The similarities are in that they both are based on the same folktale and they both begin with the same score. That's about as many similarities that are between the two. Where Disney's short is an enjoyable, yet cut and dried interpretation and variation to make the story more kid-friendly, Leaf's is, well, less so. Leaf excels at the more direct adaptation while showing perhaps a more primal approach. These sand drawings recall the cave drawings many associate with the earliest pictorial storytelling.
Leaf tells great stories in my eyes. My favorite that we saw teeters in between Two Sisters and The Street. I'm not sure what draws me to those two. Possibly that the stories are so inherently human, expecting to be rejected and dealing with the death of a loved one. Few popular mediums tell stories like this anymore.
Most of the films that make it to mainstream theatres aren't honest even if they try to be. The last "documentary" that reached the multiplex in my hometown was 2016: Obama's America, despite all of you political feelings, I think we can all agree that a heavily right-slanted film about things that have yet to come and presume the worst shouldn't call itself a documentary. Perhaps an honest story can't be told to the modern masses anymore.
News shows are losing viewers by the day and newspapers are losing subscribers by the minute. Twitter is where news lives now and it lives in 140 character whether the story deserves that or not. News is now told with a joke and a wink and a smile by the likes of Trevor Noah and John Oliver. True, human stories aren't told straight anymore and maybe that's why I like Caroline Leaf. Maybe we could all learn something from her. Maybe the above is why she hasn't worked in over a decade.
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