WARNING: the original stories to three of our favorite films are very gruesome and disturbing so if you are squeamish, click off and go play outside.

Snow White And The Seven Dwarves written by The Brothers Grimm

• Film: Snow White is the fairest in the land and her stepmother Queen Grimhilde is jealous of that. She sends a hunter to kill her and bring back her heart. He doesn’t commit to the act so the Queen decides to kill her herself. Snow White stumbles upon the cottage of the seven dwarves, not much difference there. The Queen disguises herself as an old woman and feeds Snow White a poisoned apple which she eats and dies. The dwarves go after The Queen but she stumbles off a cliff and gets squished by a rock. The dwarves have a funeral for Snow White in the woods and Prince Ferdinand comes by. He kisses her which wakes her up. (Where’s the consent?) They then ride off on his horse to his castle.
• Book: Queen Grimhilde sends a hunter to kill her and bring back her lungs and liver. He doesn’t commit so he kills a boar and takes its organs instead. The Queen is satisfied thinking that it’s Snow White and eats the organs. (Ew). The Queen attempts to kill Snow White three different times; tying her corset so tight she passes out, selling her a poisoned comb, and finally feeding her the poisoned apple. When Prince Ferdinand goes to her funeral, he insists on taking her dead body away even though he had not met her. (Creepy). The dwarves agree and carry her coffin out but one of them stumbles and the piece of the apple falls out of her mouth. She then wakes up and rides off with the Prince. The Queen goes to the wedding of Snow White and Ferdinand but as her punishment for trying to kill her, she dances on burning coals until she dies. (Oof).

The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen

• Film: Ariel is a young, adventurous and carefree mermaid with daddy issues. Her father, King Triton, forbids her and the entire kingdom from going to the surface but Ariel doesn’t obey him and desires to be with humans. When she spots a ship and looks at the humans, she spots Prince Eric and instantly falls in love with him. (Somehow). After the ship catches on fire, she rescues him and pulls him to a nearby beach. After her father destroys a statue of Eric once he finds out about her going to the surface again, she sneaks to see Ursula who is a sea witch. She grants her request to be human but in exchange for her voice which forbids her from speaking or singing. Ariel goes up to the surface as a human and (somehow) spots Eric on the beach and he invites her into his castle. Ariel and Eric connect despite her being mute. Ursula uses her powers to human as well but uses Ariel’s voice to hypnotize Eric. It works as the morning after that, they decide to marry on a ship. Ariel crashes the wedding and gets her voice back. After a long fight with Ursula, Ariel and Eric get married.
• Book: A lot is mainly the same for the first part. Ariel still makes the request to become human but instead of exchanging her voice, she exchanges her tongue. Ursula warns her that once she turns human, she can’t return to the ocean. She gets her legs but every step she makes on land makes her feel like she’s walking on shards of glass. Her mission is mostly the same as she needs Prince Eric to fall in love with her and kiss her. His father makes him marry the other kingdoms daughter no matter how much he doesn’t want to. He only loves the woman “from the temple” who he believes saved him but once he is told that the other princess is the woman from the temple, he goes along with marrying her. Ariel is heartbroken once they marry and thinks about her awaiting death. Her sisters give her a knife to use to kill Eric and once his blood drips on her feet, she’ll be a mermaid again. She can’t go through with the murder and jumps into the ocean, dissolving into sea foam.

The Hunchback Of Notre-Dame written by Victor Hugo

• Film: A group of gypsies sneak illegally into Paris but are ambushed by Archdeacon Claude Frollo. A woman attempts to flee with her deformed baby but is killed by Claude Frollo. He tries to kill the baby too but the Archdeacon of the cathedral steps in and accuses Frollo of murdering an innocent woman. He’ll atone for his sin by raising the baby and names him Quasimodo. Years later, Quasimodo grows to be kind but isolates himself in the cathedral. Three stone gargoyles, Victor, Hugo, and Laverne, are his only company. (Ha puns). They encourage him to go the Festival of Fools. Although Frollo warns him that he’ll be sunned, he goes to the festival. He is at first celebrated then humiliated. Frollo refuses to help but Esmeralda, a sweet gypsy, frees him and uses magic to escape. Frollo then sends him back to the cathedral. Phoebus later finds Esmeralda and tells her that he won’t frame her for witchcraft. The gargoyles tell Quasimodo to reveal to Esmeralda that he has feelings for her but is heartbroken once he finds out that she and Phoebus have fallen in love. Frollo plans to burn Esmeralda at the stake for rejecting his advances but Quasimodo rescues her. He and Frollo fight on the edge of the cathedral and Frollo falls into his death. Quasimodo accepts that Phoebus and Esmeralda fell in love and they encourage him to leave the cathedral. The citizens accept him and hail him as a hero.
• Book: Quasimodo was abandoned at birth by his mother at the steps of Notre-Dame and then adopted by Archdeacon Claude Frollo. He has a hunched back and has other deformities but has a heart of gold. He is became bell ringer for the Notre-Dame cathedral and hides out in there too. Once he is humiliated by the town, a beautiful gypsy named Esmeralda takes pity on him and becomes friends with him while he falls in love with her. Frollo, creepily obsessed with Esmeralda, convinces Quasimodo to kidnap her but his attempt fails by the King’s Archers, Phoebus, also takes a liking in Esmeralda. Quasimodo is imprisoned for attempted kidnapping and is tormented by his captors. Esmeralda takes care of him and Quasimodo’s devotion grows. Frollo, in a jealous rage, stabs Phoebus and frames Esmeralda for the crime. Quasimodo attempts to rescue her but she is still hanged. Seeing her lifeless body, he cries out “there is all I loved”. In grief and despair, Quasimodo throws Frollo off the cathedral tower. Later, there are two skeletons seen at Esmeralda’s tomb; that of a woman and that of  a hunchback embracing her.

Image Credit: Snow White original, Snow White movie, The Little Mermaid original, The Little Mermaid movie, Hunchback original, Hunchback movie

Information Sources: The Vintage News, Quiet Lunch, Britannica

Featured Image Credit: Disney Logo