Disney movie fans spot which objects are about to move in old cartoons due to one small flaw

Eagle-eyed Disney fans spot a common flaw in old movies that tells you what’s about to happen: ‘I can’t unsee this’

  • Film buff spot quirky detail about old cartoons
  • Many noticed the flaw as children

Film buffs have noticed a small detail in old animated Disney movies that can give away what is about to happen.

Viewers noticed you could tell which object was about to move or a character was going to interact with based on how it was drawn.

The item was usually less detailed or brighter in colour than those around them. 

A social media post re-emerged and is circulating online drawing modern Disney fans’ attention to the quirky flaw. 

Many said they had never noticed it before while others claimed it was something they had always spotted either as children or while re-watching the nostalgic kids’ movie in their adult years. 

Disney fans have noticed you can tell which object a character was going to interact with as it was usually less detailed or a brighter in colour than those around them 

‘I like how in old animation, you knew what object the characters would interact with. Because they were significantly less detailed than the stationary objects around them,’ the post read.

There was a still from the 1937 Disney original Snow White and the Seven Dwarves showing the Evil Queen browsing a shelf with the book she is about to pick up standing out for its colour and lack of detail.  

The post was shared on Facebook drawing in more than 22,000 ‘likes’ and hundreds of comments with many saying they had always noticed the cartoon quirk but not everyone was as eagled-eyed. 

‘Didn’t notice: I remember when I was little I wasn’t at all thinking about this stuff,’ one woman recalled.

Some remembered it was also the case in other old cartoons and video games. An image from Scooby Doo showed the door about to be opened as different colour from its neighbours

Some remembered it was also the case in other old cartoons and video games. An image from Scooby Doo showed the door about to be opened as different colour from its neighbours

‘LITERALLY JUST DID YESTERDAY WHEN I WATCHED BEAUTY AND THE BEAST!’ another exclaimed.  

‘Ironic that the book about disguises doesn’t blend in,’ a third joked.

Many said they had ‘always’ spotted the objects that were about to move. 

‘I remember when I was little and felt so smart for knowing which objects the character would interact with,’ one user replied. 

Poll

Did you know about this animation flaw in old cartoons?

‘When I was very tiny, I fancied that I had some super power that allowed me to see what the characters were about to interact with,’ a second chimed in.

‘I remember trying to explain this to my mom and she acted like I was crazy,’ a third said.

Some remembered it was also the case in other cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Duck Tales, and the Flintstones as well as video games.   

Someone shared an image from Scooby Doo where the door the character Fred is about to open is a different colour from its neighbours. 

‘I didn’t always think they were significantly more detailed, they were definitely brighter than the other objects though,’ someone added. 

One movie lover explained why the objects stood out in cartoon films and TV shows. 

‘This was due to the animation style and using individually painted ‘cells’ for each individual frame of animation,’ they said, 

‘Static backgrounds were unchanging, but the cells on top could be moved and photographed one by one until a full movie was created. Snow White for example had around 1.5 MILLION hand painted cells.’

Why do old cartoons show an object that’s about to move in a lighter colour or less detail?

In some cartoons, it is obvious that a part of the background will be used. What makes it obvious is that it is strikingly lighter in colour than its surroundings. It might also have an obvious difference in detail or colour saturation.

This is an unintentional artefact from the traditional, celluloid animation process. 

This was largely because, besides being painted by different artists at different times/locations, already making consistent matching difficult, each foreground/animated object would require up to hundreds of different drawings, as opposed to backgrounds/matte paintings, which each only needed to be done once. 

Therefore devoting any more than basic colour saturation and contrasting light values would only make the process even more lengthy and time consuming than it already was. 

Additionally, the unpainted portions of cells were not perfectly transparent, so the colours on lower cells became more and more muted as additional layers were added to the top of the stack.

Source: TV Tropes 

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