Who were the Disney princesses in reality?

Disney movies are often based on very old tales. For a long time, stories were created based on these tales and were very successful, but it seems that these original stories are increasingly forgotten. Always very rich in details, the plots usually follow, in general, the old tales. Only a few endings and some tragic scenes are changed, but the beauty of these films has enchanted and continues to enchant many generations.

We have gathered some unusual data about the origin of the famous Disney princesses. Check out who they were.

There is an official princess club, which entry is only allowed through a special coronation held at Disney Parks. But being a Disney princess doesn’t necessarily mean being noble; the process was invented just to increase sales of children’s products. Today, in the club, there are 11 princesses: Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Jasmine, Pocahontas, Tiana, Merida, Mulan, Rapunzel and Aurora.

Many of these stories, when played on the big screen, retained details of the tales of the past.

For example, Mulan is the account of a Chinese legend about a warrior woman. The main difference between the movie and the original story is that the cover was blown years after the war, when Hua Mulan was already a respected official of the Imperial Court. The story has been known since the 6th century.

Merida is a character invented especially for the film, as are princesses Tiana and Jasmine. In the original Aladdin story, Princess Badrulbudur is mentioned, but she doesn’t play a very significant role. The film The princess and the Frog was made based on the tale the frog prince, in which the princess is the arrogant daughter of the king, completely different from the hardworking and loving Tiana. Rapunzel’s story, on the other hand, remained almost unchanged. In the tale, written by the Brothers Grimm, she was not royalty, but just a commoner who met the king’s son, with whom she had 2 children. When his evil stepmother finds out, she blinds the prince, but he is healed by Rapunzel’s tears.

Other classic tales have been greatly altered.

The plot about the girl who married the ruler thanks to a lost shoe exists in the folklore of many peoples. Today more than 300 versions of this tale are known. The oldest of these was written in Ancient Egypt – Strabo’s stories -, approximately the year 7 BC

Other sources say that the girl’s name was Rodophis, and she was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery.

The foot size detail probably came from the Chinese version of Cinderella, first written in 850 CE, during the times of the Tang dynasty. Legend has it that, after that, it became common to squeeze women’s feet to make them smaller, a detail that passed into children’s tales. The smaller the foot, the more perfect the woman, which would increase her chances of marrying someone.

In addition, there is a theory that, in reality, the European Cinderella shoe was made of skin and not glass, since in French the words are similar. The first to think this way was Honoré de Balzac. But the controversy has continued ever since. Some think that Charles Perrault made a mistake when translating, others say he made the change on purpose. Anyway, Disney studios used this version in their adaptation.

The daughter of the Powhatan leader was named Matoaka. Pocahontas was a surname given by her father which meant ‘crossing’. The story goes that she saved the English captain John Smith by covering his head with hers. Matoaka was then 12 years old. Many experts doubt this story. Afterward, John leaves Powhatan land and his fate is unknown.

But Pocahontas’ life was brilliant and quite tragic.

At the age of 17 she was captured by the English, learned their language, started to follow Christianity and adopted another name: Rebecca. After that, she married the settler John Rolfe and had a son named Thomas. They visited England, where Rebecca became very popular. On the return trip she became ill, had a high fever and died at the age of 22.

Descendants of Thomas—and therefore of Pocahontas—are First Ladies Edith Wilson and Nancy Reagan.

There are also many variations in the story of the woman who slept for 100 years. She appears in the folklore of many European countries. The classic story is attributed to Charles Perrault, in which the princess awoke not with a kiss, but simply because the time had come. Disney Studios left the story even before the kiss exactly like the original, but the ending was drastically changed.

In Charles Perrault’s story, the prince’s mother tries to kill the princess and her 2 children, but they are saved by the servant. In the version written by Italian Giambattista Basile, Princess Talia also woke up without the kiss. In her sleep, she became pregnant by a freewheeling prince, and had 2 children. Hungry, one of the little ones starts sucking his mother’s hand and pulls a thorn out of his finger. This is how Talia wakes up. The evil queen also tries to end the main character’s happiness in this version, but the story doesn’t end well anyway.

The Disney version was also changed.

In the Brothers Grimm version, written in the 19th century, the stepmother tries to kill her 4 times. At first, she orders a servant to kill her, when she was only 7 years old. She asks him to bring her liver and lungs as evidence of the murder. The evil queen eats the meat brought by him without suspecting that it was the meat of a deer. Upon discovering that the princess is still alive, the stepmother changes her appearance and gives Snow White a fitting for her dress that almost strangles her, as well as giving her hair a poisoned comb. After so many attempts, she decides to give him a poisoned apple. The dwarfs manage to save Snow White from the socket and the comb, but don’t arrive in time to save her from the apple, and place her in a crystal coffin.

Here everything changes: Snow White doesn’t wake up with a kiss. A prince is enchanted by her beauty and asks his servants to take the coffin to the palace. They do so, but on the way, one of them trips, the coffin moves and a piece of the poisoned apple comes out of the princess’s throat.

The story of the tale by Dane Hans Christian Andersen has also changed dramatically. In the cartoon, Ariel defeats Ursula with the help of Prince Eric. King Triton transforms her into a human and the film ends with a perfect wedding scene.

In the original story, the author talks a lot about religion and soul. At the end of the tale, the prince marries another woman, and the Little Mermaid must die. Her 5 sisters’ attempt to save her ends up failing, and the morning after the wedding, she dies and turns into sea foam. After some time, Andersen rewrote the ending, making her an air virgin, able to receive a soul and go to heaven.

Some researchers consider this tale an Andersen confession. They claim that he was in love with another man, but the love was unrequited. In the end, the other man married someone else. We can’t know if this is true or not, but they say he suffered a lot for love and that’s why he decided to run away from any relationship and live a life of solitude. This can be found in his journal.

The tale of a beautiful young woman who is taken prisoner by a wild beast appears in the folklore of many European countries. The most popular of these is the short story by Russian writer Sergei Aksakov, the scarlet flower🇧🇷 The origin of the plot appears in Greek legends, in the story of Eros and Psyche. In the first printed creation of Beauty and the Beast there is some interesting data that has been lost over time. The story was published by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

The tale has been turned into a story where the soul matters more than physical appearance, but many details are lost. Nevertheless, even in the short variation, Disney decided to take out Belle’s sisters. Envying Belle and the palace, they ask her sister to stay with them one more day, but the Beast had asked her to return in time, which nearly causes her death.

What did you think of these stories? Which princess do you like the most?