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8 Fairy Tales And Their Actually Not-So-Happy Endings
mentalfloss.com — To make sure kids go home happy, not horrified, Disney usually has to alter the endings. Read on for the original endings to a couple of Disney classics (and some more obscure tales).
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- gbarberi, on 12/17/2007, -1/+175Fairy tales originally were meant to entertain adults as well as children. Adults would also use them to scare children into behaving.
This was before Disney got a hold of them.- jtinz, on 12/17/2007, -12/+5It was before the brothers Grimm collected and edited them.
- AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -5/+12The Grimm Brothers wrote the originals, which were the ones mentioned in this article. Disney's the ones who edited them.
- Lythium, on 12/17/2007, -1/+10As far as I know, the Grimm fairy tales are actually sanitized adaptations of earlier folklore - they collected stories from peasants, not always first-hand, and then published them in a prettier form.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brothers_Grimm- Ayavaron, on 12/18/2007, -1/+2I read that when the Grimms were publishing the tales for children, they decided to make them more violent and disturbing, assuming apparently that type of thing would make them more appealing to kids.
- mightydavefish, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5Those are old folk tales and stories, the Grimms did not write them.
- Lythium, on 12/17/2007, -1/+10As far as I know, the Grimm fairy tales are actually sanitized adaptations of earlier folklore - they collected stories from peasants, not always first-hand, and then published them in a prettier form.
- AndrewDB, on 01/10/2008, -5/+12The Grimm Brothers wrote the originals, which were the ones mentioned in this article. Disney's the ones who edited them.
- Vic333, on 12/17/2007, -1/+51Disney could spin a happy story out of Nazi Germany.
- Superflks, on 12/17/2007, -2/+19Bedknobs and Broomsticks was Nazi occupied England. Not too far off!
- ricree, on 12/17/2007, -1/+4No it wasn't. The Nazis didn't show up until the very end, and even then they never actually occupied England.
- astrotrain, on 12/17/2007, -0/+9Already did.... "Education for Death" (1943)... follows the life of a boy from birth to his death in the Nazi army....
"Nazi's....I hate these guys!"
-Indy - skyfire1, on 12/17/2007, -0/+6Instead of throwing Jews in ovens it would be something stupid like giving them bad dreams.
- BoneheadFarker, on 12/17/2007, -1/+0ooops...
- Superflks, on 12/17/2007, -2/+19Bedknobs and Broomsticks was Nazi occupied England. Not too far off!
- bemenaker, on 12/17/2007, -0/+9Disney screwed up all the fairy tales. They were dark and sinister for a reason. I grew up on Grimm's, and I knew that they weren't even the originals. Well, most of them. Used to drive my mom crazy, dad reading my sister and I Grimm's after dinner.
- rpgmaker, on 12/17/2007, -2/+1They are called _fairy_ tales because of disney...
- theodenking, on 12/17/2007, -0/+9Yeah, I had a book full of the Grimm brothers' originals when I was a kid. Much better than the Disney versions. Although they didn't have snappy music.
- davidrools, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5Disney makes them entertaining to adults by giving all the female characters huge breasts. Cartoon or not, those chicks are HOT!
- su1man, on 12/17/2007, -9/+1fag
- quraid, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2agreed. some of my youngest tenderest fapping moments were to the tune of Disney songs.
- myranttoyou, on 12/17/2007, -3/+1So, sort of like the stories in the bible?
- jtinz, on 12/17/2007, -12/+5It was before the brothers Grimm collected and edited them.
- Androfire, on 12/17/2007, -5/+58These stories were altered to suit the audience? Call Robert Langdon!
- Tippis, on 12/17/2007, -1/+32They suited the audience (kids) in the original version --- the new versions were altered to suit moral-panicked *parents*...
