subject: Subtle Slips In Some Disney Flicks [print this page] One highlight in Disney's The Little Mermaid is the scene where King Triton furiously destroys Ariel's grotto by striking Eric's statue with his trident. The critical viewer, though, will notice the destructive power of the spear pass through the stone replica, breaking it into small pieces before it completely shatters all over the place. However, a few moments later, Flotsam and Jetsam discreetly toss a piece of the statue, the full image of Eric's face, towards the distressed Ariel. Quite odd, isn't it? This is an illustration of what is known as a continuity error, or basically, inconsistencies observed over the disney characters, objects or events in film and television.
To continue dissecting the mermaid tale, another sample is during the Les Poissons number with Chef Louis. The kitchen counter alternates from pots-and-pans-full to somewhat bare at certain points during the chase between him and Sebastian. Much later into the story, when Ariel crashes the wedding of Eric and Ursula, she jumps on board the boat barefooted yet the next scene shows her wearing red shoes.
Apparently, Disney animated features are not immune to such lapses in details as there are a number of additional examples that come to mind. Discrepancies have been identified in Beauty and the Beast, Cars, Cheetah Girls and Aladdin, too. When Belle opens the door for Gaston who was poised to propose marriage, the door swings outward. At the end of the encounter when she throws him out, the door swings inward. Unless the animators have designed the aperture to operate on a double-hinged system, this is another example of a visual discontinuity that for some discerning followers may be disconcerting.
Moviegoers troop to the theaters mainly for entertainment and in doing so allow themselves to be absorbed into a fictional world for a couple of hours. This is what poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge refers to in his phrase "suspension of disbelief", with the viewer or the reader permitting the illusion of reality with fictional materials. However, such discontinuities as previously highlighted disrupt this experience especially if the errors are not subtle. Take for instance Aladdin in his One Jump Ahead act, paying close attention to that loaf of bread that he snitched for his opening scene. It appears and disappears in the blink of an eye during that song number.
Admittedly though, these visual errors in Disney features are inconspicuous enough to go unnoticed and do not really affect the storyline. The magic carpet ride which passes by a full moon and concludes with a crescent orb does not minimize Aladdin's transformation from a street scoundrel to a prince worthy of Jasmine's affections. Nevertheless films must be subject to careful scrutiny during production so that the final output is a quality experience that the audience deserves.
