Walt Disney gifted us with an enchanting world of magic, stardust, and happiness. For almost a century now, the Disney company has blessed the world with its animated films and works, and its impact on children’s imaginations and morals is unmeasurable. Kids and adults alike enjoy the family-friendly Disney classics because they are wholesome and entertaining.
However, shockingly the real stories and origins behind some of our favorite Disney movies are in fact really horrifying and disturbing. The refined and polished happy endings of the animated adaptations are often very far from the original, much darker fairy tales that inspired them.
After looking at the actual pretty gruesome and violent culmination of some of these tales, it's understandable why Disney cut out a lot of parts while rewriting them for making children-appropriate movies. So, if you are not particularly concerned with possibly ruining your childhood, read on. Without further ado, here are 4 Disney classics that have pretty disturbing origin stories:
Snow White
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, released in 1937, was Disney’s first animated feature film. Snow White was the first among the Disney Princesses family. Starting the list with a fairly innocuous entry, Snow White still gets her happily ever after in the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. But the actual version does have a lot of sadistic and darker details that were cut out in the retelling by Disney.
For one, the evil queen tries to kill snow white not just once, but three times. After two failed attempts, the queen gives her a poisoned apple that does kill her, which is what we see in the film. After being unsuccessful in reviving her, the dwarfs put Snow’s dead body in a glass casket. The prince eventually finds it and falls in love with a corpse – not joking. However, Snow White doesn’t wake up by the charming prince’s true love’s kiss.
He orders his servants to carry the casket back to the castle, which on their way they stumble and drop, and the poison apple miraculously dislodges from Snow White’s throat, making her alive again. Also, the evil queen doesn’t just die falling on rocks. Instead in a more gruesome end, Snow White has her revenge on her. The evil queen is invited to Snow White and the Prince’s wedding, where she is forced to wear iron shoes heated in coals, and dance until she literally drops dead before them.
Cinderella
Disney’s Cinderella was originally inspired by Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, Cendrillon. While the animated version is fun and frolic-y with singing mice, a sparkling dress, glass slippers, and a kind fairy godmother, the original version of the story was not so forgiving.
The story turns a little gory when Prince finally comes to find the true owner of the glass slipper. The wicked stepmother orders her daughters to chop off different parts of their large feet to fit into the small shoe – one sister cuts off her toes while the other cuts off her heel. They don’t eventually succeed as the prince is notified by the little doves that there is blood still on the shoe, after which he finally finds the true owner, Cinderella. When the step-sisters attend the wedding, they have their eyeballs pecked out by doves. Who would’ve thought the wholesome fairy tale originally contained so much blood and mutilation?
Sleeping Beauty
The animated Sleeping Beauty by Disney is a classic tale of a damsel in distress where the prince gallantly comes to her rescue and saves the day. But the original story to it is by far the most grotesque and disturbing one on this list. It is closely based on the Brother Grimm’s version which in turn, is based on a Giambattista Bastile’s story – “Sun, Moon, and Talia.”
Here the sleeping beauty is called Talia, who falls in deep sleep after she gets her finger pricked on a spindle. She lies unconscious in her tomb which is eventually discovered by a king – not a prince – of a nearby kingdom. And there’s no true love’s first kiss here. Instead, the king is so entranced by Talia’s beauty that he “gathers the fruits of her love”, which essentially means he rapes her while she is asleep, and then leaves her there because – what do you know – he’s married. Nine months later, she gives birth to twins and somehow one of them sucks her finger, taking the splinter out and waking her up. Definitely, a less romantic way to wake up than true love’s kiss.
Believe it or not, the story keeps getting worse and more ridiculous as we go on. The king eventually returns and is happy to find Talia conscious with his children, and just like that Talia falls in love with the man that raped her. When the king’s wife finds out about all this, she is furious and wants Talia and the twins dead. So, she orders the children to be brought to the castle and cooked for dinner to serve the king. Didn’t see the cannibalism coming right?
The kind cook, however, hides the children and feeds the king lambs instead, with the queen being blissfully unaware. Still unsatisfied with her revenge, she then orders for Talia to be bought as well and – burnt alive. Before anything could happen, the king discovers her evil plan and has the queen and all who helped her burnt alive in Talia’s place. And the best part – the moral of the story was “Lucky people, so it is said, are blessed by Fortune whilst in bed.”
The Little Mermaid
The original tale of The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Anderson, doesn’t even have a happy ending. In the animated adaption by Disney, the mermaid gets a pair of legs in exchange for her voice. The part of the deal that Disney doesn’t show is how with every step she takes with her new legs; she experiences agonizing pain as if she’s walking on knives and glass shards.
Also, another detail that Disney changes is that Ariel doesn’t become a mermaid if she fails in getting the prince to kiss her, instead – she dies. And in the actual and much darker tale, things don’t end up rosily either. Since the prince never actually saw the face of who saved his life, he ends up believing it is someone else instead of Ariel that rescued him and marries her instead.
The sea witch then tells Ariel that she still has the option to turn back into a mermaid, that is if she stabs and kills the prince. But Ariel can’t bring herself to kill the man she loves and instead sacrifices her life and throws herself into the ocean, dissolving into sea foam. So really The Little Mermaid is just a tragic tale of heartbreak and sacrifice.
After reading all that, it’ll sure difficult to look at these fairy tales the same way. But whatever may be the case, don’t let anything take away from these incredible Disney movies. The movies are abundant with happiness and warmth and will forever remain masterpieces. That being said – RIP to our childhood.
Written By - Radhika Rathi
Edited by - Vaibhav Sharma
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