she's forced to leave behind one her family goes into hiding. Thankfully, they reunite in the epilogue.
• Dark Reprise: Anne reprises "Living Free" when her family and Peter are captured.
• Disowned Adaptation: Unsurprisingly, people who knew Anne in real life, such as Miep Gies (who was none too pleased that her name was used for an antropomorphic male mouse) and Hanneli Goslar (Anne's real life best friend), were pretty outraged at the changes made to the source material and promptly sued Disney over it (more information below).
• Deadpan Snarker: Molly Ringwald as Anne, obviously. Peter gets his moments as well.
• Death by Irony:
  • Josef Menegle takes the form of a swan as a One-Winged Angel, and is shot out of the sky... like a bird.
  • Sgt. Olga claims to Anne that she has "999 'happy haunts' in hand, but there's room for 1000". Olga herself turned out to have been that thousandth soul.
• Deathtrap: Anne and her family rig up a series of traps à la Home Alone to keep the Nazis out of the attic, and facilitate their escape.
• Disney Acid Sequence:
  • Anne's trip through the concentration camp when she almost dies from the gunshot. The music becomes minimal, the imagery becomes trippy...all for it to suddenly become lighter and lighter when a hideous winged figure dances around Anne. The sequence ends with the beautiful, angel-like spirit of the fallen Marie-Rose appearing to encourage Anne to live (and vice versa; see Crowning Moment of Heartwarming).
  • Josef Mengele's "Dance of the Grateful Flesh" is brief, but the psychedelic lights and the deformed victims singing definitely invoke this.
• Disney Death:
  • Anne Frank at one point looks like she won't be able to recover from being shot by Sgt. Olga. She gets better.
  • When Marie-Rose Blanche dies, she gives a big, long, final speech to Lorenz. She winds up coming Back from the Dead, however.
• Disney Owns This Trope: Surprisingly not Disney this time, but the Anne Frank Fonds at the time this film was made. The other reason for this film's absence from the Disney Animated Canon is because it was produced under the assumption that The Diary of a Young Girl was in the Public Domain, unaware it needed to be authorized by the Anne Frank Fonds. When the latter group filed their claims, Disney's legal team knew they had no chance: not only were they clearly in the wrong, but the public backlash would have been too severe had it been taken to court (not to mention the film itself being undermined by reality). Therefore, they agreed on an undisclosed settlement, along with heavy royalties and stipulations with each copy of the film.
• Disney Princess: Although not even considered for that line, Urban Legends still persist that one can see Anne's outline in some of The Merch. She is however seen in a princess-like dress made from the blue-striped pajamas during the liberation from Auschwitz.
• Disney Villain Death:
  • Subverted. The scene where Ludvig pushes Olga off the tower is shot like one, but Olga survives it. However, see Dragged Off to Hell below.
  • Josef Mengele, on the other hand, is shot while flying 2,000 meters in the sky, so you can imagine how likely his demise was.
  • Wilhelm and Goebbels also meet their ends this way, with accompanying Stock Screams.
• The Ditz: Mrs. Van Pels, which Anne refers to by trope name.
• Does Not Like Spam: Anne gets sick of endives while staying in the Annex, so much that she dedicates a song to it.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • Private Ludvig, when he realizes Sgt. Olga is using the souls of the Auschwitz prisoners to reanimate a zombie army (of which he is the prototype).
  • And a literal one several scenes after Josef Mengele pulls a street dog's tail.
• Do Not Taunt Cthulhu: When Josef Menegle enters his One-Winged Angel form, Peter calls him out for his actions while making a pun on how his efforts were "all for a Wild Goose Chase". Menegle responds by knocking Peter to the wall with Hard Light, rendering him unconscious. Downplayed, as Peter regains his consciousness after a brief moment, and shoots Menegle out of the sky.
• Dragged Off to Hell:
  • Sgt. Olga, after her Necromancy magic backfires on her and the spirits of all those she enslaved drag her into hell. Then the souls acsend to Heaven.
  • Josef Mengele is implied to suffer this fate, but since his death is marked with bright golden light it can also be interpreted as his ascent to Heaven.
