Who Inspired this Girl? Trivia Quiz

Answer: She doesn't have a name except for "The Little Mermaid"

Not everybody realizes this fact, but the Disney version of "The Little Mermaid" (a red-haired female by the name of Ariel) was actually based on "The Little Mermaid," a fairytale written by Hans Christian *Andersen in 1836. (Ariel's story wasn't published until 1989!) Andersen was the first to create "The Little Mermaid," but throughout the years, his story has inspired many versions, including film and Broadway ones.

The original story is quite different than the Disney version. In the original, she isn't even given a real name, nor does he give her a specific hair color. Ariel's age is 16, while the little mermaid's age is 15. While both versions say that her mother is no longer living, Andersen's had a grandmother as a main character, while Ariel's grandmother is not mentioned. The original is also a very sad tale; it includes unrequited love and other unhappy situations. However, there ARE similarities between "The Little Mermaid" and Ariel. Andersen's WAS very pretty and had long hair (again, we don't know what color it was supposed to be), she DID have a beautiful singing voice that she sold to a sea witch, and she DID want to be a human girl because she fell in love with a human prince.

Marina was actually a name given to a different version of Andersen's mermaid, a blonde-haired version from a Japanese film released in 1975.

Aquafina is the name for a brand of bottled water, and Sarafina is the name of Nala's mother in the Disney movie, "The Lion King."

*Edit: Changed from Anderson to Andersen throughout, because I realized that I was spelling his name wrong...silly me! =p

Answer: True

"Cinderella" is a classic fairytale and is possibly the most popular fairytale there is. It certainly has influenced popular culture very much, with songs, plays, TV shows, etc. based on this rags-to-richs story.

According to Wikipedia (and other sources) there was a story recorded in the 1st century (BC) by the Greek historian, Strabo. It was called "Rhodopis" and it is considered the first version of Cinderella. There are countless versions of this tale. It is universal, with variations appearing worldwide, including in China, Korea, and the Philippines.

While all versions have some similarities, the version that greatly influenced Disney's Cinderella was the 1697 French version by Charles Perrault. Like Disney's, Perrault's version includes the pumpkin coach, mice turning into men, the glass slippers, and her needing to be home before midnight.

Answer: No

It actually (unfortunately) is true that there are versions of the fairytale "Sleeping Beauty" where the main character is raped in her sleep--and by her own king/prince. However, these versions were NOT the inspiration behind Disney's Aurora. Charles Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" is the story that inspired Disney's Aurora.

There are several tales in which a sleeping beauty is raped, but there is one Italian version, titled "Sun, Moon, and Talia," which was written by Giambattista Basile; published in 1634. Basically, this version tells about Talia (the princess's name in this version) who, while in her sleep, is found by a young king. Instead of simply kissing her like in modern retellings, he rapes her. When Talia wakes up, she realizes that she gave birth to twins in her sleep! She names her babies Sun and Moon. As if the rape wasn't bad enough, this version also deals with other "taboo" subjects, like adultery and cannibalism. After a few years, the king comes back to Talia, wanting to marry her and help raise their children, but he can't do this peacefully, because he is already married! His wife finds out about her husband's mistress and children, she becomes extremely angry, and tries to make her chef kill and cook the children...

Interestingly, "Sun, Moon, and Talia" is the version that Perrault's version is based on. (In 1697, Perrault's was published). Perrault cleaned the story up some; making it where only an innocent kiss wakes the princess up. In addition, the prince of her dreams is not married (to another woman). Perrault kept the attempted cannibalism, however, except that in his version, the prince's mother was jealous over her own grandchildren. (Oh, I should be clear: The prince and Sleeping Beauty did have children, but it was after they were already married).

Technically speaking, ALL versions of the fairytale helped to inspire Disney's Sleeping Beauty, just like all versions of Cinderella helped to inspire Cinderella. But Perrault's is the version which is listed as the model for Disney's; it is the version that has the most similarities with Disney's, with the exception of the "sequel" with the upset mother.
It should be noted, though, that Disney likely took inspiration from the Brothers Grimms' version as well (released in 1812) because in Perrault's, the princess has no name real name, but in the Grimms', her name is Briar Rose. "Briar Rose" is the name given to Disney's Aurora when she is pretending to be a common maiden. In the Perrault version, "L'Aurore" (or Aurora) is the name of Sleeping Beauty's daughter.

