The original versions of childhood films like Sleeping Beauty and The Little Mermaid replace cute animal sidekicks and happily ever afters with bloodshed and betrayal.
Public DomainMany of the most beloved Disney films have much darker origin stories — like when Pinocchio kills Jiminy Cricket with a hammer.
Disney is an industry built on magic, talking animals, and happily ever afters. The company’s films have been enchanting children for generations — but the dark stories behind them are more likely to cause nightmares than delight.
When the first full-length animated Disney movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, was released in 1937, families around the world flocked to theaters to see the colorful adaptation of the original Brothers Grimm tale. Luckily for the children, Disney cut out the grisly scenes of death in childbirth and the evil queen dancing to her demise in shoes made of red-hot iron.
Many other Disney films have equally horrific origin stories. The 19th-century book The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet features the beloved title character hanging from a noose. And in one early version of Cinderella, the ugly stepsisters cut off their toes in an attempt to shove them into the glass slipper.
Below, read about the grisly sources behind seven dark Disney stories.
The Original Tale Of Pinocchio Was Much More Grim Than Its Adaptation
Public DomainIn Carlo Collodi’s original version of Pinocchio, the young puppet is hanged.
For children today, Pinocchio is nothing more than a sweet young puppet. The 1940 Disney movie follows his adventures with his friend and advisor, Jiminy Cricket, and the silly hijinks he gets into on his quest to become a real boy.
But the Italian author who first created the character, Carlo Collodi, wrote the story as a cautionary tale of the severe consequences of misbehavior. It was published in serial form in the early 1880s before the full book, The Adventures of Pinocchio: The Story of a Puppet, was released in 1883.
Collodi’s Pinocchio was cruel and mischievous. In the opening pages, the puppet runs away and is caught by the police, who imprison Geppetto for suspected child abuse.
The character of Jiminy Cricket, referred to only as the “Talking Cricket” in the book, is killed early on when Pinocchio throws a hammer at him. His ghost accompanies the puppet through the rest of the story.
In one particularly grisly scene, Pinocchio’s enemies, the Fox and the Cat, hang him from a tree and leave him to die. As Collodi writes in his novel:
“A few minutes went by and then a wild wind started to blow. As it shrieked and moaned, the poor little sufferer was blown to and fro like the hammer of a bell. The rocking made him seasick and the noose, becoming tighter and tighter, choked him. Little by little a film covered his eyes.
Death was creeping nearer and nearer, and the Marionette still hoped for some good soul to come to his rescue, but no one appeared… He closed his eyes, opened his mouth, stretched out his legs, and hung there, as if he were dead.”
Collodi reportedly intended for this scene to be the end of Pinocchio’s story. But after public outcry, he relented and continued his tale, which was eventually adapted into a Disney film. Like the movie, Collodi’s book ends with the puppet transforming into a human child and living happily ever after. But the dark Disney story was certainly sanitized for the big screen.
