1. The Little Mermaid: A tale of betrayal and death
We all know the story of The Little Mermaid, don’t we?
She saves the handsome Prince Eric from a shipwreck, asks Ursula the Sea-Witch to give her human legs (in exchange for her voice), and eventually winds up living happily ever after with her floppy-haired prince.
Too bad that’s not how the story originally went, eh?
In the Hans Christian Anderson tale, the little mermaid DOES fall in love with a prince from afar - but the sea witch cuts out her tongue.
She literally cuts it out. With a blade.
As if that’s not bad enough, her new legs constantly make her feel as if she’s walking on knives.
And, you know, she gets told that her soul will be taken away if the prince doesn’t fall in love with her.
Guess what? HE MARRIES SOMEONE ELSE!!!
Ariel resists stabbing him to death for his disloyalty (although it’s a tense moment), and turns into a spirit of the air.
And it’s there she has to remain for 300 years, doing good deeds for mankind.
Then, and only then, will she be allowed to rise up into the Kingdom of God for some R&R.
Argh!
2. Cinderella: A tale of self-mutilation
Ah, Cinderella; we know you so well.
It’s the classic fairytale of a misused stepdaughter shrugging off her rags, making nice with her Fairy Godmother, and getting an exclusive ticket to the royal ball.
Once there, she flirts with Prince Charming, they fall in love - but she’s forced to do a runner at midnight (because rules).
Cinders loses a glass slipper along the way, which the prince traipses all around the land with to find the foot it fits - and so manages to find his true love.
And, you guessed it, they live happily ever after.
But that’s not how the original story went…
Aschenputtel, by the Brothers Grimm, sees the abused girl visit her mother’s grave to ask for help… and her late mum comes up trumps, giving her three beautiful gowns to wear to THREE beautiful balls.
On the third night, the wily old prince pours sticky tar all over the hallway in a bid to stop her from escaping, and her gold slipper (GOLD, not glass) sticks to it.
He then, just like the Disney film, takes the slipper all around the houses to find the foot it fits - but Aschenputtel’s stepsisters take things a little too far.
Yup, one of them cuts off her toes and the other slices off her heels.
Eventually he finds Aschenputtel and marries her… but, at their wedding, something really sick happens.
Two doves fly down and peck out her the eyes of both of her sisters.
We prefer the Disney version, thanks.
3. Snow White: A tale of murderous revenge
We don’t know about you, but we always thought that Disney’s Snow White was plenty dark enough already.
Firstly, the Wicked Queen wants to cut out Snow White’s heart - and, when that doesn’t work, she poisons her.
Sure, Snow wakes up when she gets a peck on the lips from her dear old Prince… but the Queen DOES plummet to her death from a nearby cliff.
How much more twitted could it get?
Turns out, a lot.
In the original story, the Queen tries to kill Snow THREE WHOLE TIMES, using poisoned combs, suffocating corsets, and, of course, that same apple.
Snow wakes up when her coffin is knocked about, dislodging the apple from her throat (nope, no kiss).
And then, at her wedding, Snow has her stepmother dressed in a pair of glowing-hot iron shoes and forces her to dance until she drops down dead.
How very, very pleasant.
4. Sleeping Beauty: A tale of rape
Sleeping Beauty is a magical tale of mistaken identity, forest flirtations, and that all important kiss.
But, while the Prince awakens the love of his life with a chaste peck on the lips in the Disney version, things are much more…
Well, they’re much harrowing in the original.
In Giambattista Basile's version, the sleeping princess lies entombed in a tower, where she is found by a wandering king.
A MARRIED wandering king, we hasten to add.
And, supposedly unhappy that he can’t wake her up, he carries her body to a bed and rapes her.
The princess later gives birth to twin babies, one of whom keeps sucking her fingers - and it’s THIS which wakes her up, not the Disney kiss.
She realises that she is a mother - although she has no idea what’s happened to her - and, when the king returns to rape her again, the pair bond and fall in love.
He eventually kills off his current wife and transports the princess, and his twins, back to his castle.
And, despite all of this, they go on to live “happily ever after”.
Hmm.
5. Tangled (aka Rapunzel): A tale of violence and despair
Tangled is, without a doubt, one of our absolute favourite Disney films.
It’s got it all, hasn’t it? A feisty heroine, a wicked stepmother, a rugged prince, a BEAUTIFUL lantern scene, and a happy ever after.
Sure, Flynn gets stabbed at one point - but Rapunzel heals him with her hair. it’s all good, innit?
Too bad the original ain’t nothing like that.
In this torturous tale, we see a prince lured towards a tower by a maiden’s beautiful singing voice.
After clambering up her hair, the pair fall in love - and the maiden quickly falls pregnant with his twin babies.
Each time he visits, he brings her one piece of silk to build an escape ladder… but her wicked captor, Dame Gothel, finds out about the plan, cuts off all of Rapunzel’s hair, and sends her to live in the wilderness.
That night, the prince returns and calls up for Rapunzel to throw down her hair, as usual.
Dame Gothel uses the severed hair to haul him up, before throwing him from the tower - and causing him to have his eyes ripped out on the thorns below.
For months, the poor blind prince is forced to wander through wastelands, before he eventually comes to the wilderness where Rapunzel now lives with the twins she has given birth to.
As she sings, he hears her voice again, and they are reunited.
So it’s sort of a happy ending - with a lot of horror along the way.
Anyone else prefer Tangled?
6. Pocahontas: A tale of imprisonment and colonisation
Did you know that Pocahontas and John Smith’s romance is based on a true story?
