17 Times Disney Said "Woah, No" And Totally Changed The Plot From The Original Fairy Tales

There's a reason people say things are "Disneyfied" when there's a forced happily ever after...

It's no secret that a lot of Disney's most famous movies are based on fairy tales they didn't originally write.

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Our Disney heroes often ride off into the sunset to live happily ever after — but what exactly has been missed from the picture-perfect tale we see on screen?

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So, here are several things that happened in the original fairytales, stories, and more that didn't make it into the Disney movies:

1. First, the story The Little Mermaid is based on, titled Den Lille Havfrue by Hans Christian Andersen, one of the biggest changes is that when the little mermaid is given her legs by the sea witch, it feels like knives are impaling her feet every time she walks. Oh, and if she doesn't win over the prince, she'll turn into sea foam and die.

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In the original story, when the prince is about to marry someone else, the little mermaid is visited by her sisters, who have sacrificed their long hair to the sea witch in exchange for a magical dagger that she can plunge into the prince's heart. When his blood drips onto her feet, she will gain her fish tail back and can go back to live with her family underwater. However, she's too heartbroken and hurls the dagger and herself into the sea, becoming a spirit that helps cool the world in hot countries.

2. In the original story of Mulan, her parents are totally in on the plan for Mulan to replace her father in the war.

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Disney's variation sees Mulan sneak out to take her ailing father's place in the war, prove herself as a brave warrior, win respect, and ultimately save China. The original tale has similar origins, but instead of sneaking out, Mulan's parents give their blessing. Her secret is not discovered until after the war when she changes into feminine clothes and surprises her fellow soldiers. She is a subversive but beloved character because although she broke the rules, she did it to honor filial piety and then went right back to the gendered norms of being a woman in China right after.

3. The story Frozen is based on has a lot of similarities, but there's a character called Kai who isn't really replicated in Disney's version

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Disney's Frozen sees a tormented magical princess struggling with her powers before ultimately gaining control of them, as well as the love of a kingdom she then reigns over.

Its original source material, which Frozen is inspired by, was another Hans Christian Andersen story, known as The Snow Queen. This tale begins when a magic mirror created by trolls shatters, with pieces of it lodging in the heart and eyes of a boy named Kai. The shards change him, so he leaves home to go and live with the Snow Queen. However, his friend, Gerda, goes in search of him. She has many adventures before finding Kai, and when she kisses him, the mirror shards inside him disappear and free him from the queen.

While Disney's version takes a slightly different tack, there are a few nods to The Snow Queen in Frozen, namely in the form of Anna and Sven, who pay homage to Gerda and the faithful reindeer that aids her in her search for Kai. There's also, of course, Elsa, the literal Ice Queen!

4. Disney's Hercules had Hera as a loving mother, but the OG myth saw Hera on a mission to kill him.

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In the original Greek myth, Hercules was a mortal, born to Zeus and Alcmene, the granddaughter of Perseus. Unlike Disney's version, which saw Hera as a loving mother figure, the Hera of myth was Hercules' stepmom and she was on a mission to get rid of him. She sent snakes to strangle him in his crib (like Hades did in the Disney version), but he strangled them before they could do him any harm.

However, Hera wasn't put off. She cast a spell on the adult Hercules that drove him temporarily insane and caused him to murder his wife and their two children.

5. The Evil Queen tried to eat Snow White in the original Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs story.

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A good while before Disney told the tale, the original story appeared in Grimms' Fairy Tales back in 1812. Now, Grimm is in the name and grim is what this version is. It's pretty similar up until the whole, "Hey, let's kill Snow because I think she might be prettier than me" part. At this point, the queen sends her huntsman to kill her. Depending which version you read, the queen either asks for Snow's heart or asks for her liver and lungs, which she intends to eat. She has the cook boil them with salt and tucks in, thinking she's chowing down on her daughter's organs. Hey, I told you it was grim!  

Oh yeah, and in the 1812 version, the queen is actually Snow's biological mother, not a cold-hearted stepmom left with an unwanted stepdaughter after the death of a husband like in the Disney version.

6. In Disney's version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the Queen only tries to kill Snow once after the huntsman fails, but in the Brothers Grimm version, she attempts it three times.

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Once, she dresses as a peddler, sells Snow laces for her corset, and cinches them so tightly that she stops breathing. The dwarves return and cut the laces and Snow comes back round again. 

The second time, the queen dresses as a different peddler and kills her with a poisoned comb, which is again removed by the dwarves just in time. The third time is the classic poison apple trick.

7. Also in the original Snow White, the prince didn't awaken Snow White with true love's kiss, he just bought her corpse and carried it with him everywhere he went.

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As we know, Disney had the prince Snow had already met and fallen in love with revive her with true love's kiss. In the Grimm version, the prince has never met her and just sees a dead girl in a glass coffin and coaxes the dwarves into letting him buy her! In this version, he also doesn't awaken her with true love's kiss — one of his servants drops the coffin and dislodges the poison apple in Snow's throat, thus waking her from her potentially eternal slumber. There's actually also a version where one of the servants, frustrated at having to carry a glass coffin everywhere the prince goes due to the prince's obsession with her (he won't even eat without the coffin near), hits Snow in the face, saying: "We are plagued the whole day long, just because of such a dead girl." The blow dislodges the apple, and she wakes.

