Top 10 Kids Movies Based on Terrible Stories
Disney and Hollywood have given us precious endings in each of those children’s movies we can remember; however, many of them hide terrible stories in their original book version, with crude morals about life. In this top 10 we leave some of these stories, which in their original version would have caused nightmares, but after passing through the Hollywood filter, they have become the favorite movies to millions of children. Surely from now on you will see your favorite characters differently!
10. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
The film is based on the German fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. In this Disney’s version, Snow White falls into a deep sleep by eating the poisoned apple, from which she is awakened by a kiss from her prince. At the end, they live happily ever after.
In the original book, Snow White’s stepmother attempts to murder her three times, succeeding on the third, with the famous poisoned apple. The Dwarfs realize that there is nothing they can do and decide to bury her in a crystal coffin.
The weird part of the story is the end, when a prince finds the body and falls in love with it. He decides to take it with him and contemplates it for the rest of his life.
The galloping of the horse causes the piece of apple that killed Snow White, to leave her throat, she awakenes, and finally, she and the prince gets married. At the wedding, they force the queen to dance in heated iron shoes until she faints and dies.
9. Little Red Riding Hood, The Big Bad Wolf (1934)
The real story is a European fairy tale about a young girl and a big bad wolf. It’s based on several European folk tales, but the most known versions were written by Charles Perrault and Brothers Grimm.
The earliest known printed version (1967) is by Charles Perrault. This is as simple as devastating. The wolf gives false indications to Little Red Riding Hood, who is lost and ends up being devoured by the animal. End.
In 1812, the brothers Grimm wrote a new version that was more innocent than the previous and with a happy ending – which is the one we know today. Before the wolf eats Little Red Riding Hood, she screams and a woodcutter rescues her. Then, kills the wolf, opens his tummy and pulls out the grandmother, miraculously alive.
8. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
The real story is a fairy tale based on folk tales. The earliest known version is “Talia, Sun and Moon”, one of the most terrible stories by the Italian writer Giambattista Basile (1634). But the most popular version known is the version collected by Brothers Grimm.
In Disney’s version, Aurora pricks her finger on a thorn and falls into a deep sleep, from which she is awakened by a kiss from Prince Charming and they live happily ever after.
In the original version, Talia (Aurora) is abandoned in the castle when considered dead. The prince finds her and lost in her beauty and decides to rape her and leave. Nine months later, still asleep, Talia gives birth to two twins: Sun and Moon. Finally, she wakes up when one of the babies sucks the poisoned finger and subtracts the poison from it.
7. The Fox and the Hound (1981)
The film is based on the novel written by Daniel P. Mannix (1967). This cute Disney’s version tells the story of an impossible friendship between a red fox and a hunting dog, who in the end gets to be friends forever.
In the original version, the hunting dog is furious at the accidental death of another dog and thinks that it is the fault of his old friend, the fox.
The hunter finds the fox’s lair and kills the “fox’s wife” and his children. The fox flees and the dog pursues him, until he falls dead from exhaustion. But later, the hunter kills his own dog with his shotgun and is interned in an asylum.
6. Cinderella (1950)
The movie is based on the fairy tale written by Charles Perrault. Unlike the Disney’s version, the real story is bloody. In it, Cinderella’s stepsisters cut off their toes so they can use Cinderella’s slippers and fool the prince; then, one of them will marry him. However, the plan doesn’t work and finally the prince and Cinderella live happily ever after.
During the wedding, two birds begin to peck at the sisters’ eyes, leaving them blind and begging in the streets while Cinderella lives with the prince in the castle.
5. Pinocchio (1940)
The movie is based on the Italian children’s novel “The Adventures of Pinocchio” by Carlo Collodi. In the original version, Pinocchio is a child that behaves badly. Even Jiminy Cricket advises Pinocchio to stop doing mischief, and he crushes the cricket with a hammer. But one day Pinocchio hurts a cat, and the animals takes revenge by hanging the Pinocchio in a tree until he dies.
In a second version, Collodi changed the story including the celebrated ending in which Pinocchio becomes a child. That is the version presented by Disney.
4. The little mermaid (1989)
The movie is a fantasy film based on the fairy tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen. In the Disney’s version, Ariel achieves her dream of having legs thanks to her father, and marries Prince Eric.
In the original version, the Little Mermaid get legs thanks to the witch. But she warns her that she will no longer have a soul and that she can never return to the sea or will become foam, unless she marries the prince. But Eric marries another woman, so the witch sends Ariel a knife to kill the prince and thus to break the spell. Then, she decides to throw herself to the sea leaving nothing but a foam.
3. The hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
The movie is a drama film based on Victor Hugo’s novel of the same name. In the original version, Frollo the villain kills the captain Phoebus, of whom the gypsy Esmeralda is in love. She is accused of the crime and is taken to the gallows, from which Frollo rescues her, on the condition that she’ll give him her love. Esmeralda rejects him, so Frollo brings her back to the gallows and the hunchback Quasimodo, furious and in love, throws Frollo from the top of the cathedral.
Stunned by the death of Esmeralda, Quasimodo goes to his grave and hugs her body until he dies of hunger beside her.
2. Mulan (1998)
It’s a movie based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan: a legendary woman warrior from the Southern and Northern Dynasties period (420–589) of Chinese history, who was originally described in a ballad known as the Ballad of Mulan.
In Disney’s version, Mulan wins the war and returns home getting the pride of his entire family. But in the original version, China loses the war, and when Mulan arrives home, she finds that her mother has remarried. Finally, she kills herself to be with her father.
1. Anastasia (1997)
This movie maybe hides one of the most terrible stories of all. It was produced by 20th Century Fox Animation and t’s based on the legend of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, in which she is believed to have escaped the murder of her family. But the real story is even more cruel and dark.
Anastasia was the youngest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II, the last emperor of Imperial Russia. He had 3 sisters: Olga, Tatiana and Maria, and she was also the older sister of Alexis.
Alexis suffered hemophilia attacks and hi illness made him close to dying on repeated occasions; this drove the royal family to rely on the care of Grigori Rasputin. He was a Russian peasant who was reputed to be a holy man and to be the only one who could heal the child. But Rasputin began to have excessive power, and the family tolerated him only because he was the only one that could cure the heir to the throne.
In February 1917 the Bolshevik revolution broke out. The royal family was taken as prisoner and, as documented, was killed by a firing squad of the secret police on July 17, 1918.
The legend on which the movie is based, says that Anastasia survived the Russian Revolution. But, in 1991 the remains of the royal family were found in a common grave and the only missing bodies were those of Anastasia and Alexis. That increased the rumors that it could have effectively escaped the execution.
On August 23. 2007, the remains of two bodies were discovered. DNA tests later confirmed that they belonged to the bodies of Alexis and Anastasia. This proved conclusively that all family members, including Anastasia, died in 1918.
