Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
This story is especially notable because it launched the modern trend of sanitized fairy tales. Back in 1938, animator Walt Disney decided to make the Grimms' story, "Snow-White," into his first full-length movie. Naysayers -- including his own wife, Lillian -- tried to talk him out of it, warning that adults wouldn't sit through a musical featuring a bunch of bearded dwarfs, but he trusted his gut and borrowed $1.5 million to make it [source: History.com].
As it turned out, Disney was right. Depression-era audiences in need of uplifting flocked to see the tale of a beautiful young woman who bests a villainous queen and captures the heart of a handsome prince, and the movie became a huge hit. While Disney kept the Grimms' macabre heart-in-a-box angle, he did omit some even grislier details. In the Grimms' version, for example, Snow White's evil stepmother is invited to Snow White's wedding, where the guests heat a pair of iron shoes on burning coals. She's then forced to step into the red-hot footwear and dance in agony, until she falls down dead.
