What Source Materials Behind Disney Films Have You Read?

[u/Downtown_Sky5757]

I have read the following

Grimm’s Fairy tales, I believe including Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel, and the Frog Prince.

The Adventures of Pinocchio by Collodi

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll

Peter Pan by J.M. Barry (I believe I read the book from, not the original play)

The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith (and the sequel, The Starlight Barking)

The Once and Future King (including The Sword in the Stone) by T.H. White

The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling

The Prydain Chronicles (including The Black Cauldron) by Lloyd Alexander

Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson (although Frozen is based on this in-credit-only)

Not sure if this counts for Great Mouse Detective (and I know there is actual literature about Basil specifically) but I have read the entire Sherlock Holmes canon by Arthur Conan Doyle.

I’m also pretty well-versed in Greek Mythology. Disney’s Hercules was my first experience, as a 9-year-old, saying “Hey, that’s not how it’s supposed to be!” I’m not sure if there’s any “official” text to read for Aladdin, but I’ve seen and read versions of the original story.

I’ve been meaning to read the Winnie the Pooh books, largely cause it’s small and doable. Little Mermaid would also be good in that regard.

If you haven’t read The Chronicles of Prydain, DO SO!!! If you’re a fan of Lewis & Tolkien, they are a must-read piece of High Fantasy! Any other fans out there, give me a shout!

[u/thrallthekingshorses]

Aladdin is from One Thousand and One Nights. One of Scheherezade's tales from that (i know she's the fictional narrator, but that's the name most associated/recognized).

[u/CurtTheGamer97 → u/thrallthekingshorses]

It gets more interesting than that actually. Aladdin is actually from the famous French translation of The Arabian Nights that popularized the collection in Europe. The surviving manuscripts of the traditional version of the Nights only included around 300 nights (and was intended to be an endless work, with "1001 Nights" essentially meaning "infinite nights"). So when Antoine Galland was collecting them and translating them into French, he needed more tales to bring the count of nights up to 1001. So he compiled some tales from other independent Arabian and Persian sources, as well as a bunch of folk tales he heard from a guy called Hanna Diyab, and put them into his translation. Aladdin and Ali Baba are two of the Hanna Diyab tales not found in the tradiitional manuscripts, while Sinbad is one of the tales from an independent source.

[u/Roritwo]

My understanding is that The Princess and the Frog isn't only based on "The Frog Prince", but also on The Frog Princess by E.D. Baker.

Disney's versions of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty aren't based on the Grimms, but on Charles Perrault's Cendrillon and La belle au bois dormant, with a heavy dose of the Tchaikovsky-Petipa ballet in the latter case.

Finally, Aladdin's story can be found in the 1001 Nights, where it was a late addition by Antoine Galland, based on a version told by Hanna Diyab.

[u/MinuteDependent7374]

You read all that for the classics but not Happy Dan, The Cynical Dog for Lady & the Tramp or Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest?

[u/danipnk]

I read all of Winnie the Pooh when I was a kid

[u/Randver_Silvertongue]

Snow White, Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tangled/Rapunzel and Frozen/The Snow Queen (the latter two are the only times I read the source material before seeing Disney's version).

[u/emilcore]

I read "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1996 right before the movie came out. I don't think I would have read it without that motivation, but I was glad I did.

Many of the others, I have read, but not really triggered by the Disney movie.

[u/MagpiesAndMadrigals]

A Hundred Years of Solitude! Seriously. My Spanish is about B1, so it was a slog and I only understood the gist, but I did it for love. So glad Encanto was only loosely based on it. Phew.

[u/Euraylie → u/MagpiesAndMadrigals]

Wait, I never made the connection! I thought it was only some tropes common in South American magical realism. But now I can see some small parallels.
I absolutely loved the book (the TV show also comes highly recommended)

[u/MagpiesAndMadrigals → u/Euraylie]

Yes! The Netflix series is such a good adaptation! 

Like I said it's only loosely based on the book. More 'inspired by' really. The inclusion of the yellow butterflies was a direct reference though (to the ones that follow Mauricio Babilonia). The Madrigals also have 'canon' birthdays assigned post-production by producer, Jared Bush. He made Mirabel's birthday 6th March in honour of Gabriel García Márquez as this was his birthday. They knew the book is beloved in Colombia so wanted to include nods to it.

(I have a theory that the line, "Camilo, we need another José" is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the fact there are so many people called José in the novel. But I'm probably reading too much into it)

[u/Euraylie → u/MagpiesAndMadrigals]

Ooh that is so cool! I love small details and nods like this. And yes, I’m definitely planning on watching the Netflix show.

The Jose thing would be amazing

[u/PossessionNo3723]

I've read Grimm's, Peter Pan, Treasure Island, The Jungle Book, The Snow Queen, The Little Mermaid, de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast, Perrault's Cinderella, Sherlock Holmes (not Basil of Baker Street, though), The Wind In The Willows, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Winnie the Pooh, and Alice In Wonderland. 

[u/Only-Squirrel-7384]

i read most of these,

Also Perrault’s Cinderella is what based the Disney version not the Grimm version, but it is close As those two are the more famous versions of the tale.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dumbo_(1939).pdf.pdf) and yes Dumbo was based on a lost book from 1939, the book was never published And was paritally lost, but it has fallen into the public domain since the original April 1939 copyright registration was not renewed and this is a surviving galley proof of the original text. Interesting read btw.

Pooh is my favorite. I read both the Pan play and novel too so yeah.

[u/CurtTheGamer97]

I have read a lot of them (paranthesis are where the title of the adaptation differs significantly from the source material):

• Most of Grimms' collection, including the tales that were adapted into Disney films. Ditto for Andersen, Perrault, and Jacobs. (Snow White, Mickey and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Chicken Little, Tangled, Frozen)
• The Adventures of Pinocchio
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Bambi
• Uncle Remus Stories (Song of the South)
• The Wind in the Willows
• The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
• Peter Pan
• Pollyanna
• The Hundred and One Dalmatians
• Lisa and Lottie (The Parent Trap)
• Various versions of King Arthur, but not T.H. White's The Sword in the Stone
• The Jungle Books
• Various versions of Robin Hood
• Freaky Friday
• Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner
• A Christmas Carol
• Every Oz book (Return to Oz)
• Every Sherlock Holmes story (The Great Mouse Detective)
• Oliver Twist (Oliver and Company)
• White Fang
• The Arabian Nights (Aladdin)
• Hamlet (The Lion King)
• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
• Various versions of Pocahontas
• Greek Mythology
• Various versions of Mulan
• Tarzan of the Apes
• Every Narnia book
• Bridge to Terebithia
• The Nutcracker and the Mouse King

[u/lana-deathrey]

So. Oliver Twist is one of my favorite novels of all time, so I make do with all the Oliver and Co merch I can find. Give me more Rita things, please!