Sleeping Beauty: Perrault vs Disney

Another classic! This time from Charles Perrault, whose stories are well known, but the poor guy just seems to be invisible for the rest of the world population, unlike brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen.

Another Disney classic that we all (at least most of us girls) enjoyed deeply. I really liked the scene in which prince Phillip goes and fights for the princess. In fact, his heroic deeds make him the FIRST Disney prince to do anything "princely" beside just looking good and marrying the princess. Also, have you noticed he's the first Disney prince who actually had a NAME? Poor Snow White and Cinderella princes. I guess we'll just keep calling them both "Prince" for the rest of eternity.

Anyway, this is what actually happened in Perrault's tale (which happens to actually be Giambattista Basile's tale… poor guy, not even I knew of his existence until I just researched!):

In Giambattista Basile's tale (which is the actual origin of the Sleeping Beauty story), a king happens to walk by Sleeping Beauty's castle and knock on the door. When no one answers, he climbs up a ladder through a window. He finds the princess, and calls to her, but as she is unconscious, she does not wake up. Well, dear reader, he carries her to the bed and rapes her. Then he just leaves. She awakens after she gives birth because one of her twins sucks the flax (from the spindle) out of her finger. The king comes back, and despite him having raped her, they end up falling in love? However, another big problem: the king is still married to someone else. His wife finds out and not only tries to have the twins killed, cooked, and fed to the king, but also tries to burn the princess at the stake. Luckily, she is unsuccessful. The king and the princess get married and live happily ever after (despite the fact that he raped her). Perrault's adaptation of Basile's updated adaptation of the story (a much tamer version) is probably what was used for the Disney adaptation, as they are much more similar.

…yeah, that is your actual Sleeping Beauty story. A lot worse than the original Snow White or Cinderella. As it said before, there are more decent versions which are most likely the ones that were used for the Disney film. Conclusion: unless you are some kind of mentally ill or perverted person, you'll agree with me that the Disney version is undeniably better. WAY better. And I'll also keep Disney's prince Phillip, thank you very much.

(Credit goes to Huffington Post again!)