9 Disturbing Origin Stories Behind Famous Disney Characters

8. Pinocchio Kills Jiminy Cricket And Bites A Cat

First appearing in the Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio, in modern society the mischievous little marionette commonly represents one simple moral: Always tell the truth. But the Disney-fied version leaves out a few minor details in the way to Pinocchio becoming a real, live boy. Namely, that Pinocchio is a disobedient dick bag with zero redeeming qualities. For instance, in the original story, Pinocchio runs away immediately after acquiring the ability to walk without the assistance of his puppeteer, Geppetto. Why? When Geppetto finds him, he has no appendages. He's just a talking block of wood doomed to a life of...whatever it is a talking block of wood does. (...Lay idle?) The police who find Pinocchio suspect he had "escaped" his abuser, who they figure had been holding the not-quite-real boy hostage and doing some very unsavory things to him. So they toss Geppetto's ass in prison. Upon returning home from his adventure, without a thought about what happened to the guy who f*cking gave him a life, Pinocchio "accidentally" kills the original story's equivalent to Jiminy Cricket, who is supposed to act as Pinocchio's conscience. See? Total dick bag. And then there's some stuff about Pinocchio biting off a cat's paw, burning off his own feet on the stove, and dying two separate, but equally gruesome, deaths (suffocation and hanging). So yeah, it's a little more messed up than being turned into a donkey by a fairy.