And the majority of the Disney tale, from their friendship, to his near-execution, to John returning to England after being shot, is all true.
You know, except for the fact that she was a child at the time.
But it’s what happened to the young Native American AFTER that which is truly dark.
First things first, she was captured by the British and kept in prison for a year, where they baptised her and changed her name to Rebecca.
She went on to marry an Englishman named John Rolfe, travelling with him to the UK where she was treated as royalty…
But she felt homesick for her own country, and kept asking to be taken back.
When she was 22-years-old, she finally boarded a ship that would take her back to America, but fell suddenly ill.
She died in Gravesend - and her body never made it home to her people.
We suddenly have something in our eye...
7. Peter Pan: A tale of misery and loneliness
In the Disney film, Peter Pan is the magical boy who never grows up.
Accompanied by his fairy companion Tinker-Bell, he takes Wendy, John and Michael Darling on a trip to Ner-Land, where they visit mermaids, party with Native Americans, and fight Captain Hook and his gang of pirates.
At the end, the children fly home, Peter returns to Never-Land, and they all live happily ever after.
Ha!
In J. M. Barrie’s original tale - Peter Pan In Kensington Gardens - Peter isn’t a little boy. He’s a seven-day-old baby who’s been hiding out in Kensington Gardens with the fairies because he doesn’t want to grow up.
Only, after not too long, Peter realises he misses his mother terribly, and tries to return home to her.
When he arrives, he is devastated to learn that, in his absence, his mother has given birth to another boy she can love… and that the window has been barred shut.
He returns to live a lonely life in Kensington Gardens, before eventually finding his way to Neverland and setting up home there permanently.
No wonder he’s always searching for a new mother, eh?
8. Hercules: A tale of adultery and murder
In Disney’s Hercules, we learn that our titular hero is the son of Greek gods Zeus and Hera.
But, due to an evil plot by Hades, the infant is sent to live on earth with a mortal foster family.
After overcoming many trials and tribulations (not to mention a seriously fun training montage), Hercules becomes a true hero and so earns his right to be a god.
But, bless him, he gives it all up to stay on earth with his beloved Megara.
And they all live happily ever after.
Except not really.
In the original Greek legend, Zeus disguised himself as a human woman’s husband and had sex with her, causing her to become pregnant with Hercules.
The young boy turns out to be pretty heroic, growing up and marrying a king’s daughter, named Megara.
But Hera, still furious over Zeus’s affair, drives Hercules mad… and, in the midst of his insanity, he MURDERS his wife and their six sons.
Yikes.
9. Mulan: A tale of grief, despair and suicide
Mulan is one of the most aspirational Disney princesses, in our opinion.
In a bid to save her father’s life, she dons armour, teams up with Mushu the dragon, and disguises herself as a male soldier.
And, somewhere in between saving all of China and being decreed a hero by the Emperor, she finds love with her Commander, Shang.
Amazing.
But, in the original, it ends in tragedy.
She returns home after war to be with her family again, where she learns that her father died anyway and that her mother has remarried.
Worse still, she is summoned to the palace to become one of the king’s concubines - a fate which she says would be worse than death.
Yeah, you can see where this is going.
Mulan's words before she committed suicide were: "I'm a girl, I been through war and did enough.
“I now want to be with my father."
Our hearts just broke in two. Honestly they did.
10. The Hunchback Of Notre Dame: The most heartbreaking tale of them all
Quasimodo’s story isn’t the happiest Disney movie, but it is, nonetheless, a joy to watch.
We watch this kind young man defy his master to taste freedom, overcome his fears that he is a monster, and find a life-long friend in the gypsy dancer, Esmerelda.
And, after saving both the lives of her and Captain Phoebus (her lover), brave Quasimodo finally leaves the cathedral into the outside world, where the citizens hail him as a hero and accept him into society.
N’aww.
The original Victor Hugo novel, however, is absolutely harrowing.
Kept locked away in Notre Dame, the barely verbal and half-blind hunchback is forced to ring the bells by his master, Claude Frollo, until one day he leaves the cathedral.
He fails in his task, and is publicly flogged. Cue Esmerelda giving him a drink of water and capturing his heart (just like the film!)
But, later on, a lustful Frollo frames Esmerelda for attempted murder, and attempts to have his wicked way with her.
When she refuses his advances, he has her hanged.
Yeah, actually hanged. And she DIES.
Quasimodo, heartbroken, goes to her graveyard and stays with Esmerelda’s body, where he dies of starvation.
About eighteen months later, the tomb is opened, and the skeletons are found. As someone tries to separate them, they crumble to dust.
Just like our souls did upon reading this.
11. Frozen: A tale of kidnapping and forced adulthood
Everyone’s favourite Disney film, Frozen is all about the unshakeable bond between sisters Anna and Elsa.
Throw in a seriously cute snowman (hey Olaf, we like warm hugs, too!), a few life lessons about love, and catchy songs that we just CAN’T let go of, and you have a recipe for success.
But the tale’s origins are much darker than you might believe.
Based loosely on Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen, the original tale sees a wicked snow queen steal a little boy away from his home.
His best friend Gerda sets off on a journey to save him, which sees her captured by robbers, attacked by an evil sorceress, and more.
She eventually, through the power of The Lord’s Prayer (because why not?), finds Kai alone and trapped on a frozen lake - with an icy splinter trapped in his eye.
Through the power of dance, she manages to save him - but, when the pair return home, they realise that they have been away for many years and are now adults.
Not quite the empowering story of sisterhood we’ve all come to know and love, eh?
Which of these stories depressed you the most?
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