Most of the Disney films and cartoons are based on old tales and legends. And what unites all the old tales and legends? Yes, the fact that they come across such plot twists, from which the hair on the head rises even in modern adults. Today, these are all fairy tales that are obscenely sweet, but in the original there was nothing bright and kind.
Cinderella
In the Disney version, Cinderella goes to the ball in the form of a beautiful princess, loses her shoe, and then the prince is looking for a girl who would fit the shoe in time. Finds Cinderella and they live happily ever after.
In the original, written by Charles Perrault over 300 years ago, everything happens in much the same way, only with bloody details. In particular, the Stepmother forces her daughters to cut off the heel or thumb so that the shoe fits in with them. And at the wedding, some rabid pigeons peck out the eyes of the Sisters. By the way, the Soviet creators of the good old "Cinderella", as your parents remember, acted more honestly in relation to the original - they also humiliate the stepmother and sisters a little (they are kicked out of the Kingdom), although not so brutally.
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Sleeping Beauty
In the Disney version, the princess stabs her finger on a spindle and falls asleep forever. Then the handsome prince comes, wakes her up with a kiss and they live happily ever after.
In Giambattista Basile's version of this tale, everything is "more interesting". His sleeping beauty is called Aurora and she wakes up not from a kiss, but in labor pains - she has twins. There is a handsome prince in the fairy tale, but he, of course, is not limited to a kiss. Moreover, while Aurora sleeps, and a new life develops in her womb, the prince manages to get married. When Aurora comes to the castle with her children, the prince's wife tries to kill her rival and her children, but the king intervenes. He not only forbids touching Aurora, but orders his son to marry the girl he raped while she was sleeping.
The beauty and the Beast
Belle is kidnapped by the Beast and lives in a luxurious castle, and then learns the hidden beauty of her captor. She falls in love, kisses him, and dispels the spell that makes him ugly. Morality - physical beauty doesn't matter.
In the original by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbeau de Villeneuve, who lived in the 18th century, Belle asks for leave from the monster and goes home for a week to be with her family. The sisters, seeing how luxuriously Belle is dressed, listening to her stories about a carefree life, try to persuade her to stay at home longer. They hope that the Beast will go mad with resentment at the broken promise to return to him in a week and devour Belle in a fit of anger.
Snow White
The main character of the cartoon had to flee and live with seven dwarfs because of her beauty and honesty. The witch poisoned her with an apple, and the gnomes avenged the "death" of their favorite by crushing the witch with a weighty stone. Then a handsome prince appeared out of nowhere and rescued the girl with a kiss.
But in the original fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm, the witch did not die an easy, quick death. They put red-hot iron shoes on her and made her dance in them until she fell dead from pain and exhaustion.
Mermaid
In the Disney version, the little mermaid Ariel, the daughter of the king of the sea, exchanged her voice for a pair of legs and went ashore in search of love. Which she met in the face of Prince Eric. Together they nailed the witch, with whom Ariel made a deal and lived happily ever after.
In the original by Hans Christian Andersen, written in the 19th century, the little mermaid received a pair of legs in exchange for the fact that when she walks she will experience such pain as if she was walking on the edges of knives. Since constant pain and seduction do not mix well, the prince eventually fell in love with another and married her, and the little mermaid threw herself into the sea from grief and became sea foam.
Pocahontas
In a Disney fairy tale, she is an Indian woman who talks to trees, and her best friend is a raccoon. One day she falls in love with an Englishman and because of this, a war almost begins between the two peoples.
According to an old Indian legend, Pocahontas is the nickname of the Indian princess Matoaka, given to her by her father Powhatan, the leader of the Powhatan Indian tribe who lived in the territory of modern Virginia. In 1607, the princess saved the English captain John Smith from death in Indian captivity, but this is exactly the whole relationship that was between them. She was eventually kidnapped by European settlers, who held her hostage. At the age of 17, she was married to an Englishman, and at 22 she died for an unknown reason.
Hercules
In the cartoon, Hercules is the youngest son of Zeus and Alcmene, who got out of the mud into riches, that is, got to Olympus.
In ancient Greek myths, Hercules was a rather brutal savage and very many of his exploits would fall under various articles of the Criminal Code of almost any country in the world.
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
In the cartoon, Quasimodo is a young hunchback who falls in love with the gypsy Esmeralda and saves her from execution.
In the original and not at all children's work "Notre Dame Cathedral" by Victor Hugo, Quasimodo fails to save Esmeralda (moreover, he inadvertently helps the authorities to capture her) and he watches her execution. Then he goes to her grave and dies on her of hunger. Years later, when someone opens her grave, their skeletons are found together. When you try to separate them, they turn to dust.
Pinocchio
In the Disney fairy tale, Pinocchio is portrayed as a mischievous and sweet little boy, the son of a carpenter, made of logs. In the end, despite the fact that he puts his father's life in danger, everything ends well and he turns into a real boy.
In a real tale, Carlo Collodi Pinocchio is a rare bastard without a drop of charisma and a sense of humor. He steals, deceives and betrays. Even his own father treats his son with ill-concealed contempt. In the end, Lisa and the Cat hang Pinocchio from a tree, attaching the "boy's" own nose as a rope. In general, Collodi wrote a moralizing warning drama, but in the modern world, Pinocchio has a completely different image.
Mowgli
At Disney, Mowgli is a boy abandoned by his parents in the jungle. He is raised by a bear and a panther who teach him to sing and defend himself.
Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book has a couple of important touches to clarify Mowgli's image. For example, he ruthlessly, with the help of wolves and elephants, destroys an entire village and kills its inhabitants, who kidnapped his biological parents. Later, he has to run away, as the villagers decided that he was an evil spirit and hunted him. In the end, he finds shelter in a politically correct place at that time - in a village under British rule.
