Wednesday, December 2, 2015

International Talent Show Review

                                                     I don't know why there are 2 different fonts ...

The multicultural talent show was very unique. It's structure was awful but the content made up for that. The pieces of the show were mostly music, but a few other arts such as a poem and a dance showed up. 

             I really enjoyed the first performance, Mariah’s. She played a song about how she will do this that and the other thing, tomorrow. This may sound entertaining, but singing it in German made it very beautiful and Mariah’s voice was the icing on the cake. It was a great start to the awful structure that followed. My next favorite part was the man that had the various flutes and other instruments. He played 7 different tunes from the USA to Arabia and back. Some of the tunes were beautifully selected, while some were an artistic choice to include. It was the most unique part of the entire show.

               I've been bad mouthing the structure but not explaining what I mean. First, the audio of the event was awful, and the easiest fix for that is to select a different location on campus. Also, the order seemed silly. Singing should have been more distributed and the largest piece, the dance, should have ended the show. If those 2 things were fixed, then the show would be improved greatly. It was very nice to see both MCs participating in the show. They must have been stressed trying to plan this show, and having 2 important roles in the show sounds mind boggling stressful. 

A multicultural map!

Source: http://www.weloba.com/article/fc-barcelona-a-multicultural-team-0

Snow White Panto Review


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Snow White Panto was an interesting show to watch. It had a twisted sense of humor that could easily offend someone. But other than that it felt like a few fairytales and a couple of other stories all had hanky panky with each other and had this child. Having many parents sounds interesting but it can get very messy very fast. 

As I was watching the Panto, I was thinking of a more appropriate title. I came up with CinderThorneIng White and Company. As I said before, this show would have had many parents. First is Snow White because it had a vain queen and other Snow White themes, such as 7 woman disliking dwarves and a poisoned apple. Cinderella made her way into the Panto because Prince Charming, who seemed slower than McDaniels internet, lost his hat as he ran off and Snow White found the hat when she was a maid. This mirrors Cinderella because Cinderella was a maid for sometime and Prince Charming found her slipper as she was running off. During this portion of the Panto, a Sleeping Beauty song was played to move the story along. At one point the evil queen, who was written to be a character you love to hate, made an amnesia or brainwashing potion to get rid of Snow White, much like Hugh and Dominic did in Winterthorne. Muddles, a fun made up character, was brainwashed to kill Snow White, playing a similar role to the Huntsman. Other stories such as Goldilocks and Romeo and Juliet made their way into the Panto, by Snow White using various chairs, spoons, and beds as she first went into the Dwarves house and having Prince Charming and Snow White alternate small soliloquy like monologues when one thought the other was dead. 

As I said before, the Panto had many parents, but Snow White cared for it the most. But the original Grimm tale and the Disney movie had an equally large presence. The Grimm version came through when the Dwarves seemed afraid of Snow White purely because she was a woman. Also, the marriage wasn't shown, which is true to the original tale. 

But the Disney version came through when Muddles called up a little girl to the stage to say what Snow White needs. The little girl said true loves kiss, which is what she needs in the Disney version, but what Snow White truly needed was a clear throat via coughing, having her head yanked back to look up, or getting dropped by a clumsy guard. 

The 2 versions of Snow White agreed with each other when the 7 Dwarves had very minor roles, to the point where the dancers were more important, but they each had their own personality. Grimm told the Dwarves to be minor, but Disney said give them personalities!

All and all, the Snow White Panto was very interesting because of all of the influences it had, from Disney to Shakespeare it was a very entertaining show. 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                Notice there is more than one picture
This is Dominic from Winterthorne


This is Hugh from Winterthorne

These are Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty

This is Miranda from Winterthorne. She is included for the pure reason that she is a great character that looks so breathtaking in this clip from the series. PS: She delivers a very great b*tchslap. This is also included because, my blog my rules.

