10 Disney Films With Shockingly Dark Source Material
8. Sleeping Beauty
Disney's Sleeping Beauty is a tale of true love overcoming any obstacle as the Prince's kiss breaks the curse put on a Princess by an evil witch and they all end up living happily ever after. Giambattista Basile's Sleeping Beauty, on the other hand, is a tale about a young princess abandoned by her father and, while unconscious, is taken advantage of by the Prince. Oh, and the Prince is actually married- and she isn't awoken by his kiss but by the birth of twins.
As if all of this wasn't bad enough, Sleeping Beauty is then forced to marry this hideous Prince at the end of the story. Not quite a tale about true love overcoming but in fact a tale where a known rapist is rewarded for his actions and the victim is punished for having simply been taken advantage of. Thankfully little of the original story managed to make it into their release. Though it makes you wonder who was reading Basile's version and thought, this could be a great story to tell kids...