Line #33 AdaptationDisplacement/Disney


1	When Creator/{{Disney}} adapts a story or fairy tale, their version tends to cause AdaptationDisplacement and [[LostInImitation may influence future adaptations]].
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3	'''A Administrivia/{{No Recent Examples\|please}} rule applies to this trope'''. Examples shouldn't be added until '''six months''' after the adaptation is released, to avoid any knee-jerk reactions.
4	----
5	!!Examples:
6	* Almost every retelling of ''Literature/SnowWhite'' since [[WesternAnimation/SnowWhiteAndTheSevenDwarfs 1937]] has the dwarfs described as individual characters, while the original story doesn't describe them that way, and even non-Disney versions of Snow White depict her nearly identically to the Disney version. The original story has the WickedStepmother try two other tactics (the poisoned comb and the magical corset) to unsuccessfully kill Snow White, before she finally tries to use the poisoned apple. In Disney's version, they only focused on the apple narrative. Also, the Prince doesn't kiss Snow White back to life, but decides to take her coffin with him, whereupon the thing drops on the ground making the piece of apple that Snow White swallowed fall out of her mouth. Given all this, it's ironic that the tale's one most remembered line ("Mirror, mirror, on the wall...") was worded differently in the Disney version ("Magic mirror on the wall...").
7	* The Disney adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/{{Pinocchio}}'' displaced [[Literature/TheAdventuresOfPinocchio the original]] everywhere outside of Italy.
8	* Most of Creator/{{Disney}}'s films are based on previous sources, even less obvious ones. The most notorious of these displacement sources is ''WesternAnimation/{{Dumbo}}'', which is based on a experimental children's book (a scroll with pictures) that had an insanely low print run that Disney himself hand-picked out of a bookstore for a couple bucks. They share a basic plot and not much else.
9	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Bambi}}'' is also based on a book, '' [[Literature/{{Bambi}} Bambi: A Life in the Woods]]'', but most people only remember the Disney adaptation, which is hilarious when you consider the original poster was ''a picture of the book''. Also an example of {{Disneyfication}}: the novel was intended for adult audiences.
10	* ''WesternAnimation/FunAndFancyFree'':
11	** ''Bongo'' is already obscure by Disney standards, but pretty much no one knows about the original 1930 short story penned by Creator/SinclairLewis.
12	** Disney has actually managed to displace ''itself'' - Mickey and the Beanstalk was commonly aired separately with a different narrator and framing device on television, and this version received a home video release.
13	* While not entirely Disney's fault, their 1951 adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland'' forever linked the events of ''Through the Looking Glass'' with the very different book it was a sequel to. However, several adaptations in film and theater before it had been doing this well before. In fact, very few people even realize that characters like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum never appeared in the book ''Literature/AlicesAdventuresInWonderland'' and it's not uncommon to hear people complain about their absence in works that are more faithful to the source material because they have become so accustomed to seeing the two books presented as ''Alice in Wonderland''. It doesn't help that the two books are often published as a single volume under that title.
14	* There are those who think that Disney created ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' from whole cloth in 1953, with their still-classic animated motion picture. People (usually children, it must be said), are surprised to hear it was [[Literature/PeterPan a book]] back in 1911... based off [[Theatre/PeterPan1904 the original stage play]] that debuted in 1904... while the character himself debuted in [[Literature/PeterPanInKensingtonGardens a short story]] in 1902. There is a rather larger section of the populace who believe that [[DisneyOwnsThisTrope Disney currently own the copyright]] on Peter Pan. They don't, that belongs to Great Ormond Street Hospital in perpetuity; [[note]]in the U.K.; it's in the public domain in the U.S.[[/note]] they get royalties on all derivative works, but cannot stop anybody from making something they don't want made (hence Disney rolling out its new ''[[WesternAnimation/DisneyFairies Tinker Bell]]'' movies).
15	** This makes ''Film/{{Hook}}'' an interesting case: This film clearly contradicts Disney's ''WesternAnimation/PeterPan'' in quite a number of points. This is because it isn't a sequel to the Disney animated feature but to James M. Barrie's original novel. Barrie himself is mentioned to have been Wendy's neighbor. The Disney movie eventually got its own sequel, ''WesternAnimation/ReturnToNeverland''.
