History Main / Disneyfication

** The potential drowning of Pharaoh. Given the relationship between the Pharaoh and Moses in the movie (and the movie's efforts to humanize him), killing the Pharaoh off would have been a pretty bad dramaturgical choice. [[spoiler: (The last time we see him he's roaring Moses' name to the heavens in despair, while on the other side of the Red Sea Moses whispers "good-bye, brother.")]]

* This is discussed in ''WebVideo/FixingRWBY''. Ruby Rose loves fairy tales but grew up on the darker older versions. She saw how they were made softer for newer generations and the fact something enjoyable can come out of something so unpleasant resonated with her. Ruby sees the world as being plagued by monsters that can be improved by hunters.

* This is discussed in ''WebVideo/FixingRWBY''. She loves fairy tales but grew up on the darker older versions. She saw how they were made softer for newer generations and the fact something enjoyable can come out of something so unpleasant resonated with her. Ruby sees the world as being plagued by monsters that can be improved by hunters.

** Mostly averted with {{Faust}}. They leave out Gretchen's pregnancy, but they retain how she ''' [[KilledOffForReal dies]], [[DyingAlone alone]] [[DrivenToMadness and completely insane]] because Faust (Wishbone) [[TearJerker left her when she needed him the most]]'''. You have to admit, that [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar took serious balls]]. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome And it was awesome]].

* ''Anime/GrimmsFairyTaleClassics'' averts this trope for the most part, and sometimes even inverts it (a few episodes, such as "Hansel and Gretel" and "The Iron Stove", are actually ''darker'' than their sources). A few straight examples exist in Cinderella (where the stepsisters don't cut off their feet) and Bearskin (where the two older sisters don't kill themselves).

* ''Theatre/{{Wicked}}''. Can't have the heroine of a musical (at least, not a Creator/StephenSchwartz one) be a homicidal terrorist -- or [[spoiler: dying at the end]].

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* Creator/GoldenFilms has some examples.

* The Creator/{{DreamWorks|Animation}} movie ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was relatively faithfully adapted from [[Literature/TheBible the book of Exodus.]] However, it still Disneyfied....

** Mostly averted with {{Faust}}. They leave out Gretchen's pregnancy, but they retain how she ''' [[KilledOffForReal dies]], [[DyingAlone alone]] [[DrivenToMadness and completely insane]] because Faust (Wishbone) [[TearJerker left her when she needed him the most]]'''. You have to admit, that [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar took serious balls]]. [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And it was awesome]].

[[caption-width-right:300:Also, there is [[IWantSong singing]].]]

* The Creator/{{DreamWorks|Animation}} movie ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was relatively faithfully adapted from [[Literature/TheBible the book of Exodus.]] However, it still Disneyfied the potential drowning of Pharaoh. Kind of odd, since they included the deaths of his soldiers and two separate genocides (one by the Egyptians against the Hebrews and one by God against the Egyptians).
** Then again, what with the relationship between the Pharaoh and Moses in the movie (and the movie's efforts to humanize him), killing the Pharaoh off would have been a pretty bad dramaturgical choice. [[spoiler: (The last time we see him he's roaring Moses' name to the heavens in despair, while on the other side of the Red Sea Moses whispers "good-bye, brother.")]]
** There is also spontaneous chariot racing for whatever reason.
** The original text reveals Moses as actively deciding to kill the Egyptian taskmaster for beating a Hebrew slave. And then he (unsuccessfully) tried to cover it up to avoid blame
** Moses was [[BadassGrandpa 80 years old]] and father of two sons when he came to see the Pharaoh. He also was "[[SpeechImpediment slow of tongue]]" and so Aaron did the talking. Moses as a younger man is probably more due to the influence of ''Film/TheTenCommandments'' than this trope.

* It's quite common to parody the censorship practices of Creator/FourKidsEntertainment by making "If 4Kids got X" videos, with the dialog badly dubbed over, anything non-American or not "kid-friendly" being poorly censored, and the storylines {{bowdleri|se}}zed into unrecognizability. One of the better-known ones is [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5UfIRmkv28 this]] GagDub of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', called "Casey and Friends".

* ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Vv16305iM The Mighty Kong]]'' is a version of ''Film/KingKong'' with musical numbers (done by [[Disney/TheSwordInTheStone Th]][[Film/MaryPoppins e]] [[Disney/TheJungleBook Sher]][[WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb man]] [[Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Bro]][[Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks thers]] no less), a boy and his monkey, the voice of [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid Ariel]], and dancing animals. Also [[SparedByTheAdaptation Kong lives at the end]].

* ''Film/{{Clueless}}'' Even though Dionne and Murray had sex in the movie, they do not hook-up on the TV show until the last episode of the show.

* Many {{yokai}} have dark backstories or behaviors. ''VideoGame/YokaiWatch'' softens most of it up to appeal to a young audience.

-->'''Ichabod''': It wasn't like that in the movie!//

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''':

* Parodied in one episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'', where Grampa tells Lisa the story of Pyramus and Thisbe, only for Lisa to discover a Disney-like version with the tragic ending removed and a rapping parrot thrown in.

A form of editing, known for often falling into AdaptationDecay, that renders a story "safe" for juvenile audiences (or the parents thereof) by removing undesirable plot elements or [[PoliticallyCorrectHistory unpleasant historical facts]], adding Broadway-style production numbers, and reworking whatever else is necessary for a LighterAndSofter HappilyEverAfter Ending. There is often a clearer line between [[BlackAndWhiteMorality good and evil]], which may cause one character to be [[AdaptationalVillainy forced into the cackling villain role]]. TalkingAnimal sidekicks tend to be tacked on somehow.

[[TropesAreTools This isn't always a bad thing, though.]] Done properly (i.e. not [[TastesLikeDiabetes too cute]] or dumbed-down), the Disneyfied property can be just as entertaining as the original or even better (for example, if you're not a fan of {{Downer Ending}}s, or if they've improved boring parts and given the characters personality, or fixed a PlotHole). The actual tales themselves are often too short to adapt properly, and the expanded versions can be hit and misses. The reworked Disney versions lead to AdaptationDisplacement and SadlyMythtaken, with most people being unaware that the original fairy tales might have even contained [[IncrediblyLamePun grimmer]] aspects. Visual representations of the fairy tales are often strongly influenced by Disney --Literature/SnowWhite is seen [[Disney/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs wearing a dress with primary colors and a red bow in her hair]], Literature/TheLittleMermaid with [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid red hair, a green tail, and a purple seashell bra]], and so on.

Named for its most notorious practitioner, Disney studios, although it actually started [[OlderThanRadio before the Victorian Era]]. Ironically, the TropeMaker would be Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, who despite being the TropeNamer for {{Grimmification}}, actually were the first ones to make fairy tales more suitable for children. The violence and sex were actually toned down tremendously from the originals.

** Nelvana is guilty of this too. ''Manga/CardcaptorSakura'' for example was torn in half to get rid of context unsuitable for Western demographic (eg. implied incest and underage romance). This is more in terms of context rather than narrative however, given the dialogue and characterizations are actually somewhat less [[TastesLikeDiabetes cutesy and whimsical]] than the original Japanese original.
*** Also due to omitting almost all romantic elements, a large amount of the show's finale had to be edited, making it more [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] (especially since Nelvana lost the rights to dubbing the show before ''[[HappilyEverAfter The Sealed Card]]'' was released).

** The final album in the series, which deals with Ragnarokk ''also'' manages to play this trope, even if it deals with the prophesied end of the world. It does so partly by playing up the oft-forgotten "rebirth" part of the myth, and partly by treating the "end of the world" as not the literal end of the human world, but a sign that the Scandinavian lands were converted to Christianity. The famous scenes of Asgard burning, Odin being swallowed by the Fenris wolf and Thor falling in battle with the Midgard serpent still happen, and are treated very dramatically, though the end of the story reveals in roundabout ways that this probably wasn't their final end and that they would go on in some form even if they were no longer worshipped as gods. The biggest {{Disneyfication}} is in Loki's fate, though: In the original myths he is killed by Heimdall, but in the comic he skips out of their fight and escapes to the untouched Midgard with Tjalve and Roskva. He gets about half a page to gloat that he's the only god left before being interrupted by a pair of Christian monks who invite him down to the newly-built church and join him in the worship of the "Almighty Lord." Loki being [[EnsembleDarkhorse a very popular character]] thanks to his JerkassWoobie characterization, no readers complained about this.

