Pillaging the Public Domain: Why Should Disney Have All the Fun?

Most of us have seen the Disney classics, like Beauty and the Beasst, Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, etc. But what you may not know is that Disney simply adapted these stories from old fairytales, most of which came from the Brothers Grimm (all but one that I mentioned did. The Little Mermaid is a Hans Christian Anderson tale). Even the Lion King has its roots in Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

How can Disney do this and not get sued? Easy. These stories they are pillaging are from the 1800s or even earlier, putting them into the Public Domain, which means they’re fair game.

Most of the Brothers Grimm tales, if you start reading them, are sketchy at best. But sometimes, that’s exactly what you need to kickstart your creativity. Something sketchy to work with. Then, using what you know about archetypes and three act structure, you can turn a four or five page story into a children’s novel that barely even resembles the original story you borrowed the idea from. And even if the story is visible beneath everything you’ve added on top of it, that’s okay, too. Because you’re allowed to use it.

One caveat here: You’re allowed to use the original story, not the Disney version. The Disney version is copyrighted and Disney actively goes after anyone impinging on their copyrights.

I have two great texts, The Complete Hans Christian Anderson and The Complete Brothers Grimm just full of writing ideas. Really, what it’s full of is writing starters: ideas to kick off stories for me to then brainstorm (or Mind Map–see my previous post on Mind Mapping) and fill in a lot of missing details. And there are a lot of missing details to fill in, generally. The Brothers Grimm weren’t known for their wordiness.

In most cases, in the end, your story will have changed so much it will be unrecognizable from its source. And that’s great, because you’ve taken something and made it your own.

I don’t suggest doing this for every story you write. It would numb your creativity over time. But every once in a while, if you really can’t think of anything to put down on paper, try flipping through some old Hans Christian Anderson or Brothers Grimm stories and see what happens to catch your fancy. There’s a lot of resources there to be tapped. Even Disney has only touched the tip of a very big iceberg.

Michael out.