What’s not to love about animals that talk and brave boys and girls who overcame mean caretakers. In fact given a chance we watched those happy ending movies every day as kids. A look at the real stories behind these Disney movies however shows some gruesome details that were left out. Reading this will change how you viewed your childhood completely.
In the movie, Cinderella has a fairy godmother and loses her shoe because she is in a rush. In the real story though, Cinderella prays everyday by a tree she has planted by her mother’s grave. She loses her shoe because the prince cleverly enough uses pitch on the steps to make Cinderella stick to them but only the shoe gets lost. On attending her wedding, her two evil sisters get to have their eyes pecked out by birds.
In the movie, the mermaid rescues the prince and they fall in love. She visits a witch who gives her legs and gets her tongue in exchange. In the story, the mermaid’s only way to remain human is by finding a prince, kiss him; he falls in love with her and later marries her. If she fails she turns back to a mermaid in the movie but in the story, she dies. The penalty for having legs in the story is that every single step feels like she is walking on shards of sharp glass. The prince marries another woman and but the mermaid can’t kill him as is required of her and she instead turns into sea foam after throwing herself into the sea.
A fox is raised by a hunter’s family but runs of into the wild in the book. On one of his returns to taunt the dogs, a dog breaks his chains and is hit by a train while trying to chase him. The devastated hunter vows to kill the fox but doesn’t catch him. The fox, Tod is killed by exhaustion from running while Copper the dog is shot dead due to old age. The movie though has a baby fox and puppy become great friends.
Some accuracy is maintained in this one, but something is left out. Belle’s two wicked sisters persuade her not to leave after the beast allows her to go home for only a week. This is in the hopes that the beast eats her up alive on return due to anger. That’s no happy ending.
Pinocchio’s is more mischievous in the book. As soon as he learns to walk in the book, he runs off and has Geppetto arrested because the police think he is being abused. On his return home he kills a talking cricket and sells off his books for a Great Marionette Theatre ticket after Geppeto insists he returns to school. A fox and cat try to hang him after stealing his money but he changes and saves Geppetto from the terrible dogfish. The part where boys are turned into donkeys and sold off to evil circuses did end up in the movie though.
The real story by Giambattista has a king knock on Sleeping Beauty’s castle and getting no answer climbs up to the window using a ladder. He rapes the unconscious princess and leaves. The princess awakes after giving birth to twins and surprisingly gets married to the same king who raped her. The King’s first wife finds out about the marriage and fails in a plan to kill the twins, cook them and have the king eat them. The king and princess live happily ever after. The movie adapted the updated version of Perrault that has a tamer version of the story.
The Brothers Grimm version has the prince get Rapunzell pregnant before they escape. On discovering this, the evil sorceress cuts off her hair and chases her into the wilderness. The prince shows up and desperately jumps of the window and gets blinded by thorns. He wanders blindly while their twins are born. The prince finally finds Rapunzell after hearing her sweet voice. His sight is restored by her tears and they live happily after this in the prince’s kingdom.
The movie was loosely adapted from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Imagine that! The king is killed by a jealous brother and when the son finds out declares revenge. He gets distracted but finally kills the jealous brother. Everyone dies though in Shakespeare’s version.
In both the movie and the Brothers Grimm version, the evil queen asks the huntsman to kill Snow White in the forest. In the story though, the huntsman should bring back Snow Whites liver and heart to the queen. He brings back the heart and liver of a boar after he couldn’t kill her which the queen eats in the belief that they are Snow White’s. Yuck. Just like in the movie, Snow White becomes unconscious from eating an apple given by the queen. The book has a prince take her away in a glass coffin while still unconscious. Her carriers trip though and the apple dislodges from her throat. Snow White and the prince get married and during their wedding, they force the queen to walk in burning hot iron shoes to her death. [source: www.huffingtonpost.com]
