19 Little Disney Details That Are Seriously Based Off Of Real Life

*uses a fire extinguisher to fly through space*

1. In Incan times, messing up the emperor's groove could've very well landed you at the bottom of a cliff.

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I'm sure you all remember in The Emperor's New Groove when Kuzco has an epic dance scene rudely interrupted by a completely innocent man. The man is punished for throwing off the emperor's groove by getting hurled off of a cliff, which is hardly an exaggeration. This was actually a common punishment in Incan times. Incan law wanted to make sure that a crime committed wouldn't be replicated by any other member in society. Therefore, punishments were gruesome, such as stoning, hanging, or getting thrown off of a cliff.

2. A fire extinguisher can actually be used as propulsion.

Disney / Pixar

One of the most memorable scenes in Wall-e is when the friendly robot used a fire extinguisher to dance in space with Eve. After Gravity used a fire extinguisher for Ryan Stone's jump to Tiangong as well, National Geographic asked astronaut Roberta Clark if that was actually possible. "It's the law of physics. For every action in one direction you have an equal and opposite reaction in the other direction," she said.

3. Lions do actually work on their roar.

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Lion vocalizations serve three purposes: to tell other lions where they are, to defend their territory, and to show dominance. Lions evaluate the size and strength of other roars to determine whether or not to attack. That's why it would've been important for Simba to work on his roar. He'd have to master it if he ever wanted to take over or protect a pride.

4. Pirates of the Caribbean used Blackbeard's historically real and gruesome ammunition.

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In The Curse of the Black Pearl, the confrontation between the Black Pearl and the Interceptor is somewhat accurate. In 2011, dive crews off of the coast of North Carolina brought up wreckage from the Queen Anne's Revenge, Blackbeard's real-life ship. In it, they found bundled ammunition, fragments of glass, silver, and nails that the pirates would have loaded into their cannons to spray at the crew in an opposing ship. Deputy state archaeologist Dr. Mark Wilde-Ramsing said that the reason they used this improvised ammunition was to take out the crew of the ship, but leave the ship itself unharmed. The pirates would commandeer the ship and add it to its fleet, which means they wanted to do relatively little structural damage to it.

5. Moana's father had a real early Samoan tattoo.

CloudSurfer / Via en.wikipedia.org, Disney

The tattoo that Moana's dad has is called a pe'a, which is a traditional Samoan tattoo that used to be necessary if a man wanted to be a Matai, or chief. The tattoo is done over 10 days and is very painful. It extends from the waist to the groin to the legs. You can see Moana's father's pe'a around his waist, signifying his important role.

6. Marlin's trip could be a reality for an actual clownfish.

Disney / Pixar

In Finding Nemo, Nemo's dad takes an epic trip across the ocean to find his missing son. In reality, baby clownfish sometimes trek hundreds of miles across the open ocean to reach other clownfish populations. Want to know something even cooler? Researchers think that the clownfish also ride ocean currents to help them make the journey. So Marlin riding the EAC has some grain of truth to it. No word yet as to whether or not they take on the jellies during their trip.

7. These little biscuits in Brave are a traditional Scottish dessert.

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Called tipperary biscuits, the food in Brave that Merida and her brothers kept trying to steal are a classic Scottish dessert. They're made of several different spices, strawberry jam, and a maraschino cherry on top. P.S. They look just as good in real life as they do animated.

8. Phoebus and Esmeralda's outfits were typical of those claiming sanctuary in medieval Europe.

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In Medieval Europe, fugitives could "claim sanctuary" to avoid punishment by the law. This process involved staying within a church after committing a crime to avoid prosecution. From then on, you had a certain amount of time to leave the church, hop on a boat, and never come back. To signify that you were a criminal who claimed sanctuary, you were dressed in a simple tunic with no hat or shoes, much like Phoebus and Esmeralda's outfits at the end of The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

9. Your memories don't look too far off from Riley's memory bank.

Disney / Pixar

I mean, you don't have glass orbs or ornate shelves storing your memory, but your memories are a connection of neurons that are all triggered simultaneously with audio and visual cues. So, they function a lot like the glass balls in Inside Out.

10. Wasabi's plasma board would be capable of slicing that thin.

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There's a lot of technology in Big Hero 6 that seems more fiction than science. However, Wasabi's laser plasma that he uses to slice paper thin apples isn't far off. Scientists and doctors alike have just recently started using plasma-needles to make surgery bloodless. These plasma needles have just 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters of collateral damage. While we don't have plasma apple cutters yet, plasma today has proved to cut thinly and precisely.