    • A Deleted Scene found in extremely rare copies explains this further. Since he was the Angel of Death, he obviously has to go to Heaven. Once there, he is quickly judged and sent to Hell. Why this was cut out from the main film before screening even though the film totally bombed is anyone's guess.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: For the Disney Renaissance. It was in production the same time as The Little Mermaid, and both Alan Menken and Howard Ashman were too preoccupied with that project to give the directors of this film any real guidance. Therefore, this film uses all of the tropes found in Disney's films during this period, but without an understanding how to apply them; at times, it resembles more like Disney's imitators, such as Quest for Camelot or Tom and Jerry: The Movie.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Not only do all of the Annex members survive the Holocaust, but they also liberate Auschwitz.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Sgt. Olga. Why? Well, in an early version of the plot, she was supposed to be the half-vampire daughter of Hitler, hence the pale skin from the vampire side and the black hair from Hitler, but that was dropped when the writers realized she would have to be much younger. But they kept the look, 'cuz it looked evil.
• Endearingly Dorky: Peter often comes off as this.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas:
  • Private Ludvig. His mom's face is his only remaining memory as a zombie, and remembering that Sgt. Olga killed her and him is what prompts his Heel–Face Turn.
  • Josef Mengele keeps a photo of his parents etched into his chest.invoked
• Even Evil Has Standards: Josef Mengele actually hates Nazi dogma and was only using them to gather resources and power to ascend and unite all of mankind under his rule. Likewise, Olga and the other Nazis are visibly repulsed by his ideals, although it's an extreme case of Blue-and-Orange Morality because they hate the fact that he will treat everyone equally.
• Everybody Lives: Yes, everybody in Auschwitz does. Those Wacky Nazis, not so much.
• Everything's Deader with Zombies: Private Ludvig is a zombie. There were no zombies in WWII in real life. The zombies were explained on the DVD commentary, which was shot but never officially released - the zombies were Disney's subtle allusion to the Conscription Crisis of 1944, in which quite a number of Canadian soldiers refused to go on active duty. These reluctant soldiers were called, at the time, zombies. Disney wanted to show that the camp guards could be considered equally reluctant since they'd been deprived of souls and, for most of the movie, much of what we'd consider free will.
  • Might also be a bit of wordplay on Kadavergerhorsam, literally "corpselike loyalty", which was officially how Nazi underlings in real life were supposed to behave but rarely did.
• Evil Is Hammy: Sgt. Olga.
• Expy:
  • Olga has a pair of contacts in Brussels, Belgium that she communicates with twice during the movie - a portly, mustachioed gentleman and a boy with a white dog.
  • Olga herself bears resemblance to Dr. Elsa Schneider, albeit without any ambiguity on where her allegiance with the Nazis lies.
  • Mr. and Mrs. Frank resemble Papa and Mama Mousekewitz respectively, right down to the designs and voices.
  • Mrs. Van Pels appears to be an inspiration for Mrs. Potts, albeit ditzier and more abrasive.
• Eyes Do Not Belong There: Josef Mengele's true form has eyes absolutely everywhere.
• The Faceless: Adolf Hitler's face is kept off-screen Blofeld-style during his one small scene with Sgt. Olga. The song "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy" contains several references to his signature mustache, though.
• Family-Unfriendly Death: Poor Sgt. Olga. Or not.
• Falling-in-Love Montage: During the Award-Bait Song "The Stars and Moon", as well as during "Leibchen (Means I Love You)".
• Foul Waterfowl: Mengele, who seeks world domination, has a One-Winged Angel form resembling an Eldritch Abomination swan with seven wings completely covered with blue eyes.
• Freudian Excuse: Sgt. Olga's hatred of the Jews stems from her early childhood, where her once-wealthy family was ruined by her father's unscrupulous business partner. Her mother subsequently died of pneumonia and her father became a shell of his former self. Olga's older siblings claimed it was because the business partner was Jewish that he was evil, which warped the fragile young child into the monster Olga became. The business partner later became Olga's first experiment in necromancy. The only problem is that the man wasn't responsible for what happened to Olga's family. The business was ruined because of her father's mistakes, and her antisemitic siblings blamed the man because they didn't want to admit their father was to blame. Olga doesn't take it well.
• Fridge Brilliance: Josef's One-Winged Angel form is pretty spot on considering how his nickname in real life was "The Angel of Death".invoked
• Funny Background Event: In some of the scenes, you can see a couple (a man with a mustache and newspaper and a woman with curly hair) with their bubble-blowing son.
• Funny Foreigner: A lot of these, usually with the Germans.
  • Mickey Rooney as the Japanese soldier, possibly an homage to his character in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
  • Mel Brooks as the Ukrainian rabbi.
• Genius Bonus:
  • This verse from "Dance of the Grateful Flesh" - "I've mastered war./Keep Sun Tzu und Clausewitz./I can win/With zombies built in Auschwitz."
