“And they lived happily ever.. nevermind.”
The silver lining in Disney movies has always been that no matter how terrible, traumatic and treacherous the hero’s journey is, they live “happily ever after” — but what if they didn’t? Animation storyboard artist Jeff Hong explores the fate of many of our beloved heroes and heroines if they faced the conditions of the real world in his series, “Disney Unhappily Ever After”.
Hong, who started his career working on classic Disney titles like Hercules, Mulan, and Tarzan to name a few, juxtaposes the fantasy world in which the characters exist, with real life issues such as pollution, deforestation, drugs abuse, racism, and other political, economic, social and environmental problems that plague the world today.
“The idea just popped in my head to put Disney princesses into environments that they wouldn’t be associated with,” the New York City artist told the Huffington Post. The collection features a gaunt Alice (from Alice in Wonderland) superimposed over a sketchy city alley, Ariel (from The Little Mermaid) crawling to shore to escape the oil-contaminated ocean, the ’100 acre woods’ that Pooh calls home loses a few acres to deforestation, and Bambi as a taxidermy wall decoration.
Check out Hong’s Tumblr for updates on the series and see the true fate of your favorite Disney character’s in Jeff Hong’s “Disney Unhappily Ever After” in the gallery below.
-Khari Clarke (@KINGCLARKEIII)