This week for an assignment we had to create a poster for one of the ever so famous Disney fairy tales. The catch, however, was that the poster had to be designed based on the original fairy tales, written in the 1800s. Being familiar with the Disney versions of fairy tales like Snow White and Cinderella I thought hey, how different could Disney have strayed from the originals? Apparently Disney did QUITE a bit of watering down. Take a look at some of the original tales before they were made PG
Sleeping Beauty
What we think happened: We all know the tale of Sleeping Beauty. A princess pricks her finger on the spinning wheel and sleeps for one hundred years. It isn’t until a prince shows up and kisses her that she is awaken. They fall in love, they live happily ever after.
What really went down: According to the Grimm version it is the King who comes across Sleeping Beauty’s body. The king then rapes Sleeping Beauty and later she gives birth to two children, while still asleep. She is awaken up not by a kiss from a prince, but from one of the children sucking the flax off her finger, the flax being what has been keeping her asleep all these years. Sleeping Beauty wakes up to find herself raped and the mother of two children. Not exactly how I would want to wake up after being asleep for one hundred years. But, not to worry, the queen soon finds out about Sleeping Beauty and the two children and eats the children. Yum.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
What we think happened: In this heartwarming tale an innocent little girl stumbles upon the home of three bears. After eating their dinner and finding a bed to relax in, she drifts off to sleep. She shortly awakens to find the bears home, standing over her. Frightened, she escapes out the window. Aw, cute, but also watered down.
What really went down: There are a few different versions of Goldilocks, all more gruesome than the original tale we are accustom to. In one early version the bears arrive home and find Goldilocks asleep in their beds, right as she wakes up they shred her to bits and eat her. In another version Goldilocks in actually an old, ugly woman. In this version she jumps out a window and breaks her neck from the fall down—not a very happily ever after.
Snow White
What we think happened: Another familiar tale of a princess. After the death of Snow White’s mother the King remarries. He remarries a woman who becomes more and more spiteful of Snow White each day. After her magic mirror one day tells her that it is Snow White who is the fairest, the Queen snaps. She orders a Huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. The man couldn’t do it however and instead encourages Snow White to flee into the woods. She eats a poison apple from the Queen, she falls into a deep sleep, Queen dies shortly after, the Prince kisses her, she wakes up and there's a happily ever after.
What really went down: In the 1812 Grimm version the Queen, first of all, was Snow White’s actual mother, not her stepmother. In the tale we all know and love it was never mentioned that the Queen had sent the Huntsman to return with Snow White’s lungs and liver which, she intended on eating. And of course in the Disney version it would not be mentioned that Snow White was not in a deep sleep when the Prince discovers her body. In the original tale, also from the Grimm version, she’s dead, and he’s carting off her dead body to play with. It wasn’t until one of the servants trips and dislodges the apple for her throat that she is brought back to life. The Queen’s death, is much more dramatic. At SW’s wedding she is forced to wear hot iron shoes and dance to death.
Rapunzel
What we think happened: Once upon a time a King and Queen had a baby. The princess was beautiful with hair of gold. Little did they know, her hair contained healing powers. An ugly, evil, witch knew of the babies powers and kidnapped her, placing her in a tower. Locked in the tower the princess never knew that she, in fact, was a princess. One day the Prince road on by and heard her singing from the tower. He often went back and noticed when the old witch wanted to enter the tower she would chant, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel let down your hair”. The witch finds out, cuts her hair, banishes her, the Prince once again finds her, happily ever after.
What actually went down: Well in the Grimm version Rapunzel is letting down her hair a little too often to the Prince. She becomes pregnant with twins. When the old hag finds out she is, of course, furious. She chops off Rapunzel’s golden magical locks and magically transports her to a land far far away. Rapunzel becomes a beggar with two extra mouths to feed. And as for the Prince, the witch lures him up to the tower. Once in the tower the witch pushes him back out leaving a thorn bush, to break his fall.