* The ''GoneWithTheWind'' fic [[http://archiveofourown.org/works/20974 GWTW: The Animated Film]] parodies this.

* The Dreamworks movie ''WesternAnimation/ThePrinceOfEgypt'' was relatively faithfully adapted from [[Literature/TheBible the book of Exodus.]] However, it still Disneyfied the potential drowning of Pharaoh. Kind of odd, since they included the deaths of his soldiers and two separate genocides (one by the Egyptians against the Hebrews and one by God against the Egyptians).

* The Creator/WarnerBros animated feature ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'', supposedly based on Vera Chapman's novella ''The King's Damosel'', itself a feminist retelling of the [[KingArthur Arthurian]] tale of Linette and Gareth. Similarities between the book and the film are, in total, that the lead character is an ActionGirl with a falcon, she's accompanied by a blind man, and it's set in Arthurian England. It was decided to [[AnimatedMusical add songs]] [[FollowTheLeader to compete with]] Creator/{{Disney}}, [[AdaptationNameChange change all the lead characters' names]], add ''three'' {{Non Human Sidekick}}s, [[ClicheStorm add more Disney cliches]] to make the film more of a Disney-esqe musical, and to top it all off, dump the BittersweetEnding in favour of "Kayley" living HappilyEverAfter with "Garrett" (an amalgamation of Lucius [the blind man] and Gareth).

** ''WesternAnimation/TitanicTheLegendGoesOn'' alters history so that (almost) everyone survives, including bad guys who would be considered an AcceptableTarget, and also shoehorns some really bad singing and dancing in. It's a ripoff of a bunch of more famous movies, such as like James Cameron's ''Film/{{Titanic 1997}}'', with comic scenes practically lifted wholesale from Disney movies.

* ''TheSwanPrincess'' for the most part stays true to the original ''Theatre/SwanLake'' fairy tale, but makes the classic set of changes: talking animal sidekicks, a healthy dash of women's lib, and a happy ending in which the swan and the prince marry instead of drowning themselves in the lake. They even went on to star in direct-to-video sequels and are still alive and kicking!
** Stagings of the ballet are divided on this: some have the lovers die (or parted forever as Odette is condemned to remain a swan), while others have them live happily ever after. Creator/MercedesLackey's retelling ''Literature/TheBlackSwan'' splits the difference: [[spoiler: Odette and Siegfried throw themselves in the lake but are restored to life by a turned-good Odile.]]

* The Rankin-Bass movie adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/TheHobbit'' makes a few questionable changes (all death is represented by the screen spinning) but is actually less destructive than you would expect. But for a sequel, Rankin-Bass got to make a mawkish version of ''WesternAnimation/TheReturnOfTheKing''.
** However, it also manages to avert this trope at the end, [[spoiler: as not only does the mortally wounded Thorin die on screen, but a total of seven of the thirteen dwarves are killed in the Battle of Five Armies, as opposed to the three who are killed in the original book.]]