16	* ''WesternAnimation/LadyAndTheTramp'' is something of a two-fer. It began as "Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog", a one-page farce by Ward Greene; Walt Disney read it in ''Cosmopolitan'', bought the rights, and hammered out movie plans - then actually had Greene write a novelization of the movie's ([[AdaptationExpansion exponentially longer]]) plot, which was published ''two years'' before the film was actually released. This was so people would be familiar with the story, since most people associated the Disney studio with adapting famous tales, and it was thought that people wouldn't watch the film if they didn't know there was a book. How many of you today knew there was a book?
17	* ''WesternAnimation/SleepingBeauty'' and its [[EvilIsCool memorably cool]] villain Maleficent have become so iconic that few people know that in [[Literature/SleepingBeauty the original fairy tale]], the fairy who cursed the baby princess [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse never appears again after her introduction]]. (Well, in some version she's also the old woman who gets Beauty to prick her finger, but there's certainly no big ScaledUp battle.) Even other ''Sleeping Beauty'' adaptations that differ greatly from the Disney film otherwise will ''always'' give the fairy who curses the princess an expanded role and personality similar to Maleficent's (ex: Robin [=McKinley=]'s ''Spindle's End''). Additionally, the good fairy who softened the evil fairy's curse in the original tale didn't do so by making it breakable by TrueLovesKiss but by changing it into a century-long sleep and the prince who eventually wakes up the princess doesn't do so via any thorn-cutting or dragon-slaying heroics but by [[ContrivedCoincidence just happening to be near the wall of thorns at the exact time the kingdom's century of sleep ended]].
18	** Additionally, it also uses music from Tchaikovsky's ballet of the same name - this has caused some confusion when other adaptations ''also'' use music from the ballet, or when people simply hear the music and think of the ''Disney'' version.
19	* ''WesternAnimation/OneHundredAndOneDalmatians'' is based on the 1950s British junior novel ''Literature/TheHundredAndOneDalmatians'' by Dodie Smith, which also inspired a sequel, ''The Starlight Barking''. Many believe the animated Disney movie was the story's source.
20	* ''WesternAnimation/TheSwordInTheStone'' is also much more well known than [[Literature/TheSwordInTheStone the book it's based on.]] Most people don't even realize that the book was part of a tetralogy of stories called ''Literature/TheOnceAndFutureKing''.
21	* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/{{The Jungle Book\|1967}}'', is decently known, and most people are aware (however vaguely) that the movie is based on ''The Jungle Book'' by Creator/RudyardKipling; what most aren't aware of is that there were actually Jungle '''[[Literature/TheJungleBook Books]]''' -- in which Baloo was the serious one and Bagheera the playful one, as well as Kaa being Mowgli's third mentor and not an antagonist who wants to eat him.
22	* ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats'' is based on two ''extremely'' obscure children's stories, so little-known that neither they nor their authors (Tom [=McGowan=] and Tom Rowe) have Wikipedia pages.
23	* ''Franchise/WinnieThePooh'' is remembered by some people more for the [[WesternAnimation/TheManyAdventuresOfWinnieThePooh Disney animations]] than for [[Literature/WinnieThePooh the books]] by Creator/AAMilne, which is rather ironic since the main reason that Walt Disney adapted the books in the first place was because his daughters were big fans of them, and he wanted to help introduce the stories to a larger American audience, as well as because (in the first film, at least) [[CanonForeigner Gopher]] wants you all to know that "[[BreakingTheFourthWall he's not in the book]]".
24	* ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuers'' were based off of [[Literature/TheRescuers Margery Sharp's books]], specifically, two of them. There are actually [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margery_Sharp nine books]] in the series. ''WesternAnimation/TheRescuersDownUnder'', however, was an original story.
25	* ''WesternAnimation/TheFoxAndTheHound'' is very loosely based on [[Literature/TheFoxAndTheHound a much darker novel]] in which the title characters are written as being [[{{Xenofiction}} extremely inhuman in their thought processes]] to the point of [[BlueAndOrangeMorality not having anything resembling human morality]], since they're animals. For some this is an AudienceAlienatingPremise that makes the title characters, let alone their [[HumansAreCthulhu perspective on the bizarre ways of humans]], come across as unsympathetic at best and EvilVersusEvil at worst. [[spoiler: The novel also has a DownerEnding in which [[EverybodyDiesEnding the two title characters are both dead and their world has been destroyed by advancing suburbia.]]]] None of this would be particularly suitable for a children's musical, so the story of the Disney film is much LighterAndSofter. It's telling that it still manages to be one of Disney's darker films. Not helping is that the original book has been [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes out of print for decades and is quite rare, and only recently got a rerelease as an ebook.]]
