Innocent Cartoons With Disturbing Origins - YouTube
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[Music] Some of our favorite childhood cartoons have backstories that are totally inappropriate for kids. And in this video, we're going to uncover them. These are cartoon characters with disturbing backstories. We'll start with letter cases and work our way to the most shocking. So, my goal this year, guys, is to increase our uploads without sacrificing quality.
But I'm not going to lie, it's harder than I imagined, but I'm not going to give up. So, something that would help a ton is if you guys could subscribe, and I promise to do my very best to make the best videos I can for you guys. I'm Visual Venture, and you are awesome. Peter Pan. The world calls Peter Pan a hero, but is he really? In the original story, he ends innocent people.
Most people think he's a good guy because of the way Disney portrays him. The cartoon was a hit making $87 million on a $4 million budget, but Disney's cheerful movie doesn't match the original character. The real story was written by JM Barry in 1904. That's over 100 years ago. Barry was obsessed with the concept of eternal boyhood.
So he wrote Peter Pan the story of a boy who stayed young forever. But it wasn't a celebration of childhood. The story was about fear, about what happens when someone is so terrified of growing up that they will do anything to stop it. The story began with Peter flying through the streets of London. He was searching for kids to take to Neverland.
Well, come on, Wendy. Let's go. Where are we going? to Neverland. Neverland. Peter's taking us us. He promised them a world with no rules, no parents, no responsibilities. The children arrived in Neverland believing they found freedom. But Peter had a secret reason for bringing them. He was building an army.
Peter Pan had enemies, the pirates. Actually, a perpetual war going on between pirates and these lost boys. He needed soldiers for this war. So Peter is luring these children to come fight as child soldiers in his army. The kids came for fun, but they ended up battling pirates. The pirates appeared in Disney's version two, but there was one huge difference.
In Disney's story, Peter fought the pirates without trying to hurt them. But in the original, Peter slaughtered pirates without hesitation, and he expected the kids to do the same. But that wasn't the only horror in Neverland. Peter didn't want adults there. Neverland was meant to be a land of eternal youth, but children can't stop themselves from growing, and when they did, Peter dealt with them.
Here's a quote from Barry's original work. When they seem to be growing up, which is against the rules, Peter thins them out. Thins them out was a polite way of saying something extreme. Peter ended anyone who grew up. And that's the trick of Neverland is the reason you don't age in Neverland is either because the pirates kill you or Peter does.
In Peter's twisted mind, he was protecting the magic of childhood by any means necessary. When the old batch of kids was finished, Peter didn't mourn. He simply flew back to London to find replacements. And the cycle started again. Disney knew this part of the story, but they hid it. They turned a villain into a hero and made Peter Pan a beloved childhood character.
The creator of this next cartoon later regretted. Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh was massive. The franchise has made more than $80 billion. That money came from books, toys, t-shirts, and even potty chairs. But behind the soft and cuddly bear is a dark story. A story that ruined a young man's life and ripped his family apart.
The story begins with a writer named Alan Milm. Alexander Milm was rather successful writer even before the first poems and books about Pooh saw the light. Alan had a son named Christopher Robin. Alan adored his little boy. On Christopher's first birthday, Alan bought him a teddy bear. At first, Christopher called the bear Edward. Then, he visited the London Zoo and saw a Canadian black bear named Winnie.
After that, little Christopher decided to rename his bear Winnie. The poo part came from a swan he liked. That teddy bear became Christopher's best friend. He carried it everywhere. Soon, Christopher collected more stuffed animals. There was a donkey, a piglet, a tiger, and more. Alan watched his son play with those toys and got inspired.
He began writing stories about a boy named Christopher Robin and his stuffed animals. In 1926, the first book was published. It was titled Winnie the Poo. And then the books featuring all those characters. There was We Winnie the Pooh and Piglet and E and Tiger. The book was an instant hit. Kids wanted more.
