I've heard before from ex-Disney employees that working at the most magical place in the world isn't really that magical after awhile. Similarly, I've heard that being an animator on children's programs can become absolutely tedious at times... so much so that, from time to time, they've been known to engage in some sort of form of... amusing themselves.

In short they turn to sex.

There's plenty of urban myths about the appearance of indecent materials in various cartoons, with varying levels of truth. Off the top of my head we've got:

1. Naked Woman in The Rescuers - Totally true, although the I can't blame the animators - it was actually someone bored in post production that put an actual porn shot in one of the windows they fly by.
2. Dildo + Horny Minister in Little Mermaid - No, the minister's not really excited about the wedding, it's just his knee (although in some shots...) and it wasn't a disgruntled artist who threw a dildo in the Little Mermaid's poster, he was just really tired and apparently didn't notice (although one wonders what he was thinking about when he was drawing this poster...)
3. SEX in Lion King - Debatable. Some say it's supposed to mean SFX (for special effects), others claim that it's distinctly an E. I don't think there's clear proof of either really

But you know we can't lay all the blame at Disney. This sort of thing happens all the time I imagine, and most of the time it probably falls through the cracks and no one notices.

In fact, I know of one that I have yet to see anyone point out. Something I discovered in high school on a beloved VHS from my childhood. Something so simple, I almost admire it for it's ingenious use. Even if it is completely perverted.

I'm talking about a scene from the Super Mario Brothers Super Show.



This may appear to be just an awful fight scene from an awful cartoon set to an awful cover of Michael Jackson's Bad. And indeed that's all I thought it was when I pulled out the tape late one night looking to amuse myself and my friends in our high school days. But upon watching it, my future wife noticed something, something I had never seen before. Have you watched the clip? Have you seen it?

Allow me to demonstrate what I'm talking about

Throughout this sequence, Mario's buddies are stomping on Koopa Troopas while he fights King Koopa with a gold plumber's snake (At no point is Mario ever shown to do anything resembling actual plumbing. So you cannot blame me if one of the careers I threw in my About Me book was plumbing. I was 6 and all I knew about plumbing involved stomping koopas. Seriously).

As each male member stomps on a troopa, their eyes are x'd over they're left looking rather frowny. As you would be too if you were stomped upon by a badly dressed italian or a walking mushroom.

Well, all except one.


Because see, one of these dudes is stomped on by the Princess. And, she, well. She has a big dress. And as you can see here, well, this troopa is basically engulfed by the thing as he's stomped upon. And when he comes out, what does he have?

A huge smile.


Animators are perverts. Case closed.