Little known fact about Cinderella is that in the original, European version* of the full Cinderella story (titled "La gatta cenerentola" in Italian), Cinderella kills her step-mother at the instigation of her governess. The governess later becomes the evil new step-mother. In the
brothers Grimm version of Cinderella, Cinderella's step-sister cuts off her toe to fit the shoe. So now you know what Disney's adaptation of Cinderella omitted: murder committed by the heroine, and extreme body modification.
*The story that appears before this 1846 European version comes from Egypt, recorded by
Strabo in the 1st century BC. In "The Many Faces of Cinderella" the author seems to believe the Chinese version is also related, even though I find the Egyptian version having a higher likelyhood of having a relationship. Maybe I will reexamine the Chinese version in the future. It could be old enough to have been included in the
Arabian Nights.
Reference(s):
A well-researched page on Cinderella:
http://www.lyricoperasandiego.org/resource_library/CinderellaVersions.htm "Cinderella: The Many Faces of Cinderella"
The page cites