On top of the whole creepy buying-a-corpse thing, Snow White is said to be seven years old when her beauty overshadows the queen's, and approximately 10 years old when she's in the coffin. The fact she's a child that's A) the target of a cannibalistic killing and B) bought and carried around obsessively after her death by an adult man certainly gives us a good idea as to why Disney made some tweaks to this tale. 

8. In the original Cinderella story, one of Cinderella's step-sisters cuts off her toes to try and fit into the slipper for the prince.

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Apparently, there are more than 500 versions of Cinderella in Europe alone, but one of the most well-known is French author Charles Perrault's Cendrillon, who introduced the glass slipper, the pumpkin, and the fairy godmother.

So why did Disney choose Perrault's version instead of, say, a classic Brothers Grimm tale, you may ask?! Well, the Brothers Grimm once again lived up to their name. Aschenputtel gets her wishes from a tree on her mother's grave instead of via a fairy godmother, so already pretty dark. Her shoes are made of gold instead of glass in this version, and when the prince tries to find the owner of the shoe, one of the evil stepsisters cuts off her toes to try to fit in the shoe.

When Aschenputtel marries the prince, her stepsisters are her bridesmaids, and doves peck their eyes out during the ceremony. It's exactly what you'd want as you say your vows, right? It's actually what happens during Cinderella's portion of the musical, Into the Woods, too.

9. In the original Sleeping Beauty, the princess is dead, and the king impregnates her corpse.

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Originally written by an Italian author named Giambattista Basile, Aurora is named Talia, and appears in the story Sun, Moon and Talia in 1634's The Tale of Tales. In this story, the prince is a king, and he doesn't meet Talia until after she's become the "sleeping beauty" of the story. Oh, and she's not sleeping — she's flat-out dead in Basile's version. Instead of a spindle, Talia gets some flax under her nail and "[falls] dead upon the ground". 

The king breaks into Talia's castle using a ladder and searches every room until he finds Talia. It gets sinister from here. The story says: "Crying aloud, [the king] beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love.” He then trots off home, and, “for a time thought no more about this incident.” Absolutely horrifying, am I right? Well, there's more.

When the king "gathered the first fruits of love" (excuse me while I vomit), he managed to impregnate Talia, who somehow gives birth to twins whilst, well...dead.

10. Also in the original Sleeping Beauty fairytale, the princess's newborns accidentally resurrect their mother when some fairies teach them how to breastfeed wrong, and there's even a storyline where they try to cook and eat the children.

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Fairies appear when the twins are born, and try to place the twins on Talia's chest to nurse. They somehow accidentally stick them on her fingers, and they suck the splinter of flax out and resurrect their mother. When Talia awakes, she's totally chill with the fact that there are two newborns just laying there, and begins to breastfeed them.

Sometime after the twins are born, the king thinks about Talia and hopes for a "second date" (SERIOUSLY??), so he goes back, and upon seeing Talia alive and surrounded by his kids, explains what happens. Talia is, again, disturbingly laid back about this new discovery and they begin a romantic relationship. However, the king is married, and when his wife finds out, she begins a mission of deception which leads the twins to her. Why did she want the twins, you ask? Well, because she planned to cook them and feed them to her cheating husband, of course! The chef isn't cool with cooking the kids, so he hides them and cooks two lambs.

11. There's a lot more death in the original Hunchback of Notre Dame, but one of the other big differences is that the original book follows a character named Pierre Gringoire, not Quasimodo.

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There are a ton of differences in the original novel by Victor Hugo compared to the Disney version, like Quasimodo isn't the protagonist in the book — Hugo's novel is led by Pierre Gringoire, a struggling playwright and poet who ends up entangled in everything that's kicking off. He doesn't exist in the Disney version. Also, another difference is the decidedly un-Disney death toll in Hugo's novel; in fact, Esmeralda, Quasimodo, and Frollo all die. Gringoire — remember him, the main character?! — survives and runs off with a goat called Djali.

There are actually a fair few more differences, but overall, Disney turned the story into a more optimistic version with an overall storyline focussing on showing that monsters were not people who looked different, but the people with evil in their hearts.

12. In the original Rapunzel story, after Rapunzel doesn't come to see the prince following her stepmother finding out about them, he leaps from the tower and is blinded by thorns.

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The start of the story is pretty similar in the Brothers Grimm version, however one day, Rapunzel accidentally lets slip that the prince has been visiting her, and the witch cuts all her hair off and banishes Rapunzel into the wilderness.

When the prince returns, the witch throws down the now-severed piece of hair. When he sees no sign of the girl he pledged to marry, the prince throws himself out of the tower window in his grief.

He survives the fall, but some thorns blind him. He wanders for days until he stumbles across Rapunzel, who is now a mother to twins conceived via one of their little visits. Rapunzel weeps when she sees the prince without eyes, and her tears restore his sight. They then go to the prince's kingdom and live happily ever after. Again, this version of Rapunzel's story is seen in the musical Into the Woods.