  • One scene in Auschwitz shows a man in vaguely Middle Eastern clothing among the assembled Axis bigwigs, a nod to allegations that Amin al-Husseini accompanied Adolf Eichmann on inspection tours of the camps.
• Ghost Amnesia: Originally, Ludvig can't remember anything about his previous life, except his mother's face. Later, he is able to remember that Olga Hündin killed him and his mom, prompting his Heel–Face Turn.
• Ghostapo:
  • Sgt. Olga Hündin. Helps that she serves an angel.
  • And she practices necromancy; Black Magic by all counts.
  • The part where Himmler is shown drinking blood of pure Nordic virgins to gain health.
• The Glorious War of Sisterly Rivalry: Margot and Anne. They reconcile at the end, though.
• Girls Have Cooties: Josef Mengele claims that he believed this when he was young.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The Nazi top brass, Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin all attend a bar mitzvah together. They even sing together ("It's Tough at the Top", a song with one of the most lamentable hip-hop verses of all time).
• Goofy Print Underwear: Private Ludvig sports polka-dot boxers. When Ludvig bends to fix his pants, three of the dots fold together to make a Hidden Mickey for a split second.
• Grammar Nazi:
  • Literally. Sgt. Olga routinely belittles Pvt. Ludvig's mumbling zombie speech.
  • Inverted with Josef Mengele, whose grammar is atrocious no matter what language he speaks. Foreshadowing for the fact that he is not human at all.
• Grenade Hot Potato: A variation. Miep and Sgt. Olga play catch with a Cartoon Bomb.
• Ham-to-Ham Combat: Molly Ringwald versus Madonna, anyone?
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Private Ludvig, right before he helps Anne and Peter break down the walls of Auschwitz. This is somewhat foreshadowed by Ludvig's often-overlooked, mournful solo acapella early in the film titled "Step by Stumbling Step (I Still Can't Find Mein Mutter)" where his characteristic mumbling is temporarily comically changed into an excellent singing voice. It also echoes the descent into racist fascism of the German state, not just in lyrics, moving from a cabaret-style song into a grand marching rhythm.
  • Mr. Goebbels makes a more humorous but consequential turn late in the film.
  • Sgt. Olga was supposed to make one. See Villainous Breakdown below for more on this.
• Historical Beauty Update: Anne Frank. She certainly wasn't unattractive, but here she looks like one of the Disney Princesses.
• "Home Alone" Antics: The Annex members subject Karl Silberbauer and his unnamed accomplice to a series of Booby Traps stewn about, culimating in a Staircase Tumble.
• Humanoid Abomination:
  • It's implied that the old gypsy in the beginning was one, and the one who taught Olga her black magic in the first place. Kinda ironic, actually.
  • Josef Mengele, although his true form is a pure Eldritch Abomination, but a swan-like one.
• "I Am" Song: "Anne Frank" at the beginning of the movie.
• "I Hate" Song: Anne initially begins "Nothing But Endive" with a rant on how they have endive with every meal, until Mrs. Van Pels leads it into an extravagent Ode to Food, with kitchen-themed spectacle rivaling that of "Be Our Guest".
• Imagine Spot: After listening to Winston Churchill's Autumn 1942 radio broadcast, the Annex residents imagine themselves on various WWII battles while singing "This Is Not The End (But The End Of The Beginning)". This includes battles that historically wouldn't have occurred until later in the war, including the Normandy landings and the Battle of Iwo Jima; clearly, Disney was going for Small Reference Pools.
• In Name Only: The film is totally unlike the book, as detailed on Artistic License – History.
• It's Personal with the Dragon: Justified; Sgt. Olga spends the bulk of the film trying to capture (and later kill) Anne Frank, and is thus Anne's greatest personal threat. Meanwhile, Josef Menegle is never shown leaving Aushwitz, and so none of the Annex members even see him until The Climax.
• "I Want" Song: Anne sings about being free from the suffering her family experiences in a song called "Living Free".
• Jewish American Princess: Half-literally, as Anne was originally intended to be a part of the Disney Princess lineup. She also embodies some of the nature of the trope, even though she's nicer than the norm for this trope.
• Jewish Complaining: All of the Secret Annex residents have their fair share of this. Anne herself dedicates two songs to complaining: "Living Free" and "Nothing But Endive". It's hard to blame them with their difficult circumstances.
• Jewish Mother: Both Mrs. Frank and Mrs. Van Pels, but especially the latter.
