Best family movie questions of all time

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The Sound of Music picture

Question: Gretel was 5 years old and the mother died seven years ago. Who is Gretel's mom?

Answer: In the film, the Mother Abess explains to Maria that the Captain Von Trapp's wife died "several years" ago. This is commonly misheard by viewers as "seven years." In reality, the actual mother of the Von Trapp children was Agathe Whitehead, who died of scarlet fever in 1922, just four years before Maria came to the Von Trapp home, initially as a tutor (not a governess) in 1926.

Michael Albert

Answer: However when Captain Von Trapp gets the children to step forward and introduce themselves to Maria he states that their mother died 7 years ago.

Not in the 1965 film, perhaps in another version. In the 1965 film the only thing he says about his late wife when he first meets Maria is "you'll be the 12th governess...since their mother died." When he has the children introduce themselves, he only advises Maria to pay attention to their signals and names. Later after he leaves and the children say how old they are, Marta says "I'll be 7 on Tuesday."

Bishop73

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Free Willy picture

Question: In reality, do orcas actually understand English? Willy seems to understand Jesse when Jesse teaches him tricks.

Answer: While sounds and words can be used to alert orcas and dolphins, they recognize the hand signals and movements as to what to do.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: Dogs can learn words up to the level of a 3 yr old, and whales are smarter than dogs, so definitely.

dizzyd

Dogs don't learn words, they start to recognize the sound that comes with a certain word like "stay" or "fetch", it's got more to do with the intonation than the actual word. They don't know what the word actually means. They can't imitate it nor can they recognize it in a sentence.

lionhead

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Answer: Molly gets adopted by Warbucks and becomes Annie's sister and the other orphans get adopted by other families while a reformed Miss Hannigan becomes a schoolteacher.

Answer: They are no longer at the orphanage since Miss Hannigan reformed and became a schoolteacher. So they are all adopted with Annie by "Daddy" Warbucks.

Answer: They're still staying at the orphanage, but it seems Mr. Warbucks is helping to fund them and Miss Hannigan has had a change of heart, so it's not so grim.

Brian Katcher

Answer: Annie and Molly both get adopted by Oliver Warbucks and become sisters ages 10 and 6 and live with the male family dog, Sandy and Oliver marries Grace Farrell and Grace becomes Annie and Molly's mom.

Answer: 10 year old Annie and six year old Molly and another orphan named Chloe get adopted by Oliver Warbucks and have the male family dog, Sandy and Oliver marries Grace Farrell and Grace becomes the girls' new mom.

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Toy Story picture

Question: When Woody and Buzz are at Sid's house, at one point the baby with the spider legs taps something in Morse code to Sid's other toys. Is he really tapping something in Morse code or is it just a random jumble of dots and dashes?

Answer: Baby face taps RR TOYS COME OUT. Telling the other toys to come out from hiding. Pixar stated this in their Toy Story character overview.

But why "RR"?

"RR" is shorthand for "Message Received." Babyface is telling Woody that he understands Woody's problem and then taps out to the other toys to come out.

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Shrek 2 picture

Question: Since Shrek and Fiona were both turned in to humans by the Happily Ever After Potion and Donkey is turned in to Stallion, does anyone have an idea as to what Dragon would have become since she is Donkey's True Love?

Answer: It was confirmed by the filmmakers that Dragon is actually Donkey's true love, and that when Donkey was a stallion she changed as well, supposedly into a talking pegasus.

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The Parent Trap picture

Question: In the scene where the dad tells Annie, pretending to be Hallie, that he is going to marry Meredith, Hallie yells a bunch of stuff in French. Does anyone know what she was saying?

Answer: I hope that you are joking, Meredith is not the girl for you. But it is possible that I am dreaming that this is so.

Stephen Edmonds 1

Answer: She actually said, "Marry her?! That's insane! How can you marry a woman young enough to be my big sister?!"

Answer: Not really but I think she was saying you're kidding.

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Coraline picture

Question: After Other Wybie frees Coraline from the mirror and is helping her escape, he takes off his glove and blows away his hand. Is something happening to him?

HulkObsessedChick

Chosen answer: Coraline urges Other Wybie to escape with her. He shows her that he can't - he is not a person, just another puppet of the Other Mother. What is blowing away is the sawdust Other Mother fills her puppets with.

Ioreth

He's just a temporary distraction.

Answer: It's because the other Wybie isn't real, he is just one of the other mother's creations. The other world is full of magic, so if he tries to go to the normal world he will turn into sawdust or sand because the normal world has no magic.

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Elf (2003)

Elf picture

Question: When The Central Park Rangers are called in action it mentions the Simon and Garfunkel concert and their actions being under speculation - was this a real event (their questionable actions), and if so what was the problem, or was it just a fictional jokey reference?