** And then, in came the sequel. ''Timmy To The Rescue'', despite being an example of LighterAndSofter of the highest order, actually uses some elements from the book the novel neglected (eg. Brutus turning out to be a GentleGiant, the NIMH survivors being six rather than two). That said, these mostly do play more into softening the tone of the film, and naturally also cause some contradictions with the first film.
* It didn't hit much harder than in ''WesternAnimation/TheThiefAndTheCobbler''. What was intended to be Richard William's magnum opus (and a decidedly anti-Disney film) eventually became a victim of ExecutiveMeddling, and the film was edited by different studios to fit into the Nineties Disney format. The theatrical versions added musical numbers, half of which were [[AwardBaitSong very dated pop ballads]]; Yum Yum became a stock RebelliousPrincess; and the two [[TheVoiceless voiceless]] title characters were given dialogue and would simply [[LullDestruction not. Shut. UP.]] Critics even dismissed the movie as a knockoff of Disney's ''Disney/{{Aladdin}}'' despite the former's production beginning [[DevelopmentHell three decades earlier]].
* The animated adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/AnimalFarm'' is Disneyfied in a similar manner to the later live action version, although a notable difference is that while the animals in the live action adaptation express their displeasure of Napoleon's policies after a cumulation of him sending Boxer to the butcher shop and altering the entirety of the animal seven commandments, especially the seventh, by simply leaving the farm, the animals actually rebel outright against Napoleon and his pigs and successfully depose his regime. Though, given that the original novel was an allegory about Stalinism, and the animated adaptation was in large part bankrolled by the, [[ExecutiveMeddling Central Intelligence Agency, this is understandable.]] Maybe not ideal, but understandable.
* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1n_87vVcCo The Mighty Kong]]'' is a version of ''King Kong'' with musical numbers (done by [[Disney/TheSwordInTheStone Th]][[Film/MaryPoppins e]] [[Disney/TheJungleBook Sher]][[WesternAnimation/CharlottesWeb man]] [[Disney/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Bro]][[Film/BedknobsAndBroomsticks thers]] no less), a boy and his monkey, the voice of [[Disney/TheLittleMermaid Ariel]], and dancing animals. Also [[SparedByTheAdaptation Kong lives at the end]].

* ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'': The original L. Frank Baum books contain a surprising amount of casual and sometimes decidedly un-PC violence: in the first one alone — besides the wholesale witchicide — the Scarecrow twists the necks of crows sent to attack them, the Tin Woodsman chops the heads off vicious wolves, and the Cowardly Lion swats the head off a giant spider with his paw. And, of course, the Tin Woodsman became tin by gradually having all his bits cut off and replaced — up to and including his head. Additionally in the book Dorothy intentionally throws the bucket of water on the Wicked Witch after she's mean to the Cowardly Lion (she doesn't know it'll make her melt of course). The film changes this to Dorothy trying to put out a fire on the Scarecrow's arms and the water accidentally splashing on the Witch.
* The happy ending of the movie version of ''Film/TheWitches'' is pretty Disneyfied. Which is a bit odd, as the original novel doesn't have anything near a DownerEnding... it just isn't a perfect HappilyEverAfter, but much more [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] in flavor.

* In almost every film or television adaptation of ''Literature/AdventuresOfHuckleberryFinn'', the N-word is taken out. In one particularly tacky example, an CBS MadeForTVMovie made Jim ''white'' and removed any mention of slavery. Also, at least one removes all trace of barefootedness for some reason.

* The film adaptation of ''Film/{{Stardust}}'' replaces the bittersweet ending of the book with a straight-up happy ending. Rare in that author Creator/NeilGaiman actually gave his blessing to the change, saying it served the film better than the book's ending would have done.

* Creator/CharlesPerrault's "Literature/SleepingBeauty" was preceded by the 17th-century tale "Literature/SunMoonAndTalia" by Giambattista Basile, in which the princess was woken not by a kiss, but by being raped, giving birth -- both while unconscious -- and her child sucking the sleep-inducing splinter out of her finger.
** The ending of one variant of the tale is the princess being so pissed off when she realizes what's happened to her that she ''eats the babies''.
* Notably, Creator/TheBrothersGrimm made many of their fairy tales less scary than their original versions. This was partly because of complaints that their first edition was not suitable for children. They had, after all, titled it ''Household and Children's Tales''. They chiefly cut down the sex and converted evil mothers to wicked stepmothers, and some stories such as "How Some Children Played at Slaughtering" were left out entirely from later editions. Later writers toned down the violence.
** One interesting example is what they did to the story of "Literature/{{Rapunzel}}". In the most commonly encountered version, Mother Gothel learns that Rapunzel's being visited in her tower when ''Rapunzel tells her'' -- asking her, "How is it, good mother, that you are so much harder to pull up than the young Prince? He is always with me in a moment", which makes the heroine seem at best a bit on the dim side. In the original edition, Rapunzel was only naive, not stupid: she wanted to know why her dresses had grown so tight--specifically, around her stomach.