11. The magnetic levitation behind GoGo Tomago's roller blades is being used in transportation today.

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Also in Big Hero 6, GoGo Tomago's roller blades use magnetic levitation to help her go fast and friction-free. This technology is currently being used in high-speed railways, where magnets with opposing poles repel each other and force the train to levitate above the rails, moving them frictionless at enormous speeds (375 mph). There is currently a maglev (magnetic levitation) train in Japan, and should the day come when one is built in the United States, it could get you from New York to Los Angeles in seven hours. Hopefully, one day your roller blades could do the same.

12. Hercules' heroic labors were true-to-legend.

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According to Greek mythology, Hera had it out for Hercules, not Hades, so Disney may not have gotten that part right. In the real legend, to gain immortality, Hercules had to complete 12 heroic labors. In the Disney version, you can see most of the beasts that Hercules conquers in "Zero the Hero" are taken straight from the labors he had to complete in the legend, such as the defeat of the Nemean Lion (which looks an awful lot like Scar), the Erymanthean Boar (pictured above), and the Stymphlaian Birds.

13. Elsa could've literally felt frozen.

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Studies have found that those who experience social exclusion and loneliness can literally feel colder. Warm foods or hot baths can sometimes stand in for that feeling, but only to an extent. Because Elsa was in her room with little to no social contact, that could've been a scientific reason why she was cold, aside from the fictional reason of, you know, being an ice queen.

14. Insects do exploit the labor of ants.

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In A Bug's Life, Hopper and his crew of insects take advantage of the ants' hard work gathering food. This isn't too far off of real life. In the insect world, it isn't grasshoppers, but butterfly larvae that take advantage of an ant's work ethic. They emit the same smell as ants do to trick the ants into feeding and taking care of it. The larvae also make the same noises that a queen ant does, fooling the ants into treating it better and saving it first if harm should come to the colony. Butterflies are the real life Hoppers.

15. Percy was a real noble-dog.

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Disney doesn't get a lot right about Pocahontas, but one thing it does is the pug. Percy, Governor Ratcliff's dog, is a lot like the dogs that British nobles carried around with them. According to Pedigree, during the Victorian era, "it was perceived as a link with the natural world, which itself was no longer seen as threatening. It also allowed a visible demonstration of man's domination over nature." Hmm...sounds like a lot like Governor Ratcliff.

16. Gusteau's functions like a real kitchen.

Disney / Pixar

French chefs and critics praised Ratatouille for it's accurate depiction of a working kitchen, from the way they cook veggies to the way they chop them. “When Colette teaches the young cook how you cut onions, how you cook vegetables in a pan, how you season everything — that’s it, that’s how we do it!” celebrity chef Cyril Lignac said after watching the film. Pixar spent time monitoring the sounds and movements of French kitchens to research the film.

17. Night howlers are real and, like, super poisonous.

Disney, Olga_gavrilova / Getty Images

You know that flower that turns all of the animals "savage" in Zootopia? It's a real flower. In reality, a "night howler" is an autumn crocus. The autumn crocus (which is also the same color as night howlers in the movie) is highly toxic. According to the Nova Scotia Museum, consumption of the leaves, stem, berries, or especially the bulb can result in reduced blood pressure and cardiac arrest in humans. For other mammals, such as dogs, the result from ingestion is much more serious, such as bloody vomiting, multi-organ damage, and bone marrow suppression. In real life, you may not go savage, but you'll definitely have a bad time.

18. The shipwreck Ariel explores follows a true-to-life timeline:

Disney, Carlosr / Getty Images

In The Little Mermaid, we see a shipwreck that Ariel explores where she famously finds a dinglehopper. Atlas Obscura asked the director of the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation at Texas A&M University to watch that clip from the movie to see what parts of the scene were historically accurate. He was instantly surprised that the ship was a pretty accurate Spanish galleon. With the sails and ropes still intact, he estimated that it probably sank a month or so before Ariel made the discovery. Following this timeline, it isn't unreasonable that Flounder found a skeleton under the ship. Since saltwater deteriorates the body quickly and the body was trapped below deck, Flounder's scary encounter with the bones makes sense.

19. Finally, Helen Parr is using real pilot lingo.

Disney / Pixar

In The Incredibles when Elastigirl is flying the plane to track down Mr. Incredible at Syndrome's lair, Holly Hunter learned the real aviation terms while talking over the radio. In the movie, she says "Island approach, India-Gulf-Niner-Niner checking in. VFR on top." According to the FAA, air traffic controllers "may clear an aircraft to climb through clouds, smoke, haze, or other meteorological formations and then to maintain 'VFR-on-top,'" or visual flight rules on top of clouds. She also says, among other jargon, "India-Golf-Niner-Niner is buddy-spiked," meaning that friendly missiles have accidentally locked onto her target. Director Brad Bird said in the movie's commentary that Holly Hunter thought it was important to learn the proper lingo.

Do you have a fun Disney tidbit you'd like to share with the class? Let us know in the comments below!