10 Disney Movies You Don't Know The Truth About

The romanticization of the story between a prince and a princess in a Disney movie hides the true trauma the men and women in these stories go through. The altering of their tales means that we never get to hear their truth and instead trust in the lies our childhood is made up of. 

1. Pocahontas 

When one thinks of “Pocahontas”, they think of the brave native American woman who saved the settler she loved, John Smith, from execution and stopped a war between their people. The only truth here is that Pocahontas saved John Smith. In reality she was 10 years old, and her real name was Amonute. She was kidnapped and held for ransom by the English settlers. To get out of this she married a man named John Rolfe at around 18 years old, and was then forced into a baptism in which she was renamed Rebecca. Amonute was then taken to England by her “husband”, and was used as propaganda by them in the case of “civilizing” the “savages”. She died around the age of 21, most likely from one of the various diseases present in England. Disney takes the tale of Pocahontas, a 10 year old girl forced into becoming a Christian bride by a much older man who took a sick interest in her, and ignores the fact that she had to leave her home and her people to become propaganda.  The romanticisation of this tale and the creation of a love story based on 10 year old Pocahontas and John Smith is both ridiculous and a complete disregard of the terrible journey she and her people went through because of the settlers. 

2. Sleeping Beauty

The Disney Movie “Sleeping Beauty” is famous for the princess who pricked her finger on a cursed spindle, fell asleep for a very long time, and then woke up due to her prince’s kiss of true love. However, during the first version of this story written by Giambattista Basile in the early 1600’s , the princess gets some flax under her fingernail and appears to be dead for a long time. A king who finds her later cannot wake her and instead rapes her, and as a result she gives birth to 2 children. Sleeping Beauty and the King do get married in this sickening tale, but only after he burns his first wife alive. This tale is both disturbing and incredibly dark, and is one where the sexual abuse Sleeping Beauty actually went through is covered up and twisted into a romantic tale for consumers. The trauma she went through was translated into Prince Phillip who fights a dragon for her and then saves her with his “true love”. Sleeping Beauty is the perfect example of how Disney romanticizes stories and hides the true abuse of women, allowing us to believe in such a huge and painful lie.

3. The Little Mermaid

“The Little Mermaid” is famous for its naïve heroine Ariel, who becomes human to marry Prince Eric. To do this she makes a deal with the sea witch Ursula – she will become a mute human for 3 days and will stay human if she obtains a “true loves kiss”.  Hans Christian Anderson created this tale in the 1800’s, and it was about a soulless mermaid destined to die as sea foam unless she gained a human soul by marrying a man who loved her more than anything. She visits a sea witch who cuts off her tongue to make her mute, and tells her that having legs will feel like walking on knives. However, while the prince loves her, he marries another princess and Ariel chooses to die rather than kill him for her own humanity. The conversion of this story into a fairy tale is surprisingly accurate, yet still incredibly romanticized and a complete cover up of Ariel’s suffering. Her feet bled for days for a prince who did not love her enough, and she committed suicide as a result. Disney writers fail to acknowledge this pain and hide it under a story with a handsome prince, instead allowing young children to think that Ariel had a happy ending because she fought for her love. 

4. Rapunzel

"Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair" - This German tale by Friedrich Shulz is the story of a girl taken by an enchantress at a young age and locked in a tower until a Prince finds her. They plan to escape every day till Gothel finds out, at which point she cuts off Rapunzel's hair and forces her to live in the desert where she gives birth to twins by herself. The prince is also pushed off the tower and blinded by thorns. Though Rapunzel has a happy ending, we cannot ignore the facts – she was taken from her parents, raised by an evil witch in isolation, forced to give birth in a desert by herself, and put through psychological trauma due to her separation from society. She is forced into situations against her will, and is separated from the man she loves. Disney's "Tangled", though funny, shows none of this. Rapunzel is a cheerful girl trying to see some lanterns with a thief, and she is able to become a princess when reunited with her parents. The truth of her situation and the fate she suffered at the hands of the enchantress is also ignored, though it is wonderful that both tales do end happily. 

5. Cinderella

Cinderella is an iconic fairy tale by Giambattista Basile. The Disney version goes like this - a girl locked away like a slave by her stepfamily goes to a ball one night thanks to her fairy godmother, and in the process a prince falls in love with her. When all that is left behind is her glass slipper, he goes to every woman in the land to see if the shoe fits and find his true love. The side of Cinderella's story that you don't see is the abuse – the physical and mental torture endured by her as she cooked, cleaned, was verbally abused, and made to pick out individual lentils from ashes. According to the original Brothers Grimm fairy tale, she was not even given a bed, and instead lay on the hearth every night in ashes. As well as this, the prince poured tar on the steps on the last day of the fair to stop her from leaving. Cinderella's story is not a romanticisation of her relationship with Prince Charming, but rather with her family life and the true effects of the terrible childhood she suffered. With the lack of care given to her and abandonment, she would have much anger and depression. Though her story ends happily with a prince, she went through much pain to get there, and that pain is completely covered up by Disney so that we only care that she got a happy ending.

