This series of side-by-side comparisons of frames from various Disney films (via WIRED’s Underwire blog) is meant to show how Disney recycles frames from one 2D animated flick to another in order to save time, money and labor value.

But more impressively, it’s also solid proof of the animation factory’s tendency to recycle themes across decades. The tableau above tracks the “nubile nymph dances for plump (read: impotent) male onlookers” theme, first seen in 1937’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and then resurrected 36 years later for Robin Hood. And surely there are more examples of such a scene playing out across the Disney ouevre–it’s been at least 17 years since I’ve seen it, but The Little Mermaid immediately comes to mind.

For all the films collecting dust in the Disney vault, there are really only three or four stories being told–young males, abandoned my their families, turn to nature; stubborn young women find themselves through the action of civilizing one man or a group of them; brutish men demonstrate their strength, only to later face humiliation and comeuppance. Did I miss any?