- RedReplicant, on 12/17/2007, -0/+6"Children, being innocent, desire justice; Adults, being guilty, desire mercy." --G. K. Chesterton
- DharmaTurtle, on 12/17/2007, -2/+5What's wrong with changing the story? That's how these stories were developed in the first place. Oral tradition, passing it down from generation to generation, making appropriate small changes here and there so that your children/others would enjoy the story more.
All Disney is doing is continuing that tradition, changing the story to suit these modern times. Red Riding Hood probably never had a red hood to begin with.
Let the stories ADAPT, people.- BoneheadFarker, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1True...there probably wasn't a red hood involved. But would the story be quite the same if it involved the wolf merely being a nuisance trying to steal a pic-a-nic basket, rather then eating the grandmother alive and then getting slaughtered by a lumberjack?
- Tippis, on 12/17/2007, -1/+32They suited the audience (kids) in the original version --- the new versions were altered to suit moral-panicked *parents*...
- atdigg, on 12/17/2007, -20/+12What about the Bible? Apocalypse is not such a happy ending....
- doctorfungi, on 12/17/2007, -14/+10Perhaps you should read the bible before you comment on it.
- mushoo, on 12/17/2007, -3/+27Which one?
What translation?
What version?
The omitted books as well?
The reader to go along with it?
If so, which denomination's?
Not that it would matter, the thing is supposed to be perfect since it's the word of an infallibly omniscient omnipotent being, thus any fault or error we may find on it believers will simply dismiss as an error on us stupid readers.- xsuite, on 12/17/2007, -31/+2Which one? The only one.
What translation? The King James Translation
What version? See above.
The omitted books as well? No. They were omitted for a reason: authorship could not be verified and niether could they be dated.
The reader to go along with it? Huh?
If so, which denomination's? The bible doesnt change with denominations. But you know that Mr. Dawkinsian Extremist.- thugok, on 12/17/2007, -1/+27Please don't breed.
- offspring06, on 12/17/2007, -6/+10The Bible is a book of fairy tales.
- souljaboytellem, on 12/17/2007, -0/+9So no other "Bible" besides yours eh, guess the jews and muslims will be pissed
- bot001220, on 12/17/2007, -1/+7Speaking of Jews, which book, the Torah, Zohar or the Talmud; you know, the one which says Jesus is currently in hell drowning in "boiling hot semen"?
With Muslims at least they realized that people would change the meaning of the stories (yes, holy books are no more than old stories) in the future as language changed; hence the reason why Arabic hasn't changed much over the centuries, as opposed to all the other languages but I digress -- religion is like any drug, too much of it is bad for you.
- xsuite, on 12/17/2007, -31/+2Which one? The only one.
- weeeezzll, on 12/17/2007, -2/+14If you think that the apocalypse is a happy ending then perhaps YOU should read the Bible. Even for "good" Christians who are taken up to heaven to be with God, they will be leaving behind hundreds of friends and family. Good times!
- mushoo, on 12/17/2007, -3/+27Which one?
- abbott75, on 12/17/2007, -8/+7"And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore. The former things have passed away."
Yeah, sounds horrible!- weeeezzll, on 12/17/2007, -2/+14I don't think that that applies to the large majority of the people on earth who WON'T be going to heaven. They will in fact, be getting the exact opposite which is eternal "weeping and gnashing of teeth." and “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” and “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night”.
We're gonna party like its fo-our ninty-nine!!!!- abbott75, on 12/18/2007, -2/+1I know nobody is ever going to read this, but I feel the need to comment anyway.
The vast majority of people who don't go to heaven (the "a great crowd, which no man was able to number" Rev 7:9) will not go to hell but, provided they follow the word of God will reside upon the earth, enjoying eternal life ("those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth" Psalm 37:9, "The righteous themselves will possess the earth, And they will reside forever upon it" Psalm 37:29).