So in 1928, Alan released a second book, The House at Pooh Corner. Alan thought his son would be proud to see himself in the stories. But the reality was very different. Winnie the Pooh became a curse for Christopher. Christopher was eight when the second book came out. The stories made him famous, but not in a good way. Kids at school mocked him.
They sang poems from the books. They teased him for playing with stuffed animals. They called him a baby. Christopher was miserable. Soon he hated his own name. It was so easy to connect him to Christopher Robin from the books. By the time he turned 18, he blamed his dad for his horrible childhood. Christopher felt used like his father stole his childhood for profit.
Felt that his father got to where he was by climbing on top of his infant shoulders by exploiting his childhood. Christopher joined the military. He thought serving his country would make people see him differently. But even in the army, soldiers mocked him because of Winnie the Pooh. After the war, Christopher tried to live a quiet life.
He gave up all rights to the money from Winnie the Pooh. He married, moved to the countryside, and opened up a small bookshop. But even there, people connected him to Winnie. Soon, people weren't visiting his bookshop to buy books. They wanted to meet the real Christopher Robin. The worst part was his relationship with his parents.
They barely spoke. In 1956, his father Allan passed away. Christopher did not attend the funeral. But even before Allan passed, he admitted his regret. He wished he never created Winnie the Pooh. But it was too late. The damage was already done. Christopher spent the rest of his life as a book seller. He was remembered by locals as a kind man.
Christopher Robin couldn't escape his stolen identity. People wouldn't stop connecting him to a character he wanted nothing to do with. And in a way, I know that feeling, of course, to a lesser extent. A few years ago, someone found my private data online and used it to threaten me. I tried removing my information from every shady website I could find, but there were just too many.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a wild idea. It was about four turtles trained as ninjas who were fighting crime and their dad was a giant rat. It sounded ridiculous, but it became one of the most popular animated series in television history. Even I used to watch it all the time. It was great.
But the turtles didn't start as goofy cartoon characters. Their original form was so violent and disturbing that no parent would have let their child watch. To see how far they've come, you have to go back to 1984, the year the turtles were born. It started as a joke. In 1983, two artists were brainstorming. Then one sketched something ridiculous.
Eastman whips up a sketch to try and make Lar laugh. It's a turtle with nunchucks strapped to his arms. Lar grabs a piece of paper and does his own rendition. The joke didn't stay a joke. They turned it into a comic book called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Although the sketches were funny, the comic itself was brutal.
From the first issue, the violence was uncomfortable. In Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles number one, the turtles were basically hitmen determined to get Shredder. For contact, Shredder was their main enemy. In the comic, the Turtles cornered him on a rooftop. Then they proceeded to hurt him really bad. What came next made it even darker.
After pummeling Shredder, the Turtles gave him a sword. They told him to finish the job himself, if you get what I mean. Shredder refused, so they threw him off the roof. The gore didn't end there. In another issue, they hurled a blade into a man. Another time, they drowned someone in a fountain. They also used swear words all the time.
One reader said they weren't so much heroes as they were a bunch of mutant ninja assassins. How could someone pick up this comic book and go, "Hey, this would make a great light-hearted Saturday morning cartoon is beyond me." And it wasn't just the turtles. Nearly every major character in the comic was unnecessarily aggressive.
There was a robot that chewed rats alive. The artist showed every detail, bones cracking and all. Then there was Casey Jones, one of the turtles allies. He took down his enemies with a hockey stick. Every page leaned into violence. Nothing was hidden. So, how did anyone think these turtles belonged in a kids cartoon? In 1987, a company wanted to sell Ninja Turtle action figures, but there was a problem.
The comics were way too graphic. To make the toys marketable, the turtles had to be cleaned up. So, an animation studio stepped in. They made a cartoon that turned the assassins into kid-friendly heroes. Ninja pizza? Well, what do you know? Rock dudes? Do you realize what this is? The tone shifted from dark crime to playful action.
