Once Upon a Disney

The comic has nothing to do with my post...I had a difficult time figuring out the comic for this one so I went to a fallback idea I've had for awhile.

 

I always find it funny when I find out that people's conception of fairy tales are completey Disney-fied. Not that I have anything against Disney movies! I currently have a love-hate relationship with the company, but for the most part I love the movies and, to be honest, its my childhood so it will always have a place in my heart. But you'll have to be in denial to not see how idealized the stories are. Of course, a lot of people don't know the original fairy tales very well, so they don't expect anything different. Fairy tales are not always something you would want to tell a child before going to bed. But if Disney made all their movies like that, they could potentially lose their target audience due to over-protective parents. No, Disney needs to advertise happy endings, like this:

Because if Disney was comprised of movies with more bitter endings, they wouldn't be able to sell things, like tickets to Disney World (this commercialization is mostly the 'hate' part in my love-hate relationship). Exponentially less people would go to a park that advertised 'Where dreams sometimes, but not very often, come true'.

All things said, I was very shocked when I found that my favorite fairy tale of all time is actually, as far as I know, the only one that Disney adapted without completely Disney-fying it. And, at the same time, I'm sure none of you knew that Disney even made an adaptation of it. The story is 'The Little Match Girl', and the only way to see the short animation of it is to get the special edition of The Little Mermaid on DVD. Or, you know, in this day and age, find someone who uploaded it on youtube, like I did. Its almost completley accurate to the original story, has beautiful animation, and, most importantly, not a very happy ending, depending on your look on things. But it has a lot of truth, heart-wrenching truth. I've linked it below, and you all should watch it. Its Disney at its rarest, purest form, a form I wish the company would go back to.