What actually happened is that the 80s and in particular Little Mermaid was when the AFA warned everyone of the problem and began by using contemporary examples. That's really when the nationwide hunt began. Since then the examples have only increased.

It's probable that the penile structure in the Mermaid cover art was intentional on the just-deniable level, just like that on the Minnie gift card. When zealots accused the minister in the movie of having an erection, though, you can look closely and tell it's just a very caricatured kneecap because it matches his other kneecap. So a grain of salt needs to be used with sightings.

I had to research this one to get it right: Rescuers 1977 was a definite porn photo (not cartoon) insertion into two disparate cels, but that was not discovered until the 1999 VHS release, and the story was that it was done in the 70s by an outside postproduction entity, and that it didn't appear in the earlier VHS release because that was a diferent print (Snopes). Even though they announced a recall of 3 million copies 3 days after release, that's about the time when you can publicly say Disney wasn't serious about a problem it should have known about. They had already had a policy going all the way back of looking at every single frame. Before that Disney was just a kooky fed shill, but after that you can begin to pin moral complicity on them.

Exactly. It seems the change came when computers started being used. The first movie i heard about having sexual content was Jessica Rabbit. Also computer generated.

Agree. Grew up in the 80’s and had every Disney VHS. I did a project in “illustrators” and pointed out the dick in one of the towers on the cover of The Little Mermaid to my teacher.