Revelation 19:20 provides information on who will be thrown into the fire "And the wild beast (that is, Satan) was caught, and along with it the false prophet (that is, religious leaders who preach false messages) that performed in front of it the signs with which he misled those who received the mark of the wild beast and those who render worship to its image (that is, people who follow false religion, including atheists who worship things such as money). While still alive, they both were hurled into the fiery lake that burns with sulphur."
I hope that has explained it for you. I think the reason many people choose not to follow the Bible is that is has been distorted so much over the years that the common beliefs held are actually false. Most bad things people think when the Bible is mentioned are actually human inventions, not part of the Bible.
- abbott75, on 12/18/2007, -2/+1I know nobody is ever going to read this, but I feel the need to comment anyway.
- buckrogers1965, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1The "death will be no more" part is because the earth is destroyed and everyone and everything is dead. The dead don't mourn, cry, or feel pain.
- weeeezzll, on 12/17/2007, -2/+14I don't think that that applies to the large majority of the people on earth who WON'T be going to heaven. They will in fact, be getting the exact opposite which is eternal "weeping and gnashing of teeth." and “where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched” and “the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day and night”.
- doctorfungi, on 12/17/2007, -14/+10Perhaps you should read the bible before you comment on it.
- xlar54, on 12/17/2007, -2/+81If Im not mistaken, disney bastardized the Hunchback of Notre Dame too. Not just the addition of silly characters, but the primary story itself. Ah well, they have to make cartoons "kid friendly". Sad thing tho, is that many kids think that these films ARE the actual stories.
- simonpainter, on 12/17/2007, -2/+18"kid friendly" or "merchandising friendly"? The more cutsie and trademarkable characters you add in the more plush toys you can sell.
- christophelyon, on 12/17/2007, -0/+43That's true... In the original story by Victor Hugo, Esmeralda is sentenced to death and hung. Then, Quasimodo takes her body to an underbasement and stays there with her until he dies. Their remains are found years later, so entangled that they fell in dust when people try to separate the two skeletons.
- gnick, on 12/17/2007, -7/+17IIRC, Esmeralda was hanged. If she was hung, that's a very different twist that Disney omitted.
- christophelyon, on 12/17/2007, -2/+3Sorry, my English is not that good after all ;)
- gnick, on 12/17/2007, -0/+8As far as I'm concerned, just communicating successfully is all that matters - Which you did well. I just wanted to make a joke.
- emalen, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4Apparently no one on digg understands grammar-related humor.
- christophelyon, on 12/17/2007, -2/+3Sorry, my English is not that good after all ;)
- JustinCase18, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3Don't forget that they took one of the villains from the original story and made him her love interest hero.
- gnick, on 12/17/2007, -7/+17IIRC, Esmeralda was hanged. If she was hung, that's a very different twist that Disney omitted.
- DharmaTurtle, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3Niiiice, let's see Disney sell that to the American populace. They did get away with hanging people and skeletons in Pirates of the Caribbean.
- MillionsLivio, on 12/17/2007, -2/+48Alice in Wonderland was also changed by Disney. The original creator was a bit odd to say the least, Marilyn Manson is actually making a movie based off of him.
- Anub1s, on 12/17/2007, -1/+12Personally I can't wait for the rendition of American McGee's Alice to be made. Supposed to have Sarah Michelle Gellar in it. Might suck, but still... Slated for next year baby!
- edwartica, on 12/17/2007, -2/+8Sarah Michelle Gellar and suck in the same comment.
'Scuse me, I gotta go find somewhere private. FAST!
- edwartica, on 12/17/2007, -2/+8Sarah Michelle Gellar and suck in the same comment.
- Albionshores, on 12/17/2007, -1/+15Lewis Carroll was a genius though.
- MillionsLivio, on 12/17/2007, -1/+3Indeed he was.
- xsuite, on 12/17/2007, -2/+3What is he now, pray tell?
- Anub1s, on 12/17/2007, -0/+22Dead.
- xsuite, on 12/17/2007, -2/+3What is he now, pray tell?
