Snow White

The original version of Snow White by the brothers Grimm is very different from the Disney Version of Snow White. In the Disney version Snow White doesn’t have a father, the prince falls in love with her in the beginning of the movie and the dwarfs all have names and personalities. Disney did this for many reasons. The main reason was to make it more appealing to children and the general public.

In the Grimm version the prince only fell in love with Snow Whites beauty after she was already asleep and in the coffin. When Snow White wakes up, after she spit up the piece of apple lodged in her throat, she saw the prince and thought he really loved her so she decided to marry him. In the Disney version the prince fell in love with Snow White in the beginning when she was signing with all of the animals at the well. He loved her even though she was just wearing raggedy old clothes. In the end the prince saved Snow White when he kisses her because it is only true love that brings Snow White back to life. The Disney version with the true love’s kiss is more appealing to children and makes a better plot.

Another difference is the father figure. In the Grimm version once Snow Whites stepmother tries to have her killed you never hear of the father looking for her or even wanting to know if she is okay. If a child were to watch that it would be disturbing and depressing to watch a young girl’s father not care about her in the least, expecially when young children look up to their parents the most. Disney took care of this problem by making Snow White an orphan in the movie and not giving her a father figure, just her evil stepmother. This puts more emphasis on how evil the stepmother is and it makes the viewer’s sympathize with Snow White more because she doesn’t have a father.

                The dwarfs are also a main attraction in the Disney version. Disney did this to help entertain the public. In the Grimm version the dwarfs were just merely little people who worked every day in a mine and that’s about it. In the Disney version they all had names, personalities and special traits. They sang, and loved Snow White very much. Kids and adults love this. The dwarfs were made into cute characters that everyone instantly falls in love with.

Disney made all these changes to make the plot more fun and interesting to people, which in return made his version more popular to the public. 

 

 

 

 

Cinderella gives children hope that your dreams can come true if you truly believe. Cinderella had a dream of not being a slave to her evil stepmother and step sisters; she also had a dream to go to the royal ball, which her stepmother was never going to allow. Through good spirits, perseverance, and a little magic Cinderella got her dream of going to the royal ball, falling in love, and becoming rich and never having to answer to her step mother or sisters again.  

             This is, in my opinion, a good message and motif. Young kids should have hope that no matter where they come from they can do good things in life and be happy. There are a lot of children that come from poor, or bad backgrounds and can relate to Cinderella. When they watch the fairy tale they see how Cinderella has an optimistic attitude on life and preservers through and the harsh punishments and chores her stepmother and sisters give her every day they think if she can do it so can I.           

            On the other hand children don’t have a fairy god mother or a prince that is rich they can marry. This is unrealistic… Cinderella essentially escaped all her problems because her godmother made her pretty, and because she married the prince. Cinderella never had to really work to become rich or escape her poor life. The prince saved her from it, because he is rich. If it wasn’t for magic and the princes riches Cinderella would probably still be a slave to her family. In real life children will have obstacles in life, and they may not get to go to the ball they really wanted to go to.. but they must know that life goes on and they can’t give up. Sometimes life is hard, but tomorrow is always another day

Hansel and Gretel Differences

                              

Hansel and Gretel is a timeless fairytale about two children, brother and sister, who get lost in the woods and get found by an evil witch in her gingerbread house. In the story the children use bread crumbs to try to find their way back to the house but animals in the woods eat their crumb path and they can’t get home, allowing the witch to lore them to her delicious home.

There are differences however between the many versions of Hansel and Gretel. In the movie their biological mother was their mother. The mother cared for her family very much but she felt very useless because she couldn’t feed her family. One day their neighbor brought them milk and eggs and she made a casserole. Hansel accidentally let the donkey in the house and the donkey spilt all the milk and ate their casserole. When their mother found out she was very angry and told them to go pick berries out in the forest for their dinner. Hansel and Gretel went into the forbidden forest, which their father and mother told them to never do, and that’s how they got lost.

In the original version their real mother had died and it was their stepmother living with them. The stepmother convinced Hansel and Gretel’s father to take them into the woods and leave them in the forest so she didn’t have to feed them anymore. Hansel and Gretel heard their stepmother telling this to her husband and Hansel went and got pebbles so he could leave a path in the forest and they could find their way back home. The second night the stepmother locked the door so they had to use bread crumbs to make a path. As in the original version animals ate the bread crumbs and they became lost in the forest.