6. The Princess and the Frog

"The Frog Prince" is one of the first tales in the Brother's Grimm collection. In the 21st century it is known as the story where the princess and the frog fall in love, and once she kisses him, he is released from his curse and turned back into a handsome prince. The Disney version includes this basic tale, except the princess also turns into a frog and after they fall in love they are able to become human again.  Some versions of the story are a lot like this, but the first story - the Brothers Grimm version - tells the tale of a princess who threw a frog against a wall in disgust and turned him into a human in the process. The princess was spoiled and insensitive, going back on her promise to help the frog who helped her, and constantly acted in a terrible manner towards him. True love did not help the prince, but a shallow young girl's dislike of amphibians did. Though they do end up getting married, it is in a rather twisted and strange way, and his harsh treatment and unfortunate punishment should not be ignored in any story.  Disney changes this story for the sake of morals, when in reality their love is based on a girl who judged by appearances. Once again, we are the ones believing in lies.

7. Snow White

Huntsman, poison, glass coffins – the main elements of the modern story of Snow White are already incredibly dark, but believe it or not, the real story gets even darker. Snow white is a beautiful girl with an incredibly jealous step-mother who exiles her to a forest where she lives with a bunch of dwarves. In the Disney version, the huntsman is meant to kill Snow White and bring back her liver and lungs. What Disney doesn't tell you, is that the Evil Queen then proceeded to eat her organs. She then tried to kill Snow White not once, but 3 times out of spite and jealousy. The first time she almost died from asphyxiation, the second it was poison in a comb, and the last time an incredibly well crafted apple. Snow White's life is continuously threatened by an Evil Queen after she is ousted from her own home, and she was always in danger no matter how far she was. If that wasn't dark enough, the Evil Queen herself was forced to put on  boiling hot iron shoes and dance till she died. Snow White is an even darker and more sinister fairy tale than what we thought, and though Disney acknowledges a little of this, the complete suffering both parties eventually go through is not shown and we as the audience are happy to believe she lived happily in a forest for all that time.

8. Beauty and Beast

While this tale is not as old as time, it is as old as the 1700's. Beauty and the Beast is famous for its incredibly beautiful, strong, and well-read heroine Belle, who falls in love with the Beast of the castle that she is trapped in as a result of her father's picking of a rose. While the movie does contain this basic story line, it leaves out a few details – Belle did not choose to stay as a captive, but was instead forced to by her father when the Beast demanded one of his daughters in return for his life. She was forced to stay far away from home with a man who constantly asked to marry her, and while she does fall in love with him, this situation seems more like Stockholm Syndrome. As well as this, she is manipulated by her jealous sisters and returns home to find the man she loves dying of grief, though the sisters are eventually turned into statues outside the castle forever (not that people even know they exist because they were left out of the movie). No matter how terrible they were, being turned into statues was far too harsh for children, and Belle's Stockholm Syndrome is transformed into a beautiful love story instead of the forced captivity it was. This is what Disney leaves out – the real truth of these stories, allowing people to become inspired by their romance.

9. Mulan

Mulan is the story of an incredible young woman who took her father's place in war because he was too old to fight. During the war she is discovered to be a woman and abandoned by her fellow comrades, but then saves them all and falls in love with her commanding officer. The version of the story the movie is based on is an incredibly painful tale called the Sui Tang Romance. It ends with Mulan taking her life after being forced into the position of royal concubine. She also comes home to find that her father is dead and her mother remarried, after going through a terrible time of war. As well as this, Mulan never found love. Disney created a male counter-part for Mulan to fall in love with, deeming it necessary to make her tale a love story full of hope. They ignore her tragic ending, instead giving her a happy false one in which doing the right thing ended up with her obtaining a husband. Mulan was a strong, fierce, and intelligent woman who did not need a man, and she fought with everything she had until her tragic end, in which doing the right thing did not work out so well.  Mulan's truth is one that does need to be known, but instead we are left with a false and romanticized version that covers up all her pain.

10. Frozen 

Frozen is a completely made up tale of 2 sisters – Elsa and Anna. Elsa has ice powers that she cannot control, and accidentally freezes her whole town and part of her sisters heart. Elsa's character comes from the tale "The Snow Queen" by Hans Christian Andersen, and there are no sisters involved. There is however an evil Snow Queen who kisses and kidnaps a teenage boy whose heart is frozen. She takes him to her castle and makes him stay in an ice cold palace, until his true love rescues him with love and her tears which warm his cold heart. Though the two have a happy and loving ending, Elsa's character does come from an slightly perverted and disturbed individual who enjoys inflicting pain upon others. She liked that hearts were Frozen, and was more than willing to destroy the young boy and his love. "The Snow Queen" is a disturbing story on quite a few accounts, and it is mildly concerning to see Elsa based on her. We believe her character to be innocent and scared, but the reality is far more sinister and another way that Disney hides the truth from us.