Answer: Badroulbadour

Princess Jasmine was based on/inspired by Princess Badroulbadour, the name for the princess in the original "Aladdin" story (it was added to the "The Arabian Nights" story collection in the 18th century).

The name isn't the only difference between Jasmine and Badroulbadour. In the original story, Aladdin's love interest was actually Chinese, and instead of being the daughter of an Arabian Sultan, she was the daughter of a Chinese Emperor. However, the religion of Islam does play a large role in the Aladdin tale; genies are mentioned in Islamic religion and culture; not Chinese religion or culture. A person doesn't actually need to be Middle Eastern to be Muslim, but, especially considering that the story can be found in "The Arabian Nights," Disney most likely thought it would be logical to just go ahead and create Jasmine to be Arabian.

The princess's name was not Bubblegum, lol.
Bathsheba was the name of Solomon's mother in The Bible.
The gardenia is a type of jasmine (flower), actually, and it has a lot of ties to China.

Answer: It doesn't mention her loving anybody.

Disney's Mulan is/was based on an ancient Chinese poem, called "The Ballad of Mulan." While some people insist that the woman in this poem was real (and likely there are people who wish that she was real even if they don't believe that she was) there apparently is not enough evidence to either confirm nor denounce her existence. (The story of Mulan is a legend and not a fairytale in the traditional sense).

Even if Mulan was a true historical figure, there's no way of knowing simply from "The Ballad of Mulan" whether or not she had a husband (or crush; love interest) or who he might have been. But the poem is also not very long.

Besides Disney's 1998 version, there have been other versions of this story; some have love interests; others do not. In 2009, there was a live-action movie released in which Mulan had a relationship very similar to the one she had in Disney's, but his name wasn't Shang; it was Wentai.

Here is an interesting thing: Even though it has no relation to Mulan, "The Butterfly Lovers," another Chinese tale, tells about a girl who dresses as a boy in order to go to school. While there, she befriends and falls in love with a male classmate. He had a very close (almost romantic) relationship with her even when he thought she was a he.

The "real" (or original) Mulan fought in the war for twelve years pretending that she was a guy. I wouldn't have been able to pull that off, lol!

Mulan is a part of the "Official Disney Princess" collection, despite not being a true princess. She was neither born a princess nor did she become a princess by marriage. (Her husband is an army general; not a prince.) It is said that she was given the honor of being called a princess from the Emperor due to her saving the entire nation of China.

Answer: Felix Salten

The writer of the original "Bambi" novel was Felix Salten.

Charles Dickens wrote "A Christmas Carol"; E.B. White wrote "Charlotte's Web"; Lewis Carroll wrote the original "Alice in Wonderland."

"Bambi, a Life in the Woods" was an Austrian novel released in 1923.

Although Disney's Faline is based on the character with the same name, sources say that Disney changed a few things. For examples, in the original, Faline had a twin sister, Gobo, and she also was Bambi's cousin. One source says that this story wasn't originally written for children.

Answer: Missis

"One Hundred and One Dalmatians" was a 1956 novel written by Dodie Smith. Only a few years later, in 1961, Disney released their film version.

While both the original and Disney included Pongo as the father dog, "Missis" was the name of the mother of the fifteen puppies. There was a character named Perdita in the novel, but she, ironically, was an entirely different character. She was a stray dog and Pongo's owners found her and took her in. She was used as a stepmother to the puppies because Missis couldn't feed all of them by herself. She had her own husband/lover, Prince.

Disney's Perdita is often called "Perdy" for short.

Answer: "The Frog Princess" by E.D. Baker

Princess Tiana is from the 2009 Disney movie, "The Princess and the Frog."

"The Princess and the Frog," while only sharing a few similarities, is based on the E.D. Baker novel, "The Frog Princess," released in 2002.
That said, E.D. Baker based her novel on the Grimms' version of the traditional fairytale, called "The Frog Prince."

"The Frog Princess," though it has the same title as the correct answer, is actually a different fairytale; it is different from "The Frog Prince" and therefore not really related to Baker's novel.
"The Princess and the Pea" (this, too, is a different fairytale) was thrown in there to be comical and hopefully to make answering easier. I felt like, with two options having the same name, it might seem like a trick question.

"The Frog Prince" is the classic fairytale in which the princess kisses the frog and he transforms into a prince. There is more than one version of this fairytale and they differ at least slightly.

