“Disney ruins the classic fairy tales!”
It’s the go-to gripe in every anti-Disney arsenal. This, despite the fact that none of the gripers have actually bothered to READ all of the books that Disney has based its animated features on. Hell, I’m a Disney fanatic, and even I haven’t gotten around to it. We’re talking ‘s 33 titles — and counting! You’re gonna have to forgo a lot of great television, movies, comic books, sexual encounters and, yes, other books and cartoons if’n you want to complete this syllabus.
Think you’re up for it? Well, it just so happens that I’ve cobbled together a COMPLETE LIST of the books used as the basis for Walt Disney’s animated films — including some super-cool cover art!
Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Princess and the Frog, Tangled)
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
Dumbo by Helen Aberson
Bambi by Felix Salten
The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault (Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
Happy Dan, the Whistling Dog by Ward Greene (Lady and the Tramp)
(NOTE: The original cover is unavailable, so I used the earliest re-titled reissue I could find.)
101 Dalmatians by Dodie Smith
The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White
The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling
The Secret Origin of the Aristocats by Tom McGowan and Tom Rowe
(NOTE: The actual cover art is unavailable, so I used a cute comic book cover.)
Robin Hood as told by Paul Creswick
Winnie-the-Pooh & The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne
The Rescuers & Miss Bianca by Margery Sharp
The Fox and the Hound by Daniel P. Mannix
The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander (The Black Cauldron)
Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus (The Great Mouse Detective)
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens (Oliver & Company)
The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen
Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont
Arabian Nights by Anonymous (Aladdin)
Hamlet by William Shakespeare (The Lion King)
Pocahontas: The Life And The Legend by Frances Mossiker
Notre Dame de Paris by Victor Hugo (The Hunchback of Notre Dame)
D’Aulaires’ Book of Greek Myths (Hercules)
Fa Mulan: The Story of a Woman Warrior by Robert D. San Souci
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Planet)
Henny Penny by Paul Galdone (Chicken Little)
A Day with Wilbur Robinson by William Joyce (Meet the Robinsons)
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen (Frozen)
Big Hero 6 by Chris Claremont, etc.
Myths and Legends of the Polynesians by Johannes C. Andersen (Moana)
