The Fairy Tale Horror Show, Part 2: Pinocchio, Peter Pan and the Darker Originals
The puppet, the boy who never grows up and a tower with a very bad landing.
In Part 1, we learned that Cinderella's stepsisters went to extreme lengths for a shoe. Now let's look at a few more stories that were much stranger before the movies cleaned them up.
1. Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi, 1881–1883)
Disney (1940): Pinocchio wants to be a real boy, with Jiminy Cricket as his conscience.
REAL, the original: - The Talking Cricket tries to give Pinocchio advice in chapter 4. Pinocchio gets annoyed and throws a hammer at him. The cricket doesn't survive. (He comes back later as a ghost.) - REAL: Collodi first published the story in a children's magazine, in pieces. In the early version, the story ended with the villainous Fox and Cat catching Pinocchio and leaving him hanging from an oak tree. Readers were so upset that Collodi brought him back and kept going.
Lesson: the original Pinocchio was a cautionary tale about what happens to kids who don't listen. It was not subtle.
2. Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie, 1904 play, 1911 novel)
Disney (1953): a fun adventure in Never Land.
REAL, the original: - Barrie writes that when the Lost Boys start to grow up, which is against the rules, Peter "thins them out." He never says exactly how. - REAL: Tinker Bell is so jealous of Wendy that she tells the Lost Boys that Peter wants them to shoot "the Wendy bird" out of the sky. One of them does. Luckily, Wendy survives. - Peter forgets people. Even his adventures. Even Wendy, eventually.
Lesson: Never Land isn't paradise. It's what happens when nobody grows up.
3. Rapunzel (the Brothers Grimm, 1812)
Disney's Tangled (2010): magic hair, a charming thief and a happy family reunion.
REAL, the original: the witch catches the prince visiting Rapunzel. When he climbs the tower, it's the witch waiting at the top. The prince falls into thorny bushes and is blinded. He wanders the wilderness for years until he finds Rapunzel, and her tears heal his eyes.
Lesson: it's a dark story, but it ends with love literally helping someone see again.
4. The Frog Prince (the Brothers Grimm, 1812)
Disney's The Princess and the Frog (2009): a kiss, a spell and a lot of jazz.
REAL, the original: there's no kiss. The princess is so fed up with the pushy frog that she throws him against the wall. Instead of going splat, he turns into a prince.
Lesson: apparently, in the original, rudeness worked. We do not recommend this.
5. The Snow Queen (Hans Christian Andersen, 1844)
Disney's Frozen (2013): REAL: Frozen was loosely inspired by this story.
REAL, the original: a troll builds a magic mirror that makes everything good look ugly. It shatters, and tiny splinters fly across the world. One gets into a boy named Kai's eye, and another into his heart, which turns cold. The Snow Queen carries him away to her ice palace, and his best friend Gerda travels across the world to save him. Her warm tears melt the splinter in his heart.
Lesson: a frozen heart, saved by love. Sound familiar?
Final thoughts
These stories were dark because they were meant to warn: listen to good advice, don't stay a child forever, be careful who you trust. The movies kept the lessons and added the songs.
Up next
Part 3: when animated movies took on real history, and what really happened.
Which original surprised you most? Tell us in the comments.
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