26	* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' was also based on a book series, ''Literature/BasilOfBakerStreet'', which was obviously inspired by Literature/SherlockHolmes -- many viewers just assume the film itself is a parody of the Holmes stories and aren't aware of its source books.
27	* The Disney adaptation of ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid1989'' is better known in the public mind than [[Literature/TheLittleMermaid the original story]] by Creator/HansChristianAndersen, which is a much darker story [[BittersweetEnding that doesn't have a clear cut happy ending.]]
28	* While ''Literature/BeautyAndTheBeast'' is a classic fairy tale, [[WesternAnimation/BeautyAndTheBeast the Disney adaptation]] is far more well known in the public mind than the original story. Most obviously, post-1991 adaptations of the story tend to feature a Beast design that's as close to Disney's as possible without stepping on copyright (though that design [[OlderThanTheyThink was also partly inspired]] by the 1946 Creator/JeanCocteau [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast1946 film]]). Additionally, there will probably be counterparts for the servant characters Disney invented, such as Lumiere and Cogsworth. More subtly, the Beauty character was, prior to the Disney version, almost invariably portrayed as blonde for the sake of HairOfGoldHeartOfGold. Disney decided to make her a brunette, and now that's the default, and the [[Film/BeautyAndTheBeast2014 2014 French film]] with the blonde Creator/LeaSeydoux as Belle got puzzled comments about it as a result.
29	* Many people know that ''WesternAnimation/{{Aladdin}}'' was originally from ''[[Literature/ArabianNights The Arabian Nights]]'' (at least it was added to them in the 18th century), but not very many know that [[Literature/{{Aladdin}} the original tale]] gave Aladdin ''two'' genies (he had a magic ring in addition to the lamp) and unlimited wishes instead of a ThreeWishes limit. Plus, there's nothing in the tale about FreeingTheGenie. And it is all set in China [[note]]Albeit an InNameOnly version of China that has more in common with UsefulNotes/TheMiddleEast anyway[[/note]]! On the other hand, most of these changes were already present in most Aladdin adaptations before the Disney version came along.
30	* A curious example, but still true. Outside of America, you'd be surprised how many people will act shocked that [[WesternAnimation/{{Pocahontas}} Pocahontas and John Smith]] were real people and met and interacted in RealLife. People are often further surprised when they find out the movie is based on a completely fabricated story that John Smith wrote himself, that Pocahontas was a teenager when when he was already middle aged, and the two only saw each other once (at a greeting ceremony the natives held) before Smith went back to England!
31	* A lot of people in the West have no idea that the legend of Westernanimation/{{Mulan}} has been around [[Literature/TheBalladOfMulan in various forms since the 6th century AD]], and think she's an original Disney character.
32	* ''WesternAnimation/MeetTheRobinsons'' certainly counts, as it is InspiredBy on the obscure picture book ''A Day with Wilbur Robinson'' by Creator/WilliamJoyce. The 29-page book is about an [[NoNameGiven unnamed]] protagonist ([[NamedByTheAdaptation "Lewis" in the film]]) who visits his best friend's quirky family and helps the grandfather find his teeth; the movie made up everything about Lewis being an orphaned ChildProdigy, the time travel aspect, the villains, and Wilbur being [[spoiler:Lewis' KidFromTheFuture]].
33	* How many of people know that ''WesternAnimation/ThePrincessAndTheFrog'' was based very loosely on a 2002 children's novel called ''The Frog Princess'' (itself a variant on ''Literature/TheFrogPrince'', a story collected by Creator/TheBrothersGrimm)? The novel only has a few similarities with the movie, such as the heroine turning into a frog as well after kissing the prince and the main characters going into a journey throught the swamp in search of a way to reverse the spell that turned them into frogs. The New Orleans setting was something made up for movie, as the novel takes place in the Middles Ages, and voodoo as a plot device was also made up, meaning that Mama Odie and Dr. Facilier did not exist in the novel. Another major difference between book and movie is that the protagonist is a princess and a young witch in training, while in movie she's a waitress dreaming with opening a restaurant, [[spoiler:althought in the end she becomes a princess and the owner of her own restaurant]]. The novel has multiple sequels, too, collectively known as ''Literature/TalesOfTheFrogPrincess''.
34	** Speaking of the original Grimm version of ''The Frog Prince'', instead of the princess kissing the frog, the frog's spell was broken when the princess '''threw him against a wall'''. Yeah, you read that right.
