Frozen vs. The Snow Queen

Christmas can be full of excitement, snowy landscapes and family bickering. So what better time to look at Disney’s Frozen?(1) Based on The Snow Queen (2), it’s about two sisters forced apart by fear and together again by love, and the story enjoyed a similar bout of see-sawing. There were talks about an adaptation way back in 1943 …

The Rescuers vs. Miss Bianca

With its female co-star, female villain and subliminal female nudity, Disney's The Rescuers saw more ladies get the limelight. Released in 1977, it was a testament to Bernard and Bianca's prowess. Not only did the mice rescue little orphan Penny, but they also lifted Disney out of a rut by securing their first big hit since Walt's death in 1966. …

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs vs. Sneewittchen

Who would've thought that the story of a wicked queen, a princess, seven dwarfs and an apple could have kick-started the legacy of one of the biggest animation studios of all time? Nobody apparently, as not only did Walt Disney have to mortgage both his house and studio to finance the film, but pretty much …

The Fox and the Hound vs. The Fox and the Hound

It's rather apt that Disney's The Fox and the Hound and Daniel P. Mannix's The Fox and the Hound are about as compatible as, um, a real life fox and hound. Part of the reason was good old fashioned politics. To carry on the Disney legacy, many "new bloods" were hired to work with the …

Pocahontas vs. The Story of Pocahontas

Given the liberties Disney have taken with some of their stories, most audiences will take their films with a pinch of salt. However, if it’s based on the life of a real person, the resulting taste can be a bitter one at best. In the case of Pocahontas, it can be positively poisonous. Set in 17th …

Tangled vs. Rapunzel

Our first foray into CGI Disney, Tangled is based on the tale of Rapunzel, the girl with the long golden hair who uses it as a ladder to let people into her tower. Interestingly, the DVD box says the source text is "hilarious", which is a slight departure from the original claim of "inspires Nazism". Okay, that's an …

The Hunchback of Notre Dame vs. Notre-Dame de Paris

The 1996 film The Hunchback of Notre Dame saw Disney take more than a few risks with their storytelling. Featuring darker adult topics such as religious genocide and lust, it also toed the line with some pole dancing and the first openly gay Disney character (non-human, but it's a start). Since this left many people …

Tarzan vs. Tarzan of the Apes

Set in the early 20th Century, Disney’s Tarzan is the story of a man who is raised by apes in the wilds of Africa and  discovered by his own kind years later. Cue the “nature versus nurture” argument, identity crises on both sides, and lots of partial nudity. One of the most popular and famous …

Sleeping Beauty vs. Sole, Luna e Talia

Sleeping Beauty is based on the story of a princess who is put to sleep by an evil curse and awakened years later by a handsome prince. The tale of the laziest dating method ever may go back as far as 14th Century Spain, so as you can imagine, tracking down an appropriate source text …

Hercules vs. Heracles

Set in Ancient Greece, Hercules is by far one of Disney's most happy-go-lucky films. It's about Zeus' mortal son Hercules, who seeks to regain his place among the other gods on Mount Olympus by becoming a true hero. Helping him along the way are his trainer Philoctetes (voiced by Danny De Vito), love interest Megara, …

Aladdin vs. Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp

Aladdin is based on one of the best known stories from the One Thousand and One Nights or Arabian Nights collection. It's the tale of a peasant boy who finds a magical oil lamp with a genie inside, who grants him pretty much anything he wishes. There are many variations of the story (thanks in …

The Jungle Book vs. The Jungle Books

Disney's The Jungle Book is inspired by Rudyard Kipling's novel The Jungle Books - specifically, the stories of Mowgli, a young boy raised by animals who must one day return to the man village. For anyone unfamiliar with the non-cake-related Mr. Kipling, he was considered to be one of England's finest writers and poets during …

Bambi vs. Bambi: A Life in the Woods

Simba and Mufasa weren't the first animal royalty to stand nobly atop a cliff. Otherwise known as "the one where his mum gets shot", Bambi is pure vintage Disney and was released in 1942. It's based on the 1928 novel by Felix Salten (born Siegmund Salzmann), a Jewish Hungarian living in Austria. Due to the …

The Little Mermaid vs. Den Lille Havfrue

The Little Mermaid is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a mermaid who falls in love with a prince and becomes human. It marked the beginning of the Disney renaissance in the late 1980s, with the studio returning to what they did best: animated re-tellings of classic stories. Since you’d have a job …

Mulan vs. The Legend of Hua Mulan

Based on a legend from medieval China, Mulan is the story of a girl who disguises herself as a man and goes to war in place of her father. At the time of the film's release in 1998, it was widely rumoured that the Chinese government banned it because they were so insulted by Disney's …

Beauty and the Beast vs. La Belle et la Bête

Widely regarded as one of Disney's best films, Beauty and the Beast is based on a French fairy tale about a beautiful woman who falls in love with a beast. Fortunately, it was written in the goode olde dayes before the internet, so the message of "it's what's inside that counts" resonates more strongly than …