Sources: Leapfrog.com and Winterthorne.com

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Reflection


            The best way to reflect about what I wrote is to talk about it!
             In the first blog, which I felt like I just wrote, I mentioned goals I had for the class and why I picked this class. I only picked this class because it had Disney in the title. Initially I had second thoughts about this FYS but I really enjoyed it. Before this class, I never read or saw Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Tangled, HoodWinked, or Silence of the Lambs. While I only hated, with the strongest use of the word one of these movies, and wish I didn’t see that certain one, I at least somewhat liked the others. It was fun to read the original tale that takes 15 minutes if it’s a longer one, then see how Disney appropriated, or as I said in my first blog “Disneyified”. I never would have guessed that the 7 Dwarves were just functions of the plot based on what Disney did to Snow White. At family gatherings, I ask others what they think about the tale. After they mention a Disney exclusive topic, I explain that its wrong. It’s always a fun time.

            In the second blog, I had to write a working definition for a fairytale, and I wrote “A fairytale has fantastical forces and beings, but it also has, imagination, curiosity, excitement, simplistic symbolism a way of bringing you back to your childhood and most of all, it has magic. I hope this is a worthy definition of the term fairytale.” After seeing at least 7 movies adapted from fairytales, I know this definition IS worthy.

            The third blog was comparing the original tale of Hansel and Gretel with the MGM version starring Cloris Leachman. I knew Hansel and Gretel as 2 kids that got lost in a forest, if that much. Now I know that the kids were forced out of the house and had to fight for their lives from a cannibalistic queen.

            The fourth blog was explaining the reality of the “Rags to Riches” motif found it Cinderella. I don’t know why, but Cinderella’s character just annoyed me. Therefore, this blog was a tougher one to write, but I got to incorporate my soap opera into it! The point is, the “Rags to Riches” motif does exist out of the entertainment world. Also, Cinderella started the se*ualization of simple things. I rememeber that Cinderella’s glass slipper symbolized a vagina and her leg represented the “shooter”, but I don’t recall the reasoning behind it.

            The fifth blog was similar to the third blog, but with Snow White. I was shocked that Disney felt like it was ok to mangle the original Snow White. He left out to murder attempts, gave the 7 Dwarves personalities and made Snow White have to get true loves kiss to wake her up. This reminds me how much I hated Snow White’s singing and how my dislike of Disney started,

            The sixth blog was comparing The Frog Prince, or Iron Henry and Cupid and Psyche. I liked Iron Henry’s character. That was the only enjoyable thing about this blog because the princess was very bratty and I could imagine her and the story of Cupid and Psyche was very hard to follow.

            The seventh blog was finding a cartoon about Little Red Riding Hood, and dissecting it. I thought Little Red Riding Hood was eaten by the wolf and that was the end of that. But I was very wrong. This continued upon the se*ualization of simple things. The Red Riding Hood is supposed to represent menstrual blood. Initially that seems crazy, but if menstruation is looked as maturing, and the hood pushes Little Red to do something mature, the link is seen, barely, but seen.

            The eighth blog was about Fitchers Bird, Robbers Bridegroom, and BlueBeard. I hated all 3 of these tales. This only showed me that fairytales can be dark and not have a happy ending.

            The ninth blog was like the third and fifth blog but with Rapunzel. I knew Rapunzel had long hair and was stuck in a tower. The fairytale expanded on this idea. This blog let me have the opportunity to watch Tangled!!! I loved Tangled, but not for the Rapunzel aspects …

            The tenth and final blog is this blog about reflecting upon past blogs and the class. Each class was a different experience because Dr. Esa is an interesting individual with differing attitudes at differing things. But the 3 things I will always remember from this class are A) Zeitgeist is a German word meaning spirit of the time and the different approaches at one tale can most likely be attributed somewhat to zeitgeist and B) Magic is at the heart of all fairytales and C) to SHOW something NOT tell it.

            This class has inspired me to read other fairytales with movie adaptations, watch the corresponding movie, and analyze it based off analysis’ done in class. All in all, this class was a journey worth taking.

 



This blog made me think of a certain episode of my soap. On its 52nd anniversary, it flashbacked to the first episode by having current actors, fill the shoes of the original actors.

