Quiz: This Disney Opening Scene Trivia Is Harder Than You Think

We know that many of the classic fairy tales begin with the phrase “Once upon a time,” but what about the Disney adaptations they transformed into? See if you can identify the Disney movies by just their opening scene descriptions with our quiz:

While some Disney movies remained relatively faithful to the source material, in both content and structure, others deviated wildly. In some cases, these changes were intended to support the adaptations’ original characters and plotlines, but others were simply seen as more exciting introductions than the traditional exposition dump.

And though some of Disney’s opening scenes are iconic, prompting people to raise their infants in the air like The Lion King or prompting the Pinocchio tune “When You Wish Upon A Star,” others are more forgettable.

With that in mind, only true Disney fans can get a perfect score on this quiz! How did you do?

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Disney’s Favorite Opening Scene Patterns

While the most iconic Disney openings were not included on this quiz because they would be too easy to guess, the ones that were featured often followed one of many traditional patterns. In storytelling in general, you typically want to start your story off by setting the tone, introducing your main characters, and teasing the conflicts they will face. Disney uses distinct trends based on what the main focus of their film is going to be.

One version of this is done by introducing the main threat first. For example, Mulan starts with the Hun attack on the Great Wall of China. By putting the invasion first, the audience understands that the war is the most important conflict. Mulan’s struggle to fit her family’s expectations and her romance with Li Shang matter, but they are secondary plotlines.

Similarly, Moana’s main focus is the destruction of nature, not the parents who don’t understand her.

On the other hand, Disney movies that are explicitly supposed to be about romance are more likely to start off with an introduction of the love interest before the main character. While people might mistakenly believe that Frozen’s opening scene includes young Elsa and Anna playing, the true opening begins with Kristoff and Sven harvesting ice.

Likewise, The Little Mermaid begins with Prince Eric on his ship. This helps set up the eventual romance as inevitable. Anna may be infatuated with Hans, but Kristoff is who she is meant to end up with. Eric might be led astray by Ursula, but he will marry Ariel.

Films that are primarily concerned with identity are more likely to start with the character’s birth and presentation to their community. This common opening move shows up in The Lion King, Hercules, and Sleeping Beauty. By first introducing the character’s origins, the audience is let in on a secret that even the characters themselves might not know about. This creates a heightened sense of dramatic irony and makes it more interesting to see how the characters will act when they learn the truth.

In a similar vein, if a character is going to be stuck between two worlds, their movie often begins with the moment that they begin to live a dual life. For example, both Tarzan and The Jungle Book begin with a human character in a hostile environment. When they are taken in by native residents in the wild, they begin to engage with the conflict between their human and animal perspectives.

There are a few other traditional ways that Disney starts their films, but the most important is probably the storybook exposition opening. This first appeared in Disney’s first feature film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and has appeared off and on ever since.

In most cases, this strategy was used to honor the story’s literary source material. However, when the movie Wish did it, it was more of an homage to the Disney trend and the company’s 100-year history, rather than citing any literary inspiration.

Some films also took the idea of the storybook opening and translated it to the setting of the film. For example, Hercules began with clay pottery, Beauty and the Beast told its story with stained glass windows, and Moana used tapa cloth. These openings may not have been particularly creative from a storytelling perspective, but they did acquaint the audience with the culture and art style that would be prominent in the film.

Whether the movies began with an engaging character study, a song that told its key message, or one of the techniques mentioned above, they all did what they needed to do, getting audiences interested in the story and its characters.

If you think you know everything there is to know about Disney movies and other trivia tidbits, check out our quiz section to continue putting your skills to the test.

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