Disney and The Grimm Brothers

Many people do not realize that most of their favorite Disney stories and movies actually came from the Grimm Brother's, Jacob and Wilhelm. Most of the stories, however, were modified to make them more child and family friendly. Which in a sense makes them different but when taken down to the basics the stories are similar.

The Grimm Brother's would find stories that had originally only been verbally communicated throughout various cultures and communities. Every country has it's own legends or stories and every country has a mix of cultures as well. Before many of these places started using writing for more than simple record keeping they used verbal communication to pass on the stories and legends of the past to the younger generations. The Grimm Brother's took many of these stories and put them on paper for more people to enjoy.

Walt Disney took these stories and used his own imagination to change them up just a bit to make them more for children than just adults. Otherwise Disney would not be the family and children friendly franchise that it is today.

The Princess and the Frog is a good example of how Disney changed one of the Grimm Brother's stories. In the Disney version a prince was turned into a frog and must kiss a princess but when he kisses a regular woman, she too us transformed into a frog. They end up going on an adventure to figure out how to turn back into humans. During their adventure they fall in love and become human again during their wedding ceremony when the woman becomes a princess through marriage. In the Grimm Brother's version a young princess makes a promise to share food and a bed with a frog in exchange for him retrieving her favorite golden ball from a well. The princess tried to break her promise but the frog had followed her home where her father, the King, forced her to keep her word of sharing food and taking the frog to her bedroom to sleep. However, once in her bedroom she would not allow the frog in her bed and when he threatened to tell her father she threw him against a wall. After which he turned into a prince from another kingdom who had been betrothed to her until he became cursed by a witch. They traveled back to his kingdom to be married once the curse was broken.

Cinderella is another common story known to Disney fans where poor Cinderella is treated as a servant until her fairy godmother grants her wish to allow her to go to the ball hosted for the Prince. She looses her slipper trying to leave but he finds her after the grand duke goes to several houses trying the slipper on several maidens. Once they find Cinderella, who has the matching slipper, she is taken to the castle where she marries the prince. However the Grimm Brother's depicted the story a bit different. In the Grimm Brother's story Cinderella's father never died but did allow her step mother and sisters to mistreat her as if she were a servant. They also called her a kitchen wench. There was a festival for the King's son instead of a ball that lasted for 3 days. A bird brought Cinderella a different dress each day after her family had left for the festival that made her unrecognizable to her family. The prince would not dance with anyone but her and each day she escaped him to her family home and changed out of the beautiful dresses so that no one would recognize her, but on the third day he managed to get one of her shoes stuck for him to have. The step sisters each tried on the shoe. One cut off her toe for the shoe to fit while the other cut off part of her heel for the shoe to fit. The prince made the family bring Cinderella to try the shoe on. The prince took her to the castle to marry her when it fit perfectly. The step sisters walked down the aisle with Cinderella but birds plucked out an eye from each and then plucked their other eye out when they walked back down the aisle again.

Rapunzel is another well known stories told by several different authors. Disney's version Rapunzel was captured due to the magically properties of her hair and locked away in a tower where Gothel climbed her hair once Rapunzel was strong enough to pull her up. A thief discovers the tower trying to get away and makes a deal with Rapunzel to take her on a trip in return for the crown he stole. They fall in love on the trip but Gothel finds out. Rapunzel goes back with Gothel where she discovers she is the stolen princess. Gothel kills the thief who tries to rescue Rapunzel but he cuts her hair off making it lose its magic, thus killing Gothel. Rapunzel cries over him after singing the magic song and her tears bring the thief back to life. Rapunzel gets reunited with her parents and marries the thief. The Grimm Brother's version is where Mother Gothel took Rapunzel from a poor husband and wife as payment for stealing from her garden. Rapunzel was locked away when she was 12 in a tower with no stairs or doors. Instead she had to pull Gothel up using her long hair. One day a prince heard her singing but he could not find a door to get to her but he happened to hear how Gothel called to Rapunzel one day. Once he made it into the tower he and Rapunzel made an escape plan but Rapunzel accidentally revealed it to Gothel one day. Gothel cut Rapunzel's hair before stranding her out in the dessert before going back to the tower. After the prince got there Gothel told him he would never find Rapunzel and he jumped from the tower to save his life from Gothel but was blinded by thorns from his fall. He wandered for 2 years before he heard Rapunzel's singing voice again. He followed the voice to her and discovered she had been pregnant with twins. They hugged and she cried over him, her tears bringing back his sight. They went back to his kingdom to live happily ever after.

Those are just 3 examples to show some of the drastic changes Disney makes to the original Grimm Brother's tales. It is completely understandable as to why Walt Disney in the beginning and the creative minds that make up the Disney franchise now make those changes to the stories. Otherwise the friendly stories known so well among many family households today would not be as well known. Most parents do not want their young children to be watching movies with that content of the Grimm Brother stories. I know I would not want my daughter watching movies like that as a young child.