Disneyfication: Difference between revisions

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A form of editing, known for often falling into [[Adaptation Decay]], that renders a story "safe" for juvenile audiences (or the parents thereof) by removing undesirable plot elements or unpleasant historical facts, adding Broadway-style production numbers, and reworking whatever else is necessary for a [[Lighter and Softer]] [[Happily Ever After]] Ending. [[Talking Animal]] sidekicks tend to be tacked on somehow.

[[Tropes Are Not Bad|This isn't always a bad thing, though.]] Done properly (i.e. not [[Tastes Like Diabetes|too cute]] or dumbed-down), the Disneyfied property can be just as entertaining as the original or even better (possibly more so if you're not a fan of [[Downer Ending|Downer Endings]], or if they've improved boring parts and given the characters personality, or fixed a [[Plot Hole]]). The actual tales themselves are often too short to adapt properly, and the expanded versions can be hit and misses. The reworked Disney versions lead to [[Adaptation Displacement]] and [[Sadly Mythtaken]], with most people being unaware that the original fairy tales might have even contained [[A Worldwide Punomenon|grimmer]] aspects. Visual representations of the fairy tales are often strongly influenced by Disney--[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White]] is seen wearing a dress with primary colors and a red bow in her hair, [[The Little Mermaid]] with red hair, a green tail, and a purple [[Seashell Bra]], and so on.

[[Tropes Are Not Bad|This isn't always a bad thing, though.]] Done properly (i.e. not [[Tastes Like Diabetes|too cute]] or dumbed-down), the Disneyfied property can be just as entertaining as the original or even better (possibly more so if you're not a fan of [[Downer Ending|Downer Endings]], or if they've improved boring parts and given the characters personality, or fixed a [[Plot Hole]]). The actual tales themselves are often too short to adapt properly, and the expanded versions can be hit and misses. The reworked Disney versions lead to [[Adaptation Displacement]] and [[Sadly Mythtaken]], with most people being unaware that the original fairy tales might have even contained [[A Worldwide Punomenon|grimmer]] aspects. Visual representations of the fairy tales are often strongly influenced by Disney--[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White]] is seen wearing a dress with primary colors and a red bow in her hair, [[The Little Mermaid]] with red hair, a green tail, and a purple [[Seashell Bra]], and so on.

Named for its most notorious practitioner, Disney studios, although it actually started [[Older Than They Think|before the Victorian Era]].

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== Disney Examples ==

* ''[[Snow White (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]''. The original script was actually closer to the original fairy tale than the final film, but as the film was made during the [[Great Depression]], the animators could not afford to make the film as long as the source material demanded (such as having the witch try multiple times to kill Snow White, and the opening with Snow White's mother.)

* ''[[Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (Disney film)|Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs]]''. The original script was actually closer to the original fairy tale than the final film, but as the film was made during the [[Great Depression]], the animators could not afford to make the film as long as the source material demanded (such as having the witch try multiple times to kill Snow White, and the opening with Snow White's mother.)

** In the original story, the queen is exposed for her crimes at Snow White's wedding to the prince, and is burned to death. In the Disney film, she is chased on top of a cliff by the dwarves, struck by lightning, [[Disney Villain Death|falls off]], and is presumably eaten by vultures. A bit more violent to be sure, but at least this way, [[Self-Disposing Villain|none of the heroes had to do the dirty deed]].

*** The Witch does survive in the comics, though her later activities are less malicious.

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* ''[[Hercules (Disney film)|Hercules]]'' not only has a [[Hijacked by Jesus]] style, but also implies that the Greek gods had wholesome family values! Remember, in the original myths, pretty much every god is up to sexual hijinks at one point or another.

** The [[Everybody Hates Hades|Disneyification of Hades]] from [[Dark Is Not Evil]] to [[Big Bad]] is pretty amazing. They took the Greek concept of the Underworld and Hades (which was more or less pretty much a neutral judging point) and spun it to better resemble Hell and the Devil. Complete with imp minions. Luckily, [[Chewing the Scenery|James Woods]] is a great actor. They also made him quite cynical (and possibly the [[Only Sane Man]]), which only helped.

** In the original myth, not only was Heracles the product of an extramarital affair (with a mortal woman, Alcmene), but Hera loathed him and tried multiple times to torture and kill him. At one stage she inflicted a madness on him that drove him to murder his children and his first wife, Megara - and it was Heracles who had to carry out penance for this in the form of the Twelve Labours.

* [[media:LittleMermaid2.jpg|Disney's]] ''[[The Little Mermaid]]'' gets a happy ending, unlike the [[Our Mermaids Are Different|mermaid]] in [http://www.bygosh.com/hca/mermaid.htm the original version] by [[Hans Christian Andersen]]. You really don't get much more bittersweet than:

{{quote|''Once more she looked at the prince, with her eyes already dimmed by death, then dashed overboard and fell, [[media:LittleMermaid.jpg|her body dissolving into foam]].''}}

* Another [[Hans Christian Andersen]] story, "[[The Steadfast Tin Soldier]]", was given a happy ending by Disney in ''[[Fantasia]] 2000'', partly from the [[Soundtrack Dissonance]] that would occur if they did keep the original ending. The animators had storyboarded the sequence ending with the tin soldier and the ballerina melting into a heart-shape. (Yes, Andersen [[Creator Breakdown|had issues]].)