- Varney, on 12/17/2007, -4/+1He was also purportedly a pedophile.
- homerang, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3Purportedly, so is Micheal Jackson, but it doesn't make me dance to "Thriller" any less.
- Albionshores, on 12/18/2007, -0/+3A make-a-buck author wrote that about him on the single premise that in the Dodgson (Carroll) diaries and letters that we have he refers to no personal lady-friends and died unmarried.
However, as his survivors argue, there is evidence during his time that there was quite a bit of a scandal around Dodgson concerning the amount of female company he kept, unmarried company - which at the time was frowned upon and damaged reputations.
His diaries do bare the marks of having endured censorship but at who's hands one can only surmise. By the evidence that shows itself, Lewis Carroll had his reputation and his estate defended by others after his death. The accusation being that he liked the ladies with an emphasis on the plural - not something condoned in Victorian times. Carroll was a player!
- MillionsLivio, on 12/17/2007, -1/+3Indeed he was.
- stillasleep00, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4So is Tim Burton- it's trendy these days
- Anub1s, on 12/17/2007, -1/+12Personally I can't wait for the rendition of American McGee's Alice to be made. Supposed to have Sarah Michelle Gellar in it. Might suck, but still... Slated for next year baby!
- badassninja, on 12/17/2007, -8/+28I have always HATED the little mermaid.
So hearing the real story made me jump up and down like I was going ape *****.- cannarymburns, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5yep, I actually remember reading the actual story when I was a kid, and was like this is so much better than the movie... The other fairytales are actually better in their disney form cause their true ones are sorta creepy, but the little mermaid was just molested by disney, andersen is turning in his grave...
- Lythium, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3I saw "Swan Lake" a couple of years ago - the same ballet I had seen as a kid, except that Odette and the prince live happily ever after instead of drowning themselves. Way to ruin a perfectly good tragedy.
- DharmaTurtle, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1Hrm, what did you want to see then? A girl committing bloody suicide with some sharp shells? What kinda movie do you want Disney to release?
- cannarymburns, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1she didn't commit bloody suicide, she dissolved in the sea... mufasa dies in the lion king, kids can take tragedy, and the little mermaid is not supposed to be a soapy feel good story. I was 8 years old when I read andersen's version, I didn't become a psychotic serial killer or whatever disney believes will happen to you if you are exposed to reality in that not everything ends well...
- NSMike, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2There was a live-action version that was made many years ago... Not really a movie, though. It cut out the walking-on-knives bit, as well as the prince marrying someone else, but she still ended up as sea foam. I happened to see it before the Disney version, so I was a bit surprised by the unexpected happy ending.
- lbeaty1981, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4From what I remember from the original story, isn't the little mermaid's soul currently trapped in some state of limbo as well? She can only make it into heaven if enough little children are respectful to their parents and go to bed quietly.
- badassninja, on 12/18/2007, -0/+1Wow... that's a hell of a lot better then the whole santa trick.
- DharmaTurtle, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Well, judging from your username, you're a man's man MAN. Well, as much as you can be while reading Digg. Of course you're not going to like a movie about mermaids, what did you expect going into it? Naval warfare?
Disclaimer: I liked the little mermaid; look at my my icon. But I'm a guy... so does that make me nonmanly man? *****.- badassninja, on 12/18/2007, -0/+1LOL XD
- cannarymburns, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5yep, I actually remember reading the actual story when I was a kid, and was like this is so much better than the movie... The other fairytales are actually better in their disney form cause their true ones are sorta creepy, but the little mermaid was just molested by disney, andersen is turning in his grave...
- DanteDefiance, on 12/17/2007, -0/+94"The Lost Children:
What It’s Like: Hansel & Gretel meets Saw 2"
.....we need this.- Trax91, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2James Wan & Leigh Whannell are on the case.