Let's show them the turtles know how to party. Even today, fans who read the original comics are shocked by how violent and weird the series was. Up next is a story that's the exact opposite of a happily ever after, The Little Mermaid. Disney's Little Mermaid can be summarized in one line. True love always wins.
The main character, Ariel, got everything she wanted. She became human, married the prince, and enjoyed her life. But the original tale from 1836 was the opposite. The Little Mermaid was miserable throughout the story, and in the end, she passed away sad and alone. The original begins just like Disney's. A young mermaid saves a prince from drowning.
She falls in love with him, and she wants to leave the sea to live on land with the prince. But the problem is obvious. As a mermaid, she doesn't have legs, which means she can't move on land. Her only option is to go to the sea witch for help. The witch makes her an offer at her, saying that she will give her a potion, which needs to be drunk at the shore before sunrise.
It will give her legs, but it will come with excruciating pain. The mermaid will become human, but she will lose her voice. She will never sing or speak again, and every step she takes will feel like walking on glass. That's not even the worst part of the deal. prince doesn't marry you, you will not get your soul.
And the morning after he marries another, you will die and become sea foam. In other words, if the prince marries someone else, the mermaid will pass away the very next day. Blinded by love, the mermaid accepts. She drinks the potion. When she wakes up on shore, she has legs, but the pain is real. Every step feels like walking on broken glass.
Still, she endures it. She has one goal: win the prince's love before it's too late. The mermaid eventually finds the prince. They become friends, but because she has no voice, she cannot speak to him. She can't tell him she was the one who saved his life. The prince believes another princess rescued him.
That misunderstanding ruins everything. Soon, the prince announces his engagement to that other princess. For the little mermaid, that is her death sentence. The wedding eventually takes place. As a mermaid watches the ceremony, she remembers the witch's warning that she will die if he marries someone else. That night, her sisters arise from the sea with a desperate plan to save her.
We're here to save you, cried the eldest sister. They hand her a dagger. If she ends the prince before dawn, the curse will break. She can return to the ocean as a mermaid. In order for her to live, she must end the life of the man she loves. It was either her life or his. She lowered the knife close to his heart, but then stopped.
But she can't do it. She throws the dagger into the sea and accepts her fate. As the sun rises the next morning, her body begins to fade away. She thought she could feel her body dissolving into thousands of bubbles of sea foam. Soon, the Little Mermaid would be no more. This was no fairy tale.
It was a story of sacrifice, pain, and sadness. If you grew up in the 2010s, you probably know this next cartoon, The Ice King. Adventure Time was a massive hit. It ranked second on the list of 10 best Cartoon Network shows. It even made the list of the greatest animated TV series. The show is basically about a 12-year-old boy and his magical dog.
Together, they roam the land of Oo, writing wrongs and battling evil. But this chapter isn't about the heroes. It's about the villain, the Ice King. He was an old man with a white beard living in a frozen castle. To understand the Ice King, there are two things you need to know.
First, he desperately wanted a wife. Second, he kidnapped princesses across the land of U, hoping one of them would marry him. On the surface, he was diabolical and strange. But the Ice King wasn't always a villain. His backstory revealed he was struggling with a curse. His backstory was revealed in season 3, episode 19 and 20.
Years earlier, he was known as Simon Petraov. Simon loved studying ancient artifacts. He even had a fiance named Betty. One day, Simon discovered an old crown. After purchasing this crown from an old dock worker in northern Scandinavia, I brought it home and excitedly showed my fianceΓ© Betty. The crown wasn't just old, it was cursed.
When Simon put the crown on his head, it took over. The crown gave him terrifying powers. He could summon blizzards and freeze anything. But the magic came with a cost. Every time he used the crown, it gradually drove him insane. I jokingly put it on my head just for a laugh or something. And that's when it started. The visions.
