Fairy tales of the past were often full of macabre（adj.恐怖的，阴森的）and gruesome twists and endings. These days, companies like Disney have sanitized（v.清洁，净化）them for a modern audience that is clearly deemed unable to cope, and so we see happy endings everywhere.
Little Red Riding Hood
The version of this tale that most of us are familiar with ends with Riding Hood being saved by the woodsman who kills the wicked（adj.坏的） wolf. But in fact, the original French version (by Charles Perrault) of the tale was not quite so nice. In this version, the little girl is a well bred（有教养）young lady who is given false instructions by the wolf when she asks the way to her grandmothers. Foolishly riding hood takes the advice of the wolf and ends up being eaten. And here the story ends. There is no woodsman - no grandmother - just a fat wolf and a dead Red Riding Hood. The moral（n.寓意，格言） to this story is to not take advice from strangers.
The Little Mermaid（n.美人鱼）
In the Disney version, the film ends with Ariel the mermaid being changed into a human so she can marry Eric. They marry in a wonderful wedding attended by humans and merpeople. But, in the very first version by Hans Christian Andersen, the mermaid sees the Prince marry a princess and she despairs. She is offered a knife with which to stab（v.刺杀） the prince to death, but rather than do that she jumps into the sea and dies by turning to froth(n.泡沫). Hans Christian Andersen modified the ending slightly to make it more pleasant. In his new ending, instead of dying when turned to froth, she becomes a “daughter of the air” waiting to go to heaven - so, frankly, she is still dead for all intents and purposes.
