The Origins of Disney

The Disney princess stories were adapted from The Grimm's Fairy Tales. Walt Dinsey recalls sitting on the floor with his siblings while his grandmother would read them the stories in excitement. The original Grimm Brothers’ stories were written in order to inspire fear in young children and encourage them to do the right thing according to middle class Christian ethos. Disney adapted these stories and gave them positive endings but stayed true to the ethos of the original stories. At first, Disney received backlash for being unoriginal; furthermore, scholars felt that the princess movies were too far from the original plot and ruined the classic stories. However, nowadays, most people don’t even know that the stories are based on the Grimm fairy tales and Disney’s adaptations are accepted. Walt Disney defended himself and explained that in the time of the Grimm brothers, most people were illiterate; therefore, the stories were passed down orally. This caused everyone to modify them each time they were told and the Disney movies are another example of that modification. Additionally, Walt Disney shares his reasoning behind why every story is incredibly defined in terms of good and evil, protagonist and villain etc. He believes children think in a concrete way; therefore, he makes it easier for them to understand each story.