1. Cinderella

I think we all know the classic story of Cinderella but the Grimm Brother’s story has some variations. For example in the Grimm story the fairy godmother is a bird. Also when the Prince scours the village to find Cinderella, the step-mother forces her daughters to cut off their toes in order to fit into the shoe and the pigeons peck their eyes off as a punishment for their cruelty. Who knew a children’s story would have its roots from this! That shocking difference is why Cinderella landed at the top of my list of the real stories behind the Disney classics.

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

This well known story is about a beautiful girl whose jealous step mother hires a huntsman to kill her but instead the evil queen tricks her into eating a poisoned apple. In the end a true love’s kiss saves her. The Grimm story is similar; the only change is that the evil queens dies of exhaustion and infected burns on her feet after she is forced to dance in red hot iron shoes!

3. The Little Mermaid

In the original story of the Little Mermaid, the mermaid falls in love with a prince who is already in love with another woman. For a chance to be with him, she goes to a witch to receive human legs but there is a catch! With every step she takes, the curse causes excruciating pain. In the end the Prince marries another woman and the mermaid is offered a knife to kill him but instead she disappears in suicidal sea foam. That’s one depressing story!

4. Little Red Riding Hood

We all know that in the end, the Red Riding Hood is saved by the woodsmen who kill the wicked wolf. But in the original French version there is no woodsman and no saving; the Little Red Riding Hood takes the false directions from the wolf and ends up dead. The moral of the story is not to take advice from strangers!

5. Hansel and Gretel

In the earlier version of this story, the children end up being enslaved by the old wicked devil instead of a witch. Once he is tricked by the children, he works it out and builds a sawhorse for one of them. The children pretend to not know how to get on a sawhorse so the devil’s wife demonstrates. Meanwhile, the kids take their chance for an escape and slash her throat!

6. Sleeping Beauty

In the original tale of Sleeping Beauty the ending is not as sweet as being woken up by a prince. In reality, Sleeping Beauty is put to sleep due to a prophecy. While being asleep the king takes advantage of her, which leads her to giving birth to two children while she is still asleep. She wakes up as one of her babies removes the piece of flax from her finger by sucking it, just to find that she is a mother of two kids!

7. Goldilocks and Three Bears

This tale has two possible variations for the original story. In one of them once the bears find the Goldilocks they rip her apart and eat her. In the second variation, Goldilocks is actually an old hag who jumps out of the window when the bears wake her up, and flees with a broken neck!

8. Rumpelstiltskin

In the end of the story that we all know, Rumpelstiltskin runs away and is never seen again after the young girl guesses his name. However in the original version, Rumpelstiltskin gets so angry that he stomps his foot deep into the ground, then grabs his left leg and rips himself in a half. Talk about gruesome!

9. Pinocchio

In the original tale, Gepetto is eaten by a shark and lives in there for two years before Pinocchio saves him! Also when Pinocchio is turned into a donkey, he is bought by a musician who drowns him in the sea so he can make a new drum out of donkey’s skin. In the water, he is saved by a fish but is then devoured to the wooden bones. That is one disturbing ending…

I don’t know about you, but I definitely didn't expect such gruesome and disturbing stories to be the roots of the Disney movies that we all know and love. After all in my mind they all have a happy ending! Which story shocked you the most? Share in the comments!