Disney Fairytales vs Grimm Fairytales

Happy Saturday, Fatnaticals! Today will be a less theory and more discussion today, as it is my significant other’s birthday today! 🥳 However, today’s theories will be more about looking into theories as to why Disney changed the original fairytales so drastically.

While it is understandable to have a more “family-friendly” version, you have to agree that Disney has A LOT of underlying adult themes hidden within still. From Mulan’s cross dressing, to Ariel’s original movie poster artwork; you could even consider the massive amount of deaths involved in Disney semi-adult themed. So the question is, why change them so much? If you’re going to keep some underlying themes in there, why not just tell the original?

The primary example I can think of would be Snow White. Why give her a poison apple after already addressing the Huntsman being told to bring the Queen her heart? In the end, the Queen is implied to have died when she slipped and fell off the mountainside after giving Snow White the apple. The original Brother’s Grimm version includes the Queen giving Snow White a corset to crush her ribs, a poison comb, and THEN an apple; as the Queen’s punishment, they made her dance in metal shoes that were placed over hot coals until they turned red hot at Snow’s wedding until she can no longer walk.

While these versions are quite vastly different, there is still underlying themes of the original in the Disney version. I can completely understand cutting out the more gruesome side of the Queen’s death, even seeing her being recognized at the wedding and seeing a silent conversation happen would be closer to along the lines of the original.

Another good example to look at is Cinderella. If you have ever sent the 1998 Drew Barrymore movie Ever After, you will see a much closer relation to the Brothers’ version of Cinderella, although still not exact. While in every version of Cinderella, it seems that her father died, in the Grimm’s version he was still alive. Her step-sisters also cut off their heel and toe to attempt to fit into Cinderella’s shoe.

While many will suggest that Disney’s versions are “much gentler” versions of the Brother’s Grimm versions, there is still the fact that they do still have more adult themes in them. I know as a child I didn’t watch Snow White after the first time I saw it, because it was very dark and even as a “gentler version”, watching someone who is labeled a child be poisoned is a bit drastic and disturbing. I will completely agree that Cinderella is much more child friendly, so many others are still in a very gray area.

As it’s still June and as it’s still Pride month, I want to toss in the whole thing about Mulan. The scene with her ancestors arguing has always been one of my favourite scenes of the movie; I don’t know why, I think it’s just the thought of ghosts arguing over who was to blame about her running away to join the Military undercover. However, when I was about 19/20, I was watching it with subtitles on one day and that was the day I realized that her one ancestor said, “At least my granddaughter’s not a cross-dressser!”

I do not know I how I missed that line for SO LONG! However, when I realized what it said, it was what originally set my mind to thinking about how there are underlying adult themes in all Disney movies. This one, however, brings up a lot more of an issue; and this is a great time to discuss this one. Lately there has been a lot about drag queens and not allowing them to perform and that rot, but it makes me ask one question: what is the difference between them performing, and all the cross-dressing and drag that we watch in movies? The answer is: THERE ISN’T.

Drag has been a huge thing for centuries, even millenias! Back in the time of Shakespeare, women generally did not act so female parts were played by men dressed as women. Fast forward to within the last half-century: Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubtfire, Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo in Too Wong Foo, Marlon and Shawn Wayans in White Chicks, Mulan (as mentioned above), Dr. Frank-N-Furter in Rocky Horror… If people want to have an issue with this, then why put an “adult theme” like that in Mulan, a DISNEY movie?

Not only did we have Mulan doing it, but at the end her three male partners-in-crime soldiers dressed IN KIMONOS and scaled the pillars of the Palace to get to the Emperor. Who, by the way, when he saw them afterwards only raised his eyebrow and said nothing. This was all set during Imperial China when doing stuff like that would literally get you executed.

While I should digress back to the point of the difference between Disney and Grimm Fairytales, it still shows us that while something may be “family-friendly” the question that pops up becomes: is it REALLY family-friendly? When did the need to change things to family-friendly happen? Way back when, before Disney was a thing, those fairytales were told exactly like that. Krampus is still a very famous story in European countries, and as far as I am aware they tell it completely uncensored.

Why do YOU think these stories have been changed so much? Are they really “family-friendly”? Come talk with me and the community, tell us what you think! Join me next week as we go into into the future of space. Until then, keep on theorizing, Fanaticals!