* The book ''Literature/TheTalesOfBeedleTheBard'' discusses this, with the tales of a BluenoseBowdlerizer who'd rewritten the primal and admittedly occasionally horrific Tales to be filled with obnoxious {{Glurge}}. Dumbledore sourly comments that hearing her versions of the Tales causes children to be filled with "an intense urge to vomit". However, the book takes a sympathetic stance on her, attributing her attitude as being caused by sneaking downstairs as a child and hearing her sisters talk about what she claims was the most bloody of the Tales, but what is implied to be details of a sexual affair.
** And apparently "The Warlock's Hairy Heart" was just too gruesome for her to find a way to give it this treatment.

* ''Series/{{Wishbone}}'' does this as a matter of course, being a kids' show about reading literature. For example, in the ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'' episode, the Monster's request for a bride is replaced with a request to "make me a frieeeend!", the Monster is [[LostInImitation portrayed much more like the dumb brute from the movies than the highly intelligent creature from the book]], and Victor (Wishbone) doesn't die.
** And then there's ''Literature/TheTimeMachine'' episode, wherein the Morlocks' only crime is being creepy, rather than [[spoiler: farming and eating the Eloi.]]
*** Does it ever make you wonder what happens if some of these kids get inspired to actually pick up one of those old books that have been "edited" by these shows?

* In the arcade version of ''[[VideoGame/DoubleDragon Double Dragon II: The Revenge]]'', Marian is killed off by Machine Gun Willy and she stays dead in the end. In the NES version, she is still killed off as well, but the scene where she is shot to death by said villain (who is absent in this version) is never shown and she is restored to life after defeating the final boss (a new villain who was not in the arcade version).
* Activision's ''{{VideoGame/Oink}}'', a video game adaptation of the Literature/ThreeLittlePigs, avoids the FamilyUnfriendlyDeath of the pigs when the Big Bad Wolf captures them by simply having the wolf chase the pigs off the screen.

* ''ComicStrip/WhatsNewWithPhilAndDixie'' on possible ''MagicTheGathering: TheMovie'': "of course, [[http://www.airshipentertainment.com/growfcomic.php?date=20080921 there]] ''are'' elements of game play that'll be changed onscreen to make the characters more sympathetic".

* It's quite common to parody the censorship practices of Creator/FourKidsEntertainment by making "If 4Kids got X" videos, with the dialog badly dubbed over, anything non-American or not "kid-friendly" being poorly censored, and the storylines [[{{Bowdlerization}} bowdlerized]] into unrecognizability. One of the better-known ones is [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5UfIRmkv28 this]] GagDub of ''VisualNovel/HigurashiWhenTheyCry'', called "Casey and Friends".
* Parodied in ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'''s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRfOsl0nSnc DISNEY STAR WARS]]" video, which poked fun at the fact that Disney now has ownership of the whole ''Franchise/StarWars'' franchise. The video takes nearly everything from the original trilogy and turns it into a TastesLikeDiabetes comedy. Complete with musical numbers, recasts, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Millennium Falcon being replaced by a]] ''[[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking literal]]'' [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking giant falcon]].
** A bit HilariousInHindsight when you consider that ''Film/TheForceAwakens'' and ''Film/RogueOne'' actually inverted this trope (the latter especially).

* ''The Adventures of WesternAnimation/SamAndMaxFreelancePolice'' replaces the guns with bazookas and generally has the characters involved in decidedly not detective-related plots. Max also has a much friendlier voice and personality than he did in ''SamAndMaxHitTheRoad''. However, the humor and general atmosphere is still there, GettingCrapPastTheRadar constantly.

