Blog Entry 5

            Both the Disney and Grimm versions of Snow White were similar in many ways. Each was about a beautiful young girl who was taken into the forest by a huntsman after he was told to do so by the evil queen. The evil queen had wanted her dead because the mirror said that Snow White was more beautiful than the evil queen. The huntsman felt so bad for Snow White that he let her run away into the forest where there she found the house where the seven dwarves lived. The seven dwarves came home after a day of work to find Snow White sleeping on their beds. When she awoke, the seven dwarves and Snow White made a deal that she could stay and live with them as long as she kept house for them. When the evil queen found out Snow White was still alive, she disguised herself as an old lady and came to give Snow White a poisonous apple. Snow White took a bite of the apple and fell down dead immediately. The dwarves put her in a glass coffin and one day a prince came to see snow white. She later awoke and the prince and her rode off on a horse to live happily ever after.

            There are several differences though, and the reason Walt Disney decided to make them was probably because he wanted to make the story have more of a flow and make it sound more romantic. The first difference was that in the Disney version, Snow White met the prince at the beginning before the queen had sent her off to be killed, while in the Grimm version, she did not meet the prince until she was awoken later in the story. Another difference was that in the Grimm tale, the evil queen came to sell things to and kill Snow White twice before she came with the apple. In the Disney version, the evil queen only came that one time. Lastly, a huge difference between the two tales is that in the Disney version, Snow White was awoken from the poisonous apple spell by true loves kiss, but in the Grimm version, she was only awoken until the piece of apple was dislodged from her throat. These two tales were similar in many ways but there were also several main differences as well.

Blog Entry 4

The fairytale Cinderella, both the Disney version and the Grimm version, was about a girl named Cinderella who had become a servant for her stepmother and stepsisters. At one point there was a ball because the prince needed to find someone to marry, so when Cinderella’s stepfamily wouldn’t let her attend the ball, she magically transformed into a beautiful maiden and went to the ball. There, the prince decided that Cinderella was his soul mate though he wasn’t able to figure out her true identity until the slipper that Cinderella had left behind had been placed back on her foot. And there, Cinderella and the prince got married and lived happily ever after. But is this realistic? Could this actually happen in real life? Of course not! A poor servant girl would never be able to clean up as well as Cinderella that instantly. Even if somehow she miraculously would, it is doubtful that a rich man would stop in his tracks and say I’m going to marry you. I find it impossible for someone to go “from rags to riches” just by first impression. If anything, the only way someone could come into a lot of money so fast would be if they won the lottery. Some may point out the movie Pretty Woman about a stripper who fell in love with her client after only several days of knowing each other. I believe it is possible that that could happen, but it is a slim chance. I find it so unlikely that a poor woman would be able to fall in love with a rich man so fast. The fairytale Cinderella gives children false hope about their futures, making them think that no matter what, men will love them as long as they are pretty.

Blog Entry 3

            The MGM movie and the Grimm story of Hansel and Gretel are actually very similar. They are about two poor kids, a boy and a girl, who are forced to go into the woods where they find a gingerbread house with an old woman who offers them lots of sweets. The old woman wanted to eat the children but eventually died in her own oven. There are some minor details that are also the same. In both, the parents are blood related and the moms are not step moms. Also, Hansel used a chicken bone to make the old women think that he was still skinny. At the end, the children had to cross a river to get back home, but they crossed it on foot instead of riding a duck. Though there are a lot of similarities, there are actually several things that are different in the story and movie as well.

            In the Grimm story, the mom was portrayed as this evil woman who just wanted to be rid of her children for selfish reasons, just so she would be able to feed herself. In the MGM movie, the mom was a very unpleasant person, but she only sent them out to the forest because she was frustrated with them, having no intentions of them possibly dying out there. When Hansel and Gretel were getting lost in the forest, the story had them find their way back using pebbles, but the movie had no mention of them using pebbles at all. In fact, the movie made it so that they were not even able to make it back home until they found their father at the end. Some of the occurrences were different in the movie from the book as well. In the movie, out in front of the gingerbread house were several giant gingerbread men. We later found out that those gingerbread men were actually other children that had gotten lost in the forest and cooked by the old women. Also after Gretel had gotten the old women in the oven, the house basically exploded and red foam started pouring out of it. Nothing of these sorts happened in the short story at all.

            The movie directors of the MGM version made these changes probably because they wanted to make the plot a little more dramatic. They most likely thought that their audience would much rather see a house exploding then just two children running away. Also, they probably didn’t want to make the mother seem as evil as she was in the story, so that’s why they didn’t have her take them to the forest and leave them there twice, and that’s why they never needed pebbles. I’m sure the movie directors also wanted to put their own twist on the story when they made it so that there were lots of children getting lost in the forest and no one knew the reason why. The changes they made were logical and still made their story flow well, though it wasn’t completely true to the Grimm story.

Blog Entry 2

            Fairytales have been told for longer than the term fairytale has even existed. They are often confused with the terms legend or myth, yet some aspects of fairytales are different than those of legends or myths. Fairytales are known for incorporating magic and fantasy, while myths and legends tend to focus more on the supernatural. Myths and legends are believed to be true though there is some skepticism from the audience. Fairytales are assumed to be fictional, and are told to better understand the moral instead of learning about different events and people. Fairytales also tend to be longer than myths and legends because they usually have more sequences of events and more of a plot.

            When I think of fairytales, I usually think with more specifics. Fairytales usually have royalty, princes, princesses, kings, and queens, who live in a castle somewhere far, far away. There is no time in these places and no other outside world; it’s as if they live in their own little bubble, to be untouched by anyone outside of their land. There’s usually an evil character, a witch, ogre, or monster, which causes problems that affect the main character, usually the princess. Eventually, there’s some sort of battle and in the end the good guy, the prince, always wins and comes to save his true love, the princess. I’m not saying this happens in all fairytales, but for the most part, this is usually the case for most.

            Fairytales have evolved over the centuries, yet they still keep their same elements and same purpose. They are for all age groups, young and old, and no matter which age group, everyone is able to learn something from each fairytale.