The Fairy Tale Horror Show, Part 1: The Stories Disney Cleaned Up
Your favorite princess movies came from stories that were a lot spookier.
Long before they were movies, fairy tales were told around fires and written down in old books. Many of them weren't really for little kids. They were warnings, and they could be dark.
Here's what the originals were really like. Lights on? Good.
1. The Little Mermaid (Hans Christian Andersen, 1837)
Disney (1989): Ariel defeats Ursula, gets her legs and marries Eric.
REAL, the original: the mermaid gets her legs, but every step feels like walking on sharp knives. The prince marries someone else. Her sisters offer her a way to become a mermaid again, but only if she harms the prince. She refuses. At sunrise, she turns into sea foam.
The twist most people forget: she doesn't just vanish. She becomes a spirit of the air, with a chance to earn a soul through good deeds. Andersen's ending is sad, but it's also about kindness.
2. Sleeping Beauty (Charles Perrault, 1697)
Disney (1959): a kiss breaks the curse, and they live happily ever after.
REAL, the original: Perrault's story keeps going after the wedding. The prince's mother turns out to be an ogress, and while he's away, she orders the cook to serve her the princess and her two children for dinner. The kind cook hides them and serves the ogress a lamb instead.
Happily ever after, part two.
3. Cinderella (the Brothers Grimm, 1812)
Disney (1950): a fairy godmother, a pumpkin coach and a glass slipper.
REAL, the original: in the Grimm version, there's no fairy godmother. Cinderella's help comes from a tree growing on her mother's grave, and the birds who live there. When the prince comes with the golden slipper, the stepsisters are so desperate that they trim their own feet to make it fit. The birds sing out to warn the prince. And at the wedding, those same birds punish the stepsisters for their cruelty.
Fun fact: REAL: Charles Perrault's earlier French version (1697) is the gentle one. It gave us the fairy godmother, the pumpkin and the glass slipper. In his ending, Cinderella forgives her stepsisters.
4. Beauty and the Beast (Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, 1756)
Disney (1991): Belle trades places with her father and falls for the Beast.
REAL, the original: Beauty has two jealous older sisters. When they try to ruin her happiness, a fairy turns them into stone statues, forced to stand at the gate of Beauty's palace and watch her happy life.
Stone statues. At the front door. Forever.
5. Snow White (the Brothers Grimm, 1812)
Disney (1937): a poisoned apple and true love's kiss.
REAL, the original: - The queen tries to get rid of Snow White three times: with tight laces, a poisoned comb and finally the apple. - She orders the huntsman to bring back proof that Snow White is gone, and she plans to eat it. (He tricks her.) - There's no kiss. The prince's servants are carrying Snow White's glass coffin when one trips, and the bite of apple pops out of her throat. - At the wedding, the queen gets a punishment straight out of a nightmare: she's forced to dance in red-hot iron shoes.
Final thoughts
Why were the originals so dark? Because many fairy tales were warnings: don't be cruel, don't be vain, don't trust strangers. The scary parts made the lessons stick.
Disney didn't ruin these stories. It changed them for a new audience, the same way storytellers had been changing them for hundreds of years.
Up next
Part 2: the real stories behind Pinocchio, Peter Pan, Rapunzel and more.
Which original surprised you the most? Tell us in the comments.
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