Once Upon a Time… Long before Brave, Frozen and many other current animations, Disney already enchanted children, young adults and adults with wonderful cartoons. Everything with lots of adventure, drama and romance – plus some magic – the company’s trademark. It was routine for us, in our childhood, to spend afternoons watching “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” “Cinderella,” “The Lion King” and many other Walt Disney Studios films. What about reminding some of them?
1. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the prettiest at all?” That question was asked by an Evil Queen to her magic mirror. The object replied that the beautiful, sweet Snow White was the most beautiful of all the girls in the kingdom. The Queen didn’t really accept the answer and decided to kill Snow White. She hires a hunter to kill her, but the guy is so moved by the astonishment of the girl that he ends up letting her escape.
In the middle of the forest, Snow White finds a house where seven dwarves live, where a beautiful friendship is born. But the Queen doesn’t give up on her cruel plan and decides to go personally behind Snow White. She wears one disguise and offers her a poisoned apple, that makes her fall into a deep sleep until she received a kiss of true love.
2. Bambi (1942)
Called Prince of the Forest, Bambi is the oldest and most respected deer’s son. Throughout the story, Bambi befriends other animals and is very happy, until hunters arrive and kill his mother. Bambi is then forced to survive alone with his father’s help and find his own happiness. Impossible not to cry.
3. Cinderella (1950)
In the story, the girl loses her father and is mistreated by her stepmother, who makes her become a maid. After all, Cinderella turns to be a very kind young woman. One day, the whole family is invited to a royal party. Cinderella is forbidden to go, but due to her pure heart, a fairy godmother appears and fulfills her desires. From then on, Cinderella’s life would never be the same again.
4. Sleeping Beauty (1959)
For the Princess Aurora’s baptism ceremony, the king and queen invited three very kind fairies, Fauna, Flora and Merryweather, but a bad fairy named Maleficent didn’t like being uninvited. Each one of them would give a gift to the little princess: Fauna gave her a beautiful voice, Flora gave her beauty and when Merryweather was going to give her gift, the ceremony was invaded by Maleficent, who launched a curse: when Aurora was 16, she would stick her finger into a spinning rock and fall into an eternal slumber.
The sleep of death. The king and queen became desperate and then, Merryweather tried to use her powers to change the curse. Now, Aurora would not die with the sting, she would only drift into a deep sleep until awakened by a kiss of true love. Frightened, the King ordered the fairies to take Aurora to the forest and raise her there, but that was not enough and on the princess’s 16th birthday, the curse was fulfilled.
5. The Little Mermaid (1989)
Ariel is a 16 years old mermaid who is very curious about the human world. With the help of her best friend, Flounder, she collects human objects and always climbs the surface to take a look. One time, she spotted Prince Eric and it was love at first sight. In love, Ariel ends up doing business with Ursula, the sea witch. Then, Ursula turns Ariel into a human, but asks for her voice in return.
Unable to speak, Ariel faces great dangers. But with the help of her father, King Triton, she manages to live happily ever after with Eric.
6. Beauty and the Beast (1991)
In a simple village in France, Belle lives as a smart and beautiful young woman. Belle doesn’t fit into that place and is called a stranger by the other residents, just because she likes to read. Once, her father Maurice goes to an invention fair, but gets lost in the woods. Maurice takes shelter in a castle and ends up being a prisoner of the Beast, who is an egocentric and arrogant prince cursed by a sorceress.
When Belle realizes something bad had happened to her father, she goes after him and finds him trapped in the castle. Frightened, she makes a deal with the Beast: if he released her father, she would be his prisoner forever. Deal.
Over time, Belle realizes that there’s a human behind the monster form and they fall in love. So, the spell is broken and he becomes a prince again.
7. The Lion King (1994)
Mufasa, the Lion King, presents to the kingdom his heir, Simba. Everything should be fine, but Scar, brother of Mufasa, plans cruelties so Simba would not get to the throne. When Simba is still a child, Scar kills Mufasa and blames his nephew. Feeling guilty about his father’s death, Simba runs away for many years and Scar comes to power.
During this trip, Simba meets two friends, Timon and Pumba, who teach him the true values of life and friendship. One day, Simba meets Nala, her childhood friend who tells him that Scar devastated the kingdom. Simba still feels guilty and is afraid to return, but he remembers who he is and comes back to face Scar. He forces Scar to confess the atrocity he did and inherits the throne that is his by right.
8. 101 Dalmatians (1996)
Anita and Roger own a couple of Dalmatians, Pongo and Perdita. When the female gives birth to 15 puppies, Cruella, an old friend of Anita, proposes to buy them, however, Cruella is addicted to Dalmatian skin clothes, so Anita and Roger deny the sale.
Cruella, then, steals the puppies. Her plan is to kill them and make beautiful coats with their skins. Worried, Anita and Roger start an adventure full of dangers to rescue the puppies, but they can’t only rescue the children of Pongo and Perdita: they save all the puppies imprisoned by Cruella, thus staying with 101 Dalmatians.