• Jews Love to Argue: Mr. and Mrs. Van Pels are heard arguing in the background of certain scenes, whether it's on whether they made the right decisions prior to hiding in the Annex or which Disney film is the best. Anne intervenes and chastises them at one point.
• Kick the Dog: When the chips go down, Olga attempts to sacrifice her own dog, Mr. Goebbels, to gain a last shred of necromantic power. Mr. Goebbels gets revenge by piddling on her ritual circle, culminating in Olga getting dragged down to Hell.
• Killed Off for Real: Olga and Josef Mengele.
• Kill the Cutie: Averted when Anne is shot. She doesn't die, but comes very close to it.
• Knight Templar:
  • Josef Menegle. What else do you call someone whose idea of peace is to have everyone worship him and live in fear for their lives?
  • Sgt. Olga also qualifies, as she thinks Nazism will make the world a better place.
• Large Ham:
  • Kaiser Vilhelm is an enormously bombastic man.
  • Sgt. Olga really lets loose with the overacting, especially during her Villainous Breakdown.
  • Molly Ringwald's entire performance as Anne Frank rivals Tony Montana in terms of sheer scenery-chewing. And it's part of the film's perverse charm.
• Last Minute Hook Up:
  • At the very end, Miep is seen holding paws with that one girl mouse with the bow, Golda. Where'd that come from?
  • The same thing with Margot and Fritz, though that was at least hinted beforehand (when he saved her from falling off the cliff).
• Lighter and Softer: And how. It's still one of Disney's darker works overall.
• Light 'em Up: Josef Mengele, who casts divine light from his fingers and eyes using Quran verses. Needless to say...
• Light Is Not Good: Josef Mengele, who is actually an angel of death.
• Lull Reduction: This movie has an impossibly large cast, a once-simple plot twisted and overburdened by Executive Meddling, 29 musical numbers, and yet is only 96 minutes long. Every second has either someone talking, someone singing, someone moving, a scene change, or — in the case of the German army's march — all of the above.
• Makeup Is Evil: Sgt. Olga, who wears burgundy lipstick so dark it's almost black, and has swooping silver eyeshadow.
• Mister Muffykins: Mr. Goebbels, Olga's dog.
• Mood Whiplash: Anne and Sgt. Olga's first encounter is expository; their second encounter is slapsticky and played for laughs; their third and subsequent encounters are played for serious drama (especially when Anne is shot).
• Moral Sociopathy: Josef Mengele. Of course, emphasis on "Sociopathy".
• Montage: Anne and her family clean up the attic to the song "Life Up Above".
  • The opening has one, played to the song "Anne Frank".
• MST3K Mantra: Invoked by then-Disney CEO Michael Eisner after early criticisms of the movie; sadly, the re-branding to Touchstone Pictures did little to help.
• Must Have Caffeine: The captured American fighter pilot that Anne and Klaus the rooster rescue from Mengele's dungeon spends most of his on-screen time complaining about the lack of coffee, and wondering why Anne can't produce some for him. In the end, he is finally seen with his coffee.
• National Animal Stereotypes: Mr. Goebbels, the German dog is a Dachshund, and Miep is a Jewish mouse.
• Nazi Zombies: Sgt. Olga's is in control of a whole army of them, including Private Ludvig.
• Nice Jewish Boy: Peter.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The gun which Sgt. Olga uses to shoot Anne Frank with later winds up in the hands of Peter, who shoots the One-Winged Angel Menegle out of the sky with Improbable Aiming Skills.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: The Nazi Succubi.
• Non-Human Sidekick:
  • Miep the mouse (here's another picture of him◊).
  • And his villainous counterpart Mr. Goebbels the dachshund for Sgt. Olga.
  • Peter has Mouschi the cat.
  • Arguably Kitty, who vacillates between human and cat (and who was, in real life, just a book).
• No Swastikas: All swastikas are replaced by black Xs, including the one on Sgt. Olga's sleeve. The word "Nazi" is absent, except (weirdly) in the song numbers, most notably "Free Again". The Xs may be a reference to The Great Dictator, another movie that treats the Holocaust in a humorous fashion, albeit much more successfully.
• Not Helping Your Case: The film was made partially to deflect criticism that Walt Disney - and by extension his company - is anti-Semitic. The film's handling of its subject matter, the company's lack of willingness to promote the film, and legal troubles with the Anne Frank Fonds have done nothing to qualm these comments.
• Off-Model: All over the place, especially on Anne's parents during the song "Block Party".
