People on TikTok just realized that Disney recycled animation footage in different movies and they are shocked

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People on TikTok just realized that Disney recycled animation footage in different movies and they are shocked
Parallel sequences of Christopher Robin and Mowgli are circulating on TikTok.Disney
  • A clip showing side-by-side recycled Disney animation sequences went viral on TikTok.
  • People reacted with shock and surprise to the video.
  • It's been previously reported that Disney recycled animation. Compilations have circulated online for years.
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TikTok has resurfaced old Disney animation that appears to show Mowgli from 1967's "The Jungle Book" and Christopher Robin from 1977's "Winnie the Pooh" performing the exact same movements, indicating that the animation sequence was recycled.

While many people on TikTok seem to be learning about the recycled sequence for the first time, Disney's tendency to re-use footage has been known for years.

The side-by-side comparison, which has been circulating on TikTok in late January and early February, has gone viral in several videos and has been reposted by a number of users reacting to the clip with shock and surprise.

TikTok user @buzzzi_ appears to have been one of the first to bring the clip to TikTok, showing parallel sequences in Disney films ranging from "The Jungle Book" to "The Sword in the Stone." The original video is also notably set to the track "Paris" by Else, a TikTok mainstay that's frequently invoked in unsettling or otherwise disturbing contexts. That gives the clip a somewhat sinister tone despite the fact that recycled Disney animations have circulated online for years.

From there, other accounts reposted the video from @buzzzi_, adding their own captions and reactions.

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"Excuse me while I freak out, my entire childhood is in question right now," TikTok user @colleenlepp wrote in a video that's amassed 3.2 million likes in four days.

@colleenlepp

#duet with @buzzzi_ how? Why? What? #disney #disneytiktok #wdw #disneysecrets #disneymovies #childhoodmovies #disneyclassics #disneyanimation #fyp

♬ original sound - BuzZzii

It's been previously reported that Disney used recycled animated footage in older films

While TikTok users are just now discovering the clip, the fact that Disney has recycled animation sequences in the past is common knowledge. The Daily Mail reported on the phenomenon in 2009, including the Mowgli and Christopher Robin sequences that are circulating on TikTok right now, and realizations about recycled sequences have popped up online from time to time.

Insider's Kirsten Acuna reported in 2015 that Disney frequently recycled old animated footage to save costs on film. GeekDad reported at the time that veteran Disney animator Floyd Norman (who worked on "Sleeping Beauty" and "The Jungle Book" among other Disney films) attributed many of the recycled moments to the late director Wolfgang "Woolie" Reitherman, a key Disney figure in the 1960s and '70s who directed "The Jungle Book" and other films from the era. Norman told GeekDad that Reitherman "liked to play it safe and use stuff he knew would work."

"It was done probably to save time, save money. Although I don't think it saved much time and I don't think it saved much money because it was more of a hassle to go dig this old footage out of the archive," Norman said in an interview with Cartoon Hangover. "It would've been easier to just sit down and animate a new scene than to go back and try to retrofit all this old stuff to something new."

Animation historian Michael Barrier, the author of "Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in Its Golden Age," published an interview with the late animation legend Milt Kahl (who worked on "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" and "Robin Hood" among numerous other titles) on his personal website. In the interview, Kahl also credited Reitherman for many of the instances of recycled footage, telling Barrier that "the funny thing is that most of the time they spend more money trying to figure out how to re-use [old animation]" rather than re-animating from scratch.

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These days, it's easy to compare shots and sequences from Disney films ranging from "The Jungle Book" to "Beauty and the Beast," and compilations of recycled animation have circulated on YouTube for years. Now, the surprise has reached a new generation on TikTok.

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