In this blog, we will explore how Disney sugarcoats their fairy tales. We will explore the real tales and the dark side to them.
About Me
My name is Akshay and I am in seventh grade. I started this blog because I was interested in how fairy tales aren’t always happy in the end. The Grimm Brothers were people who went to small villages and collected folk stories and wrote about them to share them with the world. Disney, the movie company, took these fairy tales and changed them to make them ‘kid-friendly’, and those are the movies that you have grown up with. I am here to share the real tales, how the Grimm Brothers wanted them to be.
The Little Mermaid is a classic film that has been shown to countless children since its release in 1989. However, the original story, written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1836, is filled with tragedy and loss. Ariel is fascinated with the human world and longs to have legs. She often makes trips up to the surface to learn about it. On one of these trips, she sees a beautiful prince and immediately falls in love. After a bit, a violent storm throws Prince Eric overboard and sinks the ship. Ariel rushes to save him and brings him to shore. She stays with him, singing softly to him under the moonlight. However, she is forced to leave as he is regaining consciousness to avoid being discovered. After she comes back, she learns of a sea witch who can allegedly turn her fish tail into a pair of human legs. In the Disney movie, Ursula, the sea witch, steals her voice. However, in the original, the witch actually takes Ariel’s tongue as payment. Ariel still loves Eric, but she learns of his wedding with Princess Vanessa. In the Disney film, she disrupts the wedding and gets Eric to love her. However, in the original, Ariel merely turns to sea foam and “floats away to join the daughters of the air”.
We all know the story of Snow White. She was a beautiful princess, and her mother, the queen, didn’t want her to become the most beautiful in all the land. She orders her huntsman to kill Snow White, but the huntsman cannot bring himself to do it and tells her to run away. Snow White finds a house that is inhabited by seven dwarfs who offer to take her in, in return for cooking and cleaning. In the Disney movie, the Queen finds out that Snow White is still alive and gives her a poisoned apple. In the Grimm tale, however, it takes the queen 3 tries to incapacitate her. First, she tries to suffocate her with a bodice lace. Then she poisons a comb and tries to comb her hair. Finally, she tries the apple, putting her into a deep sleep. The dwarfs bury her in a glass coffin so they can still see her. Eventually, a prince comes and convinces the dwarfs to give the coffin to him. As they are taking it out of the ground, the piece of apple is dislodged, and she wakes up. Snow White seeks revenge on the queen and forces her to dance in burning-hot iron shoes until she drops dead on the floor. For obvious reasons, Disney decided to keep that out of the “kid’s version”. Make sure to subscribe to stay updated. See you guys next time as we discuss “The Little Mermaid”.
The three little pigs killed the wolf and the first two died.
The Truth About Fairy Tales - What Disney Isn't Telling Us 