12 True Stories That May Have Inspired Disney Cartoons

Disney cartoons have enchanted us since our childhood and, in many cases, continue to move us as adults. No wonder, since they are stories that awaken feelings and even identification with some part of our lives.

Perhaps the secret to the quality of these stories is precisely the inspiration from people’s real stories. Yes, because many of the stories told in movies, including Disney ones, are inspired by reality or find facts that are very similar to fiction.

Then the awesome.club gathered here some real stories that inspired Disney animations or even are so similar that it’s hard to believe they are just coincidences.

The Amerindian Pocahontas really existed and inspired many stories and legends, including the animation released by Disney in 1995. However, that was not her real name, but a childhood nickname that became popular and meant “spoiled child”. She was actually called Matoaka and was born in 1596, daughter of Chief Powhatan, who led several tribes on the coast that today encompasses the state of Virginia, in the United States.

Another animation character that really existed was the Englishman John Smith, a settler who lived in the region. Captured by the Amerindians, he was saved by Matoaka who, at the age of 10, convinced his father that harming John would attract the fury of the other settlers. Matoaka intervened twice more for the settlers, bringing more peace between the peoples. However, she never fell in love with John Smith, who was already a middle-aged man. She married another white man, John Rolfe.

For the plot of the animated and live-action Mulan, Disney drew inspiration from stories told in China as far back as the 4th or 5th century. The Ballad of Mulan. Afterwards, the same stories continued to be told through the centuries in poems, plays and books.

According to Chinese accounts, Hua Mulan fought in the war for 10 to 12 years and was even promoted to general. In the meantime, she fell in love with an official named Jin Yong. And he was attracted to her too, but only after discovering that she was, in fact, a woman. When the conflicts ended, the emperor wanted to decorate Hua Mulan, but he only wanted a horse to return to his family.

We can say that Moana didn’t really exist, but that doesn’t make the story told in the animation completely invented. It took the creators five years to bring the story of this princess from the South Pacific, as they were based on real history, customs and mythology of the Polynesian people. They were a pioneering people who, thousands of years ago, used ships to navigate distances of up to 2,400 kilometers.

The people existed, their travels across the ocean existed, the god Maui also existed and even the chickens are part of the history of the Polynesians, since they were not native to the cleared islands and they had to take with them. But what about Moana? If you want someone to inspire you, we suggest getting to know the story of Kala Tanaka, a Hawaiian who uses the same Polynesian techniques to navigate, that is, without modern instruments. She even uses her hand to calculate her route, just like Moana.

Many of the stories told in Disney animations were inspired by the tales of the Brothers Grimm. They, in turn, were inspired by other stories. In the case of Snow White, the authors would have based themselves on the German Baroness Maria Sophia von Erthal, daughter of Prince Philipp Christoph and Baroness Von Bettendorff. When her mother died, her father remarried, but her stepmother was not very fond of her stepchildren.

You might rightly argue that boring stepmother stories can be commonplace and don’t warrant inspiration. But just wait: the castle in which Maria Sophia lived was in the city of Lohr, where there was a very dangerous forest, because there were many thieves. To complete, the castle had a mirror with a perfectly smooth and uniform surface, something that was very difficult in the 18th century. The mirror is still on display at the ‎Museum Spessart in Castle Lohr‎, where Maria Sophia was born.

Another possible inspiration is that of Margaretha von Waldeck, daughter of a count named Filipe, who also had a stepmother who pursued her, as Margaretha was very beautiful. Filipe owned copper mines, where several children worked, which could be the inspiration for the seven dwarfs. It is suspected that Margaretha died of poisoning, but her stepmother died years before, so she was not to blame. The most accepted theory is that the Grimms mixed the two stories to create Snow White.

This is yet another true story that inspired the original tale which, in turn, inspired Disney. Petrus Gonsalvus, or Pedro González, was a Spaniard born in 1537 with a medical condition called hypertrichosis. That is, his body was covered with thick hair, except for the palms of his hands and soles of his feet. At the time he lived, people were very superstitious and medicine was not so advanced, which led everyone to believe that he was a beast or a werewolf.

