3. Cinderella (1950)
Cinderella is a 1950 animated film by Walt Disney based on a legend that has existed in many cultures throughout the centuries. Cinderella is the story of a young girl whose widowed father remarries in order to give his child a mother's care. The step-mother is, of course, evil and after Cinderella's father dies she heaps abuse on the poor girl. Meanwhile, the local prince needs a wife and so arranges a ball for all of the eligible women in the kingdom. Cinderella, after having her gown destroyed by her step-family, attends the ball with the help of her Fairy Godmother. Naturally, she wins the heart of the prince but must race home at midnight lest her beautiful gown and coach expend their magic and disappear. In her flight from the castle, Cinderella drops a glass slipper. The ensuing hunt for the owner of the glass slipper eventually leads to Cinderella. The prince and Cinderella live happily ever after.
Dark Inspirations? "Cinderella" is a story by Charles Perrault that combines and expands on the many elements of the Cinderella story from history. While most cultures have a story of a child abused by her step-sisters or step-brothers who somehow is rewarded with great wealth, Perrault was the first to add the aspect of a pumpkin becoming a coach and a slipper made of glass. It is from this mostly innocent story that Disney makes its film Cinderella. However, the legends of Cinderella are not as sweet and simple as told by Perrault.
In the 19th century, the Brothers Grimm recorded the tale of Aschenputtel, which is a much darker version of the tale. In the Brothers Grimm version, Cinderella is abused not only by her step-mother and step-sisters, but by her father as well. Sitting at her mother's death bed, Aschenputtel (literally, "Cinder-fool") had promised her mother she would remain kind and gentle. After his wife dies, the father marries a woman with two beautiful but wicked daughters. Together they banish Cinderella to the kitchen to perform as their slave. Cinderella often cries and prays at her mother's grave, but continues to be kind and gentle. One day, the father visits a fair where Cinderella asks him for the first twig from a tree that knocks her father's hat off his head. He complies and gives her a hazel twig, which Cinderella plants at her mother's grave. It grows to a large and beautiful hazel tree and each day a white dove arrives at the tree and gives Cinderella anything she wishes. Meanwhile, the local king decides to throw a three-day festival so his son may choose a wife. Cinderella runs to her mother's grave and asks the dove for help. Each day, the dove gifts her with ever-more-impressive gowns and shoes - and each day the dove tells her to leave before midnight. On the third night of the festival, after having danced with Cinderella until midnight each of the first two nights, the prince lines the stairs with pitch so Cinderella cannot run away again. She escapes but loses one of her golden shoes in the pitch. The prince vows to marry any girl whose foot fits the delicate shoe. When the prince arrives at Cinderella's house, the evil step-sisters in turn chop off portions of their feet so the shoe will fit. The prince is at first fooled by each girl, but the dove advises the prince about their deceptions. Finally, Cinderella is allowed to try on the slipper and is identified as the girl the prince loves. At the wedding of Cinderella and the prince, doves swoop down from Heaven and peck out the eyes of the step-sisters as punishment for their evil ways. The inspiration for the movie Cinderella? We have a father who abuses his daughter, a dying mother with her child at her death bed, girls who mutilate their feet for the promise of wealth, and birds sent from God to peck out the eyes of two evil girls. Definitely dark, but not quite as dark as the next item on our list.