The TRUTH About the BANNED VHS Cover for THE LITTLE MERMAID - Exclusive Interview with Original Video Cover Artist Bill Morrison!
By Josh Schafer
One of the most curious conspiracy theories of the 90s revolves around a VHS copy of The Little Mermaid. It shocked parents, alarmed Disney executives, and created one of the most legendary pieces of VHS lore for every kid that ever went to a video store.
Whispers and giggles shuffled through classrooms when someone brought it for show and tell, one intrepid student stepping up and surreptitiously sharing something unspeakable and forbidden. Sleepovers were elevated by possessing this “forbidden” cover, creating at least one session of “Look at that!” and a round of belly laughs.
Even if you’re now an analog-inclined adult, it’s likely on the shelf. It almost seems obligatory. I have a copy, if only for reference if a convo on the phallic conspiracy pops up, but let’s be real here: this film is an all-time animation classic.
You're reading this right: there’s a dick on the original VHS cover of The Little Mermaid. Or at least, that’s what it looks like. And that’s what people believed.
People made up all kinds of stories about how and why this happened. The artist wasn’t paid enough. They were getting back at Disney for working them long, arduous hours. Some heard it was a dare, and the guy got fired and sued by Disney. There were more theories, but all of them seemed to revolve around revenge.
It all propagated a set of stories that would nestle in 90s kids’ brains forever. Seeing this cover almost became a rite of passage for the average adolescent. And now, in 2026, nearly 40 years after its initial release on this day (May 18th) in 1990, we can finally find out the truth behind this tape.
We sat down with Bill Morrison, the original artist for The Little Mermaid VHS release, and he gave us the hard facts about the phallus form on this infamous video cover.
JS: Where did your artistic career start? How and when did you get started with Disney?
BM: After graduating from the Center For Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, I landed a job at a place called Artech, doing technical illustrations for the auto industry. After two years, I took a week off and went to Los Angeles to show my portfolio around. I wanted to get work in illustration of a more creative nature, like movie posters, record album covers, etc. From that trip, I managed to get a job at B.D. Fox Advertising and spent several years working on movie ad campaigns.
I never actually worked at Disney. When I did The Little Mermaid video box illustration I was working for Willardson Associates, an illustration studio in Glendale, California.
I worked on all kinds of illustration jobs there, but one of our main clients was Disney. I became the “cartoon guy” in the studio, so the Disney movie posters fell to me for the most part. At the time, Disney was putting out a new animated feature every year and also re-releasing several classics into theaters. I did paintings for Oliver and Company, Peter Pan, The Jungle Book, Bambi, and many others. And of course, I illustrated the original poster for The Little Mermaid, which led to me painting The Little Mermaid VHS box art a year or so later.
This VHS was released on May 18th, 1990. How long did you have to create the art beforehand?
I had very little time, because the intended painting for the cover, which was done by another artist, was rejected by an executive at Disney Home Video. (A portion of that art appears on the back cover of the video.)
The art director on the project came to our studio and told my boss, David Willardson, that his boss liked the art okay, but wanted the cover to look more like the poster, and said “Find the guy who did the poster and get him to do something similar.” Why they didn’t just use my poster art, I have no idea, but apparently it took the art director some time to find out where the poster art had originated. The home video and feature film advertising departments were not well connected, and it took the art director a while to find us.
By that time, his print deadline was lurking and I had maybe only four days to do the painting. I remember that it had to go to the printer on a Monday, and I worked all weekend with very little sleep to get it done.
What made you do it? Was it just a joke or a dare or…?
No, believe it or not, it was a complete accident.
The castle tower in the original film background paintings is very phallic in nature to begin with, and it’s made of coral, so it’s organic in the way it’s drawn, and not very structured. If you look at the tower in my poster art, it’s basically the same as the VHS art, but with more rendered detail that makes if look less like a penis. And there was never any controversy over the poster art.
But I wasn’t able to put as much time into the background on the VHS cover art, and it just ended up looking very much more like a male member. I painted the castle last, so it was probably done in the early hours of Monday morning before the art had to be delivered, so I’m sure I was so exhausted that I didn’t notice it. But, to be fair, neither did David Willardson, nor the Disney art director.
There are other instances and theories of things like this in Disney lore… like SEX in the clouds in THE LION KING. Were you aware of those? Did artists do this often, and it got caught or…?
No, those “scandals” came after the Mermaid video art, for the most part. There were naughty gags hidden in Who Framed Roger Rabbit in 1987, a few years before The Little Mermaid, but those things didn’t really come out until it was available on laser disc, and people were able to do very crisp freeze-frames to see the jokes.
I think my Little mermaid art sparked an interest in people to try to find hidden dirty jokes, but I think they have mostly been debunked. For example, The Lion King cloud effect said “SFX,” not “SEX,” referring to the effects animation department. And the claim that the priest in The Little Mermaid gets an erection under his robe has been revealed to be just his knee creating a bulge.
What were your thoughts when you saw that it was on the cover and actually being distributed?
I didn’t know about it until a kid from my church youth group told me that he heard people talking about it on a local LA radio show. It was a fresh topic, about to turn into a huge scandal, that began with a woman in Arizona whose husband pointed it out to her.
He thought it was funny, but she stormed down to the video store where her husband had rented the tape, and demanded that they remove it from the shelves. That story made national news, and from there all the rumors began.
How do you feel looking back at it now?
I find it amusing, and it’s interesting to see the reactions from people when they find out that I was the artist. But mainly, it makes me look at every salacious rumor I hear with a jaundiced eye. Knowing the true story of what became an urban legend makes me look at similar stories and say to myself “I wonder how much of that is really true.”
Anything else you’d like to say about the phallus castle? Anything else we should know?
I would just add that people generally love a good story, and are inclined to believe a bawdy tale over the more boring, but true version of the story. My recommendation is to be skeptical and find out if what you hear is really true before you repeat the story.
I wrote about the entire story in my weekly column a while back in 2025. You can check that out for further reading and details.