• One-Book Author: The only film animated by Walt Disney Feature Animation New York City, the most obscure of the Walt Disney Animation Units (their only other credits are uncredited work on DuckTales). 90% of the animation staff from the unit (with the exceptions of Jim Jinkins and Michael Sporn) aren't credited for much else; allegedly, they answered a newspaper ad placed by Buena Vista International under the false name of "Animation Control Corp."
• One-Winged Angel: Josef Mengele's true form is that of an Eldritch Abomination angel swan.
• Our Angels Are Different: A common theory is that that it was an angel that saved Anne from death. The angel is very very biblical. Josef Mengele turns out to be an angel as well. Strangely enough, he adheres to the original Eldritch Abomination depictions of angels, being a swan with seven wings completely covered with blue eyes.
• Paper-Thin Disguise: Anne and Peter when they infiltrate Joseph Goebbels' bar mitzvah.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: The first soul to drag Sgt. Olga off to Hell? Her very first victim: the unscrupulous business partner that ruined her family's fortune in the living.
  "It's time to pay your dues, madam."
• Piggybacking on Hitler: Mengele was only using the Nazis as part of his plans for world domination.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Not in the film, but seen in the leaked promotional materials. Apparently, they just never found a good justification to have her wear it, with even a Dream Ballet sequence being scrapped.
• Punch-Clock Villain / Just Following Orders: Private Ludvig.
• Recursive Canon: The multiplex in the Absurdly Spacious Sewer briefly shows a movie poster for Disney's Anne Frank.
• Retroactive Recognition: Jim Jinkins (of Doug fame) is credited as an animator.
• Religion is Magic:
  • When the Ukrainian rabbi counteracts Olga's spells with Hebrew prayers.
  • Josef Mengele uses Quran verses for some of his spells.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: Olga's villainous dachshund, Mr. Goebbels.
• Scooby-Dooby Doors: The chase scene in the Achterhuis near the beginning of the film.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Mr. Goebbels declines to share Olga's final fate - which, given that she was attempting to sacrifice him just before, is pretty understandable.
• Short Tank: Anne is one near the end.
• Shout-Out:
  • Caricatures of Col. Klink and Sgt. Shultz can be spotted during the ballroom scene.
  • A mouse as a sidekick may be a nod to the graphic novel Maus, also dealing with World War II oppression. A few scenes seem to pay homage to the work too, for the attentive comic fan.
  • During the flashback of how Ludvig was reborn, the scientists both have "Herr Dr. MD" on the backs of their uniforms, as an homage to how Mel Brooks (the lyricist of this film) always wore the same thing whenever he played a scientist.
  • The clown in the background at the concentration camp may refer to The Day the Clown Cried.
  • At the end when the Americans finally come, they mention something about a guy named Steve Rogers. Also, the guy making the reference is named Private Barnes.
  • One of the grains of rice is shaped like Gusto Gummi.
  • The Nazi uniform buttons feature Hidden Mickeys in three separate scenes.
  • The marching band from the Donald Duck cartoon Der Furher's Face can be seen during "Life is Heil-arious", accompanying the occupation.
  • Olga's muscular older brother's name is "Ronald" (an anagram of "Arnold") and he has a very Schwarzenegger-like voice.
• Soft-Spoken Sadist: Mengele.
• Spell My Name With An S: Several German names are butchered, so as not to confuse the poor English speakers. Most commonly replacing W's with V's (such as in Ludvig, native German Ludwig) but the most weird change has got to be "Harry" which is spelled "Flavius" in native German.
• Spiritual Antithesis: To Anne Frank: Vampire. This film has the Nazis as tools of an occult Eldritch Abomination and Anne as an ordinary Plucky Girl with Incorruptible Pure Pureness. In the latter film, the Nazis are just as evil as they were in real life but are entirely mundane, while Anne is a terrifyingly inhuman vampire Dark Action Girl who goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge on them because of the Holocaust.
• Springtime for Hitler:
  • One of Mel Brooks' contributions (that was never used) was a version of the trope namer being sung by various townspeople in the opening credits, concluding with the Frank family themselves. (It was replaced with a song simply titled "Anne Frank".)
  • Rumor has it Molly Ringwald knew what kind of movie she was getting involved in, and decided to make her performance intentionally hammy. It didn't work out as she anticipated, and there was even talk of a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress of the Decade.
• The Starscream: Josef Mengele for the Nazis, as his experiments turn him into a One-Winged Angel powerful enough to overthrow the Führer...
  • Sgt. Olga also plans to become the Führer herself, as she sees herself as more capable for the position, and thus, part of the climax involves her fighting against Josef for the position after she has Hitler killed.