 

Sources: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/573646071263090528/

Saturday, November 14, 2015

Rapunzel VS Tangled


            Rapunzel is a classic Grimm fairytale that is about a little girl that was given up by her parents in desperation and grew up in near isolation. In 2010, Disney Animation Studios, released Tangled, which was intended to be a retelling of the Brothers Grimm’s Rapunzel. Even though these 2 sources of entertainment have some similarities, they are different stories with the same character.

            In both Rapunzel and Tangled, a mystical creature, named Mother Gothel, took Rapunzel when she was a baby. The timing was similar but not the same: In Rapunzel, she was taken by the consequences of a deal and in Tangled, she was kidnapped. But the long golden hair is important in both, but for different reasons: In Rapunzel, it was used as a ladder / pulley to get to gain access to the tower in Tangled, it was also used as a ladder / pulley, but it was also used to keep the witch / adoptive mother physically young and seemingly immortal. The story takes place at important ages in a woman’s life: 12, the average age for a woman’s first period, and 18, the age of adulthood in Rapunzel.

            In both stories, Rapunzel disobeyed her adoptive mother by spending time with a man. In Rapunzel, she let a man up into her tower and later had hanky – panky, which was implied when Rapunzel told the only mother she knew that her clothes were too tight. In Tangled, after Flynn Rider enters the tower by climbing it, he and Rapunzel escaped the tower together. After both of these betrayals, Mother Gothel was very upset. Also, near the very end of the fairytale, Rapunzel shed a tear that had healing effects for the man in the story: In Rapunzel, she shed a tear that hit the prince in his blind eyes and he magically regained his eyesight and in Tangled, she shed a tear on a seemingly dead Flynn Rider and he came back to life.

Other than the differences in similarities between the stories, the major difference is the storyline. Disney appropriated the living daylights out of Tangled, so there are to many differences to pick from, but a few I can think of. First, they made Rapunzel a princess, to go along with all of the other Disney “Grimm” Princesses. Second, why did the witch want to be immortal? Just to get Rapunzel? That could have been done better … Maybe use the original Rapunzel lettuce idea? The king and queen are later seen in the movie, so an introduction would make more sense. Third, the disobedience from Rapunzel was taken to the extreme in Tangled when she broke out of the tower, and had a mental break when she initially disobeyed her mother. But Rapunzel didn’t get pregnant in Tangled

I loved the movie, Tangled, but because of the purely Disney created love story, not because of its lacking similarities to the Grimm Brothers Rapunzel.
 
This is Rapunzel letting her long golden hair down to allow someone entrance into her tower.

Saturday, November 7, 2015

Fitchers Bird VS Robbers Bridegroom VS BlueBeard


Fitchers Bird and Robbers Bridegroom are both variations of BlueBeard. These 3 tales are similar in 3 aspects: The woman married a “nightmare”, the way the man was killed and the way to show distrust. The tales are also unique with their ending.

 In each of the tales, the woman married a “nightmare”. In Fitchers Bird, the woman married a sorcerer like man that used his magic to deceive others. In Robbers Bridegroom, the woman married a robber who instilled horror in his bride’s heart. In BlueBeard, the woman married an ugly man who lured women to be with him.

            The man was killed at the end of each tale in a different way. In Fitchers Bird, the man and his followers were burned alive. In Robbers Bridegroom, the man and his cohorts were all killed when it was revealed they were thieves. In BlueBeard, the man was stabbed with swords by the woman’s brothers.

            An item was used to show the distrust between the man and woman. In Fitchers Bird, a key to a room full of corpses and an egg were used to show distrust between the woman and the sorcerer. In Robbers Bridegroom, the woman’s grandmother’s severed finger with a golden ring was shown to legitimize the claims the woman made. In BlueBeard, a key was used to show the mistrust between the woman and the man.

            These 3 tales are very similar and unique. Not many of the Grimm Tales and other fairytales we analyzed have gruesome endings. The Disney adaptations of tales such as Briar Rose, Aschenputtel, and Little Snow White, all had happy endings with a “happily ever after.” So if we only stayed strictly to Grimm history and Disney adaptations, we would never get to stories that broke “the norm.” With these gruesome endings, these tales also showed that “nightmarish” side of marriage and it isn’t always “happily ever after” like in Disney adapted films.
 
