Let’s talk about 80’s and 90’s, an era loaded with Super Mario, Yoyo, pile of Cassettes and landlines. Those of us who were kids during that period grew up with Tom & Jerry, Mickey and Friends or Donald. We know the value of the only entertainment that was available for kids back then, other than indoor or outdoor games and general activities.

Most of us always came from school as a toddler and waited for Aladdin to come on his magic carpet on that black and white box. At that time, many countries telecast the famous cartoons like Mickey Mouse and Club House, He-Man and lots of hot cake cartoon programs in their Local languages.

The amazing Nana Patekar behind Sher Khan for the Mowgli telecast on Doordarshan in India is still a sensation on YouTube. But, when we all grew up indulging ourselves more into this cartoon world and jumped deep inside cartoons to recall our childhood attachments in their original versions, many of us must have found something hilarious. Not everything in that universe is always as innocent as it supposed to be and here is the list of Top 10 controversial trivia of cartoon characters.

10. Monster House

This famous production of Image Movers and Amblin Entertainment is an animated movie released in 2006, directed by Gil Kenan, which was distributed by Columbia Pictures. For the first time since “Back to the Future Part III”, Robert Zemeckis and Steven Spielberg worked together as executive producers in this movie.

As of now, this is the only animated film to feature an entirely original story and not based on existing source material. In one scene, with some extra attention, we can hear something ridiculous where our cast of characters Dj, Skull, Chowder and Bones, used as DJ, Punk, Freak, and Ketchup in the German version of the film, are all children, who are discussing the “anatomy” of the Monster House.

One kid points out the teeth, and then the tongue and then, again, he shouts, “That must be the uvula!” while pointing towards a chandelier. Another child promptly replies, “Oh, so this must be a female house.” The uvula, of course, a female character, in this film, somehow gets mixed up with the vulva.

9. The Spectacular Spider-Man

The Spectacular Spider-Man was developed for television by Greg Weisman and Victor Cook which is often referred to as the greatest Spider-Man cartoon ever made. After publishing “The Night Gwen Stacy Died” on 1973, Spider-Man Animated Series adopted the story in the episode, “Turning Point” where Gwen was replaced by Mary Jane. The Spectacular Spider-Man was acclaimed for its crisp dialogue and reintroduction of countless famous characters from the Spider-Man universe while still remaining loyal to the original comics.

It introduced some characters that would normally be disqualified from children’s programming, such as Black Cat concealed in a skin-tight, revealing uniform. The thing gets a little messy for its 10 years old target audience in one episode, in which Peter Parker hits high school. We all were curious to see tissues in his room, and then something splendid happens while he is chasing Black Cat around a warehouse.

While spraying his web all over, he hears Catwoman saying “You better not get your goop in my hair.” And he replies “Don’t worry; it comes off with ice or peanut butter.” Let’s leave the rest to the imagination.

8. Rugrats

Louis Kalhern “Grandpa Lou” Pickles is the senior most member of Pickles family from 1991 Cartoon Series, Rugrats, involving the daily life experiences that become adventures in the babies’ imaginations. It was created by Arlene Klasky, Gábor Csupó, and Paul Germain for Nickelodeon.

Rugrats was awarded with over 20 awards during 13 years of continuous broadcasting which includes 4 Daytime Emmy Awards, 7 Kids’ Choice Awards, and also its own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Grandpa Lou is one of the most controversial cartoon characters by Nick. It gets controversial when in one episode, Grandpa Lou rents some movies for the infant Tommy, Dil, and Angelica to watch.

He takes two movie cassettes naming “Reptar Come Home” and “Reptar Redux”, starring the kids’ favorite atomic dinosaur, Reptar. Along with these, he brings his personal favorite movie, “Lonely Space Vixens” where a green vixen hiding her private parts with shells in front appears as a cover picture of the cassette, to which he adds, “That’s for after you go to bed.”

7. The Flintstones

This famous cartoon series created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera was one of the oldest cartoons that broadcast in television. Aired from September 30, 1960, to April 1, 1966, the original work was first broadcast on ABC channel, America.

The Flintstones rarely got more sophisticated than Stone Age chauvinism and using woodpeckers as typewriters. That is, except for the time they quietly slipped a hilarious joke into an episode right into its tightly knit screenplay. In that episode, Fred and Barney go to the store for the purpose of filling their stone wardrobes.

