In Victor Hugo’s dark original Frollo actually rescues the baby from being burned alive by four women who think it is a demon. Nope, Disney didn't mention that, either! We love Cinderella for its whimsical use of vegetables, its musically gifted vermin, and its fantastic commitment to pushing the envelope when it comes to fashion. There, she is forced to wear hot iron shoes and to dance in them until she dies. The Disney company's The Little Mermaid is a 1989 American animated musical fantasy romance film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and Walt Disney Pictures. By using our Services, you agree to our use of cookies. Frollo doesn’t try to drop the deformed baby down a well like in the Disney movie. Let's Begin! The Terrifying Origin Stories Behind Your Favorite Disney Movies 'The Fox and the Hound' was a super-downer, you guys. She died when she was 21 years old. Disney’s Sleeping Beauty is a classic tale of a princess in distress and the prince who comes gallantly to her rescue. However, in one version of the legend, Mulan returns home to find her father dead and her family falling apart. Snow White also isn't revived in her story of origin by the prince's life-saving kiss; rather, he brings the comatose princess back in her glass coffin so that he can install her in his home like an objet d'art. In early 2000, when Andy Mooney was hired by the Disney consumer-products division to help combat dropping sales, the idea for the Disney Princess franchise was born. Later versions of the tale also include Mulan going through the pain and struggle of unbinding her feet for combat. Cookies help us deliver our Services. Ariel, the Little Mermaid, is based on the character from Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore the original tales. Thankfully, Disney updated the stories, turning them into lighthearted adventures that better suit their young (and young-at-heart) viewers. Also, read Disney Princess Aurora Story. Unlike the fumbling, unlikely girl who joins the army in desperation after accidentally setting a matchmaker on fire, the Fa Mulan of Chinese folklore is depicted as an extremely capable soldier — so capable that she doesn't struggle at all to gain the acceptance of the men who are totally fooled by her skills. But Beast can't bring himself to kill her on account of the butterflies in his stomach. Nobody, from the princess to the king to the frog-turned-prince whose fiancee just tried to splat him to death, sees anything wrong with this. Scholars don't agree entirely, but none of these versions are feel-good fairy tales. First, she hands Aladdin's magic lamp over to the evil sorcerer because she doesn't know what it is. The newborn baby draws out the flax that caused her sleep. What the hell, Dad?) Meanwhile, in the Brothers Grimm version, The Frog King, the Princess meets the frog when she loses her ball down a well. But Disney was cleaning up this creep show from the very start. The Disney version of the Grimm brothers' Rapunzel is a super-sweet teen romance with rousing musical numbers, an epic meet-cute involving a weaponized frying pan, and the requisite amount of long blonde hair. At the very end of the story, the sisters show up at Cinderella's wedding and walk her down the aisle in a shameless last-minute attempt to curry her favor — at which point the talking birds, who have had just about enough of this social-climbing nonsense, fly down and peck their eyes out. (As one does.) And then he just leaves! In both cases, the prince only notices that something is wrong when a bunch of rhyme-talking birds point out to him that his bride's shoe is filling up with blood. OG Jasmine is not only far more passive and less badass than her Disney counterpart, but she's such an idiot that she's basically the repeated instrument of Aladdin's downfall. Instead, he friend-zones her and marries somebody else, leaving the poor, mute mermaid with nothing but bad choices. The queen in Frozen is based on the character of the Snow Queen in the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. She can either stab the prince to death (on his wedding night, no less! By the time Kay's sister finds him several years later, he is a wrung-out shadow of his former self and downright gangrenous with frostbite. Each of the following twelve women has been certified as an "Official Disney Princess." While Troylus is gone, Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep. According to him, Matoaka threw herself across his body to protect him from execution at the hands of Powhatan. Not so much. His friend Gerda saves him from the Queen's castle several years later. ), or she can die herself. Except, of course, that an authentic retelling of the original story of Aladdin and the Lamp from Arabian Nights would have looked very different in the Disney princess department. Lovely, bookish Belle is one of the most memorable — and intellectual! One of the sisters chops off her big toe, and the other removes a piece of her heel. 1 - A Gift From the Heart DVD Details. If the prince did not find true love … ... with the original endings restored. The Khan from the enemy lets Mulan live with the condition that she live with him, so Mulan escapes. The two of them never had a romance; instead the teenage Pocahontas married a fellow Powhatan but was taken captive in 1613 as the relationship between her tribe and the English deteriorated. The very first Disney princess movie hews more closely to its origin story than most, but the 1938 animated fantasy still skirts a lot of the creepiest bits from the original Snow White. The author's original idea was to make a movie about Maui, but after their visit to Polynesia, they were inspired by the beautiful and powerful women there (as shown in the photo on the right). However, there is no proof that it actually happened. She has to spend 300 years doing good works as an invisible wind spirit first. 15 Disney Films and Fairy Tales That Have Extremely Morbid Origin Stories Find out the scary real-life inspiration behind these kid's classics and … Frozen is based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, a lengthy, convoluted meditation on the nature of evil in the guise of a classic fairy tale. Eesh. With singing animals, big-eyed heroines, guaranteed happily-ever-afters, and a nice, comfortable G-rating across the board, there's nothing even remotely dark or disturbing about these whimsical films ... until you take a peek at the stories they're based on. He retrieves it for her in exchange for a promise of companionship, but the princess welches on the agreement, takes her ball, and leaves the frog in the forest, assuming he won't be able to follow her. But once she's pricked her finger and fallen into her coma, Sleeping Beauty doesn't wake up when her kingly true love enters her bedchamber. Share your opinions in the comments. While waiting in line, he found himself surrounded by young girls dressed as princesses. He's not just there to see how badly she's being treated, he's complicit in it. Running Time: 60 Minutes / Rating: Not Rated (Suitable for All Ages) Release Date: September 7, 2004 1.33:1 Fullscreen (Original Aspect Ratio) Dolby Surround (English, French) From Sven the snarky reindeer, to Olaf the lounge-singing snowman, to its parting message about the power of sisterly love, Frozen broke major ground for Disney as a feel-good, feminist-friendly entry into its canon of classic princess fare. But like most of Disney's classic animated fare, this dreamy old-school princess story was a complete nightmare in its original incarnation. Original Version: Sleeping Beauty is not one of the real Disney stories; the plot is taken from Giambattista Basile's 17 th century tale called "Sun, Moon, and Talia". Even Ursula wouldn't pull a bait-and-switch like that. In this Grimm's fairy tale, the Evil Queen arrives at Snow White and Prince Charming's wedding. Oh, and the Snow Queen doesn't sing so much as one single power ballad, thus cementing her status as an irredeemable monster. In the original Beauty and the Beast, Beauty's father gets on the Beast's bad side, and the Beast decides that either the father or one of his daughters must die as a punishment. They also learned a lot about navigation, and this is how the character of Moana came to life. In Perceforest, one of the earliest versions of the Sleeping Beauty theme written in the 16th century, Princess Zellandine falls in love with Troylus. The Disney Princesses' television appearances were compiled into the Disney Princess Collection, a series of compilation DVDs containing episodes from Aladdin, The Little Mermaid and two Beauty and the Beast specials. Pocahontas (given birthname: Matoaka) was born in 1595 to a Powhatan chief. Some of those beloved characters have their origin in legends, fairy tales, or even real life, which is often more exciting or darker than what we see in the movies. In this story, the Little Mermaid saves the prince from drowning, falls in love with him, and trades her beautiful voice to become a human. Here is a short visual depiction of the “Disney Tangled Story“. 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