However, despite all the fear and prejudice, Pedro came out on top. Adopted at the age of 10 by Henry II, King of France, he learned to read and write, learned other languages ​​and everything a nobleman should know. The court was amazed by the “transformation”, but today we know that nothing much happened. He was just a kid with a lot of fur, no freak.

Pedro married Catarina and had seven children, four of whom were born with hypertrichosis. They moved to Parma, Italy, where Pedro spent the rest of his life in secret. Despite talking and acting like a noble, people never treated him as such. He and his children were constantly the subject of people’s studies and curiosity. The last record of Pedro’s existence was on his grandson’s christening attendance list.

Unfortunately, when writing the book that inspired Disney, JM Barrie didn’t meet any kids who flew and didn’t want to grow up, or who lived in a fantasy land. However, the author was inspired by a family of five brothers, the Llewelyn Davies family, when he came across them playing in Kensington Gardens. One of them was named Peter. The boys’ parents died years later, and Barrie became, informally, the guardian of the five, since he had no children.

The film In Search of Neverland tells this story in an adapted form, with some changes. For example, in the film, when Barrie meets the brothers, there are four of them and their mother is already a widow. In reality, when Barrie met them there were only three of them and the parents were alive. Even so, it is worth knowing the film, which has Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet in the lead roles.

What if we told you that there really was an elephant that inspired the creation of Dumbo? It was called Jumbo and, please don’t be disappointed, it didn’t fly. Captured in Africa as a puppy, he was taken to London in 1865 and was very successful, including the children of Queen Victoria as fans. He was later sold to a US circus and had crowds of fans saying goodbye at the port on the day of his departure.

Winnie the Pooh, Christopher Robin and even the other characters from the animation really existed and inspired the author, Alan Alexander Milne, to create the stories that were later acquired by Disney. Christopher was actually Christopher Robin Milne, the author’s son. He loved to visit, at the London Zoo, an American black bear who went by the name of Winnipeg, or by the affectionate nickname of Winnie. Another favorite animal of Christopher’s was Pooh, a swan.

Christopher liked Winnie so much that he named his teddy bear after him. The toy, along with Christopher’s others, inspired the author to create the characters in his book. Even the Ashdown Forest in which the stories take place is real, and is about 50 kilometers from London.

Mowgli was a boy who was adopted by wolves, learned to communicate with them and grew up with their customs. This is the story told by the Indian Rudyard Kipling in the book of short stories The Jungle Book, from 1893. The author never admitted it, but his story may have been inspired by Dina Sanichar, a boy who was found in the forests of India in 1872, living with a pack of wolves, and who had customs such as gnawing bones, walking on all fours and not wearing clothes. Could it be just coincidences?

We have another real story that has many coincidences with a Disney animation, in the case of Up: Altas Aventuras. Edith Macefield, aged 85, turned down an offer of $1 million for her home, which didn’t stop Barry Martin from building his development around it. Barry visited the lady every day, trying to change her mind, without success. This whole story happened in 2006 and Edith died in 2008, at her house, as was her wish.

At the time of the refusal, the old woman became a kind of local heroine, for defending her home, which was already over 100 years old. Pixar is keen to point out that it was not inspired by Edith’s story for its animation, since they started writing the script in 2004. Even so, in 2009, they placed some balloons over the house, to promote their film. The house still stands in the same spot, standing still, and is currently owned by a real estate investor, Greg Pinneo, who paid close to $300,000 for it.

The 1996 design was inspired by Victor Hugo’s novel, written in 1831, and which tells the fictional story of Quasimodo, a man who took care of the bells of the Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris. Until then, the greatest connection with reality is the portrayal of life in the city during the 15th century, in the reign of Louis XI.

But here comes a turning point. In 2010, historians discovered the existence of a man who may have inspired Victor Hugo to create the character Quasimodo. They uncovered the memoirs of a sculptor who lived at the same time as the writer, worked at Notre-Dame cathedral and had a hunchback. His name was Trajano and he didn’t like to mix with the other sculptors, despite being very kind. However, there is no evidence that Victor and Trajan ever met.

Finally, the most recent film on this list, Luca, is a happier story. The sea monsters aren’t real, but Luca and Alberto’s adventures in a small Italian town in the 1950s are completely based on facts. More specifically, they’re based on the director’s childhood…