Fred asks Barney about his preference of clothes he wants to buy. Barney replies that it will be good if he gets something that makes him look a little taller. Fred suggests, with a laugh, to buy another head for that height increment he wants. Barney promptly replies, “What do I need three of them for?” And it is obvious to understand about the second head, and you’ll also break into a laughter like the way they laughed after that.

6. Madagascar

Madagascar, a famous animated film, directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, was released in movie theaters on May 27, 2005. This is the film in which pineapples grow on trees in the jungle, whereas, in reality, pineapples grow on the ground.

If you carefully watch the scene where Skipper, the talking monkey reads a newspaper, you will notice that the newspaper is the comic itself. There is no real way to do that if you want to use a certain offensive synonym of ‘poop’ in any animated movies for children. But, to salute the amazing naughtiness of the voice of Ben Stiller, Chris Rock and David Schwimmer behind those amazing animals, scriptwriter, Mark Burton, Billy Frolick, Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath came up with a great idea.

In one particular scene where Alex, the famous lion character, voiced by Ben, and Marty the zebra, voiced by Chris, are running towards each other on the beach while theme music of Chariots of Fire playing in the air, Marty somehow manages to understand the not-so-loving run of Alex towards him and suddenly switches direction while yelling Sugar Honey Iced Tea. So, why was the Sugar Honey Iced Tea used there as an expressive outcome? Try to figure out the original word by reading only the first alphabets.

5. Powerpuff Girls

This famous cartoon series was created by animator Craig McCracken and produced by Cartoon Network Studios for Cartoon Network. Craig originally developed the show back in 1992 as a short cartoon title called “Whoopass Stew!”, while in his second year at California Institute of the Arts.

A continuous 7-year broadcasting with whopping success started from November 18, 1998, till it aired the final episode on March 25, 2005 which was nominated for six Emmy Awards, nine Annie Awards, and a Kids’ Choice Award. On June 16, 2014, In Comic-con Cartoon Network proudly announced plans to reboot the series in 2016. Its earlier original episodes are full with fun and laughter.

But, it goes extremely funny in one of the episodes when Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup bring one of their friends, Robin, home and introduce her to their dad, Professor Utonium, and they say that he is the guy who accidentally made them in the laboratory. Robin, being a normally born child, replies, “It’s Okay, Professor, I was an accident, too,” which made the professor drop his jaw.

4. Dexter’s Laboratory

This thick-accented little science prodigy is a marvelous gift for children by Genndy Tartakovsky for Cartoon Network. The same fellow that Star Wars creator George Lucas hired to direct Star Wars: Clone Wars. After it premiered on April 28, 1996 by 1999 it has telecast 52 episodes including a television movie. This concoction of tech and science for kids was not always as decent as it apparently seems.

The fact is that “Dexter’s Rude Removal” is the name of the episode which Cartoon Network refused to air due to the characters’ swearing. Later, Cartoon Network’s late night program, Adult Swim, eventually uploaded it on YouTube and got 500,000 views within 24 hours. Later, “Dial M for Monkey: Barbequor” episode featured Silver Spooner, a spoof of the Silver Surfer from Marvel Universe, which was perceived by Cartoon Network as a stereotype of gay men.

In “Nuclear Confusion” episode, while Dexter searched for the third clue by Dee Dee and went to Neighbor Lady’s house, that lady bent over to pick up a cookie she dropped onto the floor and he sees ‘Dad’s Trophy’ written across her buttocks on those purple pants.

3. Toy Story

The unforgettable 1995 animated adventure film, produced by Pixar and directed by John Lasseter is still a must watch for any kid. it was distributed solely by Walt Disney Pictures. Tom Hanks gave voice for Woody the plastic cowboy while Tim Allen amused us as space ranger Buzz Lightyear. But, it has also got a character for adults in a twisted way.

Do you remember that toy with bare legs and a hooker replacing her upper body? Yes, you got it right; there is a hooker in children’s film for adult entertainment for those toys. As an interesting fact, we can see that while Woody is a regular toy, his mouth alternates between closed and smiling to partially open.

Moreover, there’s a part of the splendid Pixar sequel Toy Story 2 in which Star Command space ranger Buzz Lightyear gets the toy equivalent of an erection. During the scene where Buzz is introduced to cowgirl Jessie when she’s just leaping around Andy’s room, Buzz stares at her while his eyes pops out due to excitement. And suddenly, his wings pop up and start flashing. There is no better way to show the plastic toys getting ‘turned on’ than this.

