Top 20 Things Only Adults Notice in DreamWorks Movies

As with many a conquering hero, when Victor enters the village after having apparently taken down the Were-Rabbit, the villagers ask him to don kisses upon their treasured belongings. “Kiss my baby” seems pretty reasonable, “kiss my potato” a little less so, but the completion of that joke is something a little more rude. This will probably be caught mostly by those dwelling in the UK or Australia where the term “arse” is a more common term for one’s behind than it is in western English-speaking parts of the world.

Ahhhh, the Long Island Iced Tea. While the name suggests the sweet and innocent beverage of our youth, the result of drinking a glass of the stuff is usually anything but innocent. The uber-alcoholic drink has fooled many an adult throughout its history - and not just Sheldon Cooper. Which is why it’s funny when 7-year-old Tim and Boss Baby hitch a ride with a group of party girls. Tim exits the limo with a drink in his hands, takes a sip and proclaims the inability of the people of Long Island to make a good iced tea. He throws the drink away, which is probably something we’ve all wished we’d done upon awaking the morning after.

Adults probably don’t watch a DreamWorks animated movie with their kids and think it will lead to having to explain the term “brothel”. But, that might’ve happened to a few who watched “Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas” with some youngins. In one scene, as Marina looks through Sinbad’s things, she comes across a bra with jewels hanging from it. To herself, she posits that this little treasure must’ve come from a brothel in Syracuse. And just to add a little more pg-13 humor to the scene, Sinbad - who’d entered the room behind her - confirms her assumptions. Not that any adults would be surprised by that. He is a pirate.

One might expect to hear a character say the words “dirty” and “hoe” side-by-side if we were watching an R-rated comedy or a crime film. But, in this case the character speaking those words is the titular cat from 2003’s “The Cat in the Hat”. How did they get away with using such a line in a movie geared towards kids and families? Well, he’s actually holding a garden hoe with dirt all over it. So, while the younger crowd is witnessing the scene on a purely literal level, the adults in the audience are snickering at the naughty double entendre. They probably also giggled a little when the cat’s hat stiffened upon looking at a picture of the kids’ mother.

In “Flushed Away”, Hugh Jackman voices the main character, Roddy, a rat who… well, actually it doesn’t really matter. The important part here is that the character is voiced by Jackman - the same Hugh Jackman who plays the famed Wolverine. In one scene of “Flushed Away”, Roddy is picking out an outfit to wear and narrows it down to two choices - a bedazzled Elvis-inspired one-piece and a yellow getup that - as comic book fans will know - is Wolverine’s classic costume. This might be the closest we’ll ever get to seeing the actor don it. Eh, we’ll take it.

There’s a scene in “Shark Tale” where Oscar (voiced by Will Smith) is doing a specific handshake. But when another fish tries to emulate him and can't, Oscar tells his friend not to worry, and that “A lot of white fish can't do it”. This is similar to a 1992 joke from “White Man Can’t Jump.” So, if there were any kids watching “Shark Tale” in 2004 who’d seen the previously mentioned ‘90s comedy then maybe they would’ve picked up on the joke. But we think it’s safe to assume that it was pretty much only adults chuckling at that one. And we kind of hope it was only grownups who got the “Smoking Seaweed” gag on the magazine cover too.

The end scene in “Planet of the Apes” is one of the most famous moments in the history of the franchise. Having said that, we’re going to assume most of the younger audience watching “Madagascar” aren’t familiar with Charlton Heston’s moment of desperate realization on the beach. Many older viewers, on the other hand - even if they’ve never seen the film - might at least have some familiarity with the iconic scene. Which brings us back to “Madagascar” and Alex’s wonderfully similar sand-pounding moment in front of his burned down, hand-built Statue of Liberty.

One probably wouldn’t expect an animated movie for kids to reference Moses’ genitalia, but in “The Prince of Egypt” that’s exactly what we get. Now, admittedly, it’s fairly subtle but for the adults in the room, it’s most definitely there. When the women of Midian are bathing Moses after his lengthy sojourn in the desert, he implores them to stop - saying that they’ve already cleaned every inch of him. Needless to say the ladies don’t stop, leading to Moses’ vocal realization that there were, shall we say, a few more inches they hadn’t washed yet.

When Shrek, Donkey, and Puss in Boots sneak into the Fairy Godmother’s factory, you might remember that the potion room features some fun play-on-words names, like Hex Lax and Elfa Seltzer. While a younger crowd may or may not get those puns, the one that’s a little more risqué can be found on the conveyor belt during the introduction of the factory. On a bottle filled with bluish liquid, a label reads “Fiagra” – with an F. Let’s call this one a dad joke for the dad’s, if you know what we mean. And speaking of dad jokes, how about the Big Bad Wolf’s magazine of choice?

It’s not easy being a kid. But we can probably all agree that, as adults, we have much more to deal with and many more avenues for stress that can affect our physical and mental well-being. The anxiety, the elevated heart rate, the heavy breathing - even if we’ve never had a panic attack as it’s defined clinically, watching Puss have his is completely recognizable. It’s that much closer to reality when we see the way Perrito tries to soothe him. As anyone who has a dog knows, the calming effect they can have on us and our stress levels is enormous. It’s a truly sweet - and relatable - moment.

