You may have noticed that the post title is simply "Fairy Tale Friday" rather than "Fairy Tale Fridays." You may also have noticed that there haven't been very many fairy tales on Fridays again this year. Hence, I hesitate to insinuate in the title that there may be more coming. Although I hope there will be. If I can only make myself reach the point where I am making fewer commitments and freeing up more time to free range read.
What's that you say? You don't remember Disney having previously tried and failed with this one? Then you were lucky enough to have missed the 2000 made-for-tv adaptation starring Drew Carrey and Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Geppetto. A musical. Stephen Schwartz actually wrote the music but wrote it with a rematching of Mary Poppins stars Julie Andrews and Dick Van Dyke in mind. Andrews was having throat surgery at the time and was unable to do it but how you went from that cast to were they ended up I can't imagine.
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| Yeah, that's not at all scary |
On a much more serious note, Kristin of Tales of Faerie, has a thought-provoking post, Mother's Who Kill Their Children, about a book by the same title by Cheryl L. Meyer and Michelle Oberman. She uses the book as a basis to explore abuse in fairy tales and those ties to real life, as well as the subject of feminism in fairy tales. She discusses the ways in which we have, throughout history, been quick to blame the victim as well as the abuser (a subject which has been a hot button lately with the release of the new Cinderella movie which has people again saying that Cinderella, as a character, was too passive). Very powerful stuff which I highly recommend reading.
It's interesting how these classic fairy tales are interpreted differently depending on one's outlook on life. I must say I loved most of the well known classic tales in book form with their illustrations when I was a child. I didn't much like the Disney version of Pinocchio, not because of the plot and themes, but because of the graphics. The wooden figurines sold in souvenir shops in Italy have such an iconic look.
ReplyDeleteThe live action remakes of these familiar tales have been interesting. I didn't see Maleficent (Scott watched it without me on a business trip so it's unlikely that I'll see it on my own), but I did take Elle to see Cinderella a few weeks ago and I heard that they're re-making Beauty and the Beast as live action as well. Reminds me of the Masterpiece Theater movies with Shelley Duvaul that I watched as a child. Did your kiddos watch any of those? I can't even remember now which ones we had.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the Disney/cartoon movies through my daughter's eyes, I'm struck at how violent and gruesome they can be. Even Anastasia (one of my favorites) has some really creepy moments!
Oh, Pinocchio. I like the actual fairy tale but didn't enjoy it as a kid; it was too dark for me.
ReplyDeleteWhat a thought-provoking post by Kristin. Never blame the victim. Thanks for this one.
One of my coworkers read Pinocchio recently and really liked it. He shared several of the differences between the book and the movie with me as he was so excited. :-) It's not my favorite story, so I don't know if I will be reading the book. I'm not even sure I want to see another live action version of the story. I do remember the first one! I watched it, but didn't really remember until you mentioned it. Obviously it doesn't stick out in my memory.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing Kristin's link. I am really interested in reading her article.
I can relate to what Trish said about how differently I see Disney/cartoon movies now that I am a mother. My daughter isn't really into those movies yet though. She may be obsessed with the idea of princesses, but try to get her to sit down for one of the movies, and she'll protest very adamantly. That's why I was so surprised she wanted to see the live action Cinderella movie. She's seen Frozen, which she thought was too scary.
I really liked Malificent and Into the Woods. I am curious to see how the live action Mulan movie comes out.