2. Aladdin

Aladdin is a Middle Eastern folk tale from The Arabian Nights successfully adapted by Walt Disney Pictures in cartoon back in 1992. This amazing series of three movies and tv series directed by John Musker and Ron Clements showcased Scott Weinger as Aladdin and Robin Williams as The Genie.

Disney successfully supported homosexuality 20 years back in a twisted way with a scene from the movie where Aladdin almost drowns after being kidnapped and dropped into the sea by Jafar’s goons. Genie saves his master and says out of genuine affection for Aladdin, “I’m getting pretty fond of you, kid,” and later adds, “Not that I want to pick out curtains, or anything.”

Later, in the movie “Aladdin and the King of Thieves”, Aladdin establishes himself as a fatherly character. That movie contains a hilarious reaction from Genie during Aladdin and Jasmine’s wedding sequence. There’s an earthquake, to which Genie reacts while muttering “I thought the Earth wasn’t supposed to move until the honeymoon.”

1. Donald Duck

“Der Fuehrer’s Face” aka “Donald Duck in Nutzi Land” won Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film at the 15th Academy Awards Directed by Jack Kinney under Walt Disney Productions and released in 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures, it is the only Donald Duck film to receive an Academy Award till now. The film contains Wallace’s original song, “Der Fuehrer’s Face” which was actually released earlier by Spike Jones.

Even the clouds and trees are shaped as swastikas in the movie to portray Hitler’s intensity on Germany at that time. In one scene of that movie, Donald faces and “Hails” the portraits of the “Fuehrer” Adolf Hitler before arriving at the factory’s bayonet-point, to starts his 48-hour daily shift screwing caps onto artillery shells in an assembly line.

The same film also featured Donald getting motivated while reading Mein Kampf and wearing Nazi band in his hand. In another scene, in Donald’s nightmare, he sees the shadow of a figure holding its right hand up in the form of a Nazi salute.

He begins to do so himself until he realizes that it is the shadow of a miniature of Statue of Liberty. While being proud of his United States citizenship, he embraces the statue. The movie gets more controversial when it ends with two sets of “Hails” and a tomato is thrown at a caricature of Hitler’s angry face and forms the words “The End”.

We also end here with Donald while expecting a colorful animated dream tonight, after indulging with all those cartoon characters above. Starting from black and white two-dimensional cartoons where characters hang in the air before they fall down from the cliff, till today’s state-of-the-art 3D superior animation movies, controversies and hidden messages are all there, but, what attracts most is far beyond those controversies.

It is the feel that they provide while viewing those animations which always leave a mark on our memories. Irrespective of our age, we all have enjoyed, and will continue to enjoy, those cartoons from our childhood, till Popeye is happy with Olive and there is enough money in Uncle Scrooge’s bank to dive in.

Related Posts

From WatchMojo.com to preshows in movie theaters to… well, TopTenz, everyone wants to provide small novelty pieces of information about beloved movies. Unfortunately, the high demand means that the product has gotten a bit diluted over time. Misunderstandings or even outright lies now permeate the pop culture landscape. We’re inclined to believe a lot of them if for no other reason than the reputation that people have in show business for being weird, or for crazy things to happen when millions of dollars are spent on make believe.

Here at TopTenz there’s too much respect for the truth to let that stand. Well, at least we want to help our readers put some smug people who think they’re the smartest people in the world because they know some piece of trivia in their place.   

10. Alien’s Gender Flip

Since Ellen Ripley’s status as the main character (and sole survivor, not counting the cat) of the Alien franchise was a surprise in the original film of the series, the part being played by Sigourney Weaver instead of, say, her then-more famous male co-star Tom Skerritt made it a subject of a lot of discussion from 1979 onwards. One of the claims that popped up over the years was that the character was originally intended to be male. This seems to be a carryover from the genderflipped character Ruth Leavitt in the slightly less famous 1971 science fiction classic The Andromeda Strain.

None other than screenwriter Dan O’Bannon refuted the story. He clarified that, intentionally, none of the characters were gender specific in his script so that the casting director could take care of that. He had even included notes about this decision on the last page of his original screenplay. We’ll leave it up to the reader to decide what if anything this says about gender roles in fiction.