• Starter Villain: Invoked by Sgt. Olga, when she send Karl Silberbauer out to raid the Secret Annex. It doesn't end well for him.
• Stock Scream:
  • Joseph Goebbels lets out a Goofy holler after being pushed out of his flying zeppelin laboratory.
  • A briefer Goofy holler is used near the end, when the last Jew in the queue is kicked into the shower.
  • Kaiser Vilhelm lets out a Wilhelm scream in the middle of his Villain Song.
• Storybook Opening: Used as a reference to previous Disney Animated Canon, and also allowed the studio to conclude the film with a Title Drop of the original published work - one of the few moments they have Shown Their Work.
  Narrator: All this love... From the pages of The Diary of a Young Girl.
• Succubi and Incubi: There are Nazi succubi... in a Disney movie.
• Symbology Research Failure: It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it mistake, but Sgt. Olga wears a sickle and hammer pin in the scene she dies in. Fascists and Communists hate each other.
• Taking the Bullet: Anne for Peter. Both of them survive anyway.
• That Reminds Me of a Song: Various songs in the film are questionable in their relevance to the story. The most egregious offender is "That Reminds Me Of A Song" (sic), a duet between Kitty and Anne in which the the former tries to cheer the latter up with a medley of the most popular songs of that era.
• Those Wacky Nazis: So wacky, they're comic relief!
• Triumphant Reprise:
  • "This Is Not The End (But The End Of The Beginning)" is reprised as "This Is The End (The Beginning Of The End)" during the Aushwitz liberation scene, with the Annex members leading the vocals, and the rest of the prisoners making up the chorus.
  • "Living Free" is reprised in the very last scene, as a Crowd Song.
• Unholy Matrimony: Sgt. Olga and Lieutenant Manfred marry midway through the film.
• Very Loosely Based on a True Story: Hellz yeah.
• Villainous Breakdown: A short scene near the end, of Sgt. Olga ranting at those under her command, has some uncanny similarity to the famous "Hitler Reacts" scene from Downfall (so far, no parody videos have shown up).
  • Originally, Sgt. Olga was supposed to realize that she was wrong and what she had done was evil, and then decide she was beyond forgiveness and commit suicide by throwing herself into the well of souls who's deaths she contributed to, but the producers decided that be too dark for a Disney movie and cut out the bit where she sees that she and her ideology are evil, decides she's beyond forgiveness, and jumps, leaving the "Dragged Off to Hell" scene in... But they kept in some of the breakdown, which makes a heck of a lot less sense without the fallout or the Heel Realization.
• Villain Song:
  • "Dial Up Ze Nazi", where Sgt. Olga sings about being in charge of Auschwitz.
  • Josef Mengele's "Dance of the Grateful Flesh", where he sings how his human experimentation and mutilations are for the greater good and how the victims love it.
  • "Springtime for Hitler" was originally in the second Harlan Ellison version of the script. And he wanted it to be sung by A NAZI BRIAN BLESSED! It (almost) eventually made it into the final film, albeit under different circumstances (see above).
  • The Ghost of Kaiser Vilhelm's number, "I Used to be Ze Bad Guy".
  • "Life is Heil-arious!", sung by the German occupation troops.
  • There was a planned song that Hitler would have sung called "Mein Kampf", but it was cut and Hitler was made The Faceless.
• We Named the Monkey "Jack": Olga explains to Joseph Goebbels that this is why her dachshund got his name, before she pushes him (the human Goebbels, that is) out of his zeppelin laboratory.
• Wham Line:
  • "I've read... your diary..."
  • "I remember." Said to Olga by Ludvig when his memories of his mother come rushing back.
• What Happened to the Mouse?:
  • What happened to Klaus, the wisecracking Jewish rooster? Given the setting of this film, what do you think? Sgt. Olga eats chicken soup in a later scene, so...
  • Olga's gibbon also disappears after the one scene he's in.
• White Magic: Josef Mengele uses it. It has healing purposes...which he uses to keep his victims alive while "doing nasty things to them".
• Wide-Eyed Idealist: Anne.
• Wilhelm Scream: An SS officer named Wilhelm falls off a ledge during the final battle. Guess what happens afterwards.
• You Must Be This Tall to Ride: Anne can't get on a ride in the opening montage, so she does...something. When they are walking onto the ride, Anne almost does an Ill-Timed Sneeze, but luckily it's averted.

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I do not want to see this film, I do not want to see this film, I do not want to see this film...

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