Honestly, I didn’t like any of these stories because I couldn’t get attached to the characters. By that I mean I barely got to know them, and root for or against them. On my soap opera, a character named Levi was on the show for about 5 months, and I got to hate him as much as a fictional character can be hated. When he was murdered, I was so elated that he got what he deserved. I didn’t get that feeling of satisfaction when the men in the 3 stories were killed/murdered/executed.

 

                                    
 





 

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Little Red Riding Hood

Little Red Riding Hood is the story of how a little girl who wants to give treats to her grandmother gets eaten, but lives to tell the tale and another near death experience. Little Red Riding Hood has themes such as maturation and naรฏveness embedded into it. This comic explores a possible thought that the wolf had after he swallowed Red’s grandmother whole. He said, “There’s no way she’s gonna to fall for this”, to himself. What if Red was mature enough to see past the hat and figure out the Wolf’s sly trick? Fortunately for the Wolf, Red only got her red hood, not the symbolism of being reborn. When Red makes her “typical” comments such as, “Oh Grandma! What big teeth you have!” and “Oh Grandma! What a big nose you have!”, the Wolf is quite relieved and stunned that Red’s naรฏveness is so strong. This could be due to being babied for much of her life, as brought up by (I believe) Emma in her written letter. Red hasn’t had the chance to experience life and make little to no harm mistakes.
This comic is a social comic due to the fact that it was created on Reddit, a very non serious website. It is clearly making fun of Red’s naรฏveness on its surface, not the symbolism under it.
This comic stood out to me for a few reasons; one was purely the art style. But the content was ultimately the reason I chose to analyze this comic. It is very blunt and to the point, but the story of Little Red Riding Hood must be known to understand it. Other than that, it was cute. If I were in the Wolf’s position in the tale, I would be more concerned for Red than for my cover. If something itches at me, I will call it out, in person to a human that might change, or at a TV that won’t respond to me at all. It relieves a bit of stress, for me at least.   
Author: TubeyToons
 

Sunday, October 25, 2015

The Frog King, or Iron Henry VS Cupid and Psyche


My initial thought was these 2 tales are completely different, and couldn’t possible have anything in common. For heaven’s sake, one tale, The Frog King, is short and simple due to being a fairytale, and Cupid and Psyche is much longer and convoluted due to being an old Greek tale. Looking at the 2 tales through a simple “lenses” then looking at the deeper meaning of them, they have a few similarities and differences.

The first similarity is the catalyst to the story: a drop. In the Frog King, the Princess dropped her precious golden ball down the well, thus summoning the prince in his frog form to get the story rolling [: - )] In Cupid and Psyche, after Cupid accidentally shot himself, Psyche went to his castle. At one point, Psyche accidentally let a drop of oil drop onto Cupid, making him fly off and inadvertently testing her loyalty; another similarity.

Loyalty is another similarity between the 2 tales. In the Frog King, after the Prince reverted to a human, he was riding home on a carriage with his loyal servant, Henry. The Prince hears 3 cracks throughout his ride. Those 3 cracks are revealed to be bands that were around Henry’s heart so it wouldn’t break after his master was transformed and taken away from him. The bands also show that Henry was only loyal to the Prince to the point of locking himself to him and only him. In Cupid and Psyche, when Psyche wanted to apologize for her actions, she had to prove herself to Cupids mother, Venus. Venus made Psyche engage in 3 tasks: sorting grains, crossing a river for golden wool, and transferring beauty. These were done to show how loyal Psyche was to Cupid.

A smaller similarity between the 2 tales was the usage of water and gold. In the Frog King, the princess drops her gold ball down the well (with water in it). In Cupid and Psyche, Psyche had to cross a river to collect gold wool from the sheep on the other side. As discussed in class previously, water loosely symbolizes maturity because it can be a large obstacle to overcome, like it was for Hansel and Gretel. The Princess only matured into a not spoiled brat when she dropped her golden ball in to the well and Psyche was maturing by apologizing for her actions against cupid. Also, the gold represents power because it is one of the strongest metals from the earth and it looks like the sun, which gives off heat for basic life. The golden ball represented the royalty that the Princess came from, and the golden wool represented the power and strength that Psyche needed to show to move past that task.

