Disney movies are often based on pre-existing stories. And sometimes those stories are WAY darker than what Mickey Mouse puts on the screen. Here are eight examples:
1. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”: In the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the huntsman brings the Evil Queen the lungs and liver of a boar, and she EATS them, believing they belong to Snow White. At the end of the story, Snow White and the Prince punish the Queen by making her wear red-hot iron shoes at their wedding and dance until she dies.
2. “Sleeping Beauty”: In at least one variant, the prince doesn’t kiss the sleeping princess, he IMPREGNATES her. (!!!) And she doesn’t wake up until she gives birth to TWINS, and one of them sucks on her finger to remove the cursed splinter.
3. “Cinderella”: In the fairy tale, the ugly stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to make the glass slipper fit. And at Cinderella’s wedding, birds peck out their eyes.
4. “The Little Mermaid”: In the original Hans Christian Anderson story, the mermaid does NOT get her man, he marries someone else. She has the option of becoming a mermaid again IF she kills him and his new bride, but she can’t bring herself to do it. So she turns into sea foam.
5. “Tangled”: In “Rapunzel”, the original story, the witch learns of Rapunzel’s affair with the prince, so she cuts her hair and banishes her. Then the witch blinds the prince with the scissors she cut Rapunzel’s hair with. But Rapunzel and the prince eventually do find each other, so . . . happily ever after?
6. “Pinocchio”: In the book, Pinocchio gets tired of Jiminy Cricket trying to give him advice . . . so he KILLS HIM. Also, the cricket doesn’t even have a name in the book. He’s just referred to as a “talking cricket.”
7. “Mulan”: In the ancient Chinese poem “The Ballad of Mulan”, when the true identity of the title character is revealed, she’s told she has to become a concubine to the emperor. In an act of defiance, she takes her own life.
8. “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”: In the book, Esmerelda is hanged for the attempted murder of Phoebus, even though Frollo did it. Quasimodo kills Frollo, then jumps into a mass grave with Esmerelda’s body to die.