- weeeezzll, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4I'd love to see Disney turn that one into a marketable fluffy cuddly story...lol
- epistemological, on 12/17/2007, -0/+8As a child Baba Yaga scared the crap out of me.
- singu, on 12/17/2007, -2/+4Baba Yaga FTW !!!
- Cornloaf, on 12/17/2007, -2/+3Isn't Baba Yaga the old witch that rode around in a garbage can with chicken legs? Or are you talking about the all-female DEATH METAL band that hailed from Seattle?
- mikepictor, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5Baba Yaga was actually a recurring character in russian folklore. There are a lot of fairy tales that use her. Most shared common characteristics, but there were variations as well.
She actually wasn't evil per se, and she sometimes helped the hero of the story.- Lythium, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4Yep, just a darker twist on the "guide" archetype - if you prove yourself to be worthy of her help (i.e., if you're respectful and clever), you have nothing to fear. The repercussions for failure are just a bit more extreme.
- icianom, on 12/17/2007, -1/+98I always thought Cinderella's 'glass slipper' was a metaphor for her virginity. She lost in on a flight of stairs, real classy.
- davidrools, on 12/17/2007, -0/+41Interesting. In another "original" version, the stepsisters chop off some of their toes in order to fit into the glass slipper. Then the prince takes the first sister but the birds tell him to look at the blood oozing out of the slipper. Second stepsister does the same thing. Both of them get their eyes pecked out by the birds, then Cinderella gets the happy ending.
- pilot3033, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Not sure about originals, but this is what happens to the Cinderella character in the musical "Into the Woods."
- ell0bo, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2It's Aschenputtel http://stenzel.ucdavis.edu/180/anthology/aschenput ... . It's technically Cinderella I guess, but a different version I surmise I always considered them different stories, but with the same person's name.
- DharmaTurtle, on 12/17/2007, -2/+14Not sure if I follow your metaphor. She lost her virginity on some stairs sure.
But she lost her virginity while running away from a prince? Before midnight? In the middle of a royal ball? Only to have virginity restored to her about a week later? In front of her stepmother and two stepsisters? WTF???
Methinks you just like thinking about sex. - MikeOSX, on 12/17/2007, -1/+11In the French version of the Cinderella story, it is a fur slipper that was left behind. This element was often found to be a sexual innuendo. Only Cinderella's "fur slipper" fit right.
- magicaltrevor, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Plus, the reason it's a glass slipper in the English version is down to a mistranslation from the original.
- davidrools, on 12/17/2007, -0/+41Interesting. In another "original" version, the stepsisters chop off some of their toes in order to fit into the glass slipper. Then the prince takes the first sister but the birds tell him to look at the blood oozing out of the slipper. Second stepsister does the same thing. Both of them get their eyes pecked out by the birds, then Cinderella gets the happy ending.
- benroy, on 12/17/2007, -2/+9So I guess the "Pied Piper of Hamelin" was about Whores, Fleeing Criminals and Sex Offenders seeking a better life in the new world.
If so..they made it...here.- daRoach, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4Australia.
- titopuente, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4I thought that that story was based on the Children's Crusade. It seems like "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" was really the only good thing that came of that, with most of the kids either dying at sea or being sold into slavery.
- davidrools, on 12/17/2007, -0/+45I took a children's literature class back in college (good place to meet ladies, btw) and we talked about a lot of these. The true origins of these stories were all in oral traditions, and there were often several "original" written versions based on different adaptations of the oral tradition. So as much as I'm not a fan of the disney empire, they really just continued the tradition of modifying stories to suit their audiences.
- NSMike, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5I took a young adult lit class where I went to college. Holy Crap. There were 2 other guys in a class of 30.
- eroel462, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3yea, but that doesn't mean that some versions don't suck.
- joegibes, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2The Brüder Grimm wrote a few... I've read some in the original German.
- Pikachelsea, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2Haha. I was the only girl in the discrete math class I took for my computer science major in college. Good times.