This is one of the main differences between the two versions of Hansel and Gretel. With the mother being the actual birth mother it made the story more family oriented. The act wasn’t as cruel as in the original version. A child watching two kids deaths being planned out wouldn’t like the story as much as if the two children simply got lost and their mother and father both were very worried and looking for them. The relationship between the mother and children is more loving and caring in the movie version than in the original. This makes the movie more relatable and once again, more family oriented.

The similarities were kept because it keeps the message the same; children can overcome obstacles and you shouldn’t underestimate them. Hansel and Gretel had all the odds against them in the forest and when they got caught by the witches gingerbread house trap everyone thought they were goners, but they weren’t. They beat the odds, and give children hope that they too can beat the odds in life. 

Blog Number Two

A fairy tale is commonly known to have happy endings, a princess in distraught, and a charming prince that saves the day. Walt Disney is the one who has put this picture of a fairy tale into our minds.  But fairy’s tales have many elements that make them up besides the Walt Disney characteristics.       

 

                Fairy tales have elements of magic and fantasy. When reading a fairy tale we know it’s not real and we accept it. When reading Little Red Riding hood for example we don’t question when the wolf talks, we read it and accept it like it happen every day. This is one point that separates fairy tales from myths, and legends.  There are fairies, elves, witches, trolls and giants. They all have special powers and make wishes come true. It wouldn’t be interesting or a fairy tale if there weren’t these magical creatures. One of the main reasons I read fairy tales is because of the magic.

                Myths have to do with god and religions, and legends have saints and deal with real facts that are made more humanistic. Animals can talk in a legend but people question it, the characters in the story question it, it’s not just simply accepted. Some people actually believe local legends too; unlike in fairy tales where the reader, or viewer, knows it’s not real.

                Fairy tales are also a universe in miniature.  They have all the elements and they teach morals. They also have no character development.  You don’t know much about characters or who they really are unless they are the main characters. Like in little red riding hood the grandmother is simply the grandmother… there isn’t much character development.

                Fairy tales also have no sense of time. Once upon a time is how they start. There is not direct time as to when that is or where it even occurred. Age is doesn’t really exist either, when sleeping beauty falls asleep for “100 years” when she wakes up she is just as young and pretty as she was when she fell asleep at the age of 16 or 15. Fairy tales simply just ignore time, it doesn’t matter to them and that’s another element that makes them so interesting and magical.

                To me fairy tales are also a way to disconnect from the real world. When reading a fairy tale I don’t question things and I get lost in magic. It’s nice to read about once upon a time and not worry about when it actually was or the history of that era. It’s nice to read about finding true love and having a prince charming come into your life and sacrifice his own life for yours. When I was younger it gave me hope these things would actually happen, and that I would have fairies come grant all my wishes. Now that I’m older it’s a way to escape from the real world and get lost into a fantasy world.

Blog Number One

Why did you choose this course as your FYS? What are you hoping to accomplish in this seminar? What is your favorite fairy tale? Why?

Ever since I have been a little girl I have LOVED fairy tales. All types from Hunchback of Notre Dame to Cinderella. So, naturally, when I was signing up for our required first year seminars the class “From Grim to Disney” caught my eye. I thought that this class would be the most interesting and it’s on a topic I actually like and will enjoy learning about. To this day I still watch fairy tales and love every second of them.
My favorite Disney movie is The Lion King. When I was younger I was obsessed with Simba and when they came out with Lion King Two I thought it was the best day ever. I love it because I also have a soft spot for animals so when I saw lion king I loved that all the main characters were lions and other animals. I still cry when Mufasa dies in the first one. The songs in lion king also made the movie ten times greater for me because they were very catchy. In The Lion King Two I loved the love story plot and I also really like how the two packs become friends in the end, it’s really the perfect ending.
Once I started getting older I learned and heard that Disney actually took their stories from other older tales and changed them into child movies. This topic had always interested me, knowing what some of my favorite Disney stories were actually about and derived from. That is something I hope to learn this semester from this class.