An interesting similarity is that the non magical being was coerced into confronting the magical being. The King told the Princess that she made a promise to the frog and had to honor it. Psyche’s sisters made her confront Cupid, because she never saw him. This was done because confronting the unknown is a very scary thing to do, and usually it is not done on one’s free will.

As I said before, these 2 tales are very different, but they aren’t very comparable with their differences. I found 2 small differences in between the 2 tales. In the Frog King, after the Prince was transformed back into his human form, he instantly redeemed the Princess and was Ok with her actions, shown by (implied) hanky panky and bringing her home to his castle. In Cupid and Psyche, Psyche had to redeem herself with the 3 tasks. This redemption may link back to the kind of tale being told; Fairytale (Short and action oriented) VS Greek Tale (Long and action AND detailed oriented).

The other difference was how offended the man in the story was. The Prince wasn’t offended at all by the Princess, because h never gave up on her. Cupid was very offended when Psyche first confronted him with a knife and dripping lit candle, because she never saw his face before. At this point, it seemed like Cupid gave up on Psyche, but through details it was shown he didn’t.

Overall, these 2 tales are more comparable than I thought was possible. Using a the action of dropping as a catalyst for the rest of the story, the use of the number 3 with loyalty, the usage of gold and water to show power and maturity, and coercion to face the unknown are a few of the similarities throughout the 2 tales, but redemption and degrees of being offended were very different.  
This shows the Frog Prince guarding the golden ball for compassion and love from the Princess.

This is Cupid and (presumably) Psyche from the animated series, Fairyodd Parents
[These blogs are supposed to be fun right? : - )]
 

Sources:
http://www.artlimited.net/image/en/148334

Friday, September 25, 2015

Snow White Comparing and Contrasting


Compare and Contrast Grimm’s Snow White to Disney’s Snow White

Through the years, Snow White has been altered in so many ways. One of the largest sources of altering this tale form the Grimm Brother’s original tale is Disney’s movie adaptation, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves”. There is a difference before the movie even starts! Since Disney added “and the Seven Dwarves” to the title, they are major characters in the movie. However, this is not the case in the original tale. In the Disney movie, all seven of the dwarves are named and develop personalities. In both the original tale and the movie, the dwarves offer to house Snow White if she promises to clean, and revive her and warn her about visitors after the queen visits twice.

After the title, the first few minutes of the movie are true to the tale. The vain queen asks the mirror who is the fairest of them all. The mirror responded with you at first, then after Snow White grew up, the mirror switched its / his answer to Snow White. In the movie, right before the mirror said that, the prince sees Snow White and wants to get to know her, but Snow White runs away. In the original tale, the prince isn’t see until much later. The queen was very jealous and ordered the huntsman to kill Snow White deep in the forest.

The Huntsman portion in the book and the huntsman scene are similar enough. In the book, the Queen wants Snow White’s lung and liver to eat to develop her beauty, while in the movie she only wants the heart as proof that snow White is dead. Other than the request for which organ to bring back to the queen, the 2 portions are the same; the Huntsman gets very close to killing Snow White, but changes his mind, sends her off into the woods, and kills a pig and bring its organs back. Snow White also found the seven dwarves house after running for a bit and rests in there until the dwarves return home.

When the Huntsman came back with the desired organ(s), the queen goes straight to the mirror and asked, who is the fairest of them all? The mirror said, Snow White was the fairest of them all. She gets very jealous with this and goes on a murder challenge. In the original tale, the queen tried to kill Snow White with lace, a poisonous comb and the poisonous apple, while the movie only showed the murder attempt. After each murder attempt in both mentioned versions, the dwarves cam and tried to save Snow White.

After the seven dwarves realize that Snow White is actually dead, they build her a glass coffin so they could always look at her beauty. As this is happening, in the book, she went home and asked the mirror, who is the fairest of them all. When it responded with you again she was very happy. In the movie, the dwarves chased her until she fell off a cliff and presumably died. In both versions of Snow White, the prince sees Snow White and asks the dwarves if they could buy her. They were hesitant to accept the offer and just gave the corpse to the prince.