- peterinjapan, on 12/17/2007, -1/+48Speaking of Lost Children, Peter Pan is a great read. Peter as to keep going to London to get more Lost Boys because the old ones keep being killed by pirates. Hilarious.
- edwartica, on 12/17/2007, -1/+10And of course, the seven dwarves are not so kind to Snow White either. She gets her revenge though - basically slaughters the whole lot of them.
- Albionshores, on 12/17/2007, -0/+32Traditionally Pinocchio was a little horror shop on the face of it. The original story was only the first half of the story as it is today. Pinocchio is grabbed by bandits, lynched from a tree and left to die. He can't die and so is left hanging where he is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinocchio#Original_st ... - TheSesom, on 12/17/2007, -9/+1How do iron shoes kill you? Thats just lame.
- LordVance, on 12/17/2007, -0/+17I think the heated iron shoes have more to do with the torture side, and the dancing for days with no food or water has more to do with the death side.
- netdroid9, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5Maybe her blood heated up and gave her a heart attack..? Failing that, I doubt many people could last very long dancing non-stop, you do kind of need to eat/sleep/drink/etc.
- teaBagger, on 12/17/2007, -2/+10Last I heard - Cinderella, Snow White, and the Little Mermaid were working for "The Lady in Red" escort agency.
Cindy in Bondage, Snow White as a Double Act, and the Little Mermaid as Fetish... - Heracles, on 12/17/2007, -0/+29Or what about Little Red Riding Hood? The wolf convinces her to eat some flesh and blood of the grandmother, then has her taking of her clothes and getting in bed with him (Charles Perrault, 1697).
- Sagara, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3THANK YOU for the reference :)
- funknjunk, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Perrault
check out the see also
- LastSight, on 12/17/2007, -1/+3well...*****
- chrisinsocalif, on 12/17/2007, -2/+2She quoted the "Ricky Lake Show" what era is this girls mind in?
- Chesbro, on 12/17/2007, -0/+6Wow. Someone should make a new (not cartoon) version of The Little Mermaid. Like Tim Burton maybe. Ariel dissolving into water?! I'd watch that.
- charlietuna, on 12/17/2007, -0/+9Don't forget that back in the "good old days" public execution was a spectator sport.
- richpav, on 12/17/2007, -0/+6Here's some trivia for you. Originally Cinderella wore squirrel fur slippers. Somewhere there was a mistake in translation and they've been made of glass ever since.
http://www.trivia-library.com/b/cinderella-did-not ... - safecracker, on 12/17/2007, -3/+0people are still in love with cinderella because most love stories now are based on cinderella...
- charlietuna, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Even simpler: Cinderellla's hot, that's why.
- dippindots, on 12/17/2007, -0/+17I wished the author would cite her sources.
- Sagara, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2ME TOO! and she could've included some original illustrations too....
- Lythium, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Original illustrations to the oral storytelling tradition? O.o
- irinotecan, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Original Illustrations or it didn't happen.
*rimshot*
- Sagara, on 12/17/2007, -1/+2ME TOO! and she could've included some original illustrations too....
- souljaboytellem, on 12/17/2007, -1/+10The best one is where SLeeping Beauty was raped during sleep, lol @ Disney
- databoy, on 12/17/2007, -5/+9The romance love portrayed by Hollywood is another of the fairytale fables. The origins of romantic love was an invention of medieval Islam. The French Troubadours imported the theme to medieval Europe and the rest they say is history.
In the original romantic love myth, a fair lady is promised to a King in marriage. The White Knight responsible for the safe escort of the fair maiden has sexual lust for her and eventually beds her. In other variations to the theme, the White Knight is the guardian of the King's wife. The pair engage in erotic fantasies which eventually turns into an illicit affair. When the King finds out they are both made outcasts and wander the wilderness to survive.