9. Johnny Depp/Jackie Earle Haley

It’s a classic story of an audition with a comical twist: Someone who doesn’t even intend to be an actor is just going along with a friend to audition for a job. Turns out the casting director prefers the friend who wasn’t intending to act, and that person goes on to be a big star. Something very similar to that happened to Bob Hoskins, for example. The single most famous example of this would likely be in 1983, when Jackie Earle Haley brought Johnny Depp along with him for a role in A Nightmare on Elm Street and ended up launching his friend’s career. Then for a fun coincidence, Jackie Earle Haley was cast as Freddy Krueger for the 2010 remake.

Except… no. Haley clarified in an interview in Esquire that all this talk of him and Depp at the audition was just a rumor. He doesn’t even know what the origin of the rumor could have been, just that him not bringing Depp there was crystal clear.

8. Daniel Day Lewis’s Insane Method Acting

Daniel Day-Lewis is as much famous for his extreme method acting as he is for winning three Academy Awards for Best Actor. For example, playing the primarily paralyzed Christy Brown in My Left Foot involved him staying in a wheelchair for the duration of the shoot. He supposedly insists on only being referred to by his character’s name. It’s all designed to instill the belief that he spends all day trying to think of himself as the character in some maniacal worship of the acting profession.

On the podcast I Was There Too, Paul F. Tompkins (who worked with him on There Will Be Blood) clarified that Lewis wasn’t so intensely in character at all. Between takes he would discuss the characters as if they were characters, he wouldn’t insist at all on being referred to by his character’s name, and he was fine with dropping the accent once the shoot was done for the day. Indeed, as Tompkins opines, it would be an indication that Lewis isn’t a good actor if he makes others uncomfortable with such unreasonable demands, since part of the nature of being a good actor is to pay attention to the needs of your collaborators.

7. Tricking Alan Rickman

No, this isn’t an assertion that it’s untrue that Alan Rickman was ever tricked. This is referring to a story that, in order to get a better reaction out of Hans Gruber for the shot when he is dropped off Nakatomi Plaza in Die Hard, supposedly the director told him that he would be dropped on the count of three. However, to get a genuinely shocked reaction before Rickman had properly braced himself, though, he was dropped on the count of one.

Sorry to ruin everyone’s fun, but Rickman was asked about this very thing during a Q&A event. He unambiguously didn’t remember it happening, which – considering how vividly he remembered the director saying “we’re going to drop the actor” – means that would have been an aspect that would have stuck in his memory. Considering he remembered the fall being higher than the generally reported (40 feet instead of 25) he clearly wasn’t in the mood to downplay anything.   

6. Al Capone’s Tailor

Bringing it back to the subject of method acting, we all know perhaps the second biggest method actor in the world was Robert DeNiro for years and years, starting with becoming a real cab driver for weeks to prepare to play Travis Bickle in 1974’s Taxi Driver. By the time 1987 rolled around, for The Untouchables the news went around that DeNiro was supposedly personally tracking down Al Capone’s tailor so that the pajamas he wore (and even his underwear) matched the crime lord’s.

As was pointed out by others well after this misconception spread, given that there was a 56-year gap between Capone’s incarceration and the production of The Untouchables, Capone’s tailor was very unlikely to be in the right shape to work. For one thing, Capone’s tailor was actually Louis Dinato, an associate of Capone’s whose main noteworthy aspect was being repeatedly questioned by the police even after Capone was imprisoned (to no avail), as if he were some sort of interrogation punching bag. The person who actually did the costume work for DeNiro was Rich Bruno, and given that he was only 52 when The Untouchables was made, it would have been quite a trick for the costumer to be tailoring for Al Capone.

5. Spider-Man’s 156 Takes

This one has been a favorite of trivia sites for years: Somehow Sam Raimi’s 2002 film Spider-Man had enough time in the production schedule to devote hours and hours (if not days) to shoot 156 takes of Tobey Maguire catching a tray full of food. Now granted, in 2002 CGI affordable enough for a throwaway gag wasn’t quite up to scratch, so there’s plenty of reason to do it mechanically instead of with computers. But Maguire didn’t do it alone and the “156 takes” claim is certainly a joke (evidenced by the fact that in its source, a commentary track, the commenter gets a laugh from it).