In the original tale, the glass coffin is dropped, a piece of apple that was lodged in Snow White’s throat fell out and she woke up and agreed to marry the prince. The queen was invited to the wedding, but had to dance with hot iron shoes on until she literally died. In the movie, the prince that saw Snow White earlier is grieving and kisses Snow White, and she woke up and agreed to marry her. The wedding isn’t shown at all in the Disney version of Snow White.

An any and all change that Disney made were to brand the movie his own, or to make it more child friendly. For example, the dwarves were given a personality in the movie and made them likeable while in the original tale, they were only there to aide for Snow White and find her after the queen came and tried to kill her. This gave the movie more of an appeal towards children because they could identify with one of the dwarves. Also, the way the queen died in the tale was very brutal because kids could dance and would get scared to dance again, while the movie version of the queens death was a bit more brutal but rarer for kids to experience.

 




This is a picture of Snow White interacting with the seven dwarves in the Disney Movie.

Source: http://www.moviemail.com/film/dvd/Snow-White-and-the-Seven-Dwarfs-Disney-1937/

Sunday, September 20, 2015

Rags to Riches


Can someone reach success or riches from magic or marriage? Your initial reaction is absolutely not, that makes no sense at all. But it is indeed possible. Cinderella showed it was possible. She started off as rich due to her father. When her father remarried, the stepmother and her two children, made life a living h*ll for Cinderella and she was reduced to wearing rags. Through magic, she was able to meet the prince, and eventually marry him, and get back to riches. This motif sounds so whimsical that it could only be seen in a fairytale, but you are mistaken.

On General Hospital, in 2001, Courtney Matthews came into town blackmailing Edward Quartermaine, one of the richest men in town, due to owning a large corporation. She was very desperate for money and did whatever was necessary to get money. She later fell in love with Nikolas Cassadine, another one of the richest men in town, due to being from Russian royalty. As their relationship was developing, they moved in together and had a child born out of love with each other. Nikolas proposed to Courtney and she said yes, but unfortunately, she died due to a deathly disease going around town. Her child, Spencer Cassadine always referred to common folk as  “townies” as he was growing up, because they weren’t rich or of royal lineage like himself. Courtney came back as a ghost and said, “If a person who doesn’t have money and privilege is a townie, then that makes me a townie too.” Spencer idolized his mother and said that isn’t possible, but Courtney reassured him that it was true. This ghostly exchange established how “rags” Courtney was. But getting close to a rich family can make those metaphorical rags become beautiful handkerchiefs.

Both of these examples were written to satisfy an audience, but it also happens in real life. This reminds me of Prince William and Princess Kate. When they got married in 2011, my mother was very excited because she remembered watching Prince William’s mother, Diana, get married. Princess Kate wasn’t poor growing up, but she wasn’t royalty. With this being said she kind of went from “rags” [if defined as non – royalty, like Spencer Cassadine does] to “riches” [which was portrayed as royalty]

So yes, the rags to riches motif isn’t just in fairytales aimed at children, but also in soap operas aimed at adults, and in real life. This motif was also to establish hope in the original audience, the lower class. If they read that a poor man or woman could marry up to a prince or princess, they would get reassured that they didn’t always have to be poor. It was possible to climb up the social ladder and get money. But all of this was done through marriage, with no magic involved in the real world example. In conclusion, it is realistic for someone to transform from “rags” to “riches” through marrying up but not through magic.



This is the ghostly exchange between Courtney and her son, Spencer.

Sources


Sunday, September 13, 2015

Hansel and Gretel: Tale VS Movie


Compare the original Grimm tale with the MGM version. What is different in the film? What is similar? Why did the movie directors make these changes?

NOTE: I’m calling the witch, Witch [as her name] so the flow will be a little better

            First off, Hansel and Gretel only went to the forest once, but got lost during that one visit. Being there was only one trip to the forest; the pebbles were completely taken out of the company. Again, with the single visit to the forest, the fire was also moved around. But at one point, when Hansel, Gretel, and their father went to the market [this visit was movie exclusive], Hansel was given a set of flints. The flints seem to be a replacement for the pebbles, but that may just be consistent with how the dad made the fire in the fairytale. Also, during the movie exclusive visit, the baker that swindled the dad out of his payment gave Gretel cookie crumbs to apologize for screwing over her dad. This change may have been made to exaggerate the poorness of Hansel and Gretel’s family.

