Disney, one of, if not the most popular children’s movie makers, has actually taken inspiration for their movies from plenty of original children’s stories. Below are 5 examples of Disney movies, and where they originated from.
Chicken Little
The classic Disney movie “Chicken little” actually originated from a story called “The Story of Chicken-Licken”. In this classic story by the Brothers Grimm, One day, and Acorn falls on Chicken-Lickens head, and after that the entire sky begins falling down!
Snow White
The original story behind this Disney classic is called “Little Snow White”, and it was written by Logan Marshall. In the original story, Snow-white lived in a castle with an evil witch who also happened to be her stepmom. Everyday, the stepmom would look in a mirror and ask who the prettiest of them all was, and the mirror would always answer “you are”. However, when snow-white grew up, the mirror changed it’s answer to “snow-white”, which made the evil stepmother furious. This led the stepmother to attempt to get rid of snow-white by getting a hunter to leave her in the forest.
Cinderella
The Disney favourite “Cinderella” was inspired by German fairytale “Ashputtel” by the brothers Grimm. Ashputtel is a story about a young woman who is forced to do all of the work at the house. One day, the Prince of the kingdom holds a party, to which Ashputtel wants to go. She manages to make her way to the party in a spectacular way, and an adventure ensues after.
Aladdin
The children’s favourite Aladdin was inspired by the classic story by Logan Marshall calld “Alladin and the wonderful lamp”. In the original story, Alladin is a young boy living with his mother in ancient China. Alladin meets a long lost relative who shows him into a cave, where Alladin is asked to find a lamp. However, Alladin does not want to give the lamp back, which leads the uncle into locking Alladin in the cave where he is left with the magic lamp.
Rapunzel
The classic story about Rapunzel was inspired by an old German story by the Grimm Brothers with the same name. The original Rapunzel is a fairy tale about the love between a young prince and a girl with long, blond hair that conquered all of the Witch’s evil intentions. They were persistent in their intentions on being happy together, and the Witch was their biggest obstacle.
Disney pulls a lot of inspiration from classic children’s stories, and then adapts them into movies, books and musicals. The above five are just a few examples. All of the above classic stories are available to listen to on the WonderSagas app.