The Italians expanded the romantic love theme to seduce gullible virgins and bored housewives. In all the records written about romantic love; the game plan has been the same, it is a tool of wealthy nobility and aristocrats to bed someone else's woman, preferably breaking in a virgin before her wedding night.
Hollywood has expanded the theme so successfully that women believe romantic love is true. The reality is that romantic love has always been a male tool of lust and seduction without love.- Sagara, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2WOW. how do you explain the Kama Sutra and the seduction of men by women as a positive thing?
- mbthompson, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4And so the conclusion is that love is a choice, a form of commitment that is more a part of the will, as it would ever be of emotion. Very good observations and information databoy.
- AceLy, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1More like opinionboy.
- 7footjesus, on 12/17/2007, -0/+1I've believed this for years and am happy to hear that others do also, and even have historical evidence! That whole "L-word" ***** really pisses me off. True love is ridiculous.
- crazydiode, on 12/17/2007, -1/+1oxymororn mann ***** oxymoron.
- Emuu911, on 12/17/2007, -0/+16Back then people really didn't consider children the way we do today. Most females were considered grown and "marriageable" by the age of 13, and most men were grown by the age of 16. They grew up a lot faster because of the precariousness of their time (plagues, war, general shortness of life spans). So these fairy tales were a lot harsher in order to get the point across about behavior in the short time they were "children". Also a lot of the parents would not have seen the 'benefit' in shielding their children from reality. A child shielded was a child that might not grow up at all.
- offspring06, on 12/17/2007, -0/+13Now someone isn't even considered grown up at the age of 18.
- JustinCase18, on 12/18/2007, -0/+4Gee, I thought it was 37. That explains all those guys still living at home with their parents.
- skyfire1, on 12/17/2007, -0/+5There is no benefit from shielding your child. We have cartoons that show someone walking away from being bashed on the head with the hammer. How the hell is that supposed to teach anyone anything good?
- offspring06, on 12/17/2007, -0/+13Now someone isn't even considered grown up at the age of 18.
- vikki77, on 12/17/2007, -4/+0Still more proof of how much power Disney has; you don't mess with the Mouse.
- mbthompson, on 12/17/2007, -0/+6I'm surprised they didn't reference Pinocchio. He squashes Jimminy Crickett under foot!
- andyakadum, on 12/17/2007, -2/+1pwned
- Yamahaha, on 12/17/2007, -2/+2Apparently Cinderella was a real dirt bag. The first part of her name Cinder was meant to describe the stuff that comes out of a fire place. She was probably covered with soot and ash. Got that from Joseph Campbell.
- joegibes, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Aschenputtel was her name from the Brüder Grimm version. She had to sleep in the ashes in front of the fireplace.
- serenityex, on 12/17/2007, -1/+12Actually... that's not how The Little Mermaid ends. I noticed too how the site doesn't provide any citations, and the author's flippant, "oh yeah, she turns into sea foam" is proof that this was probably written only as an exercise in smart-assery. I can't vouch for the other endings, but if I can spot one flagrant mistake, then the site is bull for all I care. (Real ending of Mermaid: Yes, she jumps off the boat, but before she can turn into foam, she transforms into an angel and is given the chance to achieve immortality, which is what she wanted all along, not the prince. My citation? I own the book of Hans Christian Anderson's works.)
- yoavoy, on 12/17/2007, -1/+4But the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the sleeping prince lying with his bride and, as dawn breaks, throws herself into the sea. Here her body dissolves into sea foam, but instead of ceasing to exist, she feels the warmth of the sun; she has turned into a spirit, a daughter of the air. The other daughters of the air tell her that she has become like them because she strove with all her heart to gain an eternal soul. As a mermaid her gaining of a soul was dependent on another: the prince; but as a daughter of the air she will earn her own soul by doing good deeds. When 300 years have passed she will have earned her soul and will rise into the kingdom of God. This time can be shortened; with each good child she finds she subtracts a year, while she adds a day for each tear she must shed over a wicked child.