* ''[[Pinocchio]]'' actually underwent this process by the original author: Pinocchio is killed (still a puppet) by hanging in the original tale, and the author, Carlo Collodi, added extra chapters in which Pinocchio not only is restored to life, but also becomes a real boy ([[Earn Your Happy Ending|after a lot of hard and cruel life lessons, that is]]). Guess which version Disney went with, in addition to cutting out Pinoke {{spoiler|killing the cricket}}. The original also saw him {{spoiler|getting turned into a donkey and drowned. He survived because his wooden body remained intact inside the donkey body and thus climbed out of the water after fish ate the donkey skin away.}}

** Of course, much like ''The Hunchback Of Notre Dame'' the film is still noted for being much grimmer than the average Disney affair, most notably retaining the villain's [[Karma Houdini|Karma Houdinis]] (and even adding another in the case of Foulfellow). There are few [[Lighter and Softer]] adaptations that depict hundreds of children being captured, transformed and [[The Bad Guy Wins|successfully]] sent to a [[Fate Worse Than Death]].

* Disney's so-called adaptation of Mary Norton's ''[[Bedknob and Broomstick]]'' dropped the original book's ''entire plot'', and instead created a new one from whole cloth involving Eglantine Price's attempt to learn magic solely in order to help the British effort in [[World War Two]]. Along the way, a medieval sorcerer became a modern con-man, an island of [[Talking Animal|Talking Animals]] was added apparently just to give Disney's animation division something to do that year, and a climactic battle scene of magically powered suits of plate armor versus a Nazi invasion force replaced the book's much more low-key conclusion. Oh, and they made it a musical. A major plot element complete with its own musical number, critical to the climax of the film, was conjured up out of a random two-word phrase ("substitutiary locomotion") that appears only once in a minor conversation on which the children eavesdrop in the book. And on top of all that, they pluralized both nouns in the title for no obvious reason.

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* [[Asatte no Houkou]], for instance, in the original manga Hiro is probably Karada's father. Her mother is [[Incest Is Relative|Hiro's aunt]].

* Most of the dubbings of [[4Kids! Entertainment]] tend to do this, removing all the religious/ pagan/ demonic imagery, removing violence and firearms, removing almost all the references to death and murder and removing all the fanservice...You got the idea.

** Nelvana is guilty of this too. ''[[Cardcaptor Sakura]]'' for example was basically torn in half to get rid of context unsuitable for Western demographic (eg. implied incest and underage romance). This is more in terms of context rather than narrative however, given the dialogue and characterizations are actually somewhat less [[Tastes Like Diabetes|cutesy and whimsical]] than the original Japanese original.

*** Also due to omitting almost all romantic elements, a large amount of the show's finale had to be edited, making it more [[Bittersweet Ending|bittersweet]] (especially since Nelvana lost the rights to dubbing the show before ''[[Happily Ever After|The Sealed Card]]'' was released).

* "Les Miserables: Shoujo Cosette" is a family friendly adaptation of [[Les Misérables]], removing almost all the violence, adult themes and angst.

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*** ''Timmy To The Rescue'', despite being an example of [[Lighter and Softer]] of the highest order, actually uses some elements from the book the novel neglected (eg. [[Nightmare Fuel|Brutus]] turning out to be a [[Gentle Giant]], the NIMH survivors being six rather than two). That said, these mostly do play more into softening the tone of the film, and naturally also cause some contradictions with the first film.

* It didn't hit much harder than in ''[[The Thief and the Cobbler]]''. What was intended to be Richard William's magnum opus (and a decidedly anti-Disney film) eventually became a victim of [[Executive Meddling]], and the film was edited by different studios to fit into the Nineties Disney format. The theatrical versions added musical numbers, half of which were [[Award Bait Song|very dated pop ballads]]; Yum Yum became a stock [[Rebellious Princess]]; and the two [[The Voiceless|voiceless]] title characters were given dialogue and would simply [[Lull Destruction|not. Shut. UP.]] [[Did Not Do the Research|Critics even dismissed the movie as a knockoff of Disney's]] ''[[Aladdin (Disney film)|Aladdin]]'' despite the former's production beginning [[Development Hell|three decades earlier]].

* ''[[Veggie Tales]]'' used to do this to Bible stories, but more recently they've expanded their horizons to basically any story they want to use.

* ''The Adventures of [[Sam and Max Freelance Police (animation)|Sam and Max Freelance Police]]'' replaces the guns with bazookas and generally has the characters involved in decidedly not detective-related plots. Max also has a much friendlier voice and personality than he did in Sam And Max: Hit The Road. However, the humor and general atmosphere is still there, [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]] constantly.

{{quote|'''Max:''' I never dreamed we could have this much fun and still be suitable for young viewers!}}