Everybody loves Disney characters, but it
turns out that some of your favorites were
almost very different!
For this video we are taking a look at the
secret origins of 10 of your favorite Disney
characters.
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ahead!
Before we start can you guess the movie from
these emojis?
Stay tuned for the answer at the end of our
video and be sure to keep watching for fun
trivia questions and fun facts along the way!
Here are 10 Secret Disney Origins That They
Kept From Us
Tangled
Disney has brought us some pretty great movies
in recent years and in 2010 we finally got
to see a good adaptation of the classic fairy
tale Rapunzel.
The movie introduces some pretty great characters
(both human and not) and also leaves us singing
their very catchy tunes.
It’s definitely impressive to think that
Disney was able to take such a simple story
and turn it into a massive feature length
success.
One thing that really added to the movie was
the great leading male character of Flynn
Rider.
Flynn is Rapunzel’s love interest and he
presents a much more complex version of the
prince who rescues the damsel in distress
in the original story.
In the movie, Flynn looks like your classic
Disney Prince but it turns out his original
designs were very different.
One early draft of Flynn Rider had him looking
short and plump like Shrek’s Lord Farquaad
and another version presented a rugged older
looking Prince whose look was actually based
on Johnny Depp.
Looking back at Flynn Rider’s origins gives
us a fun glimpse into what could have been
and as it turns out Rapunzel’s original
look was far different as well.
Hang around until the end of the video to
find out what the Tangled Princess almost
looked like!
The Beast
Wit the live action adaptation of Beauty and
The Beast hitting theaters, the classic Disney
movie is all over the news these days.
From the looks of things, the film seems to
have done a pretty great job of staying faithful
to the animated picture.
That being said, there has been a lot of controversy
around the appearance of The Beast as many
folks were confused about the surprisingly
large size of his horns in the new adaptation.
If this small change shocked fans, we can’t
imagine what they might have thought if Disney
had decided to go back to their original designs
for the beastly leading man.
By taking a look at the original concept art
for the animated movie you can clearly see
that The Beast was first designed to look
much more like a Wolf.
This appearance would have definitely made
him look creepier – but it also would have
taken away his horns so who knows how people
would have felt.
Genie
If there was a competition of the greatest
Disney characters of all time we have to think
that The Genie, who was famously voiced by
the late great Robin Williams, would finish
near the top of that list.
Everything that The Genie does is amazing
and he totally steals all of the scenes he
is in.
As it turns out, Robin Williams actually improvised
a great deal of The Genie’s lines so we
will never really know what the characters
lines were originally supposed to be.
The Genie’s giant blue look is also iconic
but like the other characters on this list
– he almost looked very different.
Early sketches of the genie had him wearing
clothes similar to Aladdin, having giant horns
and one drawing had the genie looking absolutely
terrifying.
In the end, Disney totally nailed the look
by creating a magical character that looks
like a cross between Jay Leno and a giant
blue balloon.
 
The Princess and The Frog
In 2009, Disney brought the world the Louisiana
based movie The Princess and The Frog and
also introduced their first ever African American
Disney Princess, Tiana.
Although Tiana is the only Disney Princess
who actually has a job, she stills looks pretty
young.
That almost wasn’t the case as the originals
designs for the Princess had her look much
older and with much more sex appeal.
This alternate look definitely would have
made a lot of sense if Beyonce had ended up
landing the leading role but since the singer
refused to audition for the part, Disney didn’t
cast her.
In the end the younger appearance of Tiana
matches the voice and the storyline and it
may have been somewhat confusing to see a
much more sexualized version of the character
at the center of this fairytale story.
 
Pocahontas
This is one story whose origins we can actually
talk a lot about as Pocahontas is actually
the only Disney Princess who was a real person.
Unfortunately, her life wasn’t exactly as
the movie showed it – it was much worse.
First of all, she kinda hated John Smith,
who pretty much lied about everything that
happened between them.
Also, Pocahontas was also kidnapped, held
hostage for a year, renamed Rebecca, paraded
around as propaganda too during the colonization
of North America.
On top of all that, after all of that trauma
Pocahontas actually died at the age then died
at age 21.
We can understand why Disney decided to alter
the story to make it more kid friendly and
we can also understand why they decided to
alter their original designs for Princess
Pocahontas.
The first drawings showed Pocahontas looking
much sexier looking Princess that would have
definitely added an elements of maturity to
the kids movie but in the end Disney went
with the more PC option and we have to think
it was probably the right call.
 