Answer: This was a real event. The Simon and Garfunkel free concert drew a crowd of over half a million people and the Central Park Rangers were investigated for being a little "over-enthusiastic" in their methods of crowd control. It was 1981 though, not 1985 as stated.

Absolutely correct and thank you - I was there at the concert and it was 1981. I love the movie Elf but that incorrect reference is a slight irritant - LOL.

Answer: I believe that this refers to an incident I was involved in. I was a new ranger riding Captain Cutter, an ex-race horse that we had Nick named Captain Goofy due to his propensity to suddenly spin in circles without warning. We were leading buses of handicapped people through shoulder-to-shoulder crowds when Goofy did his thing sending people scattering in all directions. It was over pretty quickly. I did not realise at the time that it was news.

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Tangled picture

Question: Is it possible the king and queen could recognize Rapunzel as their long lost daughter, despite her short brown hair, when they knew she was born with long golden hair? If so, then how?

Answer: It's entirely possible. Rapunzel has a similar face appearance to her mother's, and you could also count the family bond of simply knowing. She also has green eyes, which are uncommon, so the parents probably knew that she was unlikely an impostor.

virtual-toast

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Answer: We are never shown what happened to him but he may have gone to live with relatives or he was simply put into an orphanage.

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Answer: In the prologue, it states that the Beast must find true love by his 21st birthday, and that he had been cursed for ten years, so since his relationship with Belle takes place as the deadline approaches, he must have been 10 when he was cursed.

Answer: I think the prince was 11 when he was cursed.

Answer: He must have been in his teens at least, his portrait that he shreds was not of a 11 year old.

Answer: He is 11. 21 by first love '10 years we've been rusting'. (Be Our Guest). So, he was 11 due to the flower above to lose all petals.

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The Wizard of Oz picture

Question: It is implied strongly in this movie that water makes witches melt, and this is spoofed in other media. I've only ever seen this referenced to wicked witches. Does water make good witches, such as Glinda, melt too?

Answer: In all likelihood, probably not. Water is often depicted and represents purity, and cleansing. It flows smoothly, is beautiful, clear, and responsible for life on Earth. Everything the Wicked Witch is not. Where as the good Witch is pure and of a true heart. So it makes sense that something so evil and impure as the evil witch would be effected by the purest substance there is, yet not harm the good witch because she is good.

Quantom X

Answer: In the original book, water caused the wicked witches to melt away because they were so old and shriveled that all the fluid in their bodies had long since dried away. Meanwhile, the film Oz: The Great and Powerful instead implies that the Wicked Witch of the West is weak against water due to being a fire-elemental witch, which could also be the case for this incarnation, meaning it wouldn't apply to other witches like Glinda (whose element in both films appears to be ice) or even the Wicked Witch of the East (whose powers are never shown in this film, but were electricity-based in Oz the Great and Powerful).

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Chosen answer: Rafiki is a bit of a msytic or a shaman; a quasi-magical character. He was able to smell Simba on the wind that we followed from one to the other.

Phixius

Answer: Rafiki just knows because he's wise.

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Rango picture

Question: What was that thing with the big eye Rango and his posse were walking by?

Answer: TV Tropes mentions that the big eye might be an enormous alligator, because alligators are known to live in sewers.

Alligator eyes are different from what was shown in the movie.

Answer: I think the big eye might be an allusion to Wyrm, the villain from a popular novel.

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Aladdin picture

Question: What does Aladdin mean when he says: "Look at that Abu, it's not everyday you see a horse with two rear ends."?

Answer: Aladdin is referring to the person riding the horse as being a "horse's ass" in the way he is acting, thus the horse the person was riding on has two rear ends, his own and the rider.

Mark English

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Answer: Yes! There was a real Heather Jasper Howe! Like the fake Heather Jasper Howe's True Identity is Jonathan Jacobo! He was arrested with Ned.

Answer: Yes.

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Ratatouille picture

Question: Is Chef Skinner named for B. F. Skinner, the noted psychologist who did experiments with rats?

Answer: According to the IMDb: yes, he was.

Twotall

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Chitty Chitty Bang Bang picture

Question: Who was the dwarf in the castle scene when the children arrive at the castle in the child catcher cage?

Answer: Dennis Waterman.

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Over The Top picture

Question: Regarding that move Hawks does where he lifts his fingers and adjusts then in a different position in order to get the advantage and win, a) what is the significance of doing this (what exactly is he doing) and b) is this even legal in a real arm wrestling tournament?

lartaker1975

Answer: It's a regrip to get leverage. Yes it's legal. The best arm wrestler in the world Devon Larratt does it with perfection. Usually works only in a strap match.

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Despicable Me 2 picture

Question: How did a starfish get on Gru's head while Lucy and Gru were underwater in the car?

Avh1

Chosen answer: The car is always shown in shots from the front so we can't see if the boot had a leak.

boss of epicness

If the boot had a leak large enough to admit the starfish it would have filled with water and Gru would have drowned.

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