Disney Films with Disturbing Origins [Part 1]

Many people already know, but some Disney cartoons - which have been loved and enjoyed by so many children and adults for generations - have truly disturbing origins, involving mutilation, cruelty, murder and other very unpleasant events.

Some people believe that Disney has improved the original stories by making them more accessible and enjoyable to the general public, but others are of the opinion that Disney totally misrepresented their legitimacy.

List Verse listed some famous Disney-produced cartoon movies with disturbing original stories, which obviously weren't for the versions we know. Check out the first part of this list (soon, the Curious Mega will present the second):

1 - Evil Pinocchio

For starters, in the original story Pinocchio kills the Talking Cricket, and the Blue Fairy is a corpse! These are just some of the truths of Pinocchio's original tale, which was written by Italian Carlo Collodi in 1883 and had several adaptations until it was discovered by Walt Disney.

Originally, Pinocchio escapes as soon as it is built and begins to walk. Geppetto pursues him and finds him, but is caught by a policeman who takes him to prison, believing he is beating the doll. When Pinocchio returns to Geppetto's house, he encounters the Talking Cricket, who tells him that naughty boys turn into donkeys.

Without thinking twice, Pinocchio throws a hammer at the cricket and kills him instantly. After all, where have you ever seen a talking cricket who is still telling him what to do with his life? After release, Geppetto returns home and insists that Pinocchio go to school. However, the doll sells all his books to buy a ticket for a puppet show.

In the meantime, Pinocchio meets the Blue Fairy, who claims she's dead and just waiting for some people to take her body. Then he also finds an evil fox and a cat who steal his money and hang it on a tree where he dies. Yes, he dies, despite being a wooden doll. However, the publishers of Collodi's book were not very happy with this end and asked the writer to add a second part to the story.

In this one, the corpse fairy rescues Pinocchio and they begin to live together (in the sense of friendship), but the doll returns with his mischief and turns into a donkey. So it's sold to a circus, and the story is a little bit more like what we know today. But just a little, as it is sold to a musician who wants to kill him and tear his skin to turn it into a part of a drum.

The musician changes his mind and decides to just kill him by throwing him into the ocean with stones tied around his neck. As he drowns, the fish eat the flesh of his donkey-shaped body and throw away its wooden structure.

Still alive as a puppet, Pinocchio swims away, but is swallowed by a giant shark, where he meets Geppetto. Anyway, the two manage to escape, Pinocchio behaves well and is then rewarded by becoming a real boy.

2 - Break up of people in Aladdin

Did you watch Aladdin's third movie (“Aladdin and The Forty Thieves”)? In this animation, Alladdin discovers that the leader of the forty thieves is his father, Cassim, who later gives up his bandit life to witness his son's marriage to Jasmine.

Some concepts for the movie were inspired by the story Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, a tale of the Arabian Nights. In the original version, Ali Baba learns the magic words to enter the thieves' secret cave, where the stolen treasures lie. There he reveals the words to his brother Cassim, who rushes to the place to carry as much gold as he can.

In his enthusiasm, however, he forgets the magic words to get out of the cave. The thieves return, find Cassim, and kill him. They then break their corpse into pieces and place the dismembered portions at the cave entrance as a warning to future "thieving thieves".

When Ali Baba discovers the macabre warning signal, he picks up his brother's body parts and takes them home. He asks a slave, Morgiana, to leave them as if Cassim had died of natural causes. Morgiana finds a skilled tailor who skillfully sews Cassim's corpse pieces.

3 - Homicidal Cinderella

The origin of Cinderella's story has three different versions. One was from the French Charles Perrault, published 1697, which is practically the one we know with the Fairy Godmother, stepmother and her ugly and envious daughters, plus the detail of the pumpkin carriage and golden slipper (not yet crystal). This version was used for the Disney movie and the history of children's books with only minor changes.

In the Brothers Grimm version, the stepmother's daughters are beautiful, but they are also evil. Who helps Cinderella get ready for prom is a tree and enchanted birds. The part of the shoe that should fit the prince's love life remains the same. But in desperation for their huge feet to fit their little slippers, Cinderella's “fake” sisters cut a few toes and part of their heels.

The hoax, however, is unmasked as Cinderella's enchanted birds point to the blood on the girls' feet, warning the prince. After that, the sisters' eyes are torn out by the birds as punishment.

Both of the above versions came from an even older tale, which was written by the Italian Giambattista Basile, but was published only in 1634, two years after his death.

Named “La gatta Cenerentola” (which is the other known name in history: The Cinderella), in this version Cinderella calls Zezolla and confides to the housekeeper the cruelties that her stepmother does to her. The housekeeper then advises that Zezolla kill the woman to solve this problem by breaking her neck, and convince her father to marry the employee.

Zezolla manages to kill his stepmother, and the housekeeper's marriage to her father happens. The problem is, after that, the housekeeper takes her seven beautiful daughters she was hiding to live with them, and the girl's father loses interest in his daughter.

With this, everyone begins to mistreat her and she is sent to the kitchen to work as a maid. The rest of the story is like a traditional Cinderella tale, but it's strange to know that the girl was originally a murderer, isn't it?

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And don't forget that soon we'll be putting in more original stories that inspired Walt Disney, but they weren't as happy and cuddly as the views in the drawings.

* Originally posted on 29/01/2014.

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