Illegal Disney

About

Illegal Disney refers to a series of TikTok accounts that share candid behind-the-scenes, backstage videos of Disneyland employees, often showing them goofing off and participating in TikTok trends or sounds. Some of the most notable accounts include @nomad161616, now deleted, @illegaldisney and @illegal_disney, which some speculate are run by the same person. The accounts are allegedly run by a former Disneyland employee who claims the videos were all taken as early as 2022, although this has been questioned as the user takes requests for video content. Disney is purportedly aware of who the employee is. The recordings are notable as Disney allegedly does not allow cast members to record videos backstage. Some TikTokers were purportedly upset about the pages as they "ruined Disney magic" for them.

History

On August 8th, 2023, TikToker^[1] @illegaldisney uploaded their first backstage Disneyland video, showcasing several cast member heads in cages, captioned, "The animatronics do get a bit quirky at night," referencing the Five Nights at Freddy's meme the animatronic characters get a bit quirky at night, garnering over 2.1 million views in a month (shown below).

On August 10th, TikToker @nomad161616 also began uploading backstage Disneyland content, writing in their description, "Current or former CM’s send me your backstage videos and I’ll post 😎." The account was deleted sometime around August 11th, but was archived by the Wayback Machine.^[2]

TikToker @IllegalDisney continued to regularly upload backstage videos between August 8th and September 14th, including videos from the deleted @nomad161616 account. On August 8th, the TikToker^[13] uploaded a video of Nick from Zootopia twerking, garnering over 700,000 views in a month (shown below).

On August 9th, the TikToker^[3] uploaded a video of several cast members dancing that gained over 8.9 million views in a month (shown below, left). In the comments of another video^[4] posted that day, the uploader claimed they stopped working for Disneyland a "year and a half" ago. On August 26th, the TikToker^[5] uploaded a video of someone in the Country Bears costume at the request of another TikToker, garnering over 688,000 views in three weeks (shown below, right).

On September 3rd, TikToker @illegal_disney started posting backstage Disneyland content, including some reuploaded videos from the @nomad161616 page and original content. For example, on September 5th, the TikToker^[6][7] uploaded videos of Mickey Mouse playing air saxophone in a starwell, garnering over 93,000 views in a week and Chip and Dale at the gym, garnering over 2.7 million views in the same span of time (shown below, left and right). It is unclear who runs the account, if it is the same person as @illegaldisney or if the videos are submissions from other employees.

Alleged Investigation

On September 1st, 2023, The Sun^[14] reported that "Disney bosses" were furious about the page and called in investigators to look into and shut down the account, with an anonymous source quoted as saying:

"It looks silly, but for Disney protecting the integrity of those characters is absolutely paramount. They’ve asked top investigators to shut down the feed and try to identify those responsible, who are in breach of their employment contracts. The last thing Disney wants is decapitated Mickey and Minnie heads going viral online and, even worse, anything that looks at all risqué or adult. Some of the clips show the characters dancing and twerking in their outfits -- it’s just not on-message. They’re one of the most protective companies in the world because they know their biggest customers are young children who don’t want the illusion shattered."

Online Presence

Since they started uploading in August 2023, the Illegal Disney pages have become the subject of reactions and discussions online. In August 2023, some TikTokers^[8][9] began reuploading and responding to the videos with an added trigger warning displayed on the screen that reads, "Warning! May ruin Disney magic!" (examples shown below). On August 31st, The Mary Sue^[10] reported on the pages.

On September 5th, TikToker^[11] @omg_jess posted a video responding to purported criticism by Disney Adults claiming that the "magic was ruined" for them by seeing the backstage content, garnering over 1.6 million views in a week (shown below). On September 13th, the Daily Dot^[12] reported on the accounts.

Search Interest

External References