The interesting thing there is that Disney made their money by reselling public domain content:
- The Little Mermaid
- The Jungle Book
- Tarzan
- Cinderella
- A Christmas Carol
- Fantasia
- Pinocchio
- Alice in Wonderland
- Beauty and the Beast
- Aladin
- Heracles
All folk tails or public domain stories. Even Tangled and Frozen have taken heavily from other stories. And I'm certain there's more I've forgotten.
Likewise Marvel has borrowed a lot from Norse mythology with Thor's story arcs.
I've never really followed comic book fandom that closely so I can't comment on what pre-Disney Marvel were like to their fans. But with regards to Disney, it always left a bad taste in my mouth just how aggressively Disney were to protect their IP from harmless fans when Disney themselves owe their millions to ripping off other peoples stories.