Another difference between the original fairytale and the movie was the personality of the mother. (Pardon my language …) In the fairytale, the mother is a total bitch in her (guestproximate) 15 seconds of fame and was mentioned once when she was living and once when she had died. But in the movie, the mother came off as a bitch then became less bitchy then became a caring individual. When she hurt her children’s feelings, this made her feel remorse, to make her transition throughout the movie, smoother and not a complete 180ยบ. As mentioned in class, when the Grimm Brothers lost their mother, they were devastated because they looked up to her. This adaptation of the movie could be honoring later versions of the fairytale and make the mother a loving individual and living at the end of the movie.

The father was very similar between the fairytale and the movie but enhanced in the movie to give him some character, because a caring father is boring in a movie. In the movie, the father went on a journey to look for Hansel and Gretel. The odd thing is that the MOTHER was the one to suggest finding them.

The Hansel and Gretel movie actually had time pass, sort of. We saw day and night pass a few times. Also, as Hansel and Gretel were kidnapped by Witch, the dad was shown for a few moments at a time. Each time, he looked more and more tired and ready to pass out. He also looked like he was going to hallucinate.

            When Hansel and Gretel first saw Witch’s house, it seems like it is part of a hallucination, which is probably how Jacob and Wilhelm envisioned it. As the witch sung to Hansel and Gretel about how she would get fed, she popped her head out of the candy windows and said brutally honest things, (not an exact quote), “They will make a good meal”. This has nothing to do with this blog, but there was a Briar Rose reference, which was really cool and ironic. Back to the blog, the witch seemed to get high off of excitement, which again is probably how Jacob and Wilhelm imagined it. So, overall, the movie seemed to do a great job at bringing Witch to life.

            Hansel was adventurous in both the fairytale and the movie, but Gretel attained more self confidence in the movie. In both versions of Hansel and Gretel, Hansel told Gretel to shove the Witch into the oven, but in the movie, it seemed like that Gretel just knew to destroy the Witch’s looking glass. Even though Hansel implied it, Gretel had a look on her face that implied she just knew what to do. A movie exclusive scene was when Gretel switched Hansel and Witch when Hansel was almost killed.   

(Grab Bag Differences) The movie explained why Hansel and Gretel listened to Witch; she possessed them for a bit. I’m not sure how relevant this is but it looked like Gretel had a witch hand when she was mixing something for the Witch. The jewels and gems came from Witch’s scepter NOT her house. In the movie, Witch kidnapped about 10 other kids, and they were saved by Hansel and Gretel. As Hansel and Gretel were returning home, they ran into their dad. Any and all changes not discussed were made to make the movie longer and more entertaining.

 




This is Witch when she was initially showing Hansel and Gretel her candy house.

Citation: http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMjA0ODUxMzAyNV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwODM5ODA0NA@@._V1_SX640_SY720_.jpg

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Working Defintion of a Fariytale


Working Definition of a Fairytale

Merriam Webster defines a fairytale as “a story (as for children) involving fantastic forces and beings (as fairies, wizards, and goblins” This is true but very lackluster. A fairytale has imagination, curiosity, excitement, simplistic symbolism and it can bring you back to your childhood. But most of all, a fairytale has magic. They have trite motifs but they are never annoying because fairytales themselves are timeless. This may be a stretch, but Dr. Esa has said the best explanation for a fairytale is the fairytale, so, this timelessness means that it never gets old. For example, in the 1959 version of Sleeping Beauty, the motifs of “love at first sight” and “good VS evil” were used to the extreme. These motifs and many more are used repeatedly, but again, never get old.

