If you grew up with Disney movies, you’re in for a huge surprise: they’re not all rainbows, butterflies, and talking frogs.
Some of their most popular movies even have some dark backstories!
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Let’s just say that these 10+ Disney movies that have dark fairy tales behind them don’t always end with a happily ever after…
Before we get into it, be warned that these actual stories may ruin the Disney experience for you.
But that’s what adventure is all about, right?
Let’s go!
1. *Aladdin*
Disney made a lot of changes to the character Aladdin to make him likable.
That’s because, in the real story, he’s actually the son of a tailor .
When he finds the genie, he uses his wishes to wish for all sorts of lavish, materialistic things.
He even uses his newfound wealth to convince the Sultan to let him marry Jasmine.
In the original version, things are also ridiculously pornographic…
Yep, childhood ruined.
2. *Cinderella*
If you thought the stepsisters in the Disney flick were bad, think again.
In the original story by the Grimm brothers, the sisters are so desperate to fit into the glass slipper so that they can marry the prince, that one cuts off a toe and the other slices off pieces of her heel…
Also, Cinderella has to do a lot to get noticed by the prince. Homegirl went to the ball *three* nights in a row!
Each time, she wore an even more extravagant gown than the last one.
And, instead of a fairy godmother, there is a bird in a tree above her grandmother’s grave who grants her wishes.
3. *Snow White*
In the Grimm brothers’ original story , the queen didn’t just want the huntsmen to take Snow White into the woods to kill her.
She wanted to eat Snow White’s liver and organs to obtain her beauty!
The endings don’t quite match up either.
In the Disney version, Snow White and her Prince Charming dance into the night.
But in the original Grimm fairytale, the evil queen attends Snow White’s wedding.
She’s spotted and forced to dance in a pair of burning-hot ironclad slippers until she collapses.
4. *Sleeping Beauty*
Oh, boy. Buckle up for this one.
In the original story , the hunter finds the princess locked away in the castle in a comatose sleep.
Instead of kissing her with true love’s kiss… he sleeps with her while she’s unconscious. So messed up.
Oh it gets worse…
The hunter doesn’t just sleep with her; he winds up getting her pregnant ! With twins no less!
How twisted is that?
Not only that, but there’s another woman in the hunter’s life too!
As you can imagine, she didn’t take too kindly to his “other family”.
Upon hearing the news, she ordered that the children be boiled alive and served for dinner.
5. *The Princess and the Frog*
In The Frog King by the Grimm brothers, it has nothing to do with opening a restaurant.
Instead, the princess’s father urges her to let a frog dine with her and sleep in her bed for three nights…
After the three nights, he transforms back into a human prince and says that he was under the spell of an enchantress.
There’s a happy ending, at least, as the two marry.
6. *Beauty and the Beast*
The Stockholm syndrome in the original fairy tale is soo real.
Since the Beast wants to marry Belle so bad, he starves himself for three months just so that she’ll stay and be with him. Talk about emotional manipulation!
Just to be clear, it was bestiality that saved The Beast.
In the Disney film version, The Beast turns into a human after “he learns to love another and has that love returned.”
In the original fairytale by Villeneuve learning to “love another” is taken much more literally.
7. *Rapunzel*
In the original Rapunzel , she was traded — not kidnapped — since her parents couldn’t stop stealing ingredients from the witch’s garden.
Wow, and I thought my parents were hard on me…
When the prince meets Rapunzel and the witch finds out, she tricks him into climbing the castle again.
But when Rapunzel is not there, he jumps off the tower and becomes blind when thorn bushes gouge his eyes out.
8. *Frozen*
Frozen is based on Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen .
In it, she is super frigid and evil, as she kisses an underage boy and kidnaps him to live in her castle. When Kay’s sister finally finds him, he’s a shell of a man.
The plot gets sinister.
The story also explains how The Devil made a magic mirror designed to reflect the evil and ugliness inside us all.
The mirror is shattered, sending tiny splinters into the eyes and hearts of people around the world. And as a result, it freezes their hearts.
9. *The Little Mermaid*
In the animated movie, it stays true to the original story in the beginning: Ariel sees Eric, falls madly in love, and goes to the Sea Witch, Ursula, to get legs.
But that’s about where the similarities end .
In the original story, Ariel is in so much pain from her new legs that she bleeds with every step…
Also, since Eric marries a maiden, this means that Ariel will die and turn into sea foam.
To prevent this from happening, her sisters get a knife from Ursula and tell Ariel to plunge it into his heart.
She refuses to do it, though, and becomes “among the daughters of the air” for eternity.
10. *Hercules*
Disney’s Hercules is based on the Ancient Greek myth of Herakles .
The film does a fairly decent job of incorporating elements of Herakles’ mythos but overall many elements were fabricated.
Which is probably for the better, considering how bloody and violent the story actually is.
Herakles was the bastard son of Zeus. His stepmother Hera always blamed Herakles for his father’s infidelity.
From the time he was a baby, Hera was determined to kill Herakles.
According to legend, Hera sent him into a fit of uncontrollable madness, which caused Herakles to murder his wife and children with his own hands.
11. *Mulan*
Mulan was Disney’s first foray into the world of Asian literature. The film is based on the ancient Chinese tale of Hua Mulan .
Disney did their best to stay true to the source material, but there were some things they just had to leave out.
The story goes that Hua Mulan returns home to find that her mother is remarried and her father has passed.
Soon after , her identity as a woman is revealed.
As punishment, Mulan is forced to become a concubine . Instead, she chooses to take her own life.
12. *Pinocchio*
Pinocchio was one of Disney’s first success stories. It taught us all to follow our conscience and that, to make our dreams come true, we need only “Wish Upon A Star”.
Unfortunately, things weren’t so pleasant in Carlo Collodi ‘s original version.
For starters, Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket.
Not only does he kill his conscience, but Pinocchio falls asleep on a hot stove, burns off his feet, and is then hanged by a masochistic talking cat.
Oh yeah – and Gepetto spent two whole years rotting in the belly of that stinking whale before finally being rescued by his “real boy”.
13. *Goldilocks and the Three Bears*
While modern tales of Goldilocks are a lot more family-friendly, there was a time, in the 1800s, when that wasn’t the case.
In Robert Southey’s 1800s fairy tale, Goldilocks is an old woman, and is still getting into trouble.
But unlike the modern version, Goldilocks doesn’t escape to the forest unharmed.
In Southey’s version, it’s worse.
It is presumed that she either broke her neck falling from a window, or she was sent to a correctional facility.
The modern short films corrected that disturbing origin story.
Do you know of any Disney movies that have some dark backstories?
Are they from fairy tales? Myths? Legends? Or novels?
Let us know below in the comments!