Aladdin
A common theme on this list is that Disney
creators seem to often have a tough time deciding
just how old their leading characters are.
This seems to usually be a problem with the
female characters as the studio is likely
trying to make sure they don’t over sexualize
their Princesses.
Interestingly, from taking a look at the original
sketches of Aladdin it seems like the character
was supposed to be much younger.
This makes the story much more sad when you
realize that it would mean that a very young
boy is living alone in the streets and having
to steal all of his meals.
Disney has stated that Aladdin was supposed
to be 18 in the movie and we are guessing
that making him a legal adult was a deliberate
choice to distance the movie from any controversy
that could have come up with regards to his
age.
Aladdin is one of the many movies slated for
a live action adaptation and we will just
have to wait and see how old an actor they
get to play the lead!
The Little Mermaid
At this point we don’t know too much about
the upcoming live action adaptation of The
Little Mermaid, but one thing is for sure
– they better do a good job bringing the
iconic villain Ursula too life.
The Little Mermaid is a masterpiece and we
have to think that a big reason for it’s
success is the choice that Disney made to
base the look of their big bad sea monster
on the famous drag queen Divine.
Unfortunately, Divine passed away in the late
80s so she won’t be playing the part but
it would definitely be cool if another similar
looking Drag Queen ended up in the role.
Interestingly enough, Ursula’s iconic look
from the movie wasn’t Disney’s original
plans as her original appearance had her looking
first more like a green fish and then in another
version much more like an evil queen.
The choice to base the villains look on Divine
was definitely a good one as The Little Mermaid
is still on of the most successful animated
Disney movies of all time.
The Lion King
There is no denying that The Lion King is
one of the best movies that Disney has ever
made – animated or otherwise, and we have
to hope that the upcoming live action adaption
will live up to the original.
While it has been long believed that The Lion
King was based off of Shakespeare’s Hamlet,
it turns out the story was actually completely
stolen from a Japanese Cartoon.
That’s probably actually a good thing as
Hamlet ends with – spoiler alert – everybody
dying some pretty gruesome deaths.
As it turns out, the original artwork and
designs for The Lion King were quite different
as well and the first drawings of Simba and
Mufasa presented some much more cartoonish
looking lions.
In the end, Disney decided to stick with their
classic animation style and created some very
slick looking jungle cats for people of all
ages to fall in love with.
Regardless of how they ended up looking, we
all still would have cried when Mufasa died!
Elsa
In 2013, people all around the world fell
in love with Frozen and it’s leading lady
– Princess Elsa.
With her power ballad “Let It Go”, Elsa
became a force of empowerment and a role model
for kids of all ages, but as it turns out
this was almost not the case.
In the original script for Frozen Elsa was
actually the villain but when Disney heard
her iconic song they decided to switch up
the story and make her the hero.
Villainous Elsa would have looked much different
as well as early drafts of the character actually
show her to have short black hair instead
of the long blonde braid she is famous for.
It would have been very interesting to see
Elsa on the dark side and maybe we will get
to see this side of her in the long awaited
Frozen sequel that will be coming out in 2018.
Tangled Pt. 2
Great, you 
stuck around!
Well, now, as promised, it’s time to talk
about Rapunzel’s original appearance in
2010’s Tangled.
In the movie the character is undoubtedly
pretty 
but as it turns out the original sketches
presented a much older and sexier version
of the blonde haired princess.
Some of the sketches showed Rapunzel wearing
a more revealing dress and all of them actually
gave the princess some freckles.
In the end, Disney decided to go with a younger
and more innocent looking protagonist and
we can’t argue with their decision as the
movie turned out great.
No word on sequel, but who know, maybe Rapunzel
and Flynn will make a second appearance in
Arendelle in Frozen 2.
 
And that brings us to the end of our list.
Let’s answer those Trivia questions!
First off Dan Stevens is playing The Beast
in the new live action movie and he looks
awesome!
Next, Anna (of Frozen) is the only other Disney
Princess to have multiple love interests and
they were Hans and Kristoff.
And finally, the youngest Disney Princess
is also the first ever Disney Princess – Snow
White!
How old was she supposed to be?
14, which is pretty young to be out living
in the woods with 7 strange dwarves if you
ask us.
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