This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Working Title: Disney-fication: From YKTTW
Adam850: Example to add later: Sleeping Beauty as per the example in Dude, She's Like in a Coma
Sparkysharps: Removed the Anastasia example, as it's 20th Century Fox, not Disney
Etrangere: It's a trope named after Disney, that doesn't mean only Disney does it. I'm putting it back.
Earnest: I'm at my wits' end, does anyone know how to get the original story quote parallel with the lower picture of the little Mermaid, or should I just remove both?
Looney Toons: Just in case anyone's unsure, in
Ruthie A: Is it wrong to like the Disney-fied versions better? I'm not really big onDowner Endings, even if it was what the original creator intended...
Roland: Not at all. There's a reason people change this stuff, y'know, and in many cases the original, 'darker' fairy tales were either heavily old-style Christian designed to say How Much The World Sucks But For The Grace Of God (and thus often kinda a downer) or designed as cautionary tales instead of heartwarming stories.
That said, doesn't Andersen's version have the mermaid become a spirit of the air in payment for her good deeds?
Lale: Yeah, but in a romance, not getting the guy is still a tragedy.
Andyroid: Bah, I'm trying to put in a bit about how Disneyfication can be done well, but it doesn't fit with that damn too-wide picture. I'm putting it here for safekeeping:
Harpie Siren: Well... that really needs to be in the artical proper, because, without it, it's just too negative.
Andyroid: Okay, there. Had to reformat it, but it's done. Also threw up a gratuitous (but appropriate) Terry Pratchett quote.
Sniffnoy: Does Song of the South really fit? It's not an adaptation of anything.
Harpie Siren: It's based on the Uncle Remus Folktales.
Paul A: The real question is, was the "idyllic depiction of a black slave's life on an antebellum(sic) Southern plantation" part of Disney's contribution, or were the original stories like that as well?
Looney Toons: It appears that while Remus was a separate character as the stories' narrator, Disney pretty much created his sunny, cheery, song-filled semi-animated life as a slave on the Edenic plantation out of whole cloth.
Andyroid: Why do you people keep saying "slave"? If it was antebellum (after the Civil War), he'd be a sharecropper. Not a slave.
Sparkysharps: Antebellum is actually the period before the war, not after. If not, then there's a history teacher I have to smack
Seven Seals: OK, OK. Yes, antebellum is before the war, Song of the South was explicitly (and conveniently) set after the war, and while technically this may have made Remus "not a slave" (it's never said that he's a sharecropper, either, but let's assume that) the distinction is pretty moot, and Disney hasn't released it over fear of offending in exactly the way described. I doubt anyone watched the movie and came away with the impression that Remus was a neighbour or a house guest.
Brickman Removed the following example for giving me no reason to even suspect that it could possibly be true:
- In the original version of High School Musical, Sharpay, unable to handle her unexpected rejection, kills both Troy and Gabriella. This was edited when Disney executives realized that this would make writing a sequel somewhat difficult.
Prfnoff: Cut natter from the Jungle Book example:
- That can't be true! Everybody knows Reptiles Are Abhorrent.
- At least, that's what Disney's legions of herpetophobic writers think.
KiTA: Do we have a trope for "borrowed ideas", like how Disney uses old folk tales (and anime classics) as a basis to make their own serieses?
Nornagest: Cut —
- *** One extremely salient fact that Disney "conveniently" forgot was that Pocahontas died several weeks after her encounter — her body hadn't built up an immunity to the many 'Old World' diseases that the colonists brought with them. Pneumonia, high fever, and various other infections overwhelmed her shortly after being taken from her home.
Pocohontas died in Europe in 1617, nine years and eleven months after her encounter with John Smith (although only a year or so after crossing the ocean, and lack of resistance to infection is the likely cause). There is no compelling evidence that she was taken from America against her will, although she certainly was kidnapped from her tribe (a few years after her encounter with Smith, and in retaliation for the kidnapping of colonists). Let's get the details right, shall we?
Also cut —
Nice Justifying Edit. What you think is unsuitable for kids may not be what 16th-century storytellers thought was unsuitable for kids, and, in fact, isn't. Sun, Moon, and Talia was very much a fairy tale — the Pentamerone it comes from (not to be confused with the Decameron, an earlier collection of stories for adults) was subtitled "The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones". time=1231288675
Morgan Wick: Cut natter and replaced it with something less wildly misinterpretive that probably reflects the opinion of neither the first troper, nor the second, nor me:
- After reading this example, this Troper has come to the conclusion that Disney's decision to drop a story of a young girl using witchcraft to fight the Nazis which involves fighting them with magical suits of armor in favor of a musical was a poor move on their part. It could've been so awesome!.
- I don't think you understand, she fought the Nazis in the movie. I haven't read the book though, so she might fight more Nazis in that or something.
Prfnoff: Neither Disney movie is actually adapted from the source claimed.
- The Brothers Grimm telling of Cinderella included the ugly sisters slicing off parts of their feet to make the slipper fit, and only being found out when two twittering birds point out to the prince that his new fiancee's foot is bleeding. Then, at the wedding of Cinders to Prince Charming, the ugly sisters are forced to be bridesmaids while the twittering birds peck out their eyes.
- Averted in that Disney's movie wasn't based on the Grimms but on the older, gentler version by Charles Perrault, which didn't include any blood (then again, it didn't contain any cutesy mice in clothes, either).
- In fact, many critics thought the film was too dark compared to Perrault's. For example, her father was still alive in the original, not to mention the scene where the sisters destroy her mother's dress.
- The foot-slicing is present in Stephen Sondheim's twisted fairy tale mashup musical 'Into the Woods'.
- The Lion King is an example of a disneyfication of Hamlet — in the original story, Hamlet kills Claudius then kills himself and restores the power of Demark to Fortinbras. In The Lion King, Simba (Hamlet) kills Scar (Claudius) then rules Pride Rock (Denmark) himself. Also, Zazu (Polonius) isn't killed like he was in the play and Simba runs away from Pride Rock instead of going back to Pride Rock for Mufasa's funeral. Also, Nala (Ophelia) doesn't drown like she did in the play. They disneyfy the play so much the only thing they end up having in common is the general plotline (Son is told by the ghost of his father to kill his uncle who killed him so he could rule).
- It's still closer to this though than it is to Kimba, regardless of that the detractors think.
Brunicus: I'm curious about the entry claiming "The Little Mermaid" draws 'heavily' from the anime "Mahou no Mako-Chan." Seeing as the two (ostensibly) draw heavily from the same fairy tale, I figure there will be some similarities as a result. The Disney version even began production shortly after "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" if the Other Wiki is to be believed, with bits of artwork developed at the time carried over (to some degree, and I'm not entirely sure which - not that I've seen them). And seeing as the entry itself is a bit vague on details, it made me a bit skeptical on the premise.