According to sources, the Grimm Brothers were the first to write down the story in a complete form. They didn't write the story, as versions of it had existed before, of course, but they are credited for making it the story that a lot of us are familiar with.

The other fairytale only sounds similar on the surface because it involves a reversal (a human prince finding a frog that eventually turns into a princess); however, their plots are actually very different. Also, like with most fairytales, "The Frog Princess" has many versions.

What makes both the Disney movie and the Baker story interesting is that they tell about a princess, or a human female, coming across a frog, but before she can get him to turn into a prince, she turns into a frog herself. But even though Disney's movie is based on the book, there are quite a few differences between the versions; some of them including the names and the setting. Tiana lives in New Orleans, while the other princess is named Emma and lives in a place called Greater Greensward.

(I don't know if this needs explaining, but I have used the word "different" a lot, so just I want to be clear: Stories can have different versions, some of which may seem quite different from one another. However, they have enough similarities to be considered the same story. A different story, though, is a different story. Example: Cinderella is different than Sleeping Beauty.)

Answer: The Grimm Brothers'

The Grimm Brothers originally released their version of "Rapunzel" in 1812. A second edition was released in 1857.

As with "The Frog Prince" and "Snow White," the Grimms' version of Rapunzel is the version that people are the most familiar with. Disney based their movie on this and the versions are very similar to each other; with a main difference being the sexual nature of Rapunzel's relationship to her prince. In the 1812 version, it tells about the prince coming to visit her everyday and the two living "in joy and pleasure for a long time." In addition, there is a time when Rapunzel tells the witch that her clothes are getting tight around her stomach, suggesting that she is pregnant.

In the 1857 edition, those suggestive lines were toned down. Instead of Rapunzel and her prince experiencing "pleasure," it says that he started out simply talking to her in a friendly way, he told her how he found out about her, and then he asked her if she would be his wife. It also changed it to Rapunzel asking the witch, "tell me why it is that you are more difficult to pull up than is the young prince, who will be arriving any moment now?"

Obviously, the Disney version is more similar to the less sexual of the above. So many fairytales were violent and/or sexual in nature and then many weren't even originally intended for kids. It also is worth nothing that in the first edition of the Grimms' version of "Snow White," it is her REAL, BIOLOGICAL mother who wants to kill her. EGAD! Just like with "Rapunzel," this was later toned down for children and it was changed to her stepmother.

According to Wikipedia, there was a 10th century AD Persian story, very similar to "Rapunzel." Princess Rūdāba let her long hair down, so that her lover could climb up to her in her tower.
It is highly likely that this is/was an early version of the story of Rapunzel.

Regarding Giambattista Basile and Mademoiselle de La Force, Basile's "Petrosinella" was released in 1634 and Force's "Persinette" was released in 1698. Both of these served as influences on the Grimms' 1812 version. In both of these, the relationship between the long-haired maiden and her prince is described in sexual manners.

There is no mention of Charles Perrault having a version of this fairytale.

Answer: 10 or 11

Unlike what Disney portrays (which has her age as no younger than 16) the real Pocahontas was only about 10 or 11 years old when she saved John Smith from getting executed. John Smith was already about 28.

Unlike with Mulan, basically everybody agrees that the nick-named Native American "Pocahontas" (birth name was Matoaka) was a historical figure. However, it is not known whether (or not) she, and the much older than she was, John Smith, actually had anything romantically going on. Perhaps they did; perhaps they didn't. Perhaps she had a little bit of a crush on him at the least.

One thing that is for sure is that she married a man named John Rolfe. Disney likes to give the idea that Rolfe was pretty much a "Plan B" for Pocahontas, because she was originally in love with Smith and would rather have been married to him. In fact, Disney's movie has her engaged to a Native American man, Kocoum, but she wants to marry John Smith instead. Despite this interpretation, my research seems to suggest that Pocahontas was just as much in love with John Rolfe as he was with her. Its authenticity is debated, but there is even a legend where Pocahontas is married/engaged to Kocoum, but she leaves him for Rolfe! (A little comical, is it not?)

Shortly before she and Rolfe were married, Pocahontas became a Christian, (because Rolfe was already a Christian), was baptized, and changed her name to "Rebecca." Sadly, Rebecca and John Rolfe were not married for very long. She became very ill and died after only about three years of marriage.