The Fairy Tale Horror Show, Part 3: When Cartoons Rewrote Real History
Some animated movies are based on real people and old legends. The true stories are very different.
Fairy tales are one thing. But some animated movies are based on real people or ancient legends, and the true stories didn't come with songs. This one's a little heavier, so it's best for older kids and teens, or for watching with a grown-up.
1. Mulan
Disney (1998): a brave young woman disguises herself as a man, saves China and comes home a hero.
REAL, the original: The Ballad of Mulan is a Chinese poem from around 1,500 years ago. Mulan takes her father's place in the army and fights for twelve years. When the emperor offers her a high position, she turns it down and just asks to go home. Her family welcomes her, and her fellow soldiers are amazed to discover she's a woman.
The surprise: the original ballad has a happy ending! Disney got the spirit right. REAL: a much later novel from the 1600s gave Mulan a tragic ending, and that version is where the "dark original" rumor comes from.
2. The Jungle Book
Disney (1967): Mowgli sings with Baloo and walks off toward a village.
REAL, the original: Rudyard Kipling's stories (1894) are much more serious. Mowgli is raised by wolves and taught the Law of the Jungle by Baloo, who is a strict teacher, not a party bear. When Mowgli goes to live in a human village, the villagers turn on him and his adopted human mother, and accuse them of witchcraft. Mowgli rescues her, and he lets the jungle take back the village.
REAL: Mowgli defeats Shere Khan by leading a stampede of buffalo.
3. Anastasia
20th Century Fox (1997): a lost princess with amnesia escapes the Russian Revolution and finds her grandmother.
REAL, the history: Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Russia's last tsar. In 1918, during the revolution, she and her whole family were killed. For decades, rumors said she had survived, and several women claimed to be her. REAL: DNA testing in the 2000s confirmed that all the Romanov children died in 1918.
The movie is a "what if?" built on that rumor. It also invented a villain: the real Rasputin died in 1916, before any of this happened.
4. Pocahontas
Disney (1995): a romance between Pocahontas and John Smith that brings two peoples together.
REAL, the history: - Pocahontas was about 11 years old when English colonists arrived in Virginia in 1607. Historians agree there was no romance with John Smith. - RUMOR: Smith later claimed she saved his life. Historians still debate whether that happened the way he told it. - REAL: in 1613, the English captured her and held her for ransom. During her captivity, she converted to Christianity and married colonist John Rolfe. - REAL: she traveled to England, became famous there and died in 1617, around age 21, before she could return home.
Her real story is about a young woman caught between two worlds, with very little choice about her own life.
Why studios change history
Animated films change history to make stories for families. Sometimes that's fine, as long as we remember what really happened. The danger is when the movie becomes the only version people know.
The lesson
Love the movies. Then look up the real story. It's usually even more interesting, and the people in it deserve to be remembered as they really were.
Up next
Part 4: the real Brothers Grimm, and how their fairy tales changed over time.
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