13. The original story of Aladdin has two genies, and Aladdin is motivated by greed, instead of his love for Jasmine.

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In Arabian Nights, Aladdin rubs his hands together in despair while trapped in the cave and wearing a magic ring, and he accidentally frees a genie, who grants his wish to get home to his mother. Aladdin is also carrying a lamp from the cave, and when his mother tries to clean it, a second, more powerful genie appears.

The Aladdin of Arabian Nights is also motivated by power, not love, and cuts out the time he could spend wooing his lady by simply wishing to become rich and powerful and marry her after magically foiling her marriage to the vizier’s son. He then has the genie build him and Badroulbadour (the OG Jasmine) a magnificent palace, far more elaborate than Badroulbadour’s father, the Sultan’s.

When the sorcerer realizes that Aladdin is alive and living it large, he comes back and tricks Badroulbadour into “exchanging old lamps for new”, and uses the lamp to take the palace and its contents to his home. However, Aladdin still has the lesser genie from the ring, and whilst he can’t bring the palace back, he can transport himself and Badroulbadour to it. With the help of Badroulbadour’s “woman’s wiles” (well, that certainly isn’t in the Disney version!), he manages to recover the lamp and slay the sorcerer.

14. In the original story of The Beauty and the Beast, Belle, who is named Beauty, arrives at the Beast's castle and he basically treats her like royalty.

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The story was originally published in 1740 by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, but like the author’s name, it was a little lengthy and ended up being rewritten by two separate authors within 150 years after it first surfaced.   

In the original version, Beauty's father gets lost and is invited into the palace by the beast, who feeds him generously and lets him sleep there in luxury. However, when Beauty's dad tries to take a rose from the garden for his daughter, the beast is enraged and demands a life in exchange for the theft after his hospitality.

Unlike Disney’s retelling, when Beauty arrives, the Beast tells her she is the mistress of the castle and he is her servant. He gives her everything she desires, and they enjoy long and meaningful conversations all day. Every night, he asks her to marry him, and she friend-zones him, then has a dream of a handsome prince asking why she has rejected him. Beauty doesn’t make the connection that Beast is the prince, and becomes convinced he’s holding him captive. She searches and searches, but can’t find the prince she dreams of. 

15. Also, in Disney's version of Beauty and the Beast, Belle's father’s potentially tragic fate forces Belle back home, but the original sees Beauty get bored of living the high life and she asks to visit her family as she’s so homesick.

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The Beast agrees to let her go home for a week. Beauty goes off with an enchanted ring and mirror; the first allowing her to return to the castle immediately, and the second acting as a magical FaceTime device, allowing her to see what’s going on back at the castle. 

When she gets home, her sisters — yes, she has siblings in this one — are jealous of her expensive clothes; even more so after Beauty tries to share and the dresses turn to rags when they touch them. Her sisters can’t stand that Beauty is living in luxury so they beg her to stay an extra day, even going so far as putting onions in their eyes to make it look like they’re weeping. Beauty is moved by their supposed love for her and agrees to stay, not realizing they’re hoping to anger the Beast into eating her alive. Ah, sisterly love.

Beauty starts to feel a little guilty about breaking her promise to come back after a week, and checks in on the Beast with the mirror. She is horrified to discover him lying half-dead from heartbreak by the rose bushes Beauty loved, and immediately returns by using the ring. She cries over the Beast and tells him she loves him, and when her tears strike him, the curse is broken, and they get married and live happily ever after.

16. Unlike Disney's Pocahontas, Pocahontas likely never had a romance with John Smith, and the marriage she did have was not a case of star-crossed lovers bridging two cultures.

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Disney's Pocahontas is not quite the tale of forbidden love they've portrayed on screen. In a nutshell, Disney shows the story as a tale of two worlds coming together through a star-crossed couple from opposite sides of the tracks.

However, since this is based on a true story, both historians and Indigenous people have been able to weigh in, and have stated that Disney romanticized a tale of white colonialism, washed away Indigenous trauma, and glossed the whole thing over with a touch of white saviourism. The message Disney portrayed was basically that the "good" white man had "saved" Pocahontas from the "savages" and brought her into Christianity and away from her native home. 

There's debate around whether or not Pocahontas and John Smith were ever romantically involved, plus, if they were, she was said to be around nine years old to his 27 when he came to her home.

In fact, in the sequel to Pocahontas, we see the titular character's real-life husband — John Rolfe. The real Pocahontas, also known as Matoaka, was held captive, but as a condition of her release, agreed to marry him. She became Rebecca Rolfe and went to live in England, where she died tragically at just 21.

17. And finally, in the original The Princess and the Frog story, the princess tries to kill the frog.

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The original story comes again from the Brothers Grimm, and is less lighthearted and more sinister. The frog essentially harasses the princess to kiss him so much that he lobs him at the wall to kill him. However, he turns into a prince, and once she sees he's a handsome guy and not a frog, the usual happens — they fall in love and live happily ever after.

Which other Disney films have significant differences from their origin stories? Let me know in the comments!