Blog 6

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The fairy tale The Frog King by the Brothers Grimm and the Greek tale Cupid and Psyche are very different stories. They have very different characters and the length and layout of the stories are almost entirely different. However, these tales do have some things in common. For one, they both feature a prince and a princess in a complicated relationship with one another. In The Frog King, the frog only just wants to be loved by the princess and be her companion. The princess despises the frog and thinks he's ugly and gross. She only falls in love with him when he transforms back into a prince at the end of the story. She falls in love with him immediately in fact. Whereas in Cupid and Psyche, a somewhat similar but different situation occurs. Rather than Psyche seeing Cupid right away like the Princess saw the frog. Cupid doesn't reveal himself to Psyche for fear of what she'll think of his appearance, and how that might change her feelings for him. All he wants is to be loved as an equal. This mysterious nature of him just makes Psyche more curious, however. And with the advice from her sisters, she peeks at him while he is asleep and he is truly a beautiful angel. This is similar to The Frog King because both women didn't appreciate their man until they saw his beauty. The Princess hated the frog because he was ugly, and Psyche had no idea what Cupid looked like, for all she knew he could've been a monster.

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Week 5

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The Disney adaptation of the fairy tale Snow White changed a lot of things. This was most likely to make the story more appropriate and enjoyable for all ages. Nonetheless, there were many changes. Both versions feature a beautiful young maiden by the name of Snow White, her skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood, and a beautiful queen who despite her efforts could not match the beauty of Snow White, much to her dismay. The queen ordered her to be taken out into the forest and killed, however, her henchman couldn't bring himself to do it and instead told Snow White to run away and never return. In the Disney version, they emphasize the inclusion of animals and how Snow White has a friendship with them. They appear very often and even help Snow White clean the dwarves' house when she finds it. However, in the original version, Snow White does not clean the house. There's not even a mention of the dwarves' house being dirty. It's even described to be "indescribably dainty and neat". Instead of cleaning, rather, Snow White eats some of the dwarves' food and sleeps in one of their beds. When Snow White awakes, she tells her story about the queen and how she had to run away. The dwarves make a deal with her and propose that if she cleans, cooks, and sews for them they'll let her stay. However, in the Disney version, it is Snow White who proposes this deal. The Disney version focuses on the dwarves a lot more than the original does. Disney makes each dwarf their own character, and there are a few scenes only featuring the dwarves for comedic purposes. When the queen disguises herself and visits the dwarves' house, she does it three times in the original, whereas in the Disney version she only visits once. At the end of the story, the queen dies by falling and being crushed by a boulder, rather than dying to red-hot slippers like in the original. As I said, these changes were most likely made to make the story more accessible to all ages and to make it feel more like a real story with real characters. But it is still something interesting to think about.

Week 4

In the fairy tale Cinderella, Cinderella escapes her torment and captivity from her stepmother and stepsisters. She is able to escape her "prison", meet the prince, dance with him under the stars, and even end up marrying him in the end. All with her help from magic. This "rags to riches" theme may seem unrealistic, which it would most definitely be in a real-life setting, however, in the context of the world, where magic and talking animals are commonplace, it makes a lot of sense. If magic truly did exist as it does in Cinderella, it wouldn't be too far off that a girl like her would be helped by a magic hazel tree or a fairy godmother. She's kind to animals and loved her mother, she did just as her mother told her after she passed away. The idea of marrying a prince is pretty accurately portrayed as well. In the period that Cinderella is set in, being married to a prince is a big deal. Becoming royalty pretty much meant you don't have to do anything but enjoy yourself for the rest of your days. It was the highest class you could have, top success. It also wasn't just the magic that helped Cinderella get with the prince, it was her nature and beauty, the magic only assisted her in getting her out of the unfortunate situation she was in. In fictional worlds, magic has a way of doing amazing things, that's why it's fantasy.

Week 3

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Fairy tales are fictional stories about fantasy and magic. These tales are widely understood to be fictional and typically have the same story structure. Despite the name, these tales rarely contain fairies, however, they contain other supernatural or fictional creatures. While fairies aren't the focus of most fairy tales, the stories take place in a fictional magical world where fairies could exist. Talking animals are very common in fairy tales, and more than often characters will see this as a normal thing. Things like magical spells, enchantments, and transformations are also commonplace and typically set up the story. Stith Thompson says a fairy tale is a “tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes. It moves in an unreal world without definite creatures and is filled with the marvelous. In this never-never ending land, humble heroes kill adversaries, succeed to kingdom and marry princesses.” (The Folktale, 1977, 8). Rather than through oral transmission, Fairy Tales are written by a specific author through an artistic language and take place during a specific place and time. In the original, older Fairy Tales, an unsatisfying/bad ending is possible, whereas in Folk Tales it is usually a happy ending. Fairy Tales are also not very formulaic, the characters are multidimensional and there is a complex worldview. While the standards of fairy tales may have changed over time, the general principle is still the same. Fairy Tales are stories about magic and fantasy taking place in fictional worlds.

Week 2

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When you compare the film version of The Brothers Grimm to what really happened you realize that about 80 or 90% of the stuff in the movie didn't actually happen. The movie makes the brothers out to be like witch hunters, scamming people into giving them money by making them think that witches and ghosts are real and needed to be taken care of. The movie then introduces that these stories are indeed real, having many children in the town go missing to these fictional threats. Towards the end of the film, the Grimms then need to deal with a real witch to save the children before it's too late.
When in reality the brothers were only recording folk tales and fairy tales they had heard. They invited folks into their home and had them tell their tales aloud, noting them down for a later publication by Brentano. This publication never happened, so the brothers published the tales themselves, adapting them so they would better suit certain audiences.
The film also portrayed the brothers very differently. In the film version, Will is the outgoing one and Jacob is the more insecure one when it's actually the opposite. This really confused me when I watched the movie, I completely had their names switched in my head until they started shouting at each other. Speaking of which, that wasn't right either. The Grimms were incredibly close, they really loved each other, they were inseparable and would write countless letters to each other when they were apart. In the film, they argue with each other constantly, they almost seem annoyed with having each other around for a good chunk of the film.

Week 1

I chose From Grimm to Disney as my first-year seminar because I really enjoy fairy tales. As a Dungeons & Dragons player, I am an avid enthusiast for everything fantasy-based or magical. I love fantasy movies and stories. I am also a huge Disney fan, especially of their older classic animations. There's something so special about classic hand-drawn animation that new animation just can't touch. Some of my favorites are Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Princess and the Frog, and Mulan. Learning about how some of these original stories came to be sounded really interesting to me. I like digging deep into the origin and creation of things I enjoy. I also plan to be a cinema major, so studying stories and how they develop and change from adaptations is right up my alley. I only hope I can learn to comprehend the difficult reading that may arise, as so far the reading seems slightly challenging for me. But by the end of this seminar I hope I can not only comprehend the reading but become an expert at it so I can explain and talk about it with others as like I said, it sounds very interesting. My favorite fairy tale is Beauty and the Beast as I really enjoy the Disney film. It is a masterpiece of animation and storytelling, with beautiful music as well. It is in my opinion, one of the best films ever made, and I think anyone who hasn't already seen it deserves to.