I fought with them, shouted at them until I realized it wasn't real. It was the crown. He started hearing voices, forgetting things, and losing his personality. I know my mind is changing, but I'm already too far gone to know what to do. Simon knew he was slipping from good to evil, and he couldn't stop it. If I do things, if I do things that hurt anyone, please, please forgive me.
Betty watched as Simon's mind fell apart. She couldn't take it. In the end, she left him. Without Betty, Simon had nothing left to fight for. The crown consumed him. That's when he fully transformed into the Ice King. This means the Ice King was never really a bad guy. He was a man suffering from the curse of the crown.
Just watch over me until I can find my way out of this labyrinth in my brain and regain my sanity. If that wasn't tragic enough, his fianceΓ© abandoned him because of his condition. That's incredibly dark for a kid show. The Ice King might just be one of the saddest characters ever written into a children's cartoon.
Up next is a character who made the impossible possible. Hercules. Here's something most people don't know. Since 1950, there have been more than 50 films and TV shows about Hercules. He also appeared in tons of video games, including God of War and Assassin's Creed. Hercules also appeared in books, comics, toys, and more.
Simply put, Hercules might be the most popular hero in human history. And in 1997, Disney made their own version. Their animated Hercules was a global hit. It made nearly $253 million worldwide. For millions of kids, this was their first introduction to the character. But anyone who watched the cartoon got the wrong idea about Hercules.
Disney's Hercules was funny, noble, and kind. The real Hercules was cursed by the gods, tormented by madness, and haunted by guilt. The original story comes from Greek myths dating back thousands of years. Hercules's problems began before he was even born. His father was Zeus, the king of the gods, but his mother was human.
What started the whole mess was that Zeus was already married. His wife, Hera, was the queen of the gods. When she found out about the affair, she was furious. But Hera didn't blame her cheating husband. Instead, she focused her rage on the innocent child, Hercules. To her, Hercules was a living reminder of Zeus's betrayal. So, she vowed to destroy him.
Her first attempt came when Hercules was still a baby. She sent two poisonous serpents to kill the babies. The serpents slithered into the cradle where Hercules and his brother were sleeping. The serpents were meant to strangle him as he slept. But even as baby Hercules had superhuman strength, he crushed the serpents with his bare hands. Hera's plan failed.
But she wasn't done. She waited for the perfect moment to strike again. Hercules became the strongest man alive. He eventually married a woman named Megura. Together, they had children and lived peacefully. But that happiness made him vulnerable. Hara knew Hercules could defeat any monster.
So instead of sending beasts, she attacked his mind. Hera used her divine powers to make him temporarily insane. Suddenly, the strongest man in the world couldn't think clearly. In his madness, he saw monsters everywhere. He fought back with all his strength. But those weren't monsters. They were his wife and children, and he ended them.
With madness lifted, Hercules realized what he had done. As he realized he had just committed the most unspeakable crime imaginable, the guilt was unbearable. People who once called him a hero now saw him as a villain. But Hercules was given a chance at redemption. The oracle tells Hercules that in order to atone for his sins, he must serve as the slave of King Uretheus for 10 years.
But Uretheus was now working with Hera. Now that Hercules was broken, they wanted to finish him once and for all. So the king gave Hercules 12 impossible tasks. These would become known as the 12 labors of Hercules. Each labor was designed to destroy him. For his first task, Hercules had to defeat the Nian lion.
Its skin was so tough that no weapon could cut it. But Hercules found another way to win. But Hercules cornered the lion in his dark cave, stunned it with a clock and strangled it with his bare hands. Second task was worse. He had to slay the hydra. It was a massive serpent with many heads. Cut off one and two more grew back.
So, how did Hercules defeat this creature? Each time he cut a head, he burned the wound shut so it wouldn't grow back. One by one, Hercules completed all 12. But no matter how much he accomplished, the guilt never left him. After the 12 labors, Hercules was worshiped as a hero. But he was still unhappy. Later, he tried to rebuild his life.
