Places In Disney Movies You Didn’t Realize Were Based On Real Life

Though it isn't named until Lilo & Stitch: The Series, Lilo & Stitch takes place in a fictional Hawaiian town called Kokaua. Kokaua is modeled after a town on the island of Kauai called Hanapepe. 

It's a small beach town with about 2,600 residents. Its architecture is largely plantation-style, with many of the older buildings housing art galleries and restaurants. The town celebrates its connection with Lilo & Stitch with a mural featuring the Disney characters. 

Encanto takes place in Columbia. Its cultural and visual ties to this real-world location are part of what makes the film so incredible. One of the most stunning examples of this is the rainbow-colored river that appears in the film. This is actually a real spot called the River of Five Colors. Also known as Caño Cristales, this 100-kilometer combination of streams, rivers, and waterfalls is a natural wonder.

The riverbed is lined with a moss called Macarenia clavigera. This moss is dark green throughout most of the year, but during the rainy season, it transforms into a vibrant spectrum of purple, fuchsia, pink, yellow, and green. Because the exact colors are determined by water levels in the river and the amount of sunlight the moss is exposed to, the colors are different each year. 

In order to get a feel for the environment they'd be working off of, Pixar's Brave team traveled to Scotland. One of the spots that inspired them the most was the Calanais Standing Stones. This structure was created over 5,000 years ago. No one knows for sure what its purpose was, but many believe they were used to observe the stars - or were for religious rituals. 

Brave's Ring of Stones was directly inspired by the Standing Stones. These stones were the site of Elinor and Mor'du's fight and the place where Merida first encountered the Will O' the Wisps.

If you want a name to associate with the kingdom from Tangled that isn't as unfortunate as Corona, try Mont-Saint-Michel. This is the real island off the coast of Normandy that the movie kingdom is inspired by. The island only has about 30 residents, but it's a major tourist destination with over three million visitors every year.

Its most notable feature is the abbey, which was constructed over 1,000 years ago. Because it's accessible from Normandy by foot during low tide but difficult to access during high tide, it was an ideal sanctuary for refugees. 

Game Central Station is a hub for Litwak's Arcade. It's a place where characters from different video games can meet each other, socialize, and travel from game to game. They travel using trains that represent the games in question. If a game is unplugged, its residents resemble unhoused people who are often seen in big cities. 

It's clearly modeled off of Grand Central Station in New York City. The station has a number of restaurants, shops, and events that provide socializing opportunities, but it's also a major transportation hub where people can access both the NYC subway system and the Metro-North Railroad. 

Up features a gorgeous South American mountain range called Paradise Falls. Ellie and Carl tried repeatedly to get the money together to make a trip there, but their bills and obligations always came first. Now a retired widower, Carl wants to finally take the trip for the both of them - but the only way to do it is in a flying house. 

The couple's dream trip is inspired by a real location in Venezuela known as the Formaciones de Tepuyes - or the Tabletop Mountains. In the language of the indigenous Pemon people, the name means "house of the gods." The mountains are home to several unique species, including the saffron-breasted redstart bird, the Sapito Rojo Del Yapacana frog, and Fernandez's sword-nosed bat. Fernandez's sword-nosed bat may soon become extinct - and it's not the only living thing on the land that's in danger. Sadly, these mountains have been placed on a list of the most vulnerable nature reserves on Earth.