The original fairy tale stories can date back as far as the 10th century. Many people believe that the adaptation of fairy tales should stay faithful to the original story. But sorry to burst your bubbles, in fairy tale there is no specific rule to follow directly the old story. Fantasies and fictions can be created by mere adaptation of a fairy tale inspiration.
In fact, Disney has been experimenting with changing the characters, backstories, and endings since 1920s to cater the taste of the new generation. Just like 'The Little Mermaid', the story remake has been trending lately because of the actress Halle Bailey as Ariel who has pale skin and red hair. It may seem that the story is not going to be faithful to the original.
Wait till you know what the original fairy tale endings are really like.
Sleeping Beauty
To sum up the story, a princess is cursed to sleep forever until she is awakened by a true love's kiss.
The first version of the tale was written in 1934 by an Italian author Giambattista Basile. The story is outrageously horrible and a lot more complicated.
In the original ending of this story, Sleeping Beauty was already found sleeping in an abandoned castle. A king not a prince found her and who proceeds to have sex with her while unconscious of everything. To simplify the term, the king raped the poor girl and returned to his wife, Maleficent.
Sleeping Beauty got pregnant and gave birth to a boy and a girl while sleeping. There are these two fairies caring for the twins and when they attempt to make them breastfeed from their sleeping mom, the twins suck on her poisoned finger. Then, Sleeping Beauty finally awakens from a deep sleep. After some time, the king returned to the abandoned castle and finds Sleeping Beauty consciously taking care of the children. He told what happen and they surprisingly fall in love.
Little Red Riding Hood
This has one of the more horrible original fairy tale endings ever written. In 1922, Disney created a short cartoon version of "Little Red Riding Hood," based on a folktale that had been passed on from years ago, dating as far back as the 10th century. A story this ancient would naturally already have several variations. In the original version, Red's mother bakes donuts for her to bring to her ill grandmother. Along the way, she runs into a wolf, and she tells him where she is going. The wolf advises her to pick flowers for her grandma, which will give the wolf enough time to beat her on her way to grandma's house. The wolf then eats the grandmother and dons her clothes. When Red arrived at her grandmother's house, the wolf proceeded to eat her as well.
In one of the more famous later versions written by Angela Carter and titled "The Company of Wolves," the wolf is a werewolf who, disguised as a hunter, goes after a newly menstruating lady, Red Riding Hood. The wolf ate the grandmother, as it had been in the original version. He was about to eat Red Riding Hood as well, but instead, ended up being seduced by the girl's youth and chose to sleep with her.
See Also: Making A Difference in College: Students Dress as Fairy Tale Princesses And Visit Sick Kids
The Little Mermaid
This predominantly loved Disney tale was inspired by a Danish fairy tale written by Hans Christian Andersen and published in 1873. The original story shared the life of a mermaid who saves and falls in love with a drowning prince. Theirs could have been a good love story, except for one problem: she lives under the sea, and he is human.
A Sea Witch offers a potion that would give the mermaid human legs and solve her love problems. In exchange, her tongue and beautiful voice will be taken from her. She drinks the potion, knowing that she would never be able to come back to her home in the sea and that she would only get a human soul if the prince falls in love and marries her. If he marries someone else, however, she will die of a broken heart and turn into sea foam at dawn.
She meets the prince, and they started hanging out. Unfortunately, he is already set to marry someone else. Just before dawn when the prince is supposed to get married, the mermaid's sisters brought her a knife from the Sea Witch. If she kills the prince, she can be free of the curse and can return to ocean life. The little mermaid refused and instead, she throws herself into the sea.
In its original fairy tale ending, the Little Mermaid turns sea foam and ascends into the atmosphere, where she is given a second chance to earn a soul by doing good deeds for 300 years.
Hope this will not ruin your childhood years. But knowing the truth behind each story gets you a little bit of an advantage from understanding why these stories have different versions.
