Where do Disney stories come from? For many years, Disney has found inspiration across multiple genres to build the basis for its animated features. In the last 20 years, however, Disney has begun working with original storylines that use familiar motifs and elements to appeal to fans of all ages.
Since Disney’s founding in the 1920s, eight fairy tales with European roots have been used as source material for feature films. From the Brothers Grimm tale of Snow White to Hans Christian Andersen’s story of the snow queen—the inspiration for Frozen—Disney has relied on these classics to create memorable characters. While the original tales often feature more violence and bloodshed, especially when it comes to the fate of villains, Disney versions don’t shy away from scenes and plotlines that add dramatic tension. Sometimes plot points are altered or eliminated in order to make the stories family-friendly and promote a “happily ever after” ending. For example, Andersen’s original tale of the little mermaid tells of her demise after she is unwilling to kill her beloved prince, thus breaking the sea witch’s spell that made her human but voiceless. In the Disney film The Little Mermaid, Ursula the sea witch transforms into a human to steal the prince away from Ariel the mermaid, but is thwarted by Ariel’s friends. A final battle between King Triton, Ariel’s father, and Ursula leads to Ursula’s destruction and Triton’s concession to turn his daughter into a human so that she may marry her prince.
Fairytales and myths from other cultures have also provided fodder for Disney stories. The 1992 film Aladdin was adapted from a story found in Arabian Nights, a collection of West and South Asian folklore dating back to the 8th century. The Greco-Roman myth of Hercules was the inspiration for the 1997 film of the same name.
English folklore and legends were the basis for several Disney stories as well. The legend of Robin Hood and his band of merry men was retold using animated animals in various roles in the 1973 film Robin Hood. The Sword in the Stone (1963) was based on author T.H. White’s version of medieval Arthurian legends and featured Merlin the magician as a tutor and mentor for the future King Arthur.
The first part of T.H. White's The Once and Future King was the basis for The Sword in the Stone.
Many novels have served as source material for Disney films over the years. English author A.A. Milne’s popular children’s tales of a young boy and his stuffed bear were the basis for The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (1977). Lewis Carroll’s stories - and several poems as well - were compiled to create the fantastical world and characters of Alice in Wonderland (1951). Even French author Victor Hugo of Les Misérables fame received the Disney treatment with their 1996 animated feature based on his novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.
Poetry has also inspired Disney films. The Sorcerer’s Apprentice sequence in Fantasia (1940) was based on a Johann Wolfgang von Goethe poem, and the 6th century Chinese poem “The Ballad of Mulan” was the foundation for Disney’s 1998 animated feature simply titled Mulan.
While many Disney fans are likely aware that Peter Pan (1953) was based on a J.M. Barrie play first produced in 1904, they may not realize that Shakespeare has also been “Disney-ized.” Hamlet, the tragedy of a young prince whose father is murdered by his brother, was one of the influences for The Lion King (1994).
Original playbill for Peter Pan 1904 production.
To date, only one Disney animated feature has been based on actual people and historical events. Pocahontas (1995) tells a fictionalized version of the Native American woman’s relationship with colonial settlers in Jamestown, Virginia. The film was panned by several critics as depicting Native Americans in a negative light, and the Powhatan tribe publicly stated the Disney film “perpetuate[d] a dishonest and self-serving myth at the expense of the Powhatan Nation.”
Near the end of the 20th century, Disney animators began making features based on original scripts. From 2000-2002, Dinosaur, The Emperor’s New Groove, Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and Lilo & Stitch were released. Three of the four films deviated from the award-winning animated musical format that Disney mastered during its renaissance of the late 80s and early 90s. Only Lilo & Stitch included a full soundtrack with songs by Elvis Presley.