With a film that essentially gives a baby the mind of an adult, you’re bound to get a few jokes like this one. There’s a scene where Boss Baby explains his identity to Tim. After a long day of being the boss, he lounges around in his diapers, socks, dress shirt, and tie. We half expected a “Risky Business” dance number, here, but alas. Boss Baby unlocks a safe, grabs a baby bottle and a cocktail shaker to make his drink, and kicks back with his beverage for the evening. We’re not claiming there’s anything other than milk in the bottle, but it is pretty suspicious that it’s kept in a vault… Just saying.

In any martial arts movie, there’s sure to be a fair bit of bruising. Funnily enough, though, Po’s defeat here doesn’t come from another martial artist so much as it does from the Training Hall. Po is thrown around like a ragdoll and, for the Gauntlet of Wooden Warriors’ finishing move, Po is hit in the crotch. Now, there are a lot of genteelisms one might use to describe the anatomy in that area, but Po opts for: "Oh! My tenders!" We wonder just how many kids understood what he was referring to.

In case you missed out on bee biology in school, we’ll give you the rundown. The male bees mate with the one queen bee, which essentially means that the queen is everyone’s mother. The lineage gets kind of complicated, but the bottom line is that in a movie where bees (like Barry’s parents) couple up, their relationship is… a little closer than strictly necessary. The creators of the movie are definitely aware of this because there are a few incest jokes, with possibly the funniest one at the beginning. Adam says he thinks one of the bees is hot, and Barry reminds him that they’re cousins.

Cursing is one of those things writers of children’s content often need to get a little creative with and, as adults watching these films, it’s always fun to see what they come up with. In “Madagascar”’s scene on the beach where Marty and Alex reunite, Marty quickly realizes that Alex is a little less than happy to see him. He turns the other way, muttering “Oh, sugar, honey, iced tea!”. This is a pretty specific way to swear, but it all makes sense when you isolate the first letter of each word. Pretty clever, guys! There’s also another instance where Marty exclaims “mother!”, after Melman gives him a pretty odd birthday gift. It’s a little less creative than the first one but, you know, it still gets the point across.

While gold digging isn’t the most obscene thing that could be put in a children’s movie, it usually is a concept depicted in content directed at more mature audiences. When we’re first introduced to Lola, her motives are made obvious with the way her head turns after hearing the word ‘millionaire’ spoken about Oscar. If things weren’t clear enough, 'Gold Digger' by Ludacris, Bobby V, and Lil' Fate plays in the background during her intro, something that’ll have adults in stitches but go right over kids’ heads. Another subtler joke is the Sushi Bowl scene where one, lone sushi chef can’t attract any customers. We’d feel bad for him if not for the fact that he’s a fish trying to sell sushi… to other fish!

After 20 years of Valka being gone and Stoick fearing the worst, their reunion scene is nothing short of touching. Stoick becomes, inopportunely, exactly the meaning of his name and is stunned into silence. Valka, on the other hand, begins rambling off apologies and explanations about why she never returned. The tension is palpable, leading Gobber to say: "This is why I never married. This and one other reason." Reading between the lines, here, we can conclude that this second reason is simply Gobber being gay. There isn’t much to speculate about here considering that it was confirmed by screenwriter Dean DeBlois. It’s a very quick line and we would have loved more overt representation, but it’s still nice that it was included.

Quite possibly the greatest line in this entire move is one uttered by Fowler.( To be honest, most of the best dialogue in “Chicken Run” comes from Fowler, but we digress.) In the scene where Rocky announces that he’s from America, Fowler has this to say: "Poppycock! Pushy Americans, always showing up late for every war. Overpaid, oversexed, and over here!" In case you’re not one for history, the wisecrack here is about World War II and the United States’ relatively late involvement. And the second half of the jibe? Well, that one’s definitely not for the kiddos!

When George and Harold end up in Mr. Krupp’s office, the room is put on lockdown with his new, state-of-the-art door, and Krupp mentions that it was worth canceling the arts and music program in order to obtain it. Whereas we doubt this is the case for most principals of schools, it isn’t uncommon to hear about higher ups pocketing already limited school funding, or spending it in ways that don’t actually benefit students. Plus, when it comes to budgeting, the arts are always hit the hardest. This is arguably a joke meant more for teenagers in high school, who might have experienced this kind of thing firsthand, but anyone aware of this sad reality will definitely get a kick out of it too.

How this even made it to the final cut, we have no idea. This completely went over our heads when we were younger but, watching the scene back as adults is a lot more telling. Chel sends Miguel off to explore the city, meanwhile she and Tulio get up to a little flirting. Things must have escalated though, because, a little while later, they end up on the floor together, just out of frame. What sounds like kissing noises can be heard, but when Chel rises, it seems as though she was positioned rather low on Tulio’s body. What’s more, if Tulio’s expression doesn’t give him away, we don’t know what will!

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

Sarcasm Sounds Like…
“Trolls” (2016)

Frankincense, Myrrh, & Something Else, We’re Sure
“Shrek The Third” (2007)

There are a lot of adult jokes in Shrek, but here are a few of our faves. The first has to be when Shrek and Donkey arrive at Lord Farquaad’s ginormous castle. Shrek muses over whether Farquaad might be compensating for something. The brilliance of this quip is that there’s one for kids–Farquaad’s height–and another for the adults. There are also a few racier examples, one of them being in Robin Hood’s ballad. Grownups understand what the real lyric was supposed to be, while kids are none the wiser. The other gag is a reference to Snow White’s living conditions, where Lord Farquaad’s mirror says “she isn’t easy”. This was a 2001 movie, so we suppose we’ll let it slide… this time.