He remarried, but tragedy found him again. His new wife was tricked into giving him a poison cloak. When Hercules put it on, the fabric burned him. The pain was unbearable and he couldn't take it off. So, Hercules did something extreme. He threw himself into the fire. After being completely consumed by flames, Hercules spirit ascended to heaven.
After this apotheiois, Hercules arrived at Olympus where he was received by his father as a god. Hercules experienced misery, loss, and guilt. Ironically, kids today grow up idolizing Hercules. They have no idea that the original Hercules lived a life that no one would want. This next backstory transformed a creep into Prince Charming. Sleeping Beauty.
Almost everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty. A princess falls into an enchanted sleep. A prince kisses her, breaks the curse, and they live happily ever after. But Disney didn't create that story. They took it from a 1634 Italian book titled Sun, Moon, and Talia. It wasn't a fairy tale. It was a creepy story no child should ever hear.
In the original, the princess wasn't named Aurora. She was called Talia. When Talia was born, her father received a prophecy about her future. Someday the princess will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep death-like sleep. No. And that prophecy came true. Talia grew up, pricricked her finger, and fell into a never-ending sleep.
Her father was devastated. Instead of searching for a cure, he abandoned the castle and left her behind. Years passed. One day, another king stumbled upon the empty castle. Inside, he found Talia. She was unconscious and helpless, and she was beautiful. Here's where the story takes the turn Disney could never touch.
The king didn't try to wake her with a kiss. He took advantage of her. Then he left. Talia became pregnant. Months passed and she gave birth to twins while she was still asleep. Lucky for her, some fairies, like the ones in the movie, help her out with the birthing process. The reason she couldn't wake was that a splinter of flax was stuck in her finger. The babies crawled over her.
One accidentally sucked on her finger. One of the twins starts sucking on Talia's finger by mistake and the splinter that was under her fingernail comes right out and she wakes up. When she opened her eyes, she was now the mother of two children she didn't recognize. Soon the king who violated her returned.
He found Tally awake and saw the twins and he was thrilled. That was the same man who took advantage of her while she was unconscious. But now they were acting like one big happy family. He visited often. He provided for Talia and the twins. They were happy, but they couldn't go public with their relationship because the king was already married and his queen was no fool.
When she discovered the affair, she planned her revenge. She ordered her henchmen to kidnap the twins, cook them, and serve them to the king for dinner. She wanted her husband to unknowingly eat his own. The henchmen couldn't do it. Instead, they hid the twins, and serve the king lamb instead. But the queen believed the meat was the twins.
That night, the whole time the king is eating his dinner, the queen keeps saying weird, creepy stuff to him. Eventually, her scheme was exposed. The queen was executed and the king married Talia. Somehow, this was considered a happy ending in 1634. Disney completely overhauled the story. And that's how we got the version of Sleeping Beauty we know today.
But, ironically, the film didn't land the way Disney hoped. It was a box office bomb. The studio lost around $900,000, which is about $9.7 million today. The failure was so devastating that Disney didn't release another princess movie for many years. Up next is the story of the first Disney princess, Snow White.
In 1937, Snow White was the first fulllength animated film in the US. It took over 750 artists more than 3 years to complete, but the hard work paid off. The movie was a huge success. However, it might not have been a hit if Disney followed the original story. The real story of Snow White was violent and grotesque.
Disney's version was adapted from The Brothers Grim. In that story, the queen wasn't just jealous of Snow White. She wanted to eat her. She ordered a huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and end her. But she also gave him one more instruction. She asked him to bring back Snow White's lungs and liver. The huntsman couldn't do it.
He let her go. Then he took the organs of an animal to the queen. And the queen actually salted and ate them. Not only did she think Snow White was dead, she thought she ate her lungs and liver. The story continued. Snow White found the dwarves in the woods. The queen discovered she was still alive and she tried to end Snow White over and over again, but each time she failed.
