10 Dark Storylines That Disney Movies Left Out
When you wish upon a star... cannibalism, torture and cricket-murder!
The Walt Disney Animation Studios produced its first animated feature-length film in 1937 with Snow White and the Seven Dwarves and has gone on to produce a total of fifty-seven other films to date. Many of these films got their inspiration from old folk stories or fairy tales. However, as the films were aimed at children, they needed to be family-friendly and a lot of the more controversial topics had to be toned down or in a lot of cases removed entirely.
The Brothers Grimm were responsible for collecting a lot of these stories in their fairy tale compendium released in 1812, and many of them were a lot gorier and acted as cautionary warnings used to frighten children into behaving.
Disney took the originality and timeless quality of them and dialled up the magic and filtered out most of the disturbing elements, leading to some iconic characters and films that have delighted generations of children.
However, these movies would not have existed were it not for their origin stories, so let’s look at some of the darker storylines that were removed from our favourite wholesome narratives.
10. Cinderella’s Ugly Sisters Cut Off Their Toes And Heels To Fit Into The Glass Slipper
There have been many versions of Cinderella with the European version originating in the 17th Century. The 1697 story by Charles Perrault was called The Little Glass Slipper and was the first to introduce elements to the story such as the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother and the glass slipper.
The most famous version of the story (or infamous) was by The Brothers Grimm. It was called Aschenputtel in German, or Cinderella in the English translations and included such details as Cinderella’s mother dying of a plague and her crying over her mother’s grave after being bullied by the ugly sisters.
Perhaps the most controversial detail to the Grimm story was when the ugly sisters found their feet were too big for the glass slipper. The wicked stepmother hands a knife to her daughters and advises one to cut off her toes and the other to cut off part of her heel in order to make it fit.
The Prince is only alerted to this when two doves point out that there is blood dripping from their feet. In an extra flourish to the finale, the doves proceed to peck out the eyes of the ugly sisters during the wedding of Cinderella and the Prince.