35	* The story of Literature/{{Rapunzel}} was pretty well known before ''WesternAnimation/{{Tangled}}'', but the film's popularity seems to be eclipsing the story. Many people still know that the film was based on a fairy tale and that Rapunzel doesn't spend nearly as much page time out of the tower in it as she does on screen, but some may be surprised to hear that the original Rapunzel ''wasn't'' a princess at birth or that her parents willingly gave her up to the witch as part of a trade.
36	* ''WesternAnimation/BigHero6'' has easily eclipsed the Creator/{{Marvel\|comics}} [[ComicBook/SunfireAndBigHero6 comic it was based on]], a small title set in the main Franchise/MarvelUniverse. It replaced several of the existing Marvel characters with new ones, altered other characters just made for the comic, and polished the whole thing into something new. Not helping is that [[ExiledFromContinuity Marvel has barred the characters from appearing again in the Marvel Universe]] and [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes have no plans to ever reprint the original comics.]]
37	* Disney's [[WesternAnimation/TheThreeLittlePigs animated short version]] of ''Literature/TheThreeLittlePigs'' is another example that's completely taken over the original fairy tale. The pigs all flee to the third pig's house, while in the original the Big Bad Wolf just eats the two of them.
38	* ''Film/WhoFramedRogerRabbit'', based on the 1981 novel ''Literature/WhoCensoredRogerRabbit'' by Gary Wolf. The original novel is about comic strip cartoon characters who speak in word balloons, and Eddie Valiant is in fact investigating Roger's ''murder''. Even Wolf acknowledged that the movie was superior to the original (and would certainly be the version most people would have in mind when exploring other material in the franchise) and wrote two sequels to ''the film'', in which [[{{Retcon}} Jessica says that the original novel was]] [[AllJustADream a dream]].
39	* While not part of the Franchise/DisneyAnimatedCanon, ''WesternAnimation/RecessSchoolsOut'' is starting to turn into this. [[WesternAnimation/{{Recess}} The show it's based on]] isn't currently in reruns, but whenever Creator/DisneyChannel or Creator/DisneyXD feel generous, they'll show the movie, and it being aired on the premium movie channels sometimes, and some stores still carry the DVD (Store such as Walmart don't sell it in the store, but do sell it online, and stores like f.y.e. or BJ's sometimes carry it). And then Disney might want to rerun the show itself, leading to younger children to think the show was based on the movie.
40	** WesternAnimation/TeachersPet is a bigger example as despite not being very well known, it's the only part of the franchise that was released on VHS and DVD; although the series premiere episode is included on the DVD as a bonus feature
41	* ''Ride/DisneyThemeParks''
42	** Thanks to Creator/{{Disney}} [[KeepCirculatingTheTapes suppressing the source material]], few people realize that the ''Ride/SplashMountain'' ride is actually inspired by ''Film/SongOfTheSouth'', which is based loosely on two Joel Chandler Harris's Uncle Remus books: ''Uncle Remus and His Friends'' (1892) and ''Told by Uncle Remus: New Stories of the Old Plantation'' (1905), which are compilations of folktales from the Southern United States, some of them featuring the [[RascallyRabbit trickster rabbit figure]].
43	** Also, there were probably more people familiar with ''Mr. Toad's Wild Ride'' than ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'' segment of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'' ... which was adapted from the novel ''Literature/TheWindInTheWillows'', naturally.
44	* ''{{WesternAnimation/Fantasia}}'': A particularly bad case, as due to rearranging or even removing some parts of the score, hearing the original versions may cause listeners to wonder why the music is wrong. What do you see in your mind's eye when hearing the following works:
45	** ''Theatre/TheRiteOfSpring'': A young woman being chosen as a VirginSacrifice and dancing herself to death to ensure the survival of the tribe, or the evolution of single-celled life, volcanoes, and a fight between a Stegosaurus and a period-inaccurate Tyrannosaurus rex?
46	** ''Music/NightOnBaldMountain'': A sabbath of witches convening on top of a mountain to glorify Satan, or a pagan god of darkness who wakes the spirits of the dead to dance for his amusement before being forced back to sleep by the rising dawn?
47	** One of the most well-known segments of the movie features WesternAnimation/MickeyMouse as [[SorcerersApprenticePlot Sorcerer's Apprentice]]. Few would know that this short is based on ''Der Zauberlehrling''[[note]]German for "The Sorcerer's Apprentice"[[/note]], a German poem by Creator/JohannWolfgangVonGoethe.

Context AdaptationDisplacement / Disney