The 10 Disney references hidden in ‘Ahsoka’ you’d need to be a Jedi or a Genie to spot

Ahsoka is not a TV show that attempts to hide its influences in any way. From the opening minutes of its premiere, it was obvious this was a show made by the makers of The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels and made for fans of those two animated series. At the same time, it’s also soaked in callbacks to the wider Star Wars franchise. And yet this franchise, for which George Lucas was heavily inspired by samurai movies and culture, had never existed in a vacuum. And it seems creator Dave Filoni looked pretty close to home for inspiration.

Believe it or not, there’s actually a ton of Disney influence on display across Ahsoka season 1, with various story beats, character moments, and even whole shots and scenes feeling airlifted from your favorite Disney movies. Perhaps Star Wars has just been part of the Disney corporate multiverse for so long now that it’s starting to seep into its storytelling too. Or maybe if you’re the showrunner of a Disney Plus production you get a free subscription and that’s just how Filoni filled his weekends in between writing scripts.

The Little Mermaid

Ahsoka kicks the ground running with its Disney callbacks by recreating a scene we only just saw already recreated on our screens this past spring. When Governor Azadi announces Sabine to the Lothal crowd during a ceremony, she’s nowhere to be found, because she’s off mooning about the loss of Ezra. This is extremely similar to the beginning of The Little Mermaid, wherein Ariel angers her father because she misses a ceremony as she’s distracted by humans, and incidentally later moons over a boy (Eric, not Ezra).

Tangled

On top of Ariel, Sabine is also channeling Rapunzel when we catch up with her at the beginning of Ahsoka. She’s living in a room at the very top of a tower, which is pretty much prime fairy tale princess real estate. What’s more, she’s even got her own adorable animal sidekick in the form of her Loth-cat, whose disappearance from the rest of the series we will never forgive or forget.

Treasure Planet

Star Wars‘ obsession with lost objects that are secretly treasure maps — i.e. holocrons — is nothing new, but Ahsoka‘s variation on the common theme takes a sharp turn into Treasure Planet territory. The sphere that the villains seek to lead the way to Peridia, which projects a holographic map when unlocked, is virtually identical in both form and function to the orb that leads Jim Hawkins to his own galactic adventure.

Mulan

It is impossible to watch that moment in episode 2, when Sabine cuts off her long hair in one stroke of a blade, and not think of Mulan. Unless, for some reason, you have only seen the tedious 2020 version which bizarrely cut out this iconic moment from the original (no, I will never get over that). Can anyone edit the Ahsoka scene with the spine-tingling synth score from 1998’s Mulan over the top? Please and thank you.

The Lion King

Disney protagonists often have daddy issues, and Ahsoka’s complex relationship with the memory of her mentor Anakin Skywalker definitely feels part and parcel of that. Specifically, across episodes 4 and 5, she even interacts with a vision and/or ghost of her father figure, with Hayden Christensen’s return as Anakin. This is more than a little reminiscent of Simba’s supernatural family reunion in The Lion King (with Mufasa, of course, being played by fellow Darth Vader actor, James Earl Jones).

Frozen II

There’s definitely some spiritual connectivity between Elsa’s elemental powers and the Force, and episode 5 brings this to the fore. Thanks to the mystical World Between Worlds, Ahsoka is able to relive and recontextualize her past. Likewise, in Frozen II, Elsa journeys to her ice castle/Fortress of Solitude and receives frosty visions of old events. Interestingly, while Ahsoka’s experience is able to help her remember the good about Anakin, Elsa discovers the evil in her own family tree.

Pinocchio

Ahsoka gets very 1:1 with its Disney allusions in the next episode as Ahsoka and pals are swallowed by a space whale — a purrgil, to be precise — which is how they journey to the other galaxy. No prizes for guessing which Disney movie this recalls, as it obviously brings to mind Pinocchio and Geppetto getting swallowed by Monstro in both the 1940 original and the 2022 remake that definitely didn’t need to be made.

Hercules

Likewise, Ahsoka episode 6 doesn’t even try to be subtle about stealing its homework. The Great Mothers are very clearly modeled on the Three Fates, what with their witchy/crone-like appearances and their talk of the “thread of destiny.” To be fair, Disney’s Hercules was ripping off Greek myths as well, though, and at least Ahsoka‘s have more than one eye between them. Sadly, going by the lack of bathrooms of Peridia, the Great Mothers don’t seem to share the Fates’ belief in the importance of indoor plumbing either.

Frozen

In one Disney-made production, a hermitic guy is followed back to his home by a female friend of his and it turns out he lives with a bunch of diminutive creatures who can disguise themselves as rocks. Now, am I discovering Sabine’s reunion with Ezra in Ahsoka episode 6 or the “Fixer Upper” scene from Frozen? Trick question, it’s both. After being stuck on Peridia for a decade, Ezra probably had a desperation for healing hugs as well.

The Chronicles of Narnia

OK, so The Chronicles of Narnia is obviously not a Disney animated movie, but Disney did produce two out of three of the live-action movies, so this one counts. The Ahsoka finale is titled “The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord,” which is a surprisingly on-the-nose pastiche of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Ironically, this wasn’t the Disney Plus finale to bring back Liam Neeson (aka the voice of Aslan) as Qui-Gon Jinn — that was Obi-Wan Kenobi.