Back to my addition to the meaning of a fairytale: “A fairytale has imagination, wonder, excitement, simplistic symbolism and it can bring you back to your childhood. But most of all, a fairytale has magic.” Imagination is to use your thoughts and personal experiences to bring something nonexistent into reality. In Sleeping Beauty, Samson, Prince Phillip’s horse, reacted quite excited when Phillip said he would give extra carrots, oats and other treats when he was on the search for Briar Rose when she was shooed off by Flora, Fauna and Merriweather, her 3 fairy mother like figures. If the movie were live action, you would have to imagine the real horse smiling and being upset, but a little bit of “Disney Magic” and imagination from the animators, Samson had human like facial expressions when he was offered the reward and the reward was taken away from him. Also, when the owl, 2 rabbits and 3 of the birds took Prince Phillip’s hat, cape and boots, Briar Rose did an excellent job imagining that she was dancing with her literal dream prince when it was just the animals.

Excitement is a feeling that makes the reader / viewer wanting more. It also inspires a feeling of curiosity. During the festival for the birth of Princess Aurora, 2 of the 3 fairies got to give their gifts of beauty and song. But before the third fairy could give her gift, Maleficent made a large scene. Before her face is seen through her ominous fog, the viewer is excited and curious to see what happens next. Will she just be mad at someone for something? Will she give her own gift because she came during gift time? Will she kill someone due to her ominous nature? It is unknown and this sense of wonder, excitement and curiosity are part of the heart of a fairytale.

Curiosity is seen in many more ways throughout Sleeping Beauty. A few examples are: Prince Phillip being curious about Briar Rose’s singing. Briar Rose being curious and questioning why Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather, didn’t allow her to meet anyone. The 3 fairies were just as curious as Briar Rose was when Briar Rose said she did indeed meet someone, albeit in her dream. Near the end of the film, when Maleficent mind controlled Briar Rose, she got her to touch the spindle, even after she hesitated, because as the saying goes, “curiosity killed the cat.”

A young child watching Sleeping Beauty, a class of college freshmen watching Sleeping Beauty and an observant professor watching Sleeping Beauty, all see it through different lenses. A rose, a main symbol in Sleeping Beauty takes on multiple meanings. A young child would see a pretty flower that can hurt if touched. A class of college freshmen will see a beautiful flower that could sting if touched improperly, but could be painless if handled properly. The professor would see that the rose is a direct connection to the basis of Sleeping Beauty, Briar Rose. He or she would also see the thorns as self defense from unworthy individuals, but a challenge for deserving individuals. Another symbol in Sleeping Beauty is sleep. Both the young child and class of college freshmen would see sleep as a way to recharge for the next day, but the professor would see it as an escape from reality.

Personally, I’ve never seen Sleeping Beauty, or any of the other fairytale adaptations that Disney made. Sleeping Beauty was a fun watch. I was worried that it was going to be a boring movie about a princess in trouble because they did something stupid and a prince would save her. I was completely wrong. Sleeping Beauty was about how a curse destroyed a girl’s life because she couldn’t have a man to call her own, and how that curse came to be and was destroyed. The first half of the movie flew by just as fast as the second half. It was an enjoyable 75 minutes that made me feel like a kid again. I knew the basic plot of the movie, but so much more was added to spice it up and it was very accurate or directly based off of the original source.

Finally, the most common thing between all fairytales is magic. Not just “hocus pocus” magic, such as Maleficent's curse or when Flora (or Fauna, honestly not 100% sure) and Meriweather changed the color or Briar Rose’s dress. Magic also includes how all of the animals followed Briar Rose when she was singing, and how Maleficent’s crow was more competent then her army of trolls. Magic is the logic, or absence of logic that explains the thing that don’t have a simple explanation.           

 
Yes, a fairytale has fantastical forces and beings, but it also has, imagination, curiosity, excitement, simplistic symbolism a way of bringing you back to your childhood and most of all, it has magic. I hope this is a worthy definition of the term fairytale.


This picture is Malificents entrance to Princess Aurora's birth festival. It was a display of "hocus pocus" magic and evoked a sense of curiosity.
Citations


Sleeping Beauty (1959 Movie) [Any mentions about Sleeping Beauty were referenced to this movie unless otherwise stated]

 
Dr. Esa [Catalyst for all of these ideas] :  - )