It explicitly was a combination of using a “mechanical rig” to drop the food and gluing the tray to Maguire’s hand, and using force-absorbing gel on the bottom of said food. In fact, if you go frame-by-frame, you can see a white substance stuck to the bottom of the apple. That at least confirms it wasn’t CGI, since why would a CG artist put that on there? Still, it definitely puts this back in the “SFX” category.   

4. Werner Herzog’s Shoe Bet

Errol Morris and Werner Herzog are two of the most interesting documentary filmmakers working today, and their film careers were connected in a rather befuddling way. Errol Morris began his career in 1978 with the cult documentary Gates of Heaven (particularly beloved by Roger Ebert) at a time when he had little funding and getting distribution for the film would have been extremely difficult. Herzog came up with a bizarre bet to motivate his friend: If the movie were completed, Herzog would eat his shoe at the premiere. It was enough of an event that a short film was made of the preparation of the meal.

Then Morris came along during a Q&A session at the Lincoln Center and revealed that they actually didn’t have a wager – it was just something that Herzog had made up as an excuse to eat a shoe. Not wanting to be comedically upstaged, while telling the truth about this, Morris said he would joke for years that the bet had actually stipulated Herzog’s foot.    

3. The Dark Knight’s Remote Futzing

Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in this 2008 blockbuster was so compelling that much of his manic behavior felt completely natural, leaving audiences open to the notion that even the biggest parts were improvised. A scene where the Joker claps in jail is an example. But the best known example is the scene where the Joker is blowing up Gotham General Hospital, but stops when there seems to be a problem with the detonation. In what was alleged to be improv, Ledger messes with the remote, and then the explosion resumes, leaving him to scramble onto the bus.

As director Christopher Nolan explains in a behind the scenes feature included on The Dark Knight blu-ray, the sudden stop in the explosion and the Joker’s pause was actually planned in advance. In fact, Warner Brothers provided a CGI mockup of how the scene would be staged as evidence. That’s much further than most studios go in debunking a piece of trivia.

2. Citizen Kane’s Non-Plot Hole

Since this 1941 film has for decades been known as arguably the best ever made, it was a delight for film buffs and critics alike to claim that the story has a gigantic plot hole right in the middle of it. The impetus for the story is that the titular Kane’s last word was “Rosebud” and it was supposed to be said to an empty room. Which begs the question of how anyone heard what his final word was if he was alone. There was a story circulated that this was pointed out to auteur Orson Welles by a member of the crew, and Welles responded some variation on “don’t you ever tell anyone this.”

The problem with the plausibility of that little story is that it’s not consistent with the content of the movie. While the opening scene has been watched by cinefiles and parodied many times by shows such as The Simpsons, the scene’s person who heard the words doesn’t appear until much later. Very near the end, the reporter that’s been spending the movie trying to learn from Kane’s intimates what Rosebud could mean has a brief chat with the butler Raymond, who explicitly says he’s the one who heard it. Raymond’s other main contribution to the movie is telling the reporter about the famous scene where Kane wrecks his room until he sees a snow globe and says Rosebud the first time. So if someone had asked Orson Welles about who heard the words, Welles would just have said Raymond instead of acting as if his entire movie were in jeopardy.    

1. Being John Malkovich’s Beer Can

A lot of this trivia took a concerted effort to debunk or a celebrity to wanted to set the record straight. In this case, the thing that disproved it was completely unintentional. Indeed, the performer in question might not even have ever heard of the false story.

In Being John Malkovich, there’s a scene where the titular actor is walking by a road while he’s in a rut. An extra in a passing vehicle yelled “Hey Malkovich, think fast!” and threw a beer can at his head. Supposedly the scene was completely unscripted and instead of being rebuked for potentially ruining a take, the actor got a raise (some versions say he got a Screen Actors Guild card) because the line of dialogue was used.

The truth didn’t come out until Malkovich was doing a question and answer session known as a “AMA” (Ask Me Anything) on the popular website Reddit. One of his fans asked about that particular scene without mentioning it was supposedly completely spontaneous. The actor said that he was especially fond of that scene, and had been looking forward to it… as soon as he read it in the script. In fact, director Spike Jonze wasn’t even sure if any of the actors would be able to hit Malkovich in an acceptably low number of takes. In hindsight, it would have been a pretty bad idea to actively encourage extras to do things that might harm actors and ruin takes, so everyone should have found the story dubious even before Malkovich accidentally corrected them.    

Fun Fact: Dustin and Adam Koski also wrote a hilarious and exciting fantasy novel.