Nearly every Disney animated film is adapted in some form or another from a classic tale. Frequently they will stay true to the source material, but in order to make family friendly movies from grim tales, sometimes big changes are in order. These can be beneficial to the film and story, or sometimes just to tag on a cheap happy ending despite the effect it has upon the overall story; often they are solely to allow the potential of a sequel. No matter what the cause, a change is made. In some cases, it is just the endings that have changed. Take The Lion King, for example. It is an almost perfect recreation of Shakespeare's classic Hamlet. The only change being that the characters are part of the animal kingdom as opposed to human beings - except for one slight detail. At the end of Hamlet, everyone dies. Of course that would slightly impact the happy ending, and needless sequels, and was scrapped for the continuation of the circle of life. Other times the tale can get turned on its head. The Princess and The Frog was based upon the The Frog Princess novel, which was a big twist to the true source material. In the original Grimm tale, The Frog Prince, a spoilt princess reluctantly befriends a frog before discovering he is a cursed prince. In the film and novel the premise is twisted, when the princess goes to break the spell with a kiss, she finds herself turned into a frog also. With Disney's latest animated feature Frozen breaking records and the upcoming live-action Maleficent taking a look at the Sleeping Beauty story from the villains perspective, now seems like a natural time to reflect upon how Disney have strayed from the source material for some of their classics....
