14 Disney Movie Facts That Are A Little Disturbing

Warning: This post mentions sexual assault, violence, death, murder, and human trafficking.

1. The original Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella is considerably darker and more terrifying than Disney’s. In the Grimm tale, the stepsisters of Cinderella actually cut off their toes to try to fit into the glass slipper. If that wasn’t bad enough, at the royal wedding between Cinderella and Prince Charming, they got their eyes pecked by pigeons.

2. The characters in Winnie the Pooh are theorzied to represent certain mental conditions, such as compulsive eating disorder, ADHD, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, OCD, and social anxiety.

Related: Most People Can’t, So Let’s See How Many Rom-Coms You Can Match With Just A Single Screenshot

3. Queen Elsa in Disney’s Frozen was originally supposed to be the vengeful villain of the story, similar to past white-haired villains like Cruella de Vil and Ursula (as if Disney needs more female villains). However, after the screenwriters heard the rendition of “Let It Go,” they quickly scrapped that idea and turned Elsa into a powerful, beloved leading character.

4. Many of Disney’s princesses have a scary track record of being quite underage, especially compared to their male counterparts. In fact, Jasmine was only 15 in Aladdin, Aurora was 16 in Sleeping Beauty, and Ariel was 16 in The Little Mermaid. However, the youngest of them all is Snow White, who is only 14 years old in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

5. In addition, the original Brothers Grimm story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is much grosser and darker than what was adapted for the screen. The evil queen actually instructs the huntsman to kill Snow White and have them “bring her lungs and her liver back to me.” Similarly, at the end of the story, when Snow White marries Prince Florian, the evil queen is forced to dance in boiling-hot iron shoes on burning coal until she eventually dies from the immense pain.

Related: Nobody Born After 1995 Can Identify These 15 Movies From Just One Photo

6. In the Disney Pixar film, Finding Nemo, Marlon actually loses 399 unborn children in the barracuda attack that also claimed his wife. Marlon has to cope with this trauma and the objective of finding Nemo, his only child left, throughout the entire movie.

7. The original Italian tale of Sleeping Beauty, called Sun, Moon, and Talia, is much, much darker. In contrast to Disney’s version, Princess Aurora is not awoken by a true love’s kiss. In fact, the real answer is much scarier. In her sleep, Aurora is assaulted and ends up giving birth to twins before ever waking up from the spell.

8. Princess Jasmine is the only Princess not to star as the main character in Disney’s Aladdin. You’d think one of the most beloved and powerful female characters would at least get the title, but that’s reserved for Aladdin himself, whom the film arguably centers around.

Related: We Finally Know Which Actors Are Returning For The “Devil Wears Prada” Sequel, So Let’s See How Much The Cast Has Changed Since The Original Came Out In 2006

9. In Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Esmeralda is left as the only suspect for attempted murder and is publicly hanged. Following this, Quasimodo dies by her graveside, which heavily differs from Disney’s version, where everyone survives.

10. A truly haunting theory about Disney’s Pinocchio is that Pleasure Island, one of its locations, is really a place for human trafficking. The kids who arrive are forced to indulge in its “pleasures,” transformed into donkeys, and then are literally sold off for labor.

11. In the original Hans Christian Anderson version of The Little Mermaid, Ariel doesn’t get her happy ending with Prince Eric. Instead, Prince Eric marries someone else, and Ariel dissolves into sea foam after throwing herself into the sea.

12. In the original Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault, Red and her grandmother are actually eaten by the wolves, and there’s no happy ending. The story is meant to serve as a precautionary tale with sexual undertones of the dangers of girls conversing with strangers, revealing the “wolves” to represent predatory men in society.

Related: If You Can Identify 12/17 Of These ’60s Movies From A Single Screenshot, You’re A Film Expert

13. In Aladdin, the Genie is a slave to whoever holds the “magic” lamp he’s held captive in (and has been for centuries on end). The whole premise of the character is that he’s someone trapped within cycles of forced labor (granting wishes) until freed by hia master.

14. Disney’s Pocahontas completely switches the narrative from the real story of the Native American woman, Pocahontas, who suffered greatly at the hands of white English colonists. Disney often attempts to turn a tragedy into romance, but this one denies the very real, haunting history. Pocahontas was “one of the first real-life Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW).” During her life, Pocahontas was kidnapped, raped, and forcibly brought to England, where she died under mysterious circumstances before 21. Additionally, her romance with John Smith in the film was entirely fictional. Overall, Pocahontas’s life and the treatment of Indigenous peoples by white English colonists were heavily sugarcoated, romanticized, and inaccurately portrayed by Disney.

Which Disney fact did you find the most unsettling? Do you know any that didn’t make the list? Be sure to share in the comments below.

Also in TVAndMovies: This Quiz Will Determine With 100% Accuracy Which “KPop Demon Hunters” Character You Are

Also in TVAndMovies: If You Can Identify 76% Of These Disney Channel Shows From A Photo Of The Main Character, There’s No Chance You’re Younger Than 25

Also in TVAndMovies: 33 TV Couples Who Had So Much Chemistry, They Created The Best Slow Burn Romances Of All Time

Read it on BuzzFeed.com