10 things Disney never told us about our favorite fairy tales

Disney wields powerful magic in the worlds of fairy tales, childhood classic stories, folklore, and even history and myth. This is especially true in the fantasyland of animation, where nothing has ever been impossible. In animation, you only need to draw something for it to become real. 

Disney works transformation magic not only on fairy and folk tales and legends for which we can’t pinpoint a singular author, but also on enduring novels, like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and Pollyanna.  

Okay. Lots of movie makers have done this. But Disney reaches the widest audience, and the Disney movies have long lives. So once Disney takes hold of a story, the Disney adaptation becomes the version many people think of as the realone.  

But there are earlier versions for many of the Disney movies, and they’re often surprisingly different. Disney adds things (like little animal sidekicks), cuts things (often minor characters), and changes things (even occasionally the endings). 

Here are a few surprises in early versions of stories we thought we knew. Some of these items are definitely PG-13 for darkness and/or adult content, so buckle up.  

1. There’s no flying carpet in the traditional versions of Aladdin.  
2. J.M. Barrie’s original Peter Pan is so self-centered that he forgets who Wendy is, and almost abandons all three Darlings halfway through the flight to Neverland.
3. In Rudyard Kipling’s original Jungle Book, the serpent Kaa is a wise and able ally, not an enemy, of Mowgli. 
4. In older versions, Cinderella’s step-sisters, egged on by their mother, literally cut off bits of their feet in their desperation to fit into the shoe. 
5. Hans Christian Andersen’s original Little Mermaid doesn’t get to marry her prince.
6. Speaking of princes, in Basile’s 1634 version of the story, the prince who discovers the Sleeping Beauty is . . . um . . . already married.   
7. In early versions, both the Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel give birth (to twins) before they marry.   
8. Snow White’s stepmother was originally caught and condemned to dance herself to death in red-hot iron shoes.  
9. The original Pinocchio kills the talking cricket. With a hammer. In Chapter 1. 
10. In Victor Hugo’s original Hunchback novel, Esmeralda does not escape hanging, and Quasimodo executes Frollo.

In my upcoming blog series of Tales Really as Old as Time, I’ll talk about the history and changing images of some of our favorite storybook characters.