(from wikipedia... not the best source..): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_little_mermaid#De ... - MagicToenail, on 12/17/2007, -0/+11"No, Jenny, Sleeping Beauty was actually raped in her sleep and then she and her kids were murdered."
No ***** they change them - dslartoo, on 12/17/2007, -0/+4I quite like Neil Gaiman's retelling of the Sleeping Beauty legend: "Snow, Glass, Apples". Told from the "wicked" stepmother's point of view. The young girl is a horrible vampiric thing who drains her father repeatedly until finally he dies, and also preys upon other animals and people. When the stepmother uses the apple on her, she is "rescued" by the handsome prince....who has a thing for dead women and buys the "corpse" from the dwarves because he wants to have sex with it. Then both of them team up to take out Stepmother. Lovely stuff, really. :)
- ispellkonfusion, on 12/17/2007, -0/+8I always found it interesting that Ariel had to lose her voice and spread her legs in order to catch her dream man.
- fridaporvida, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3'it's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!'
ursula's poor unfortunate souls is the best thing about the disney interpretation.
in the hans christian anderson story the mermaid's tongue is cut off...along with the walking on knives part of the spell.
- fridaporvida, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3'it's she who holds her tongue who gets her man!'
- lisaawesome, on 12/17/2007, -3/+3I remember reading the original version of The Little Mermaid as a child and crying for a couple hours. It made me so sad.
- rlvis, on 12/17/2007, -1/+4Even worse is the 'ending after the ending' where you end up in the Disney ***** store with your kids wanting every over priced piece of plastic ***** crap.
- OfficeSpacing, on 12/17/2007, -6/+2Actually I prefer the Disney versions of all of those, the originals are some seriously disturbed *****.
- ladyarcher85, on 12/17/2007, -1/+7Best way to kill the "princess" mentality, let them read and read the original stories.
- iRaachie, on 12/17/2007, -0/+3Pinocchio seemed harmless to me... Then they made the live action movie starring Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Ever since then, Pinocchio freaks me out.
- VirginiaWoolfe, on 12/17/2007, -1/+4Pan's Labyrinth remains the greatest fairy tale of all time. And the saddest.
- mocharabbit, on 12/17/2007, -0/+2Makes me wonder...why did people stop being so delightfully hardcore?
- MsGo, on 12/18/2007, -0/+2How could they forget Rapunzel? Her prince gets blinded by thorns in the eyes.
- UlicBelouve, on 12/18/2007, -0/+1I remember this one, from "The Black Bride and the White Bride"
"She deserves to be stripped naked, and put into a barrel with nails, and that a horse should be harnessed to the barrel, and the horse sent all over the world." All of which was done to her, and to her black daughter. But the King married the white and beautiful bride....
That's racism on a whole new, and repulsive, level. Even when I read this 20 years ago, I was greatly confused. - blatantninja, on 12/18/2007, -0/+1I'm pretty sure in the original version of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast gets tired of Belle's crap and just eats her. At least that's what I was hoping when my girlfriend made me sit through it over 10 times!
- esc27, on 12/18/2007, -0/+1I have to wonder if some of those were not altered to amuse that site's audience. At least the translation of the Bros. Grimm's fairy tales (which claims accuracy) I'm reading off and on now, is much milder in its take on Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. In the later's case, she awoke, not because of the kiss or twins, but just good timing, as the 100 year curse ended at that exact moment.
- buckrogers1965, on 12/19/2007, -0/+1One of my favorite fairy tales is from the movie "Major Payne"
He is telling the little kid a story about the little train that could and then has a flashback about his buddy losing his legs and killing a whole squad of VC to revenge his buddy.
Later in the movie he gets the kid to man up by threatening to tell him the story again.
Chooooooo Choooooooooo! - DarkDays, on 12/20/2007, -0/+1"...but Penta is so beautiful that his jealous wife has her thrown back out to sea."
I found that hilarious...
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