* The PBS show ''WesternAnimation/SuperWhy'' makes adaptations of fairy tales where Disneyfication runs rampant:

* [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1n_87vVcCo The Mighty Kong]] is a version of King Kong with musical numbers (done by The Sherman Brothers no less), a boy and his monkey, the voice of Ariel, and dancing animals. Also Kong lives at the end.

* The PBS show ''SuperWHY'' makes adaptations of fairy tales where Disneyfication runs rampant:

* A particularly egregious case occurs in ''WesternAnimation/TheKingAndI''. The king's advisor Kralahome is turned into the BigBad. Animal sidekicks are omnipresent, and they serve little actual purpose in the story. The slave girl Tuptim is given as a love interest to King Mongkut's eldest son instead of Mongkut himself to avoid the implications of a fifty-something man interested in a teenage girl. The King's multiple wives are omitted too. Comedy is put in the movie in exchange for the stuff taken out. And yet the film includes a rather stereotypical caricature in the form of the villain's sidekick. The King also lives at the end of the movie. The estate of Rogers and Hammerstein was not pleased with the film, and as a result it no longer allows animated adaptations of its musicals; this move plus the film becoming a BoxOfficeBomb crushed the career of director Richard Rich.

* The happy ending of the movie version of ''TheWitches'' is pretty Disneyfied. Which is a bit odd, as the original novel doesn't have anything near a DownerEnding... it just isn't a perfect HappilyEverAfter, but much more [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] in flavor.

* The WarnerBros animated feature ''WesternAnimation/QuestForCamelot'', supposedly based on Vera Chapman's novella ''The King's Damosel'', itself a feminist retelling of the [[KingArthur Arthurian]] tale of Linette and Gareth. Similarities between the book and the film are, in total, that the lead character is an ActionGirl with a falcon, she's accompanied by a blind man, and it's set in Arthurian England. It was decided to [[AnimatedMusical add songs]] [[FollowTheLeader to compete with]] Creator/{{Disney}}, [[AdaptationNameChange change all the lead characters' names]], add ''three'' {{Non Human Sidekick}}s, [[ClicheStorm add more Disney cliches]] to make the film more of a Disney-esqe musical, and to top it all off, dump the BittersweetEnding in favour of "Kayley" living HappilyEverAfter with "Garrett" (an amalgamation of Lucius [the blind man] and Gareth).

* In addition to changing its heroine from a quiet, thoughtful girl into ShirleyTemple's usual brassy, vivacious smart-aleck, the 1939 film of Frances Hodgson Burnett's book ''Literature/ALittlePrincess'' softens the hardships Sara undergoes, changes the villain's weak and complicit sister into a heroic brother, and imposes a DisneyDeath on Sara's father, while ladling generous quantities of TastesLikeDiabetes over the entire story. There have been more faithful adaptations since, but even the 1995 Creator/AlfonsoCuaron version has her father survive.

* ''TheSwanPrincess'' for the most part stays true to the original ''SwanLake'' fairy tale, but makes the classic set of changes: talking animal sidekicks, a healthy dash of women's lib, and a happy ending in which the swan and the prince marry instead of drowning themselves in the lake. They even went on to star in direct-to-video sequels and are still alive and kicking!

Named for its most notorious practitioner, Disney studios, although it actually started [[OlderThanTheyThink before the Victorian Era]]. Ironically, the TropeMaker would be Creator/TheBrothersGrimm, who despite being the TropeNamer for {{Grimmification}}, actually were the first ones to make fairy tales more suitable for children. The violence and sex were actually toned down tremendously from the originals.

* Parodied in ''WebVideo/{{Smosh}}'''s "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRfOsl0nSnc DISNEY STAR WARS]]" video, which takes nearly everything from the original ''Franchise/StarWars'' trilogy and turns it into a TastesLikeDiabetes comedy. Complete with musical numbers, recasts, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and Millennium Falcon being replaced by a ''literal'' giant falcon]].