The Horror! The Horror! Horror Origins in Disney Movies and Beyond...
- C.S. Cab
- Mar 26, 2021
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 7, 2021
When someone thinks about #disney, they usually think of noticeably adorable side characters that break into song to make a point and help the main character. Thinking of #sebastian singing #kissthegirl so that #thelittlemermaid #ariel ends up making out with #erik and breaks a curse from an #evil #seawitch comes to mind. Yes, it is so cute! Say did you know that in the original #hanschristianandersen tale on which The Little Mermaid is based, not only is a cute and wise crab called Sebastian absent but also does count with an excruciating terrifying ending worth of any #horror movie? At the end of the original tale, instead of defeating the Sea Witch and 'living happily #everafter' with the prince of her dreams, poor mermaid Ariel (who was #underage in both original #tale and #movie by the way) ends up pretty much killing herself and turns herself into sea foam since she refuses to live without her prince! Speak about co-dependent relationships huh? But there is so much more to this!
Scary Stuff...
Just like that, Disney's pantheon of movies is littered with horror origins from so many different sources. After all, terrifying fairy tales were completely rad back when two certain #brothersgrimm were coming up with their stories. If you don't know who The Brothers Grimm were, believe me you will need a crash course on them. They are the ones who started taking these fairy tales seriously. It is to them that Disney would be so indebted as many of their hit movies are based on their tales too! So many of these cutesy, adorable, and above all epic love stories are simply based on terrifying tales having to do with sexual abuse, mental breakdowns, murder, and in many instances, poor decisions (okay the poor decisions are still very well known for anyone versed in Disney haha).
To me, personally #sleepingbeauty , #beautyandthebeast and #cinderella are the tales that feel more like straight out horror movies. If you don't know how the original tale for Sleeping Beauty goes well let me just say the poor underage girl wakes up not to a prince's kiss but to labor pains after said prince sexually abused her while being asleep. WTH? Yes, that actually was in the tale!
Then of course, we have #cinderella where the stepsisters literally cut off their feet to try to make that elusive crystal shoe fit! Bloody too! And in #beautyandthebeast , another underaged girl is sexually abused by a man in power and later on develops some #stockholmsyndrom and voila she is in love with a monster!
My favorite scary fairy tale origin though goes to #snowwhite. Did you know that in the original story not only is the #evilqueen Snow White's actual mom but she goes through way more attempts on her life as she did on the Disney movie? In the original story The Evil Queen goes through a lot to try and kill her #daughter and when she fails, her daughter (Snow White) orders her to dance at her #wedding wearing some magic burning shoes (wait what?), then Snow White approaches her and stabs her repeatedly until she dies. Yep, that is the actual ending. The Evil Queen pretty much burnt to a crisp is taken out of her misery by Snow White! Of course, there are even more variations where the 'dwarves' eat Snow White or abuse her. Just take your pick but the story is truly terrifying!
Modern Tales...
So, yes Disney can definetely trace back their origins to the horror genre. But not only that, if you pay attention to their movies, you can still see plenty of horror therein. If you need a refresher on the horror in their movies, check this out. But, Disney has been great at adding sprinkles of horror not only in their movies but on the Pixar and Marvel banner too and let me clear, that is perfectly okay. Actually, that is a welcome treat for us horror fans! Even #toystory has plenty of horror elements when you think about it. This could easily be #achildsplay if the story had a different turn plus let's not even talk about all the psychological damages these #toys experience! Did someone say #trauma!?
So, what about YOU? Have you noticed any horror in any Disney movies. And if son, on which ones? I would love to hear your thoughts!
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