Finally, the queen tricked Snow White into eating a poisoned apple and she passed away. Here's where the prince enters the story, but he wasn't the charming hero Disney showed. The dwarfs placed Snow White in a glass coffin. The prince saw the funeral and fell in love with her lifeless body. He begged the dwarves to let him take her to his castle. The dwarves agreed.
While the coffin was being moved, the servants stumbled. The glass case shifted. A piece of the poison apple dislodged from her throne. Snow White coughed and came back to life. Snow White didn't return to life because of magic kiss. It was an accident. Snow White married the prince. The queen was invited to the wedding.
She didn't realize she was walking into a trap. Snow White wanted revenge. Inside the wedding hall, the guards grabbed the queen. Iron shoes were heated in fire. Then they forced the evil queen to wear the hot shoes. The queen was forced to dance in torment until she passed away. That was the true ending of Snow White.
Disney knew this version could never work as a children's film, so they changed it. But the grim version still exists, available for anyone to read. This next case involves a girl who did the unthinkable. Cinderella. Cinderella is remembered as the girl who never got angry. In Disney's version, she lives with her wicked stepmother and stepsisters.
They force her to scrub floors and do endless chores. But I just f do them again. And don't forget the garden, then scrub the terrace, sweep the halls and the stairs. But Cinderella never complains. She's an angel. Then a fairy godmother appears. Cinderella meets a prince, falls in love, and escapes her wicked stepmother. The original Cinderella was nothing like that.
She wasn't a patient victim waiting for rescue. She took matters into her own hands. And her first victim was her stepmother. The Cinderella story told in 1634 was very different. And in that version, her name wasn't Cinderella. It was actually Zazora. She lived with her father and stepmother who treated her like dirt. And she burned with anger.
But no fairy godmother appeared. Instead, a woman named Carmina poisoned Zaza's mind. Carmina told her she could escape her misery by ending her stepmother. Once the woman was gone, Carmascina promised to marry Zaza's father. That would make her the new stepmom. Then they could be happy family. Zola agreed. She was still a child, but she was willing to take a life.
She asked her stepmother to help her find a dress in a heavy wooden chest. When her stepmother bent inside, Zazola slammed the lid on her. It looked like an accident. Zola's father never suspected her. After the funeral, she moved to the next step of the plan. Zaza pushed her father to marry Carmina. He agreed. For a brief moment, Zizza believed her life would be beautiful.
Instead, it got worse. At first, Carsina kept her promise. She was kind to Zaza. But once she was secure in her new marriage, she revealed her true nature. She was meaner than the first stepmother. Carmina moved six daughters of her own into the house. Suddenly, Zaza or Cinderella had six new steps sisters tormenting her daily.
Zola worked like a servant from sunrise to sunset. She unfortunately ended her stepmother hoping for a better life, but it was all for nothing. The story continued. There were supernatural events and all sort of weird situations, but the main parts were still there. Zola attended a royal banquet. She left behind her glass slipper.
The prince searched the kingdom for the girl whose foot fit the shoe. In the end, he found Zaza. It was a happy ending, but the road to it was paved with misery. One thing is certain, the real Cinderella is not a story of patience and kindness. It's about anger, revenge, and betrayal. 300 years later, Disney erased the disturbing parts.
Zizza became Cinderella. Instead of a girl who ended her stepmother, she became the girl who never fought back. Today, almost no one remembers Zola. the dangerous Cinderella. These characters look like heroes on screen, but behind them were stories of pain and suffering. And the people you meet every day are no different.
They all have a past, a story. So, my friends, be kind to the people around you, because you never know what backstory they're carrying. Visual Venture. We talked about cartoon characters, but if you want to get even more in-depth with disturbing media, I created a video that covers everything from TV shows to documentaries to video games, and it is our longest video ever made.
Click here to watch media banned for being too controversial. Love you guys. Peace.
