There are a few iconic scenes we’re always going to associate with certain movies, right?
The “I’m flying” scene in Titanic. The pottery scene in Ghost. And yes, the undeniably iconic spaghetti scene in Lady And The Tramp (who knew slurping pasta could be so romantic?).
In the rare event you’re not familiar, the famous moment involves two animated dogs, the fancy Lady and street-smart mongrel Tramp, sharing some spaghetti.
While the pair gulp down a strand, they realise they’re eating the same piece ― and as they work their way through the spaghetti, their snouts grow closer, eventually causing them to “kiss”.
But it turns out that the scene was almost cut from the movie by none other than Walt Disney himself (yes, really), as TikTok user @disney.facts_by.charles recently revealed in a viral video.
How come the iconic scene was almost cut?
“Walt wasn’t convinced that it would be a very clean-cut scene,” former studio archivist and a curator for the official Disney fan club D23, Steven Vagnini, told Yahoo Movies.
“As you can imagine, if you have two pets and they eat a plate of spaghetti, it’s hard to envision that being too graceful.”
Luckily, directing animator Frank Thomas made a quick mock-up of the scene to sway Walt ― and it worked.
Huh!
I know! And it turns out that there’s even more to the movie than I’d have thought (over a decade more, to be exact).
The film, which was released in 1955, began as a drawing of story man Joe Grant’s Springer spaniel in 1937. Walt Disney liked the sketches but didn’t see much potential in the accompanying story Grant suggested, so the project was shelved.
In 1943, Walt Disney then bought the rights to Happy Dan, The Whistling Dog, a short story he read in Cosmopolitan magazine. This was combined with Grant’s original sketches, pulled from the archive, to create the film we all know and love.
John Grant’s novelisation of the film story was published in 1953 (two years before the film was released) to give people time to become familiar with the characters.
Which just goes to show ― not every shelved idea deserves to stay on the cutting room floor.