The Book
24 Films. 25 Original Stories. One Book.
Every Disney animated film, paired with the fairy tale, myth, novel, or poem that inspired it — and exactly what changed along the way.
The Pitch
About the Book
Once Upon a Source is a 24-chapter journey through the stories behind the Disney films you already know. Each chapter takes one animated classic and sets it side by side with the book, fairy tale, myth, or poem that inspired it — walking through what stayed the same, what changed, and why.
It’s written for Disney fans who want more than trivia, for teachers looking for a fresh way into literary analysis, and for anyone who’s ever wondered what a story looked like before Hollywood got to it. No prior knowledge of the source material required — just curiosity.
This isn’t a book about ranking movies against their originals. It’s a book about following a story as it travels — through centuries, across languages, through different tellers with different purposes — and landing, finally, on a movie screen.
“These stories came from somewhere. That somewhere is usually darker, stranger, and more interesting than the movie.”
The Full Collection
The 24 Films
Every chapter, organized the same way as the Student Workbook volumes. Reserve any chapter now, or start with Chapter 1 — free.
Volume I — The Classics
Chapter 01
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)
“Sneewittchen” (Snow White)
Chapter 02
Pinocchio (1940)
Le avventure di Pinocchio
Chapter 03
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad (1949)
“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” & The Wind in the Willows
Chapter 04
Cinderella (1950)
“Cendrillon” & “Aschenputtel”
Volume II — The Golden Age
Chapter 05
Peter Pan (1953)
Peter and Wendy
Chapter 06
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
“La Belle au bois dormant” & “Dornröschen”
Chapter 07
The Little Mermaid (1989)
“Den lille Havfrue”
Chapter 08
Beauty and the Beast (1991)
“La Belle et la Bête”
Volume III — Myth and Legend
Chapter 09
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996)
Notre-Dame de Paris
Chapter 10
Hercules (1997)
Heracles Mythological Tradition
Chapter 11
Treasure Planet (2002)
Treasure Island
Chapter 12
Frozen (2013)
“Snedronningen” (The Snow Queen)
Volume IV — Animals and Adventures
Chapter 13
Bambi (1942)
Bambi, a Life in the Woods
Chapter 14
Alice in Wonderland (1951)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Chapter 15
The Sword in the Stone (1963)
The Once and Future King & Le Morte d’Arthur
Chapter 16
The Jungle Book (1967)
The Jungle Book
Volume V — The Renaissance
Chapter 17
The Lion King (1994)
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
Chapter 18
Mulan (1998)
The Ballad of Hua Mulan (木兰辞)
Chapter 19
Tangled (2010)
“Rapunzel”
Chapter 20
Aladdin (1992)
“Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp”
Volume VI — The Final Collection
Chapter 21
Mary Poppins (1964)
Mary Poppins
Chapter 22
The Black Cauldron (1985)
Chronicles of Prydain & The Mabinogion
Chapter 23
Oliver & Company (1988)
Oliver Twist
Chapter 24
Tarzan (1999)
Tarzan of the Apes
A Few Fun Facts About This Project
- The Brothers Grimm are the most-represented source — Chapters 1, 4, 6, and 19 all draw from their 1812 collection, Kinder- und Hausmärchen.
- Oldest source: The Ballad of Hua Mulan (Chapter 18) — roughly 1,500 years old.
- Newest source: The Chronicles of Prydain (Chapter 22), published 1964.
- Only Shakespeare in the project: The Lion King (Chapter 17), based on Hamlet.
- Only story with no confirmed original manuscript: Aladdin (Chapter 20) — no Arabic manuscript has ever been found.
Try Before You Buy
Chapter Preview
From Chapter 1 — Snow White
“In the version most people grew up with, Snow White is a gentle girl who waits for rescue. In the Brothers Grimm original, she’s seven years old — and she survives three separate murder attempts before the Queen ever touches an apple.”
Go to the Source
Find These Books
Curious to read the original stories yourself? The Find These Books page links to all 25 source works covered in the project — the fairy tales, myths, novels, and poems that started it all.
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Nothing here replaces reading the originals. If a chapter grabs you, track down the source work and read it for yourself — most of these stories are in the public domain and free to find.